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How Car Engine Work Part 2

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How Car Engine Work Part 2 Empty How Car Engine Work Part 2

Post by LhYnxz Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:44 pm

Basic Engine Parts


The core of the engine is the cylinder, with the piston moving up and down inside the cylinder. The engine described above has one cylinder. That is typical of most lawn mowers, but most cars have more than one cylinder (four, six and eight cylinders are common). In a multi-cylinder engine, the cylinders usually are arranged in one of three ways: inline, V or flat (also known as horizontally opposed or boxer), as shown in the following figures.

How Car Engine Work Part 2 Engine-inline-4
Figure 2. Inline - The cylinders are arranged in a line in a single bank.

How Car Engine Work Part 2 Engine-v-6
Figure 3. V - The cylinders are arranged in two banks set at an angle to one another.

How Car Engine Work Part 2 Engine-flat-4
Figure 4. Flat - The cylinders are arranged in two banks on opposite sides of the engine.
Different configurations have different advantages and disadvantages in terms of smoothness, manufacturing cost and shape characteristics. These advantages and disadvantages make them more suitable for certain vehicles.
Let's look at some key engine parts in more detail.
Spark plug
The spark plug supplies the spark that ignites the air/fuel mixture so that combustion can occur. The spark must happen at just the right moment for things to work properly.
Valves
The intake and exhaust valves open at the proper time to let in air and fuel and to let out exhaust. Note that both valves are closed during compression and combustion so that the combustion chamber is sealed.
Piston
A piston is a cylindrical piece of metal that moves up and down inside the cylinder.
Piston rings
Piston rings provide a sliding seal between the outer edge of the piston and the inner edge of the cylinder. The rings serve two purposes:

  • They prevent the fuel/air mixture and exhaust in the combustion chamber from leaking into the sump during compression and combustion.
  • They keep oil in the sump from leaking into the combustion area, where it would be burned and lost.

Most cars that "burn oil" and have to have a quart added every 1,000 miles are burning it because the engine is old and the rings no longer seal things properly.
Connecting rod
The connecting rod connects the piston to the crankshaft. It can rotate at both ends so that its angle can change as the piston moves and the crankshaft rotates.
Crankshaft
The crankshaft turns the piston's up and down motion into circular motion just like a crank on a jack-in-the-box does.
Sump
The sump surrounds the crankshaft. It contains some amount of oil, which collects in the bottom of the sump (the oil pan).
Next, we'll learn what can go wrong with engines.


Engine Problems


So you go out one morning and your engine will turn over but it won't start... What could be wrong? Now that you know how an engine works, you can understand the basic things that can keep an engine from running. Three fundamental things can happen: a bad fuel mix, lack of compression or lack of spark. Beyond that, thousands of minor things can create problems, but these are the "big three." Based on the simple engine we have been discussing, here is a quick rundown on how these problems affect your engine:
Bad fuel mix - A bad fuel mix can occur in several ways:

  • You are out of gas, so the engine is getting air but no fuel.
  • The air intake might be clogged, so there is fuel but not enough air.
  • The fuel system might be supplying too much or too little fuel to the mix, meaning that combustion does not occur properly.
  • There might be an impurity in the fuel (like water in your gas tank) that makes the fuel not burn.

Lack of compression - If the charge of air and fuel cannot be compressed properly, the combustion process will not work like it should. Lack of compression might occur for these reasons:

  • Your piston rings are worn (allowing air/fuel to leak past the piston during compression).
  • The intake or exhaust valves are not sealing properly, again allowing a leak during compression.
  • There is a hole in the cylinder.

The most common "hole" in a cylinder occurs where the top of the cylinder (holding the valves and spark plug and also known as the cylinder head) attaches to the cylinder itself. Generally, the cylinder and the cylinder head bolt together with a thin gasket pressed between them to ensure a good seal. If the gasket breaks down, small holes develop between the cylinder and the cylinder head, and these holes cause leaks.
Lack of spark - The spark might be nonexistent or weak for a number of reasons:

  • If your spark plug or the wire leading to it is worn out, the spark will be weak.
  • If the wire is cut or missing, or if the system that sends a spark down the wire is not working properly, there will be no spark.
  • If the spark occurs either too early or too late in the cycle (i.e. if the ignition timing is off), the fuel will not ignite at the right time, and this can cause all sorts of problems.

Many other things can go wrong. For example:

  • If the battery is dead, you cannot turn over the engine to start it.
  • If the bearings that allow the crankshaft to turn freely are worn out, the crankshaft cannot turn so the engine cannot run.
  • If the valves do not open and close at the right time or at all, air cannot get in and exhaust cannot get out, so the engine cannot run.
  • If someone sticks a potato up your tailpipe, exhaust cannot exit the cylinder so the engine will not run.
  • If you run out of oil, the piston cannot move up and down freely in the cylinder, and the engine will seize.

In a properly running engine, all of these factors are within tolerance.
As you can see, an engine has a number of systems that help it do its job of converting fuel into motion. We'll look at the different subsystems used in engines in the next few sections.


Engine Valve Train and Ignition Systems


Most engine subsystems can be implemented using different technologies, and better technologies can improve the performance of the engine. Let's look at all of the different subsystems used in modern engines, beginning with the valve train.
The valve train consists of the valves and a mechanism that opens and closes them. The opening and closing system is called a camshaft. The camshaft has lobes on it that move the valves up and down, as shown in Figure 5.

How Car Engine Work Part 2 Engine-cam
Figure 5. The camshaft
Most modern engines have what are called overhead cams. This means that the camshaft is located above the valves, as you see in Figure 5. The cams on the shaft activate the valves directly or through a very short linkage. Older engines used a camshaft located in the sump near the crankshaft. Rods linked the cam below to valve lifters above the valves. This approach has more moving parts and also causes more lag between the cam's activation of the valve and the valve's subsequent motion. A timing belt or timing chain links the crankshaft to the camshaft so that the valves are in sync with the pistons. The camshaft is geared to turn at one-half the rate of the crankshaft. Many high-performance engines have four valves per cylinder (two for intake, two for exhaust), and this arrangement requires two camshafts per bank of cylinders, hence the phrase "dual overhead cams." See How Camshafts Work for details.
The ignition system (Figure 6) produces a high-voltage electrical charge and transmits it to the spark plugs via ignition wires. The charge first flows to a distributor, which you can easily find under the hood of most cars. The distributor has one wire going in the center and four, six, or eight wires (depending on the number of cylinders) coming out of it. These ignition wires send the charge to each spark plug. The engine is timed so that only one cylinder receives a spark from the distributor at a time. This approach provides maximum smoothness. See How Automobile Ignition Systems Work for more details.








How Car Engine Work Part 2 Engine-ignition-labels
Figure 6. The ignition system
We'll look at how your car's engine starts, cools and circulates air in the next section.
LhYnxz
LhYnxz
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