The Crower six stroke engine

Since the steam expansion stroke wouldn't produce as much power as the expansion of the combustion gasses, the maximum specific power output is reduced. There are other practical problems too. Basically you end up with an engine with low specific power, dirty combustion, cracked piston or cylinder head, worn cylinder liners, massive blow-by past the failed rings, degraded oil etc, etc. There's a reason this idea has lain dormant for 94 years. Funny that autoweek swallowed the 'invention' ...

Instead you produce wet steam which is inefficient and contaminates the oil causing it to emulsify and lose its lubricating effect. Furthermore, the cool combustion chamber does NOT improve efficiency because the combustion is impaired (witness the smoke on a cold diesel start or the over rich mixtures in a cold gas engine). The monoxide and hydrocarbon emissions would be high, and a catalytic converter wouldn't get hot enough to oxidise them.

Erm, this is NOT a new idea! Crower has not been awarded any patents-chiefly because the concept was patented in 1915. It doesn't work in practice for several reasons mainly relating to the fact that quenching a hot piston with cold water will cause it to crack, and the amount of power that can be extracted from the steam with this system is quite low. Because the cylinder only has one combustion event in every 6 strokes, it doesn't stay hot enough to produce the dry steam which is needed.

when your trying to start wouldnt the water in the engine make it harder for a cold start?

how comes no one ever thought of this befor? they have been using steam to power pistons for centurys

You could set up the engine to switch from four to six-stroke by using solenoid valves. The valve activation could either be done electronically (similar to electronic ignition) or by using two distributor-type setups, one running at 1/2 crankshaft speed, the other at 1/3. You'd only need a cylinder head temperature sensor and a relay to switch between four and six-stroke.

I think that it's a good concept to make a 6 stroke engine, but there are a few bugs. I think a 4 stroke flat 6 with 5 cylinders running on gas and the other on steam would work well. You could isolate the 6th cylinder so the water doesn't contaminate the combustion chambers of the other cylinders, too. 5 cylinders are better balanced as well =D

with a potential of 1600 expansion rate for steam who says that you would need an equal amount of water. it may take less water to match the power stroke of gas/diesel and since the water is heated it them becomes a fuel source

I doubt the temperatures my engine runs at are high enough to reach that potential, but I'm just trusting information that seems to have come from the guy who built a prototype.