Cool Jugs

[xavierm]

It appears that the Cool Jugs site hasn't been updated in quite a while. The guy who makes these is (or was) based out of Compton. I haven't seen him around in quite a while. Last time I spoke to him, there were some flow issues to work out, if I remember correctly.

[jdeas]

http://www.liquidcooledairpower.com/gallery/

There are sections of the website that are updated. It appears to me that the site operator is just not keeping the sales boilerplate stuff updated.

I have not knowledge of this company. The original thread was dealing with alternative engines, their positive and negative attributes. I wished to add this hybrid idea to the mix.

Pro
Liquid cooled jugs could have tighter specs, have less heat issues with valves, and can be run closer 'to the edge' of detonation.
The existing engine core is proven and the system runs at prop speed removing gear boxes from the equation.

Con
Same issue as Egg, external radiator cooling drag
Currently single source and expensive

Why would this not be considered a valid 'alternative engine' option? Seems to me their could be more positives and less negatives (considering the lack of a gear box) if done right.

[Andy_RR]

To me the Cool Jugs concept represents few of the advantages and all of the disadvantages of liquid cooling.

If you're going for liquid cooling, you really want to close your bore centres, shorten your crank and crankcase and take some of the (huge) weight savings potential. OK, so it's a new engine design, but frankly, unless you do that, it's hardly worth the bother.

[jdeas]

But wouldn't those changes also change the RPM range?
If I focus on cylinder head and valve problems with traditional air cooled engines and remove the gearbox issues of the alternative engines then I have hit both the biggest pro and con I have seen hashed out on this forum.
Could a water cooled cylinder with tighter tolerances and temperature control offer better performance and potentially better reliability for the jugs and valves?
Could the improvement be enough to warrant staying at low RPM and forgo the dreaded gearbox issues?

Maybe it isn't 'worth' the effort over a clean sheet design but how realistic is it that a new reliable clean sheet design will hit the exp market? Would some engine expert brave the potential flames to speculate on how much of a change the tighter cylinder tolerances and temperature can impact the efficiency and reliability of the top end of a lyco?