Visit to Mistral Engines – test run

05 Feb 2006 Visit to Mistral Engines – test run

During my visit to Mistral Engines in Geneva, I had the chance to see one of their engines on a test stand. The system they have set up is very complete, and allows them to do standard engine tests and dyno runs. They have a water brake dyno system. The engine and dyno are fully instrumented during the test run. Lots of parameters show up on two different PC screens, and on one of the systems, the programming of the ECU is able to be modified during the run. This allows a lot of experimentation and optimization of the engine computer.

A view from the brake side of the room. Notice the exhaust system on the right.

Here you can see the turbocharger intercooler. This is not attached during this test run, since they are testing without the turbo at this time.

Here are the fuel injectors. One of the challenges with the rotary design is that the fuel injection is on the same side as the exhaust. Mistral did a lot of testing to try to put the fuel injectors on the other side, but in the end found that it is best here. The injectors are completely enclosed in case of a leak. You don’t want fuel dropping down on red hot exhaust pipes.

Here are the dual engine computers, known as the DEM.

The right side of the engine. Lots of wires, most of which are instrumentation for the testing.

The water brake.

Warming up the engine at the start of the test run.

Here’s a full throttle test run. This particular engine is going to be turbocharged, so the power output in normally aspirated mode is not as high as the NA engine. I went in there and put my hand on the engine during the full power run. Vibration was minimal.

I also cut each engine computer to see what happens. The engine continued to run fine. Full redundancy is a good thing!

I really enjoyed my visit with the Mistral team, and came away very impressed with what they have done so far, and what they plan to accomplish. This is a real company, and they have developed and are producing real engines. They seem to know what they are doing.

For the RV community, the development of a firewall forward package is underway. I don’t have any details on the status, but I’m sure Mistral will keep their website updated. I’ll be happy to answer any questions about my visit, and you can of course address any questions about the engine packages to Mistral.