Development History of the K

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History of the K-series Page 1 of 10

The history of the K series

EngineThe 'Special K'

Words: Names Supplied

Pictures: VariousContents: Introduction I The Beginning I Prototype to Production I Damp Liner IAn engine to be proud of?

The Future I The EUIV hurdle I Going Camless

Introduction

The following article has been put together using published articles, reference material and

anecdotes from former members of Powertrain - the engine development department at MG

Rover Group, and its antecedents. This story is illustrated by exhibits on display at the

Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon.

In the beginning...

Work began on a replacement for A series in the Advanced engines department of the

Austin Drawing Office in 1984. Opinion was canvassed widely amongst automotive

consultants and in particular the boffins at British Leyland Technology at Gaydon whereSpen King was in overall charge after the Jaguar-Rover-Triumph era. They had most

famously developed the economy prototype/concept vehicle called the ECV (read more on

Keith's Austin-Rover website, and see reference 1). Interestingly, this car sported bodywork

featuring bonded aluminium construction - revolutionary

in its day and many years before the appearance of the

Jaguar XK220 and Lotus Elise. Of more direct interest

to this article, the ECV also featured a high-efficiency 3-cylinder engine (pictured left), which was loosely

derived from the E series. Despite what is reported

elsewhere, this engine bears no direct lineage to the K

series - but this interesting engine did set the scene for

later engine development - of particular interest being

the implementation of lean-burn technology that

British Leyland (BL)/ Austin-Rover had pioneered.

The

aforemention

advanced

engine

research

IECV 3 c'ylilnder team atGaydon had

developed the ports and combustion chambers

for all BL engines of this era (70s & 80s),

including the Jaguar AJ6, as well as the M, T & IN.'~.""

K series used in later Austin-Rover vehicles. The

engines research team had been amongst the

first to identify "barrel-swirl" or "tumble" in 4 valve

per cylinder engines (reference 2), and thistechnology was first found applied in the slant-four cylinder 16v engine installed in the

Triumph Dolomite Sprint of 1974 - a car that was very successful in the British Touring Car

Racing of the late 70s (pictured right) - the engine being extremely efficient with high specific

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History of the K-series Page 2 of 10

outputs. This engine preceded the current trend for 16 valve four cylinder engines by quite

some years!

Interestingly, the ECV 3-cylinder, like the slant-four 16v installed in the Dolomite Sprint, used

just a single over-head cam shaft to operate all 4-valves per cylinder - an ingenious cost-

saving arrangement (as shown below), but one that was not to be found on the later K

series.

.; -.

. . . . . . . . . -

'!i~~-"llo:p';!I~'-iTI~ i(i~ 'f~!1II~IJ~ ~1I1'i1~ ~~~

J:~ ~·l),I !,VJ;I ·L:" "" I ..,!I,""~~, i.tiii;

I~j,rrd

I~.U.~

With the experience gained from the Triumph 16-valve engine and results from variousresearch projects, Austin-Rover became leading advocates of lean burn combustion (high

activity and dilution tolerance). Indeed, the K series was designed on the basis of this

experience, and was intended to have stable combustion and low emissions out beyond an

air/fuel ratio (AFR) of 20:1 (which is incredibly lean by then-current production enginestandards - see reference 4). However, the environmental lobby scored a spectacular own-

goal by insisting on such low levels of emissions of hydrocarbons and oxides of nitrogen that

all manufacturers were forced to adopt catalyst after-treatment of exhaust gases (reference

J). On the K series, this development forced the use of a chemically correct (and much

richer than originally intended) AFR of 14.5:1. This richer fuel mixture, combined with the

added restriction that the catalyst in the exhaust system represented adversely affected

efficiency the net impact upon fuel economy was a 5% increase in fuel consumption andthus CO

2emissions leapt up! (For more explanation on this, see the 'Lean Burn' box below.)

Even so, the K series remained an extremely efficient and clean engine - it is not unheard of

for uncatalysed K series engines to sneak through MoT emissions testing with a pass - albeiton a good day and a sympathetic MoT tester ...

When you burn any fuel that is a compound of Hydrogen and carbon the natural by

products are CO2and H

20 (both inert). The amount of CO

2is emitted is directly

proportionate to the amount of fuel burnt. In the case of gasoline the chemically correctmixture of air and fuel is 14.5:1 - i.e. there is just enough oxygen to burn all the fuel. It's

the fuel that contains the energy. If we run richer than this stoichiometric ratio then

unburnt hydrocarbons must result (not enough oxygen to burn all the fuel) and this

Lean Burn

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History of the K-series Page 3 of 10

mostly manifests itself as CO (carbon monoxide) and has to be dealt with by the catalyst. When we start

from cold on a rich mixture (not choke these days but you know what I mean), it takes some time (circa 90

seconds) for the catalyst to fully "light off" and deal with the unburnt hydrocarbons. The problem is then that

it has to be fed small amounts of CO to stop it "going out" and it is this that precludes lean burn. However it

is a relatively small amount of fuel that is wasted. These days, the after-treatment is so effective that in

cities the exhaust gases coming out are cleaner than the air going in (minus the oxygen of course).

The idea behind lean burn was to operate at part-load in such a manner that the thermal efficiency (theratio of the useful work to energy in the fuel) would start to approach the diesel engine which always

operates with excess air (or lean if you like) by dint of the fact it hasn't got a throttle. At full load a lean burn

petrol engine may approach 33% efficiency, against the best diesels at 40% - the diesels get some

advantage from the high compression ratio and smaller combustion chamber volume. It is on part-load that

the diesel engines exhibit the biggest advantage in thermal efficiency. However the biggest single factordiesel has in its favour is that it is 13% denser than petrol, and we buy fuel by volume. The calorific value

( how much energy there is in a kg) is about the same. Thank heavens there's a limit to how many diesel

cars there can be because when the crude oil is cracked, there is at least twice as much petrol as diesel -

so someone has to burn the petrol.

Its a sad fact that at best only a third of the energy in the fuel is used to propel the vehicle; about 20% goes

to the coolant and is dissipated by the radiator and the majority of the rest goes down the exhaust pipe in

the hot gases.

There is another disadvantage to running too lean. At higher temperatures the nitrogen in the air breaks

down or dissociates and starts to combine with oxygen to form NOx. This is nasty stuff causing asthma and

all sorts of health complaints. It is probably NOx reduction that drove the legislators towards Catalysts

rather than hydrocarbons. The emission levels from engines such as K were really low compared with older

engines with Carburettors and dodgy ignition systems. As new rounds of the EU legislation came out, the

amounts of CO and NOx permitted were reduced progressively so that Catalysts were the only solution.Ford and Peugeot, like Rover, invested a lot of time and resource into lean burn technology, but

significantly, the German manufacturers didn't. ..

By 1985 the engine development team at Longbridge had designed, built and run the 3 (973

cc) and 4 cylinder (1300cc) concept design level engines. The specific output (bhp/litre)

and light weight were astonishing straight out of the box. All the K series features were there

in these engines: twin cams; 4 valves per cylinder; layered construction; long "stretch" bolts;

wet liners; bedplate and low volume but high flow rate cross-flow cooling system etc. Even

back then it was felt that environmental pressures would force downsizing of engines, sohigh output fuel efficient engines would be required in the future.

From Experimental Prototype to Production K-series

By the end of 1985, the responsibility for subsequent

design levels was handed over to the ProductionEngine Team, who up to this point had been working on

4 valve per cylinder versions of 5and 0 series as well

as the A+ engine for Metro. They set about designing a

mass-production feasible version of what was to

become known as the K series. They came up with an

engine which is still a model in design for ease of

manufacture; the layered construction was one featurethat enabled the use of Low Pressure Sand casting

technique for which Austin Rover own a number of

patents. As part of the productionisation of the engine,

the crankshaft stroke was increased, raising the

capacity to 1.4 litres to capitalise upon an apparent tax

break. In addition, a smaller capacity 1.1 litre engine

was also developed, along with a more basic, and

cheaper to produce 8-valve cylinder head to give the

s. tm'tch

.bolt\

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\Headg'a.skt jJ t

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History of the K-series Page 4 of 10

new engine range an entry level. (For more on these

developments, see references §. and §.) This was also the time when the drawing boards all

but disappeared from the Austin Design Office (ADO) and CADCAM (Computer Aided

Design/ Computer Aided Modelling) was being adopted. CADCAM enabled the wide use of

mathematical modelling techniques which included Finite Element and Computational Fluid

Dynamics analysis, which was employed extensively on K series to optimise the

NoiseNibration/Harshness (NVH) characteristics (reference 7) and thermo-mechanical

performance (reference S). In many ways, Rover were way ahead of the competition in thisregard (you only have to look at contemporary engines to see exactly how far - an early 90s

Ford Escort anyone? - Ed).

K series went into production in 19S5, funded largely by the Department of Trade and

Industry (DTI). The production facilities were genuinely state of the art for the time. Both

Ray Horrocks and Harold Musgrove had to put their jobs on the line (with huge credit tothem) to ensure the investment that was to have such a positive impact upon the future of

Rover.

The "Damp liner"

The Engine Design Team now turned its attention to designing Vee engines based upon the

K-series architecture. The team spent over a year designing a KVS - but with no obvious

vehicle platform that would make use of this power plant meant that no engine was ever

built. Landrover had clearly been the intended recipient for this engine, but perhaps a VS

with double the capacity of a 1.S four-cylinder - a mere 3.6 litres - was simply not adequate

for the off-road division, who were by then using the massively torquey 2-valve per cylinder

4.6 litre Buick/Rover VSs in their top-range Range Rovers. What ever the reason for this

engine not appearing, it is a great pity, as a KVS would have been perfect for the RWD MGZT! Fortunately, however, the KVS development effort was not completely wasted, as

eventually the KV6 for the Rover SODand Rover 75 (and latterly, the MG ZS and MG ZT)came into fruition. Perhaps the most important development from KV6 that spilt over to the

4-cylinder variants was the introduction of the larger SOmm bore diameter - enabling the 4

cylinder K series to increase in capacity from 1.4 litres up to 1.S litres. This bore

increase was not without considerable technical difficulties, due to the thin-walled casting

design of the original engine - effectively, it proved impossible to retain the top hung wet liner

of the 1.4 litre. Cast in or sleeved liners (as found on the venerable Rover VS) would haveinvolved considerable investment in boring and honing machines. The eventual cost-

effective solution was the adoption of the pre-finished mid hung or 'damp liner' - a concept

that was not too dissimilar in concept to contemporary Triumph motorcycle or Peugeot-

Citroen engines. The resulting 1.6 and 1.S litre engines quickly found applications within the

Rover range: the 1.6 litre engine displaced the Honda engine in Rover 200 and 400 and the1.S litre was developed for the MGF and later filtered through to other Rover vehicles -

ultimately including the Rover 75 in turbo-charged form. And then there was the VVC - which

is another story! (Reference 10) The VVC to this day remains one of the most advancedcam timing systems available on a production car engine, uniquely being able to vary both

phase and open-duration of the inlet valves. The result is an incredibly linear torque and

power curve (compare with the stepped character of the Honda VTEC), with high specific

outputs, yet retaining excellent emissions profiles.

K-series - an engine to be proud of?

The K-series was developed as a powerful and Ilightweight road-going engine capable ofoperating continuously at an engine speed of References:

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History of the K-series

6500 rpm (and intermittently higher than that -

read more on the durability testing Rover

employed in reference 9). The K-series is

undoubtedly a durable engine; the bottom end is

practically unburstable on engines that have not

been tuned (and there is some latitude for tuning

efforts within limitations, particularly with regard

to engine speed). It is also worth looking in theback of Autocar and calculate some specific

outputs of rival's comparable engines in the 1.4,

1.8 and 2.5 litre classes. The K-series manages

105 PS out of 1.4litres, 160 PS (VVC) & 200 PS

(turbo) out of 1.8 litres, and 190 PS out of 2.5

litres - and don't forget the four-cylinder engine

weighs only 100kg (and the KV6 weighs in at an

equally impressive 150kg)! Incredibly, after allthis time, the K-series remains a class-leading

engine. The fact that K series powered cars in its

latest 2-litre guise is still winning races in the

British Touring car championships 20 years after

its inception speaks volumes. Over 3 million K-

series engines have been built since the engine's

introduction, and over 100,000 KV6s. The vast

majority of these engines are apparentlyindestructible in practice (head gasket issues

notwithstanding - Ed).

Page 5 of 10

1. KING, C.S. 'A car for the nineties: BL's EnergyConservation Vehicle' Sir Henry Royce memorial

lecture IMechE 1984

2. BENJAMIN, S.F. 'The development of the GaydonTechnology Ltd barrel swirl combustion system with

application to four valve spark ignition engines'Combustion in engines IMechE 1988.

3. WALLACE, S. & WARBURTON, A 'The control of

CO, HC, NOx emissions and the appl ication of lean

burn engines' - Vehicle emissions and their impact onEuropean air quality IMechE London 1987.

4. CHAPMAN, J. DRAPER, A. , FAIRHEAD G.S. &

WALLACE, S. 'Optimisation of combustion chamber

design' IMechE C382/030 1989

5. HILJEMARK, S.L., KNIGHT, K & SHILLINGTON

S.A.C. 'The development of an innovative newpowertrain for the next generation of Rover cars'

IMechE C399/25 Autotech 89

6. STONE, R.D. & CRABB, D 'The design and

development of an all new Rover Group engine'IMechE C399/25 Autotech 89

7. ANGOY, C.H. & TUNNAH R.J. 'The use of f ini teelement techniques in the structural assessment of a

radically new small engine' IMechE C399/25Autotech 89

8. HOLLINGWORTH, P. ' The design of an engine

cooling circuit using computer simulation'

IMechE C399/25 Autotech 89

9. RICHARDSON, R., BARBET, D., & BUTLER, K. J. 'Durabil ity and reliability testing of Rover Groups allnew engine' IMechE C399/25 Autotech 89

10. PARKER, P. H. ' The variable valve timing

mechanism for the Rover K16 engine' parts 1&2-

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical

Engineers vol 214 partD pages 197 - 215here are of course a significant number of un-

named design and development engineers who

put in valiant effort to make the engine thesuccess it is - and just a few of these are

mentioned in the references opposite. Nor should we forget the management who enabled it

all to happen either. Following the troubled last decade of Austin Rover, Rover Group and

finally MG Rover, the teams responsible for this remarkable engine have, sadly, been widely

dispersed - to the extent that now the whole Automotive industry is littered with people who

cut their teeth on K series - and a number of engines from former competitors now contain

features pioneered on the incredible K-series. The K series is indeed one special engine -

and its legacy will surely endure the sad demise of MG Rover Group in 2005.

The Future?

The IMechE website can be found @ www.imeche.org.uk

The demise of MG Rover has lead to a number of "what if MGR survived?" scenarios that

many enthusiasts have loved to speculate upon - myself included. Interestingly, the future ofthe K series was actively being researched and developed at the time of the group's

collapse in April, 2005 - it appeared that despite the mounting financial problems, the

management were confident enough of a positive outcome for negotiations with the Chinese

Motor company, SAIC, to plough on forging the future of the K series. The most immediate

hurdle for the K-series was the new European emissions regulations - widely referred to as

EU4 (or EUIV) - that was due to be enforced by October 1st, 2005 ...

The EUIV hurdle

Work on the new EUIV compliant engines were, by all accounts, well advanced by the time

of the company's collapse in April 2005 - with many engines already compliant (and only

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History of the K-series Page 6 of 10

requiring some minor calibration to be completed) - including both the 1.8 litre K series

engines employed in the MG TF, in both MPi and we guise. In the most part, all the K

series required to get through the EUIV hurdle was some new engine management software

and some additional electronic hardware - but the non-We 1.8 litre engines were to employ

some interesting inlet system modifications. According to sources cited by austin-

rover.co.uk, a "dual cam phasing system" was being developed - with operation similar in

principle to BMW's Bi-Vanos system, with a mechanism not too far removed from that

employed on the we. This new system was to be fitted to the MPi versions of 1.8 K series,increasing power from 120 to 140PS - a very useful improvement over the base engine, if

not quite matching the impressive 160PS we. However, the new cam system would be

somewhat simpler than the we, with obvious benefits in terms of cost, ease of production

and reliability.

Interestingly, it was not just emissions and performance that the chaps at Powertrain wereinterested in - they were also developing a new head gasket system that could have gone a

long way towards banishing the spectre of head gasket failure ... Introducing the multilayer

steel head gasket and up-rated oil rail!

The other

interesting

feature ofthe new

gasket set is the so-called 'sixth layer or shim.

The shim, as shown opposite (left), is inserted

between the MLS gasket and the cylinder

head, black surface uppermost. The shim iscoated on both sides: on the upper side (the

head-facing side) with a dry sealant (it has the

same black, glossy appearance to the gasket

face opposite) and the lower side is coated

with an inert matt-grey treatment - and it is this

side of the shim that comes into contact withthe upper surface of the MLS gasket.

Multilayered Steel (MLS) Gasket

An interesting development was the new MLS gasket -

seen here, pictured to the right. The new gasket set

consists of a steel gasket consisting of 5 layers. In thecentre is a steel shim with swaged on fire rings - which

appears to be very similar to the original gasket designs.

This, like the original gasket is encased by two steel

layers - rather like a sandwich. However, in contrast to

the older gasket design, rather than using bonded-on

'elastomeric' butyl rings to contain the coolant jacket andoil drain spaces, the gasket has an additional two steel

layers on either side of the gasket with swaged / raisedareas to provide the coolant/oil void sealing (the gloss-

black layer just visible in the image opposite). These

layers are there to help prevent any coolant leakage

failures - which, on the older gasket design, was

frequently due to peel-away of the butyl rings.

~~ ... Sh,;m

.... N.LS

glJ',s.k,et

The shim appears to provide two main roles.

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History of the K-series Page 7 of 10

Firstly it prevents the fire rings on the gasket

digging into the cylinder head. When the head is torqued down, the fire rings are crushed

between the liners and the cylinder head. The shim prevents the ring from digging into the

head, and enables the 'ring to rollover the gasket layer in the manner in which it was

designed.

Secondly, and the potential advantage of this system over the original gasket design, it acts

as a protective layer to the cylinder head, a layer that comes into its own if the condition of

the head is less than perfect. Examples of this is where the cylinder head has gone soft, or

where the casting has an imperfection close to the combustion chamber; the shim will help

prevent the liners hammering into the head in the fashion demonstrated here (although it

has to be said that when the head becomes as damaged as the example shown, the shim

will merely delay failure, not prevent it) or aid in sealing the fire walls.

New bottom end oil ladder

As part of the MLS gasket kit, there was anotherintriguing development - a new lower oil rail (this

can be compared to the original oil ladder in the

picture opposite, right - the new oil rail is pictured

top, the old, below - picture credit to Dr Dave on

mg-rover.org ).

Made of 356 alloy rather than LM25 as in the

original, the new oil ladder's alloy material has

marginally better mechanical properties whencompared to the original's LM25 - although,

arguably, the practical difference between the

two is minimal. Perhaps more significant, isway the way that two ladders are designed. In the image above, the two ladders are pictured

in the same orientation - what you see is effectively the same surfaces as you'd see if you

removed the engine's sump and viewed the ladder in situ from below. As can be seen, the

new ladder (top) is boxed over, whereas the older ladder (bottom) has its strengthening

webbing with its face abutting the base of the crank bearing ladder. Moreover, consider the

width of the diagonal webbing - it is significantly thicker than that seen on the original oil

ladder. Therefore, it would appear to suggest that the new ladder is designed to be far stiffer

than the original design. That the new oil ladder also weighs 20% more than the original(figure provided by Roger Parker) lends further weight (excuse the pun) to the argument that

the new ladder is indeed designed with torsional stiffness in mind.

·~Oil Rail

The

oil

ladder is located underneath the crank

bearing ladder at the base of the engine -

effectively representing the 'base plate' of theengine, and thus plays a significant role in the

stiffness of the assembled engine 'sandwich'

as a whole. The engine through-bolts (a.k.a.

long or 'stretch' bolts) thread into the oil ladder

- which as can be seen on the figure opposite

(left) can be viewed if the engine's sump is

removed.

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History of the K-series Page 8 of 10

According to the Land Rover service bulletin that covers the new MLS gasket, the new oil

rail MUST be fitted at the same time as the replacement gasket - so it seems likely that the

EU IV compliant K-series, had the engine made it to this stage, would have come similarly

configured. You'll notice mention of Land Rover. This is significant as these two components

are now available to buy - so in the event of a head gasket failure on your K-series engined

car, you can fit these components as a direct replacement to the existing items in your

engine.

Conclusion

Effectively, the EUIV hurdle would have been little problem for the Powertrain engineers;everything would have met the October 1st cut-off point for the change from EUIII to IV

legislation. Some calibration work would have carried on after that date, but K series was

ready to go and meet the challenge in 2005/2006 .

...and beyond: going camless!

Perhaps the most surprising development that was

announced barely days after the MG Rover Group entering

administration (press releases dated on April 12th) was the

incredible camless valve actuation system, termed

Intelligent Valve Actuation (IVA) developed jointly by

Powertrain and Camcon (read more about CamconTechnology here). All production car engines use cam shafts

to open and close the inlet and exhaust valves but the

limitation of this is the fixed mechanical nature of a solid lump

of metal: it forces a compromise in terms of valve opening

and duration that has to work over a wide range of enginespeeds. Wouldn't it be nice if the valve opening and closing

could be optimised for ALL operating speeds? To an extent,

this is where variable cam systems have come in - but evenadvanced systems such as MG Rover's own WC has

limitations. The optimum would be to operate each valve independently - and this is where

the IVA system really scores. IVA posseses the potential to significantly improve engine

combustion efficiency, enhancing engine performance and fuel economy, allowing each

valve of the engine to be independently controlled.

Of course, whether IVA could or would be applied to the K-series engine is not clear; it is

likely that this technology was/is still 5 or more years from reaching production - but theadvantages of precise control over combustion would be a key consideration in design and

development of the next generation of internal combustion engines, potentially offering

significant gains in efficiency and performance (the lower engine speeds of diesels would

makes diesel engines ideal candidates for this technology, although Powertrain were very

interested in this technology for petrol-burning engines too).

IVA apparently offered a number of attractive advantages over other attempts at this "HolyGrail" of cam less valve operation, in that it provides a compact, low cost, low power

consumption mechanism providing full control over valve actuation. The system is pictured

above left (click on image to down load animated movie (mpg format) showing the

mechanism in operation). IVA is what has been termed "Bina Actuati Technwhich uses a "bi-stable" operating principle,

utilising:

"

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History of the K-series Page 9 of 10

• a Rotary Electromagnetic

"Device" (functioning rather like a stepper motor)

• a mechanism for Translating Rotary into Linear Motion (a cam gear operating on a

lever); an electro-mechanical system designed for maximum efficiency.

This system, as demonstrated at the SAE conference, was shown to have a number of

advantages:

• The system possesses wide ranging control of valve lift and timing

• Overcomes previous generation deficiencies

• Demonstrable feasibility for use in conjunction with 12V Vehicle electrical systems

• Industrialisation appears perfectly possible, and indeed was in progress

Powertrain Ltd presented this camless engine technology at the Detroit 100th SAE Congresson the 12th April, 2005, the culmination of the 18-month joint research and development

programme with Camcon Technology, the UK inventor and developer of binary actuation

technology; the presentation of a technical paper demonstrated the progress that had been

made to develop a camless engine prototype. Interestingly, since October 2004 PowertrainLtd has had an exclusive licence agreement with Camcon to develop the technology in the

automotive sector - although since the company entered administration, it is unclear as to

the current status of this licence agreement.

In press releases at the time, Alan Warburton

(pictured sitting, above left, with Camcon's

Wladyslaw Wygnanski), Powertrain Ltd's then

Engineering Director is quoted saying, "IVA

technology enables us to have precise control

over combustion by allowing each valve of the engine to be independently controlled. Key

achievements include providing a number of stable valve lift positions and high energyefficiency whilst also supporting improved durability and noise levels. We believe that we

have provided an innovative system to overcome the critical objections to electromagnetic

valve operation; namely, 12V system compatibility, low power consumption and variable lift

control. We can now offer to OEM's significantly improved engine combustion efficiency with

enhanced engine performance and fuel economy, whilst at the same time reducing engine

emissions".

A copy of the SAE Technical paper is available

from www.sae.org/congress/

Book Number SP - 1968,ISBN Number 0-7680-161-4.

It therefore appears that MG Rover got tantalisingly close to a real break-through engine

technology that would have given the company a considerable march over many of its much

larger competitors. With MG Rover and Powertrain now under the ownership of Nanjing

Automotive Corporation of China, it is unclear whether this route of research anddevelopment will be pursued, or left on the scrap heap of "what might have been" ...

About Camcon Technology Ltd.

Based in Cambridge, UK, Camcon Technology is a small, fast-growing engineering technology company

focused on the research and development of the Camcon binary actuator. Camcon binary actuating

technology has been 15 years in development and is the invention of Camcon founder Wladyslaw

Wygnanski (pictured with Alan Warburton above, left).

The high-speed, low energy consumption, low heat dissipation and long life characteristics of the Camcon

binary actuator mean that it has applications in a whole new range of areas, as well as being a replacementfor existing actuator and valve technologies.

Camcon Technology licenses its technology to customers, typically on a field-of-use basis. The company

develops pre-production prototypes for customers on a consultancy basis and then hands over designs

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History of the K-series

either to its customers to manufacture in volume, or to a manufacturing partner.

For further information please visit: www.camcontec.com.

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Camcon is funded by ACUS Management Partners, an active management venture capitalist that

specialises in funding early stage technology companies. For further information: www.acus.co.uk