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Technology Stocks : Orbital Engine (OE) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maverick who wrote (3686)	12/30/1998 4:16:00 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4908

forums.nytimes.com

To: Maverick who wrote (3686)	12/31/1998 2:39:00 PM
From: PIERRE HANDL	Respond to of 4908

In anticipation of the LA show and putting many thoughts together regarding the press coverage of the S2000 especially the one time mention of Direct Injection in the PRNewswire article, a premonition is coming to mind for me. This is pure speculation and I'm not trying to hype anything other than sharing these thoughts. The link below contains Honda's policy towards the internal combustion engine. The following is a quote from the press release: "The best way to lower overall pollution levels is to improve the technology that impacts the greatest number of vehicles," says Tom Elliott, executive vice president of American Honda. "Gasoline engines are likely to remain the dominant power source for the foreseeable future, and Honda engineers are committed to making further advances in increasing fuel economy and lowering vehicle emissions of the internal combustion engine." hondacorp.com The article briefly describes "VTEC" as: The foundation for many of Honda's clean-burning, fuel-efficient vehicles is the VTEC (variable valve timing and lift electronic control) engine. By providing different valve timing and valve-lift profiles for low-rpm and high-rpm operation, the VTEC engine delivers a broader, flatter torque curve, low emissions and smooth power delivery throughout the rpm range. I am a novice when it comes to automotive engineering, but since I am an Engineer (Civil) I'm always scratching my head to place facts into a logical frame work. My current scratching makes me wonder how VTEC fits in with DFI. The following may be totally off the wall but I'll state it anyway. The way I understand HPDI technology is that it depends on an orifice at the tip of the injector. The size of the orifice is fixed at a specified amount to effect dispersion of the fuel into the combustion chamber. Atomization of the gasoline occurs because gasoline fluid particles are traveling at varying high velocities across the face of the orifice. Apparent from the Mitsubishi technology, mixing with the intake air inside the combustion chamber is very critical to achieve vaporization of the gasoline for combustion to occur at ignition. They accomplish this with the intake air entering the combustion chamber at a prescribed angle so that the air fuel mixing occurs in a clockwise direction as the mixture tumbles in the chamber. I think that the only variable that can occur with HPDI is the amount of pressure (or head) applied to the back of the orifice, which would result in varying the amount of gasoline and fluid velocity across the fixed plate. This would appear to me to create some problems to achieve precise timing and control the fuel so that atomization is optimized and also meet the needs of VTEC. If VTEC were to be used with DFI, I would speculate that Honda would need a system that can be regulated more precisely to complement the variable timing requirements of the valves. OCP does not depend on varying head or high pressure and a fixed orifice to achieve atomization and fuel flow. Instead it controls delivery through a series of physical elements that can readily vary their operating characteristics to compliment VTEC. This level of control makes OCP a far better choice to work with VTEC than HPDI would be. I may be totally off the mark here, but I'm trying to figure out why all the secrecy or misinformation that is so apparent on how the S2000 is fueled. For me it appears that the press has jumbled the facts relating to this issue or there is intentional misinformation going on. PRNewswire carries an article that DFI is employed however all the auto magazines make no mention of DFI. Honda's website omits any reference on how the engine is fueled. Usually they would reference multi-point fuel injection as opposed to carburetion. The competition that DCX was trying to meet could have been Honda's S2000 introduction with DFI. Since OCP is a licensed technology, not exclusive to any OEM, DCX may have tried to maintain its reputation as a leader in applying the latest automotive technology, especially as the world enters into the next millennium. On this same note, there was talk that the competition, another German Auto Company, had changed their plans or may have delayed introduction of DFI. I find all this speculation exciting. This is because Orbital's stock has demonstrated that in the past it has the ability to fly high on strategic and significant news. Any news about a major auto company committing to DFI using OCP would be the kick off we have all been waiting for, especially the Australian shareholders who have been with OE for so many years. The LA show could be the forum where we could hear good news. We shall see. If not, I wish everyone a Happy New Year!