Machinery Focus: Re-thinking the engine with opposed-piston 2-stroke

The standard four-stroke engine has served humanity well and continues to do so, but it is not the only format available to engine designers; the opposed-piston two-stroke is now ripe for a comeback.

Great strides have been made over the years to bring the present crop of internal combustion engines to a degree of performance that would have been unthinkable just a couple of decades ago, yet there may well be room for another large leap forward.

Proven and reliable

All the engines that we see today are of the same basic design; a piston moves up and down its own cylinder four times for each power stroke, with the fuel and gasses being controlled by valves and injectors.

Four stroke engine — The modern four-stroke engine has evolved enormously over the past couple of decades due mainly to emissions legislation

The reciprocating motion is converted to rotary motion via a crankshaft and the basic differences between engines are the number and size of the cylinders.

This arrangement has been around for nearly 150 years so it must be the ultimate design, however, it isn’t, as there is another well-established layout which has been shown to be better still.

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This article originally appeared on Agriland, March 11, 2023