Sandite Pioneers Overhead Valve 2-Stroke Engines!
Native Oklahoman Inventor first to build an OHV 2-Stroke

​THOMAS ALLEN GRAVES; AUSTIN, TX; 10/25/2019
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During the early 90’s Thomas Allen Graves began to experiment with Electric Powered Internal Combustion (EPIC) technology. This technology was evolved into a 2-stoke engine technology known as Captive Pulse. Captive pulse engines were the earliest OHV 2-stroke engines known to exist.

Somewhere in the woods at Shell Lake, just west of Sand Springs there is an old wood floored building that became a lab where a new engine science was born.

Major corporations and government agencies are now interested in developing this new breed of reciprocating internal combustion engine (ICE) technology that is based on a 2-stroke smoothbore cylinder engine with poppet or other remotely driven valves to control engine breathing.

Several companies were formed to specialize in this technology, and famous institutional laboratories have been employed to develop it, but it was in the Oklahoma Green Country where it all began.

In the early 2000’s Scuderi (aka Scuderi Group) began their commercialization of this technology. They pitched the technology as “Split-Cycle” even though proper split-cycle technology has existed for more than a century and bears little, if any resemblance to an OHV 2-stroke engine or any smoothbore 2-stroke with remotely driven valves. The name stuck regardless of the details or traditional nomenclatures.

Graves says, “Scuderi and others have preferred to or, at least tended to advertise their 2-stroke engines as split-cycle engine, most likely because of their experience in the overall field, and/or to avoid indicating or involving my earlier work, at least originally. Now, who knows?”

Graves generally uses a term “forced induction constant volume smoothbore 2-stroke engine” to specify some Captive Pulse engines. In all actuality any basic reciprocating forced induction constant volume smoothbore 2-stroke ICE is a Captive Pulse engine technology based machine as a species, but Graves is the only one that uses Captive Pulse as any sort of technical descriptor or trademark type term.

The new technology was of course difficult to accomplish, and it took Scuderi Group until 2008 to run their first engine that was developed in partnership with Southwest Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas.

In the meantime, Hugo Tour an Israeli Engineer that was the former head of Israeli Air Force (IAF) Mechanical Lab and his son Dr. Oded Tour began working on the technology as early as 2005 in Israel and California. Tour had an engine running earlier than Scuderi. Tour now also has an actual engine company.

Graves points out,” Hugo Tour used a more direct approach than Scuderi. It seems that Tour had the first feasible company regardless of their later start. Much earlier I had offered to work with the Scuderi family, it never happened. Retrospectively, one might suppose that it was a good thing for both Tour and I.”

Currently the technology is being developed internationally. Developmental or acquisition work on this technology is known to have been done in Oklahoma, Texas, Mexico, Italy, Israel, California, Russia, Arizona, Germany, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, and Japan.
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A 2017 image of a smoothbore cylinder type 2-stroke engine by Tour Engine.
(courtesy of Tour Engine Incorporated - San Diego, California)
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A 2005 pho​to of Thomas Allen Graves looking over the hydrogen fuel system and supercharger of his OHV 2-stroke PANTHERA SUPERCHARGER X13 engine.
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​Graves is developing Captive Pulse technology based turbomachinery and engine auxiliary systems. He tells us, “As far as engines, I’m mainly working on hardware and systems applicable to large scale powerplant, and propulsion applications, most specifically marine drives.”

When ask if he’d be doing more of the 2-stroke engine technology Graves offered this,” Yes, I intend to publish and to some degree institutionalize my entire works on this subject, therefore I may also produce some new engines for my formal books. I’ve only shown a few of them, and there are more than 60 reciprocating Captive pulse engine types without considering the EPIC engines, rockets, or turbomachines.”

Graves is deeply concerned with scientific endeavors. He wants to build a Rocket Technology Center near Sand Springs as a form of technology institute for kinetic and thermodynamic engine science.
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He says,” I’d like to produce key infrastructures, and tools to build a better world.”

If you’d like more information about Thomas Allen Graves visit www.thomasallengraves.com on the worldwide web.

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