Plastic engine

The Plastic Automotive Engine has its origins in the late 1980's with a company named Polimotor Research Inc. of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, founded by Matty Holtzberg who entered into a joint program to develop the engine with the Ford Motor Company.

One engine, jointly developed as a research project with Ford, was based on Ford's 2.3-liter and weighed 153lbs vs. 415lbs for its iron counterpart. It has been reported that the engine made 318 bhp @ 11,000 rpm and redlined at 14,000 rpm. The motor was never put in to mass production. It was composed of metal cylinder sleeves, metal combustion chamber tops, metal piston crowns, bearings, valves & seats, and a stock 2.3L Pinto crankshaft. Nearly everything else in the engine, including the block, rods, piston skirts, were made of Torlon thermoplastic resins manufactured by Amoco Chemicals Co.

Torlon thermoplastic, the material which was used to construct the engine, has unique chemical combination that out-performs all but the most exotic composites and polymers. Torlon resin can be injection molded. Torlon is a polymer that provides the combination of properties: strength competitive with metal across an extraordinary temperature range; toughness and modulus far greater than most polymers; passes FAA flammability tests and is unaffected by aviation fluids such as MEK, Tric 1,1,1, and Skydrol hydraulic fluid.

Another engine based upon the Cosworth BDA, tipped the scales at 168 lbs, half the weight of its metal counterpart. Plastic parts included the engine block, cam cover, air intake trumpets, intake valve stems, piston skirts and wrist pins, connecting rods, oil scraper piston rings, tappets, valve spring retainers and timing gears.

The plastic Cosworth engine was raced over two seasons. It was raced in a T616 HU04 and competed in the International Motor Sports Association's (IMSA) Camel GT championship in the Camel Lights (Group C2) category in 1984 and 1985. The car's best finish was a third in class at the 1985 Road America 500.

The research into a plastic engines was largely considered a failure. No public research in the area has been made available in the last decade.

References: "Popular Science"; September, 1982