hi all;does anyone know what type of gas engine the prius has? OTTO. ATKINSON ,WENKEL. et,et. thank you mino54
F8L is right, but it also has VVT-i, or Variable Valve Timing-intelligent, which controls the timing between intake and exhaust valve opening. That can change the characteristics of the Atkinson ICE over a wide range of compression values.
thank you F8L , Bill; I bought one several months ago love the car thou its a bit clumsy at freeway speeds i think the remedy is better tires and suspension will look into getting repair manuals for the prius at the dealer and aftermarket, internet. best regards mino54
Thanks Bill. I wasn't sure how to explain the VVT-i very well so I thought it best to leave that out so I didn't fumble the information. lol Mino54, do some searching in here and you'll find that most people feel new tires, or properly inflated stock tires, cures most of the freeway driving issues. Some believe the BT stiffening plate helps as well.
You're welcome, F8L. VVT-i as it is used by the Prius Atkinson engine is something I'm still learning about. It's such a technological marvel! Mino54, the best place to get tech info is from Toyota's Technical Information System. If you buy a 1 day pass on a Friday, you can download a lot of material by Monday. While the cross referencing isn't the greatest, searching a PDF is a lot easier than flipping pages.
VVT-I is in alot of older Toyota(Lexus) Motors. My car has the 2JZ-GE, Theres also a turbo version with slighlty dif internals, and compression which is turbo charged (2JZ-GTE). There are plenty of turboed 2JZ-GE's out there made with some professional kits and throw together kits. I Doubt that adding a turbo would do any good since it seems that the electric motors do most of the work and that the ICE motor is more like an industrial motor to generate power and charge the batteries. VVT-I is kind of along the same concept as Honda's V-TEC.
Not to hijack this thread too much, but if you're interested, Hobbit has a good discussion of VVT-i. Here's a sample pic to mull:
For the freeway handling, many including myself have found satisfaction by adding a BT-Tech stiffening plate, upgrade tires, and confirming a good four wheel alignment.
I agree with Larry, but the order should be alignment, tires, BT Tech plate, in my opinion. If you're out of alignment, nothing else helps. If your wheels are aligned, but your tires don't grip the road, you need better tires. If you still don't like how the car handles, the stiffening plate helps, I believe.
