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1 In the development of motorcycle engines, a strong feeling of power, an element of being fun to ride has continued strong demand. However, demand to meet environmental performance, a conflicting element, has increased dramatically in recent years and a breakthrough technology that achieves both environmental performance and a feeling of power is in demand. Here, the newly developed engine has greatly enhanced feeling of power while clearing stringent environmental restrictions through use of a centrifugal type supercharger. However, there were several problems that had to be resolved with regards to application of a supercharger to a motorcycle engine. In applying a supercharger to a motorcycle, a major problem is the best way to keep the engine size from increasing in size. The engine, which is the heaviest parts on a motorcycle greatly affects motorcycle maneuverability so it must be compact and the mass concentrated.

For the prediction of pumping loss in the engine crankcase at the early stage of engine design, a similarity law of the pumping loss on parallel cylinders with the phase difference of 180 degrees has been derived from the sum of the power loss due to the drag force of airflow through the cylinder bulkhead holes and the inertia force of fluid. It has been found that the mean effective pressure in the crankcase is in proportion to the square of the mean flow velocity at the bulkhead holes. Then, in order to validate the similarity law, by using a prototype engine with inline four cylinders, the pumping loss was estimated by subtracting the frictional loss with special pistons that had air holes, from the power loss in which the area of the bulkhead holes and engine speed were changed. The experimental results of the pumping loss were normalized by the similarity law. As a consequence, it has been shown that the pumping loss obeys the law.