Also remember that transmissions have... Transmissions This thing has the engine directly linked to the axle, there's def gotta be some sort of gear reduction
Should advance the timing. Variable timing can be used so when at low rpm you actually have the explosions delayed, and at higher rpm you can advance the timing (since there is a delay in the explosion). Also, technically speaking from the real world, free moving engines can't do a 1:1 drive and would never be able to move a vehicle without some gear reduction unlike the classic piston engine.
@@ACMaxtogo moving the paint would be like changing the camshaft, having the sensors in a bearing and a slow engine (or controller) would be better, it could have different timing depending on the speed (and it would be more precise than just 1/8 of a revolution)
just wanted to mention that steam engines use a classic piston design, but don't need transmissions to gear down the rotational speed to generate enough torque. the steam is just so stupidly strong relative to the explosions that it can easily push a full vehicle with 1:1.
In SM it's solid explosives of which we are trying to use the expansion force to move something. vs real life where we are actually using pressure of expanding fuels by chemical change, aka, combustion. Basically like a steam engine, but we are burning fuels within the cylinders for that pressure. So in a way for me at least, it's a weird and wild thing lol
Only reason why there is no torque in SM, is because you don't have contained pressure, just an instantanious high force followed with zero force to continue pushing the piston throughout the cylce
its kinda inspiring and cooler to show each step then go heres a cool thing i made click switch it kinda works also more video time so more ads... everyone kinda wins
Boom Boom engine!!! I think you should gear down since the speed seems excess compared to the lack of torque. Also, you could perhaps try making the engine rotated 90 degrees so the cylinders face forward so regardless of your speed the explosives should still blow ewachother up
The rotation idea is interesting, but I don't know about the gearing suggestion. SM physics don't allow for efficient gear-meshing. Gear interactions are drastically inefficient and would probably lose more torque than they'd provide.
You need a clutch my guy. Disengage it from the gear to start the engine, then once the engine is up to speed, engage it to drive. Also, you should have a cylinder going off every 1/4 rotation to keep a more consistent power/rotation. I didn't catch that any of your designs were doing this. I know that's also probably difficult with Scrap Mechanic since you can only build on 90 degree angles while an object is on a lift. I would also look into doing some gear reductions, maybe some sort of gear box. I feel like this is really going to need the extra help from gears no matter how good you get it, or it will just keep stalling out. Also, an electric engine hooked to a bearing on the crank shaft might be good. Set it to a switch or button so you can use it as the starter. Those are my thoughts anyway. Not sure how practical they all are, especially combined together, but I think they'd be good if they're doable in Scrap Mechanic.
Already has pretty long rods, just narrow the car a bit so the excess length of the rods become more travel for the crankshaft. He needs to use the full 360 degree range rather than each set being offset by 90degrees. An inline 6 firing one cylinder each offset 60degrees
@@swskitso it's not the rod length that gives torque, but the lenght of the crankshaft, or in other words the diameter of the crankshaft. Instead of the connection being offset by 3 blocks from the center of the crankshaft it could be offset by 4 or more blocks to see if it gives it more torque
@@swskitso if that's what you meant above, then he actually wouldn't be able to narrow the car if he did the crankshaft changes since the pistons would move even further out to the sides on the "compression" stroke
the problem is the differential (the gear shaft) you made with pipes, i think if you just turn the whole engine 90 degree and put the wheels directly in the crankshaft right and left it might work
Quick explanation on why direct drive does not work; We don't have constant explosions, and we also dont have constant power. If we had a cylinder for every 1 degree, it would work in direct drive... but that's 300+ cylinders you would need for that.. so therefore we need to gear down the drive to maintain higher rpm, and take advantage of a flywheel
@@loneside4912 its not just a flywheel that maintains rotation, crankshafts are designed with counterweights to balance the rotation as well as maintain it.
Maybe work in a transmission type thing where you could engage the drive wheels with a flip of a switch. That way you could gain momentum in both your piston cylinders and at your fly wheel. Maybe gaining that momentum to it's max and then engaging the wheels will be enough to move the vehicle. Or maybe it'll just stall out again lol.
Just an idea for the engine - how about a friction clutch. I.e. the engine spins up then presses a plate on the output shaft onto a corresponding plate on the wheels.
@@2001herne In scrap mechanic "large contact area bad, small contact area good", the physics engine really hates calculating what happens to slabs touching other slabs or world, etc. Small contact points would simply run much better but likely have the same effect from a mechanical viewpoint. If you have the game, as a test, make something big that's not connected to the world, first try put it down as-is (large contact area with ground) resulting in lags, then try give it a few stubby legs (small contact area with ground) & put that down on the ground, suddenly no lags.
Try to run it in an empty world, though not that noticeable, the physics change a bit at lower frame rates. For example, my rpm tester skips a lot more rotation at lower framerates, and maybe play with the physics slider to see if framerates are more important than physics quality.
I think you need a bigger gear ratio...i mean make a bigger gear on wheel axle and smaller on the shaft .. And try to create a v4 engine...maybe that will help with the weight
My idea would be to work on the timing of the ignition while you're moving. I noticed that sometimes while you used the thrusters to "jumpstart" the engine, you would accidentally start the engine with the wrong timing which caused less power from the explosions to the cylinders. Also, the improper timing of the first ignition possibly created counter-spin that worked against the attempted "jumpstart". Ofc, if you do fix this, you might as well go the full way and make a reverse/braking sequence too.
My recommendation is to use your crazy youtuber pull to find someone to code a mod that uses better coordinates for spawning the explosives, i'm sure it can be done. Also, you can try closing in the cylinders to try to prevent them from popping out, or turn off block damage somehow and make the entire thing out of lighter materials except for the pistons also, you;re trying out output a gear ratio of 1:1, try changing that, it might help.
Nice progress.... So..... I got some ideas.... 1. Use an electic engine as starter, it could possibly make it so much easier to start. 2. Make bigger pistons, not just does it have more momentum, but it can also spin faster as ypu get even more room for spawners. 3 Try easing your engine in for a torque response You need a clutch, one that starts with those shoe thingies rubbing against each other and when you think the engine can handle it, let one side collapse into each other. 4. You need a smaller gear ratio, the wheels spin too fast for the engines' torque.... Maybe that cog mod you once showed could help 5. Maybe you can make a switchable modification: one where 2 spawners per turn per piston injects, for speeding up and one where 4 or more spawners inject per cylinder per turn for the times you need higher forces, like when clutching. Also: You need torque so build it like a torquay engine 6. Try maybe bigger flywheels 7. make the piston rods be in a guide too, to achieve that, build a crosshead engine setup, as the steam engines use. Another idea would be a knuckle rod system or if you don't find anything under that name, google search the picture: Knickpleuel Motor There's a gif to it there. 8. Modded blocks for more durability/less weight and maybe more useful explosives. 9. Say ypur sanity goodbye and reconsider your life choices 10. A gearbox Maybe this'll help
My tips for improving the engine if you care to: 1. Modpack parts spawner and set the offset based on the velocity of the vehicle. This would be fiddly, but it would deal with the explosives popping out of the engine. 2. Gear mod to gear down the engine so it can give more torque. 3. Would a drag reducer block help at all? My thinking is that, since it reduces the drag, it should reduce some of the strain on the engine?
I think you are going to need a transmission to solve the torque problem. Also the timing for a real engine is that the combustions happen when the pistons are at the Top of the cilinder, to get the longest travel. But since in scrap mechanic the explosion is like an impulse, like it happens in one frame, i think the timing should be be when the crankshaft is actually at a 90 degree angle (with the help of a controller maybe) to get the most leverage. And that could also solve the problem of the explosives spawning inside the pistons. I'm not sure if this actually works but these are my thoughts
Stellar video as always Kan! One of the ways to get the weight down would be to have modded blocks that have low weight and high durability. Also a mod that creates smaller explosive effects would be nice so that you can actually see the engine without all the smoke and dust.
What you need to do is extend the bit comming of the main shaft adding more torque, or in otherwords give it a bigger stroke but not by just extending the piston out. Also right now you fire sequence would be 1234, instead try 1423, don't know if that would help in a game like this.
This is looking great! You could try and flip the crankshaft 90 degrees so it’s parallel to the car axle. That way you could drive the wheels directly and the explosives would at least not glitch into the side walls while driving.
try moving the explosive spawners forward in front of the cylinders a couple blocks if theyre trying to spawn where the spawners used to be, just use it to your advantage
Try an inline six set vertical Time them 135246 so explosions are not near each other Offset in 60 degree increments based on firing order so 3 should be 60 degrees off 1 and 2 will be 180 degrees You need to adjust gear ratios to overcome torque. With a 1-1 ration you could place the number of explosive used between the vehicle and unmovable wall then the blast would push the vehicle just as far, i imagine 4 dont move that car far.
amazing! I think the main problems are the timing and initial acceleration. You have set the timers perfectly for a cruise speed, but the acceleration of such a big mass is progressive, so the explosions frequence should ramp up until you reach that cruise speed. Also as Constantine pointed, add mass to all the moving parts to increase their energy. It will though have a slower ramp regarding the previous issue. I hope that can be implemented easily! Hopefully the last of 5 edits or so, I would like to see you play Stationeers! There is nice logic in there as well as many functionalities to be done with it.
You have to extend the crankshaft arm even more, for more torque. Also your timing seems to be off. I sugest putting sensors on bearing, that will be connected to the controller, and as the engine will accelerate you will turn tha bearing degree by degree until you reach max speed. Unless you do that the engine will just stall again and again
If you rotate the engine 90° on the horizontal plane so the cylinders point in the direction of travel The exposives will spawn either just a little inside the piston or a little behind and probbably not spawn on the side of the chamber and glitch out. Maby even make the front cylinders a little longer and the rear ones a little shorter or even delete the rear ones although this boxer engine setup is very ballanced.
I think you should time the explosion better: they seem very late to me. You could try using a bearing between the crankshaft and the timing wheel to fine tune the delay. Also, direct driving may improve the situation
So a couple of notes about this. First off, real engines typically ignite the fuel/air mixture before the cylinder reaches what's called Top Dead Center, or TDC, because it gives the gas mixture additional time to build up heat and energy. In your case this is a very bad thing. Your cylinders need to be well *past* top dead center to not throw a rod when ignited. I'd suggest basically introducing a 1/6th to 1/4th turn delay between the cylinder getting as close as possible to the explosives, and the explosives actually going off. That way the energy can be more effectively translated to the crankshaft rather than trying to shove the piston through the crank directly. The closer the offset portion is to 90 degrees from the cylinder when the explosive goes off, the less strain there will be, although it'll come at the cost of how much energy is recovered from the explosion. Second off, you *really* need to gear this thing down. It's got next to no torque. You can trade torque for speed though, like a tractor. Tractors are slow as hell but could tow God himself out of a ditch if necessary. Real tractors can even flip themselves on their backs if the wheels get locked up somehow. The point is, if you can find a way to make it so you've got a high gear ratio, torque should stop being an issue.
1) I think the double explosive uses the "equals and opposites" to stabilize it some. 2) A painted square on the fly wheel with a sensor counting bit would tell the rpm. You can use additional blocks to find the max torque outside the movement problem. I love this kind of kANtent and have missed the logic stuff, I can't suggest anything to help with the placement except for building to compensate,(ie; a more complex piston shape so it doesn't calculate a space large enough inside it to place and explosive [++++--- ) but you already had that idea. I dont know how the game would react if you stretch the cylinders to compensate for the placement being behind the cylinder when moving.
I would try using a gear reduction system for the torque issue, as for the pistons popping out maybe reduce the number of blocks making contact for less friction? IDK. Great vids btw, you're pretty cool!
I love these kinds of engines :D If it doesnt work on a vehicle you could probably build a stationary engine to power something. Maybe a crane or whatever. That would be interesting to see! Also, another idea, if you dont want to use cylidners, would it be possible to build something like a rotary engine or something else that doesnt have to convert linear to circular motion
TIMING!!! adjustable ignition timing IS A MUST! use a controller to adjust a mechanical cap and rotor like in points system a few degrees makes the difference with the cylinders leaving the engine on real cars too! if it fires while the piston is still on its way up the hole it will break things, also wire the cylinders with a proper firing order. 180 degrees is fine but alternate the pistons so each opposing one is in the opposite stroke one up one down. then number the cylinders front to back, the left side is 1,2,3,4, and the right is 5,6,7,8 fire them 1-5-4-8-3-7-2-6
IT'S A 8 CYLINDER BOXER-ENGINE!!! In a boxer-engine the cylinders are arranged in pairs, with the cylinders of a single pair facing the opposite direction and firing at the same time to cancel out the vibrations. Now, it isn't 100% efficient, but, it does cancel out a large portion of the vibrations. This engine configuration is a real thing, it has been used in some cars since at least the sixties, and most modern cars have a boxer-engine.
The gear ratios are 1:1 so its gonna take more to make it move so maybe put a small drive gear to a bigger axle gear to generate torque then maybe make a transsmision of some sort to shift into a smaller gear to gain your speed but not too small to the point it stalls out
I would recommend two things. Clutch… if it dies the second the wheels are touching, u will never be able to idle, and two, spuds again. Just in case. U don’t need it when it’s still, but if the explosives aren’t detonating, the extra spud could help. I don’t know if u understand rotary engines, but they have an extra delayed spark just to ensure all of it is burned, think of it like that. Also, starter motor maybe in the future? Keep the clutch disengaged and start the engine up, and then turn on the clutch?
Put engine sideways and attach the wheels Straight to the crankshaft. Gears steal a lot of Energy so this schould give it chances of moving. Remove as much weight as you can! Timing area can be made of wood or even cardboard. If this woud not be enought use modded parts to make this engine really Light. (replace metal 3 with something super Light) :)
As a mechanic, you got a couple things wrong. 1 - Your pistons dont fire at "TDC" (top dead center). Witch is very important cause that is where the most amount of FORCE is. 2 - Your flywheel need to be made out of the heaviest material but only the outer ring. Making it heavy from center to outer of the plat will only make the build harder to function. 3 - Light and low friction for every internal parts and where piston slide. When explosion occur, the thing it push(the piston) has to have minimum restriction of that incoming force. For dual piston setup, just have both connecting rod on the same crankshaft position. One will fire and alternate to the other. If you are missing torque at the end of that, make your "crankshaft connection to connecting rod" farther from the center of the crankshaft. With all of that, hope to see a new video! :)
Me and a friend made a spud powered engine and up loaded a version on the workshop under his account but im not 100% sure how many versions there are as due to internet difficulty we had to send copies to eachother throught the workshop.
Amazing Video! an idea, just cover the pistons, so the pistons cant just jump out. Also, you can use a bearing as a starter motor, instead of thrusters
The one idea i can offer without having tried something like this myself is to maybe try use the games pistons as a kind of guide rails??? but: - Not sure if explosions would be strong enough to compress/extend the pistons far enough (if at all?) - I wouldn't even be able to begin to imagine how you would build the thing with extended pistons - No clue how explosion-proof pistons are either Honestly this is a perfect example of why the game needs some sort of 'telescoping slider' block that copies some properties from pistons (locking movement to a specific axis) while being easier to build with (can be built at diff lengths like vacuum pipes?) and not resisting compression/extension. There's actually a lot of these types of constraints missing, imagine if we had pulleys or ball sockets for example. Could make some crazy stuff with that. I really hope they are going to put a bit of thought into "more complex mechanics" in the future, but considering how development seems to keep pausing & focus is fully on survival now (and not 'more engine features') i doubt its gonna happen :(
gear reductions seem laggy. how about two disks pressed into each other, with suspension/pistons to control the normal force, so that if the resistive force is too great they slip
Kan love this stuff I think the way to stop yeeting cylinders is to fix the ignition timing. The explosion shouldn't go off when the cylinders are fully extended. Maybe try the explosion 5 degrees after the cylinder is fully extended. Hope this helps!
What about using one of those trammel gear ration thingies? I don't remember the name, but the 4 component 2:1 gear ratio thingies. Shouldn't that convert some of the explosive engine speed, into torque?
Use bubble block for the logic board and try to use just some strips to reduce weight. Also use a spud gun to eject the thrusters after getting to speed. Try to make the engine as compact as possible to save weight.
Couldn't you just gear down the output from the engine where the axel connects? You would lose a lot of speed but you should gain torque assuming SM doesn't have issues with so many collisions
you should do this with timers so that if you do it with sensors when the engine stops it can’t keep spinning, but with timers if it stops it continues to generate dynamite and can spin again. thanks for reading. :)
If the problem is the explosives spawn point lagging behind the position of the pistons while in motion, then you need to give a buffer to allow for the explosives to spawn slightly behind the spawners. While sitting still it needs to be in the current build setup, but when you start moving those spawners have to be moved to lead their target. You could also just set the engine like an assembly line. The spawner provides explosives that travel to the ignition point that forces a piston to move. The energy is sent to a ratioed gear that allows less load to be applied to the mechanisms functional parts.
Here’s maybe some ideas: 1. You could put a different gear ratio from the engine to the wheels. Maybe it can’t sustain its momentum because it is too low in rpm for the speed. It does mean it will go with a lower speed, but maybe it is one which it can sustain itself. 2. In stead of fixing opposite cilinders to opposite points on the axle, you could fix them onto the same point and have the explosives alternate. That way per cilinder the time gaps between explosives are shorter en it can maybe run higher rpms. Maybe this will counter the need of a lower speed in idea 1 as well.
You need to advance those sensors. Your ignition isn't occuring until the piston is half way to the bottom of it's travel. As the engine speeds up, it starts pushing backwards on the crankshaft
If you need more power you could try compression ignition where the piston itself ignites the explosive by jamming it into the cylinder head. You could also do a similar method of making the cylinder smaller than the explosive so that it ignites instantly. These methods have the advantage of only requiring one spawner per ignition, but they will probably be unreliable and make the engine difficult to start.
"It's 4 cylinders" *gestures to an H8* (Fairly certain the H8 worked without a flywheel since you have to do 180deg rotation for each cycle, meaning in theory the crankshaft would be sitting at 180 every time the second piston bank fired, which in scrap mechanic physics could go either way. An H8 switches this to 90deg meaning just the latent momentum of the driveshaft itself would guarantee it would keep spinning in the same direction). The car won't start without a kick because the back-torque from the wheels is too much for the pistons themselves to overcome directly and work in a cycle. You need a flywheel to smooth this out and potentially literally an electric starter motor (most starter motors slot into a gear to get the engine spinning and then disengage. Obviously in a real car there's also a clutch so you can engage the engine to the wheels gradually instead of all at once, making the instantaneous back-torque lower). The flywheel's momentum is energy storage. You need a certain amount of energy to overcome your inertia. There's a few different ways to look at it. In a real car, the starter motor engages to the engine, spins it a little bit to get the cycle turning (as often it can't reliably kick the flywheel into action on its own). The engine is then slowly meshed to the actual drivetrain at a reduced gear ratio to make the back-torque manageable. Once you've got engine + flywheel spinning reliably, you have a smooth force/torque/power output which makes engagement to wheels a more reliable endeavor. You could probably do it with direct engagement and no clutch, but you'd likely need a gear mod as in vanilla your options for gears are basically n=2 and n=4 which isn't exactly ideal. EDIT: Actually since the number of teeth is irrespective of total gear radius you can't have gears ratios at all in vanilla. Other than doubling up the spars I have no clue how to fix the piston bugging out though, that seems like something the devs would need to work on in order to make the overall engine more friendly to this sort of creation.
Kan what I’m thinking was to make a gear reduction with the gears mod. That will slow the vehicle down while increasing torque. The lowers speed should help the spawn position problem. I love you kan keep up the amazing videos
Not like a transmission but more of a gearbox that is one permanent speed. And if that works maybe go for a transmission. But I don’t see that working only because of the speed problem relative to the spawn position of the explosives
Move your explosive into the center of the engine to use one explosion to power 2 or 3 pistons (on the same timing). then make the combustion chamber able to trigger any piston in a line backward, that way if it does spawn in later it should spawn on the next piston set, advancing the timing (have it so each next piston is ready to fire if the previous drops the explosive in a further back location see ---> ). next change the timing to hit the piston after its on the outbound stroke, not at the closest distance to the explosion. set a configurable delay on the timing detector, make it seat configurable.
Funnily enough I just finished a compact limited-slip differential design as a project, fits in a 3x3 and runs off a driveshaft. would love to see how that works with this engine powering it!
gearing lets you have the torque so you don't stall, while letting you travel slowly with a high rpm. so the engine can be running fast enough to not stall, but the vehicle's position change be slow enough to not have the explosives clip.
I think adding more weight to the fly wheel will do to it. You will need to have the wheel off the ground for the start for the momentum to build up and have the weight carry you through the start.
If you take a look at a real motor 2 pistons are connected at the same point, but you have them connected 180 degrees apart so when they fire all of your momentum is going into pushing the Pistons in, then you have no momentum pushing them out. If you are to connect them at the same place on the crank shaft one piston will push the other out so it can fire, to send the first piston back out so it can fire, so on and so forth.
See if you had changed the offset on the crank you would have been running basically a 2 stroke flat 4. An opposing piston engine would have basically the explosives in between 2 cylinders with a crank shaft on each side. They use this for some tank engines and generators, but not for cars., They run off diesel and they are typically 3 cylinders with 4 pistons and they can run very high compression. If you could join the crank shafts together pretty easy then this would cut down on logic and explosives and maybe make the engine smaller. You need a gear reduction in there. Try a wheel with peg sticking out the side that would give you say a 4:1 ratio. The slower speed might fix the spawner issues.
since the force is instantaneous, you need to reduce the amount of time where the cylinders aren't being propelled, so a much shorter piston shaft should help with that. In a more recent video you also designed a manual transmission, something that that should help a lot with not being able to start/run on the vehicle.
A way to gear it down without changing the gears could be to have the shaft attached to larger connectors to the pistons so a large movement in the shafts is a smaller piston movement possibly with multiple pistons per shaft attachment points. Then it moves slower more efficiently so is more effective. The also have the back raised up with a long front shaft to mean it is able to get ground clearance. This could of course all fail but it could be worth a try
@kAN Gaming try putting the thrusters backwards from what I saw your thrusters rotated the crank counter clockwise while your ecu was programmed to only spin clockwise (p.s. I’m now installing scrap mechanic)
There are engines in real life where the pistons meet in the center and use the same explosion to move them apart, maybe that can help a bit and use the two separate crank shafts for different wheels.
Something I'm noticing is the power stroke is having a lag in the Combustion and is putting little torque on the crankshaft and the fact it takes a split second for the explosive to blow up so when the power is applied it is towards the end of the stroke
Rotate the engine 90 degrees so that it's transverse. Right now when you're moving forward the "lag" position of the explosives makes them move off center of the pistons which may cause the piston blow outs. If it's transverse, then they will only spawn futher "behind" the vehicle as it moves. While this will still be less than ideal, it should be easier on the engine and you may be able to compensate for it if there is a way to make the pistons move towards the front of the car the faster you get.
I think it comes down to a lot of timing like for example when moving and engine is started the pistons may not be at TDC or top dead centre when the explosion fires. Try figuring something out with the crankshaft like how in the real world engines have crank sensors and cam shafts and timing belts etc. but then again there's only so much you can do on SM.
I think the problem is thrust:weight, which is gonna be hard to solve. Not sure if T3 wood is explosion proof - might be. That'd lighten it up. You could sure make the rear platform out of something lighter.
Don't understand why you called a 4cyl a 2cyl, and an 8cyl a 4cyl, but this is really cool. Each cylinder is counted, not in pairs. What you have here is basically a V4 and V8 in a 180° configuration. Longer stroke translates into higher torque, but idk if that's how it works in-game here. You could experiment with different firing orders or tune the timing too (advance or retard the timing). You could also try different flywheel weights if it seems like certain sizes and materials are slowing the engine with how heavy the flywheel is. You'd probably wanna get a flywheel heavy enough to keep the engine in time while also having it light enough that you keep its effects of slowing the engine to a minimum. I saw comments suggesting you use mods that allow for reduced friction and more powerful explosives. Good ideas. You want as little friction as possible between the cylinder walls and the pistons here. More powerful explosives paired with a longer stroke could definitely produce some good torque.
Something more like a rotary type engine might work better for scrap mechanic. A wheel with four shafts that get pushed by explosions when a sensor detects those shafts are past the explosives. You could also add multiple wheels with different offsets. I know its not how a rotary actually works but seems like it could work in SM with simpler physics calcalutions.
Put the spawner on top if the piston and make the crank stroke longer so you have more torque. Time the explosive to go off about 10 to 20 degrees after it passes top dead center. And some kind of clutch system. Like on the first one.
remember that transmissions have torque converters to fix the issue with torque
Gear ratios fix the issue with torque.
Torque converter transfers power from the engine to automatic transmission
Indeed, I think he shoud use the gears mod and use the cogs to give more torque to the engine
@@0desumilde11 That's what I thought, too.
Also remember that transmissions have... Transmissions
This thing has the engine directly linked to the axle, there's def gotta be some sort of gear reduction
and we need cluth guys :D
At this point it's starting to sound like an actual engine
True
That's because it is
@@quantumperplexion5486 diesel Boxer 8
Vwoom vwoom
Well let me ask you how does an engine work
Should advance the timing. Variable timing can be used so when at low rpm you actually have the explosions delayed, and at higher rpm you can advance the timing (since there is a delay in the explosion). Also, technically speaking from the real world, free moving engines can't do a 1:1 drive and would never be able to move a vehicle without some gear reduction unlike the classic piston engine.
I think the timing could be changed by rotating the sensors
@@Giuliana-w1f or moving the paint lol
@@ACMaxtogo moving the paint would be like changing the camshaft, having the sensors in a bearing and a slow engine (or controller) would be better, it could have different timing depending on the speed (and it would be more precise than just 1/8 of a revolution)
Theres tons of old school racecars salt flat cars and dirt track cars that use 1:1 they are just push started.
just wanted to mention that steam engines use a classic piston design, but don't need transmissions to gear down the rotational speed to generate enough torque. the steam is just so stupidly strong relative to the explosions that it can easily push a full vehicle with 1:1.
Explosive engines are such weird concepts in SM, yet they should be the most normal thing ever.
In SM it's solid explosives of which we are trying to use the expansion force to move something. vs real life where we are actually using pressure of expanding fuels by chemical change, aka, combustion. Basically like a steam engine, but we are burning fuels within the cylinders for that pressure. So in a way for me at least, it's a weird and wild thing lol
Only reason why there is no torque in SM, is because you don't have contained pressure, just an instantanious high force followed with zero force to continue pushing the piston throughout the cylce
Love the format of showing each step of the design process
its kinda inspiring and cooler to show each step then go
heres a cool thing i made click switch it kinda works
also more video time so more ads... everyone kinda wins
Boom Boom engine!!!
I think you should gear down since the speed seems excess compared to the lack of torque.
Also, you could perhaps try making the engine rotated 90 degrees so the cylinders face forward so regardless of your speed the explosives should still blow ewachother up
It might be a bit of a pain connecting the engine up if he mounts the engine transversely.
The rotation idea is interesting, but I don't know about the gearing suggestion.
SM physics don't allow for efficient gear-meshing. Gear interactions are drastically inefficient and would probably lose more torque than they'd provide.
@@tombroad9239 if bomb spawning mods are allowed I’m sure the rules can be bent to allow the gear mod, as proof of concept
You need a clutch my guy. Disengage it from the gear to start the engine, then once the engine is up to speed, engage it to drive. Also, you should have a cylinder going off every 1/4 rotation to keep a more consistent power/rotation. I didn't catch that any of your designs were doing this. I know that's also probably difficult with Scrap Mechanic since you can only build on 90 degree angles while an object is on a lift. I would also look into doing some gear reductions, maybe some sort of gear box. I feel like this is really going to need the extra help from gears no matter how good you get it, or it will just keep stalling out. Also, an electric engine hooked to a bearing on the crank shaft might be good. Set it to a switch or button so you can use it as the starter. Those are my thoughts anyway. Not sure how practical they all are, especially combined together, but I think they'd be good if they're doable in Scrap Mechanic.
An electric engine directly on the crankshaft wouldn't work, when an electric engin is not spining, it's braking. It would need a clutch or something
You can give the engine more torque by increasing the distance between the conecting rod and the centre of the crankshaft
Already has pretty long rods, just narrow the car a bit so the excess length of the rods become more travel for the crankshaft.
He needs to use the full 360 degree range rather than each set being offset by 90degrees. An inline 6 firing one cylinder each offset 60degrees
@@swskitso it's not the rod length that gives torque, but the lenght of the crankshaft, or in other words the diameter of the crankshaft.
Instead of the connection being offset by 3 blocks from the center of the crankshaft it could be offset by 4 or more blocks to see if it gives it more torque
@@ValentineC137 im saying there is plenty of length to make your change without extending cylinder or rod
@@swskitso if that's what you meant above, then he actually wouldn't be able to narrow the car if he did the crankshaft changes since the pistons would move even further out to the sides on the "compression" stroke
@@ValentineC137 i realized that later after typing but was at work. Your correct it would more likely need a longer cylinder.
the problem is the differential (the gear shaft) you made with pipes, i think if you just turn the whole engine 90 degree and put the wheels directly in the crankshaft right and left it might work
Quick explanation on why direct drive does not work; We don't have constant explosions, and we also dont have constant power. If we had a cylinder for every 1 degree, it would work in direct drive... but that's 300+ cylinders you would need for that.. so therefore we need to gear down the drive to maintain higher rpm, and take advantage of a flywheel
@@loneside4912 its not just a flywheel that maintains rotation, crankshafts are designed with counterweights to balance the rotation as well as maintain it.
Maybe work in a transmission type thing where you could engage the drive wheels with a flip of a switch. That way you could gain momentum in both your piston cylinders and at your fly wheel. Maybe gaining that momentum to it's max and then engaging the wheels will be enough to move the vehicle. Or maybe it'll just stall out again lol.
I think potentially adding a transmission to gear down could help, it also might have to be a slow speed vehicle type of deal
Just an idea for the engine - how about a friction clutch. I.e. the engine spins up then presses a plate on the output shaft onto a corresponding plate on the wheels.
@@techno1561 what's the difference? Not ragging on your idea, im just not quite sure what the difference is.
@@2001herne In scrap mechanic "large contact area bad, small contact area good", the physics engine really hates calculating what happens to slabs touching other slabs or world, etc. Small contact points would simply run much better but likely have the same effect from a mechanical viewpoint.
If you have the game, as a test, make something big that's not connected to the world, first try put it down as-is (large contact area with ground) resulting in lags, then try give it a few stubby legs (small contact area with ground) & put that down on the ground, suddenly no lags.
@@suicidalbanananana Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. You learn something every day I guess.
Try to run it in an empty world, though not that noticeable, the physics change a bit at lower frame rates. For example, my rpm tester skips a lot more rotation at lower framerates, and maybe play with the physics slider to see if framerates are more important than physics quality.
I think you need a bigger gear ratio...i mean make a bigger gear on wheel axle and smaller on the shaft
..
And try to create a v4 engine...maybe that will help with the weight
Must be the spawner and movement (speed) combination. Like the spudgun when moving very fast. Awesome project, I love it.
My idea would be to work on the timing of the ignition while you're moving. I noticed that sometimes while you used the thrusters to "jumpstart" the engine, you would accidentally start the engine with the wrong timing which caused less power from the explosions to the cylinders. Also, the improper timing of the first ignition possibly created counter-spin that worked against the attempted "jumpstart". Ofc, if you do fix this, you might as well go the full way and make a reverse/braking sequence too.
This video taught me more about how engines work than two and a bit years of studying mechanical engineering
Does the explosive go off at top dead center? You may want to consider some ignition timing delay so the bomb goes off after tdc.
My recommendation is to use your crazy youtuber pull to find someone to code a mod that uses better coordinates for spawning the explosives, i'm sure it can be done. Also, you can try closing in the cylinders to try to prevent them from popping out, or turn off block damage somehow and make the entire thing out of lighter materials except for the pistons
also, you;re trying out output a gear ratio of 1:1, try changing that, it might help.
Nice progress....
So..... I got some ideas....
1.
Use an electic engine as starter, it could possibly make it so much easier to start.
2.
Make bigger pistons, not just does it have more momentum, but it can also spin faster as ypu get even more room for spawners.
3 Try easing your engine in for a torque response
You need a clutch, one that starts with those shoe thingies rubbing against each other and when you think the engine can handle it, let one side collapse into each other.
4. You need a smaller gear ratio, the wheels spin too fast for the engines' torque.... Maybe that cog mod you once showed could help
5. Maybe you can make a switchable modification: one where 2 spawners per turn per piston injects, for speeding up and one where 4 or more spawners inject per cylinder per turn for the times you need higher forces, like when clutching.
Also:
You need torque so build it like a torquay engine
6. Try maybe bigger flywheels
7. make the piston rods be in a guide too, to achieve that, build a crosshead engine setup, as the steam engines use.
Another idea would be a knuckle rod system or if you don't find anything under that name, google search the picture: Knickpleuel Motor
There's a gif to it there.
8. Modded blocks for more durability/less weight and maybe more useful explosives.
9. Say ypur sanity goodbye and reconsider your life choices
10. A gearbox
Maybe this'll help
My tips for improving the engine if you care to:
1. Modpack parts spawner and set the offset based on the velocity of the vehicle. This would be fiddly, but it would deal with the explosives popping out of the engine.
2. Gear mod to gear down the engine so it can give more torque.
3. Would a drag reducer block help at all? My thinking is that, since it reduces the drag, it should reduce some of the strain on the engine?
I think you are going to need a transmission to solve the torque problem.
Also the timing for a real engine is that the combustions happen when the pistons are at the Top of the cilinder, to get the longest travel. But since in scrap mechanic the explosion is like an impulse, like it happens in one frame, i think the timing should be be when the crankshaft is actually at a 90 degree angle (with the help of a controller maybe) to get the most leverage. And that could also solve the problem of the explosives spawning inside the pistons. I'm not sure if this actually works but these are my thoughts
Also fill in the gaps on the side of the pistons, these cause the pistons to fly out
Stellar video as always Kan!
One of the ways to get the weight down would be to have modded blocks that have low weight and high durability.
Also a mod that creates smaller explosive effects would be nice so that you can actually see the engine without all the smoke and dust.
What you need to do is extend the bit comming of the main shaft adding more torque, or in otherwords give it a bigger stroke but not by just extending the piston out. Also right now you fire sequence would be 1234, instead try 1423, don't know if that would help in a game like this.
This is looking great! You could try and flip the crankshaft 90 degrees so it’s parallel to the car axle. That way you could drive the wheels directly and the explosives would at least not glitch into the side walls while driving.
try moving the explosive spawners forward in front of the cylinders a couple blocks if theyre trying to spawn where the spawners used to be, just use it to your advantage
Try an inline six set vertical
Time them 135246 so explosions are not near each other
Offset in 60 degree increments based on firing order so 3 should be 60 degrees off 1 and 2 will be 180 degrees
You need to adjust gear ratios to overcome torque.
With a 1-1 ration you could place the number of explosive used between the vehicle and unmovable wall then the blast would push the vehicle just as far, i imagine 4 dont move that car far.
amazing!
I think the main problems are the timing and initial acceleration.
You have set the timers perfectly for a cruise speed, but the acceleration of such a big mass is progressive, so the explosions frequence should ramp up until you reach that cruise speed.
Also as Constantine pointed, add mass to all the moving parts to increase their energy. It will though have a slower ramp regarding the previous issue.
I hope that can be implemented easily!
Hopefully the last of 5 edits or so, I would like to see you play Stationeers! There is nice logic in there as well as many functionalities to be done with it.
Try actually getting the cylinders timed to a firing sequence to balance the engine explosions. Maybe it will help with the blown cylinders
You have to extend the crankshaft arm even more, for more torque.
Also your timing seems to be off.
I sugest putting sensors on bearing, that will be connected to the controller, and as the engine will accelerate you will turn tha bearing degree by degree until you reach max speed. Unless you do that the engine will just stall again and again
I suggest trying out adding in a trasmission, initially inox for testing purposes
Glitch welder has a option to spawn things relative to its position
If you rotate the engine 90° on the horizontal plane so the cylinders point in the direction of travel
The exposives will spawn either just a little inside the piston or a little behind and probbably not spawn on the side of the chamber and glitch out.
Maby even make the front cylinders a little longer and the rear ones a little shorter or even delete the rear ones although this boxer engine setup is very ballanced.
I think you should time the explosion better: they seem very late to me. You could try using a bearing between the crankshaft and the timing wheel to fine tune the delay. Also, direct driving may improve the situation
Actually the coolest scrap mechanic video I’ve ever seen pleaseee do more.
If you make the crankshaft have a larger radius, the pistons should have more leverage
So a couple of notes about this.
First off, real engines typically ignite the fuel/air mixture before the cylinder reaches what's called Top Dead Center, or TDC, because it gives the gas mixture additional time to build up heat and energy. In your case this is a very bad thing. Your cylinders need to be well *past* top dead center to not throw a rod when ignited. I'd suggest basically introducing a 1/6th to 1/4th turn delay between the cylinder getting as close as possible to the explosives, and the explosives actually going off. That way the energy can be more effectively translated to the crankshaft rather than trying to shove the piston through the crank directly. The closer the offset portion is to 90 degrees from the cylinder when the explosive goes off, the less strain there will be, although it'll come at the cost of how much energy is recovered from the explosion.
Second off, you *really* need to gear this thing down. It's got next to no torque. You can trade torque for speed though, like a tractor. Tractors are slow as hell but could tow God himself out of a ditch if necessary. Real tractors can even flip themselves on their backs if the wheels get locked up somehow. The point is, if you can find a way to make it so you've got a high gear ratio, torque should stop being an issue.
1) I think the double explosive uses the "equals and opposites" to stabilize it some.
2) A painted square on the fly wheel with a sensor counting bit would tell the rpm. You can use additional blocks to find the max torque outside the movement problem.
I love this kind of kANtent and have missed the logic stuff, I can't suggest anything to help with the placement except for building to compensate,(ie; a more complex piston shape so it doesn't calculate a space large enough inside it to place and explosive [++++--- ) but you already had that idea.
I dont know how the game would react if you stretch the cylinders to compensate for the placement being behind the cylinder when moving.
"Explosives kill logic" - I can't argue with that 😂
Kan should try this with the dyno and/or the component kit gears and see how it works...
I would try using a gear reduction system for the torque issue, as for the pistons popping out maybe reduce the number of blocks making contact for less friction? IDK. Great vids btw, you're pretty cool!
I love these kinds of engines :D If it doesnt work on a vehicle you could probably build a stationary engine to power something. Maybe a crane or whatever. That would be interesting to see!
Also, another idea, if you dont want to use cylidners, would it be possible to build something like a rotary engine or something else that doesnt have to convert linear to circular motion
Might I suggest a timing advance system? You wont be able to start with it on, but your explosions seem to be after top dead center
Time to dyno these
Again going to recommend looking at splob's supercharged V8 in Brick Rigs
Could you make a realistic gun with explosives?
yes
yes
yes gunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn time ye
@@spacereavers1254 let me guess, America
TIMING!!! adjustable ignition timing IS A MUST! use a controller to adjust a mechanical cap and rotor like in points system a few degrees makes the difference with the cylinders leaving the engine on real cars too! if it fires while the piston is still on its way up the hole it will break things, also wire the cylinders with a proper firing order. 180 degrees is fine but alternate the pistons so each opposing one is in the opposite stroke one up one down. then number the cylinders front to back, the left side is 1,2,3,4, and the right is 5,6,7,8 fire them 1-5-4-8-3-7-2-6
you can try and make the cylinders in a kind of v formation even though that is close to impossible from my experiences
IT'S A 8 CYLINDER BOXER-ENGINE!!! In a boxer-engine the cylinders are arranged in pairs, with the cylinders of a single pair facing the opposite direction and firing at the same time to cancel out the vibrations. Now, it isn't 100% efficient, but, it does cancel out a large portion of the vibrations.
This engine configuration is a real thing, it has been used in some cars since at least the sixties, and most modern cars have a boxer-engine.
You actually built an internal combustion engine 👏👏👏
I think what's funnier still is that people in the comments don't realize or don't know enough about cars to know that.
The gear ratios are 1:1 so its gonna take more to make it move so maybe put a small drive gear to a bigger axle gear to generate torque then maybe make a transsmision of some sort to shift into a smaller gear to gain your speed but not too small to the point it stalls out
Might need to figure out some gear reduction.. both to increase torque and and decrease movement between trigger and spawn of explosive
wheels should be able to be used as gears.
I would recommend two things. Clutch… if it dies the second the wheels are touching, u will never be able to idle, and two, spuds again. Just in case. U don’t need it when it’s still, but if the explosives aren’t detonating, the extra spud could help. I don’t know if u understand rotary engines, but they have an extra delayed spark just to ensure all of it is burned, think of it like that. Also, starter motor maybe in the future? Keep the clutch disengaged and start the engine up, and then turn on the clutch?
Put engine sideways and attach the wheels Straight to the crankshaft.
Gears steal a lot of Energy so this schould give it chances of moving.
Remove as much weight as you can!
Timing area can be made of wood or even cardboard.
If this woud not be enought use modded parts to make this engine really Light.
(replace metal 3 with something super Light)
:)
As a mechanic, you got a couple things wrong.
1 - Your pistons dont fire at "TDC" (top dead center). Witch is very important cause that is where the most amount of FORCE is.
2 - Your flywheel need to be made out of the heaviest material but only the outer ring. Making it heavy from center to outer of the plat will only make the build harder to function.
3 - Light and low friction for every internal parts and where piston slide. When explosion occur, the thing it push(the piston) has to have minimum restriction of that incoming force.
For dual piston setup, just have both connecting rod on the same crankshaft position. One will fire and alternate to the other.
If you are missing torque at the end of that, make your "crankshaft connection to connecting rod" farther from the center of the crankshaft.
With all of that, hope to see a new video! :)
Me and a friend made a spud powered engine and up loaded a version on the workshop under his account but im not 100% sure how many versions there are as due to internet difficulty we had to send copies to eachother throught the workshop.
Amazing Video! an idea, just cover the pistons, so the pistons cant just jump out. Also, you can use a bearing as a starter motor, instead of thrusters
The one idea i can offer without having tried something like this myself is to maybe try use the games pistons as a kind of guide rails??? but:
- Not sure if explosions would be strong enough to compress/extend the pistons far enough (if at all?)
- I wouldn't even be able to begin to imagine how you would build the thing with extended pistons
- No clue how explosion-proof pistons are either
Honestly this is a perfect example of why the game needs some sort of 'telescoping slider' block that copies some properties from pistons (locking movement to a specific axis) while being easier to build with (can be built at diff lengths like vacuum pipes?) and not resisting compression/extension.
There's actually a lot of these types of constraints missing, imagine if we had pulleys or ball sockets for example. Could make some crazy stuff with that. I really hope they are going to put a bit of thought into "more complex mechanics" in the future, but considering how development seems to keep pausing & focus is fully on survival now (and not 'more engine features') i doubt its gonna happen :(
Dude, you built a flat 4, that's sick
Haven't finished the video yet but the prototype is awesome
You gotta hook this up to the dyno
gear reductions seem laggy. how about two disks pressed into each other, with suspension/pistons to control the normal force, so that if the resistive force is too great they slip
Wheels can even be used for this.
Kan love this stuff I think the way to stop yeeting cylinders is to fix the ignition timing. The explosion shouldn't go off when the cylinders are fully extended. Maybe try the explosion 5 degrees after the cylinder is fully extended. Hope this helps!
What about using one of those trammel gear ration thingies? I don't remember the name, but the 4 component 2:1 gear ratio thingies. Shouldn't that convert some of the explosive engine speed, into torque?
Use bubble block for the logic board and try to use just some strips to reduce weight.
Also use a spud gun to eject the thrusters after getting to speed.
Try to make the engine as compact as possible to save weight.
What might be a good idea for the cyclinders is to increase the width of them
Couldn't you just gear down the output from the engine where the axel connects? You would lose a lot of speed but you should gain torque assuming SM doesn't have issues with so many collisions
you should do this with timers so that if you do it with sensors when the engine stops it can’t keep spinning, but with timers if it stops it continues to generate dynamite and can spin again.
thanks for reading.
:)
If the problem is the explosives spawn point lagging behind the position of the pistons while in motion, then you need to give a buffer to allow for the explosives to spawn slightly behind the spawners. While sitting still it needs to be in the current build setup, but when you start moving those spawners have to be moved to lead their target. You could also just set the engine like an assembly line. The spawner provides explosives that travel to the ignition point that forces a piston to move. The energy is sent to a ratioed gear that allows less load to be applied to the mechanisms functional parts.
Today you created a boxer-8! Porsche was just about the only manufacturer to create these back in the can am era
amazing way to explain how engines actually work.
You need a very heavy flywheel and a clutch using high friction blocks against the flywheel to try and ease on the power
Here’s maybe some ideas:
1. You could put a different gear ratio from the engine to the wheels. Maybe it can’t sustain its momentum because it is too low in rpm for the speed. It does mean it will go with a lower speed, but maybe it is one which it can sustain itself.
2. In stead of fixing opposite cilinders to opposite points on the axle, you could fix them onto the same point and have the explosives alternate. That way per cilinder the time gaps between explosives are shorter en it can maybe run higher rpms. Maybe this will counter the need of a lower speed in idea 1 as well.
What about a thruster starter that doubles as a flywheel? Might improve that janky startup.
You need to advance those sensors. Your ignition isn't occuring until the piston is half way to the bottom of it's travel. As the engine speeds up, it starts pushing backwards on the crankshaft
If you need more power you could try compression ignition where the piston itself ignites the explosive by jamming it into the cylinder head. You could also do a similar method of making the cylinder smaller than the explosive so that it ignites instantly. These methods have the advantage of only requiring one spawner per ignition, but they will probably be unreliable and make the engine difficult to start.
"It's 4 cylinders"
*gestures to an H8*
(Fairly certain the H8 worked without a flywheel since you have to do 180deg rotation for each cycle, meaning in theory the crankshaft would be sitting at 180 every time the second piston bank fired, which in scrap mechanic physics could go either way. An H8 switches this to 90deg meaning just the latent momentum of the driveshaft itself would guarantee it would keep spinning in the same direction).
The car won't start without a kick because the back-torque from the wheels is too much for the pistons themselves to overcome directly and work in a cycle. You need a flywheel to smooth this out and potentially literally an electric starter motor (most starter motors slot into a gear to get the engine spinning and then disengage. Obviously in a real car there's also a clutch so you can engage the engine to the wheels gradually instead of all at once, making the instantaneous back-torque lower).
The flywheel's momentum is energy storage. You need a certain amount of energy to overcome your inertia. There's a few different ways to look at it. In a real car, the starter motor engages to the engine, spins it a little bit to get the cycle turning (as often it can't reliably kick the flywheel into action on its own). The engine is then slowly meshed to the actual drivetrain at a reduced gear ratio to make the back-torque manageable. Once you've got engine + flywheel spinning reliably, you have a smooth force/torque/power output which makes engagement to wheels a more reliable endeavor.
You could probably do it with direct engagement and no clutch, but you'd likely need a gear mod as in vanilla your options for gears are basically n=2 and n=4 which isn't exactly ideal.
EDIT: Actually since the number of teeth is irrespective of total gear radius you can't have gears ratios at all in vanilla.
Other than doubling up the spars I have no clue how to fix the piston bugging out though, that seems like something the devs would need to work on in order to make the overall engine more friendly to this sort of creation.
Dyno on this engineeee!!!
Kan what I’m thinking was to make a gear reduction with the gears mod. That will slow the vehicle down while increasing torque. The lowers speed should help the spawn position problem. I love you kan keep up the amazing videos
Not like a transmission but more of a gearbox that is one permanent speed. And if that works maybe go for a transmission. But I don’t see that working only because of the speed problem relative to the spawn position of the explosives
Move your explosive into the center of the engine to use one explosion to power 2 or 3 pistons (on the same timing). then make the combustion chamber able to trigger any piston in a line backward, that way if it does spawn in later it should spawn on the next piston set, advancing the timing (have it so each next piston is ready to fire if the previous drops the explosive in a further back location see ---> ). next change the timing to hit the piston after its on the outbound stroke, not at the closest distance to the explosion. set a configurable delay on the timing detector, make it seat configurable.
Funnily enough I just finished a compact limited-slip differential design as a project, fits in a 3x3 and runs off a driveshaft. would love to see how that works with this engine powering it!
gearing lets you have the torque so you don't stall, while letting you travel slowly with a high rpm. so the engine can be running fast enough to not stall, but the vehicle's position change be slow enough to not have the explosives clip.
Last time you made a flat-v-twin, today you made a boxer. Advancing I see!
I think adding more weight to the fly wheel will do to it. You will need to have the wheel off the ground for the start for the momentum to build up and have the weight carry you through the start.
You should add a clutch, so you could choose when the engine engages with the wheels.
Fuel. Don't spawn them have them preloaded then it's even more realistic cuz you have limited fuel
You've made a Boxer Engine. Well done.
If you take a look at a real motor 2 pistons are connected at the same point, but you have them connected 180 degrees apart so when they fire all of your momentum is going into pushing the Pistons in, then you have no momentum pushing them out. If you are to connect them at the same place on the crank shaft one piston will push the other out so it can fire, to send the first piston back out so it can fire, so on and so forth.
See if you had changed the offset on the crank you would have been running basically a 2 stroke flat 4.
An opposing piston engine would have basically the explosives in between 2 cylinders with a crank shaft on each side. They use this for some tank engines and generators, but not for cars., They run off diesel and they are typically 3 cylinders with 4 pistons and they can run very high compression. If you could join the crank shafts together pretty easy then this would cut down on logic and explosives and maybe make the engine smaller.
You need a gear reduction in there. Try a wheel with peg sticking out the side that would give you say a 4:1 ratio. The slower speed might fix the spawner issues.
since the force is instantaneous, you need to reduce the amount of time where the cylinders aren't being propelled, so a much shorter piston shaft should help with that. In a more recent video you also designed a manual transmission, something that that should help a lot with not being able to start/run on the vehicle.
A way to gear it down without changing the gears could be to have the shaft attached to larger connectors to the pistons so a large movement in the shafts is a smaller piston movement possibly with multiple pistons per shaft attachment points. Then it moves slower more efficiently so is more effective. The also have the back raised up with a long front shaft to mean it is able to get ground clearance. This could of course all fail but it could be worth a try
@kAN Gaming try putting the thrusters backwards from what I saw your thrusters rotated the crank counter clockwise while your ecu was programmed to only spin clockwise (p.s. I’m now installing scrap mechanic)
There are engines in real life where the pistons meet in the center and use the same explosion to move them apart, maybe that can help a bit and use the two separate crank shafts for different wheels.
Something I'm noticing is the power stroke is having a lag in the Combustion and is putting little torque on the crankshaft and the fact it takes a split second for the explosive to blow up so when the power is applied it is towards the end of the stroke
Rotate the engine 90 degrees so that it's transverse. Right now when you're moving forward the "lag" position of the explosives makes them move off center of the pistons which may cause the piston blow outs. If it's transverse, then they will only spawn futher "behind" the vehicle as it moves. While this will still be less than ideal, it should be easier on the engine and you may be able to compensate for it if there is a way to make the pistons move towards the front of the car the faster you get.
I think it comes down to a lot of timing like for example when moving and engine is started the pistons may not be at TDC or top dead centre when the explosion fires. Try figuring something out with the crankshaft like how in the real world engines have crank sensors and cam shafts and timing belts etc. but then again there's only so much you can do on SM.
I would love to see this revisited. Im curious how it would do with a more balanced firing order?
I think the problem is thrust:weight, which is gonna be hard to solve. Not sure if T3 wood is explosion proof - might be. That'd lighten it up. You could sure make the rear platform out of something lighter.
Don't understand why you called a 4cyl a 2cyl, and an 8cyl a 4cyl, but this is really cool. Each cylinder is counted, not in pairs. What you have here is basically a V4 and V8 in a 180° configuration.
Longer stroke translates into higher torque, but idk if that's how it works in-game here. You could experiment with different firing orders or tune the timing too (advance or retard the timing). You could also try different flywheel weights if it seems like certain sizes and materials are slowing the engine with how heavy the flywheel is. You'd probably wanna get a flywheel heavy enough to keep the engine in time while also having it light enough that you keep its effects of slowing the engine to a minimum.
I saw comments suggesting you use mods that allow for reduced friction and more powerful explosives. Good ideas. You want as little friction as possible between the cylinder walls and the pistons here. More powerful explosives paired with a longer stroke could definitely produce some good torque.
Something more like a rotary type engine might work better for scrap mechanic.
A wheel with four shafts that get pushed by explosions when a sensor detects those shafts are past the explosives. You could also add multiple wheels with different offsets.
I know its not how a rotary actually works but seems like it could work in SM with simpler physics calcalutions.
Put the spawner on top if the piston and make the crank stroke longer so you have more torque. Time the explosive to go off about 10 to 20 degrees after it passes top dead center. And some kind of clutch system. Like on the first one.