Willys Overland Knight Registry

The Knight engine has no poppet valves for inlet or exhaust like most conventional engines.  Instead it has two close fitting sleeves that actually fit around each piston, the inner sleeve actually forming the “bore” of the motor.  Each of the sleeves move up and down via a form of “camshaft” arrangement in much the same way that conventional valves move up and down except that the motion is quite smooth via the use of little “con rods” just like those on the pistons.  This up and down motion is carefully contrived so as to align circular openings (or large holes) in the sleeves themselves at the correct points in the four stroke cycle and function as exhaust and inlet ports.

The advantages of this are as follows;

• No valve springs to weaken under load or heat
• A hemispherical head for better combustion efficiency
• An engine that could actually show measured increases in compression and power due to carbon deposits forming on the already close fitting sleeves
• Quiet and smooth operation

The disadvantages were;

• Closer manufacturing tolerances and therefore machining costs
• Royalty Fee