How efficient is the best designed engine?

Answer 1

very very very efficient. get a Ferrari It depends largely in what way you mean efficient. An engine can be efficient in many different ways, but usually not all ways at the same time. For instance; the engine of a Formula 1 car is incredibly powerful but is designed to last only one race and has to be rebuilt every time, not to mention it drinks fuel like it's going out of fashion! If you put this engine in your family saloon it wouldn't be your idea of efficient, but it does the job where the race-driver is concerned! Most modern cars have electronic engine-management systems which regulate things like fuel / air ratios, spark timing and valve clearances. These change the characteristics of an engine to be more or less powerfull given certain conditions. The engines these management systems control have the potential to be very high performance machines, and are so heavily over-engineered that the management system is actually calibrated to stunt the engine's final output rather than increase it! It is the management system of any engine that determines how efficient it is in any way, be that fuel economy, power-weight ratio, top speed, etc. The engine itself can be made no more efficient in terms of mechanical innovation. A management system, by the way, doesn't have to be electronic. A Carburettor is also a type of management system, it is just controlled differently. As a rule, naturally aspirated engines are less efficient in many respects to those controlled by "black boxes" The only real way to improve the efficiency of an engine other than by changing the way it is controlled is to change the fuel you put in it. Hydrogen fuel for instance is over 8 times more combustible than petrol and produces a far greater output for less input. There is also no waste product, other than water! THAT'S efficient! (Believe it or not most of the petrol you put in your car isn't used to create the pops & bangs that make it go, but acts as a coolant inside the cylinder!) _____________________________________________________ just under 100% efficient >>>>>>>>>>>> It's the best there is. ---- Hydrogen engine is the most efficient engine known to man, because hydrogen has very high combustion rate, it is the most abundant element in the universe, and when burned in a vehicle the only byproduct is water.