Nissan Files Patent - Carbon Fibre Engine Block!

Now we bet that title would have got your attention. In a world skewed towards electrifying EVERYTHING, there are still efforts being made in the field of internal combustion. The idea of introducing carbon fibre into the engine has actually been toyed with by numerous parties with Lamborghini being amongst those however thus far nothing solid has materialised.

One player in this field AWA Composite however has made some headwind by actually pricing their composite connecting rods with actual go to market date yet to be divulged.

Now back to Nissan, the patent submission as we can see is the first amongst any manufacturer for their proprietary design, does not mean as what it reads. Yes the engine block is made of this super light weight strong composite material but that is just half the story.

Nissan's patent submission to the World Intellectual Property Office

According to the patent filed it reads, “A composite cylinder block according to the present invention includes a metal main block and a resin outer member welded to the main block, the main block including a cylinder wall forming a cylinder bore and the cylinder wall a column formed at a position spaced from the outer member forming a water jacket between the outer member and the cylinder wall, the column being isolated from the water jacket within the outer member; It is housed in such a state that it has a predetermined gap with respect to the outer member, and reaches the cylinder head".

So what it means in a nutshell is the carbon fibre engine block is pretty much an outer shell for the metal innards that would house the moving components of the combustion engine. This in reality is a pretty smart move based on several factors.

Image source: CarBuzz

First, this obviously would further reduce the engine weight down substantially just like how engine weight was brought down when the automotive industry opted to go for aluminium engine blocks from the cast iron blocks of those days.

Secondly getting the engine up to optimal operating temperature would be quicker as the metal components are far less than a conventional engine. Next, carbon fibre or any other composite material no matter how strong it is would not do well when there is other corrosive liquid introduced such as engine oil that is needed to have smooth movement of the pistons.

A sample of outer composite housing metal main block (Image source: compositeworld.com)

With Nissan's way as per the patent, the carbon fibre would just make up the bulk of the engine to handle cooling properties such as the water jackets while the metal innards would take care of the actual operations and combustion. Simply brilliant! 

However, having said that, we are still not furnished with details of its real world applications or data on stress test, longevity and if it would be feasible for actual mass application, say maybe in the future Nissan GTR or just for low volume race production use. For all these details we would just have to wait and follow its future developments.