Internal combustion engine , improvements in design and Efficiency

An internal combustion, horizontally opposed engine that has four pistons acting within four cylinders that are directly inline, whereby the two inner stepped pistons are of larger diameter than the two outer pistons, with each stepped piston being formed as two pistons in one FIG. 1, 1a whereby these pistons operate within stepped cylinder blocks 2, with the two stepped cylinders joined from each opposing side to make one complete cylinder block, whereby the pistons have central half-shafts 3, that are joined at their centres and also at their piston connections, but are free to rotate at the piston connections 3e, 3f and on the axis of the half-shafts 10, 11, whereby linear combustive force is converted into rotational force by this same thrust acting on dual cam-followers 4, attached to and protruding from both half-shafts acting within a thick-walled tube 6, that is fixed linearly but free to rotate, that transfers this rotational force by means of two dual spiral high lead slotted cam-screws 5, 5a which have opposing screws of which their spiral travel would be 180 degrees, more or less, with this same thick-walled tube 6 acting as a flywheel, whereby developed force is transferred to the drive train by means of a more or less centrally located gear 9, fastened to the periphery of the thick-walled tube 6, whereby it will be noted that the pistons are mainly prevented from rotating on their combustion stroke by the compressive forces produced, thereby allowing the overrunning clutches 3b, 3c to clamp onto the half-shafts to produce linear combustive force via the cam-followers 4 acting on the slotted cam-screws 5, 5a which in turn rotate the thick-walled tube 6, to produce rotational power whereby this same piston half-shaft is free to rotate on its return stroke, whereby one of the opposing pistons is exhausted of spent gases, while the other opposing piston compresses the air/fuel mixture in preparation for the next combustion stroke, whereby this sequence is transferred to the opposing side again, whereby it will be seen that this initial startup is begun by air/fuel mixture being inducted at inlet port 24/inlet valve 20, then compressed, in sequence with electrical spark initiation in consequence of an electrical starting motor engaging momentarily by a gear thrusting onto the centrally located gear fastened onto the thick-walled tube at 9.

• 1) An engine as claimed in claim 1 that requires fewer reduction gears because the thick-walled tube or flywheel 6 has the ability to freewheel between reciprocating strokes.
• 2) An engine as claimed in claim 1 that has all of the same mechanical operational design features, but has two horizontally opposed pistons and no stepped pistons or stepped cylinder blocks, whereby another twin cylinder is aligned beside this same engine with a gear or some other connecting device at the central gear 9 or an additional twin cylinder may be attached in the same manner to become 6 cylinders.
• 3) An engine as claimed in claim 1 that has additional cylinder rings FIG. 1, 22 housed into the cylinder to prevent combustion forces from travelling beyond the combustion area of the stepped cylinder.