Okay Paul,

 Here's a question.  If a rotary motor was made completely from
 ceramic,
 could
 we eliminate the coolant system all together?  We'd still need oil
 coolers of course.

 Chris Cosman

Maybe not everything, but most of one.

There were a pair of Lola 216s (I think) that ran in IMSA that had all
plastic engines. They were 4 valve 4 cylinders. Ceramic chambers and piston crowns,
plastic heads and blocks. Even plastic rods. Bolts cam and crank were steel.
Sponsored by BF Goodrich.

Lynn E. Hanover

"Harsha, Daryl E." wrote:

If memory serves, the two B.F. Goodrich Lola T-616's were entered by Jim Busby and powered by 13B Mazda engines.    The single plastic engine Lola was entered by Matty Hertzberg and his company Polimotor.   I recall it being sponsored by Standard Oil as their Torlon Division provided the resins used in the engine.   Got a lot of ink in the magazines at the time and they even had a booth at the '85 SAE Convention in Detroit where I got to see several of the components.   Car didn't seem to have any competitive advantage and just faded away.   Of course, carbon fiber con rods and push rods are common these days and F1 teams are rumored to be using ceramics.

Daryl Harsha

Torlon ball and roller bearings are used in sail boat blocks and winches.

Paul Lamar

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