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During the intake stroke, the intake valve is opened and the piston moves toward the
crank shaft. The movement of the piston creates a negative pressure in the
combustion chamber. The air/fuel mixture is sucked into the chamber. If the Bottom
Dead Center (BDC) is reached, the intake valve is closed and the piston moves
upwards (compression stroke); the air/fuel mixture is compressed.
A short period before the Top Dead Center (TDC) is reached, the spark plug ignites
the air/fuel mixture. Temperature and the pressure into the combustion chamber
increased rapidly. The height pressure drives the piston downward (power stroke).
At the end of the power stroke - at the BDC - the exhaust valve is opened. The
piston is moved upward and the gases in the combustion chamber will be pushed
through the exhaust valve (exhaust stroke).
INTAKE STROKE
The piston moves down the cylinder and the pressure will drop (negative
pressure). The intake valve is opened. Because of the low pressure the
air/fuel mixtures is sucked into the cylinder.
COMPRESSION STROKE
IGNITION
IGNITION: Near the end of the compression stroke, the ignition starts the
combustion and the mixture burns very rapidly. The expanding gas creates a
high pressures against the top of the piston. The resulting force drives the
piston downward in the cylinder.
POWER STROKE
POWER STROKE: The force drives the piston downward to crank shaft (the
valves are closed). The volume is increased and the preasure is decreased.
No more energy is added and because of this the internal energy of the gas is
decreased as so as the temperature.
EXHAUST STROKE
EXHAUST STROKE: exhaust At BDC the exhaust valve is opened and the
piston moves up the cylinder. The pressure drops near the pressure outside
the cylinder because of the opened exhaust valve. Exhaust gas leaves the
cylinder. The volume is decreased.
Basic Engine Parts
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.
FLAT type - The cylinders are arranged in two banks on opposite sides of the engine.
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:
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).
Diesel Engine
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.
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.
Doing regular engine maintenance can help you avoid future repairs.
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.
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.
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.
How Two-stroke Engines Work
Two-stroke Basics
You find two-stroke engines in such devices as chain saws and jet skis
because two-stroke engines have three important advantages over four-
stroke engines:
You don't normally see two-stroke engines in cars, however. That's because
two-stroke engines have a couple of significant disadvantages that will make
more sense once we look at how it operates.
Sparks Fly
You can understand a two-stroke engine by watching each part of the cycle.
Start with the point where the spark plug fires. Fuel and air in the cylinder
have been compressed, and when the spark plug fires the mixture ignites.
The resulting explosion drives the piston downward. Note that as the piston
moves downward, it is compressing the air/fuel mixture in the crankcase. As
the piston approaches the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust port is
uncovered. The pressure in the cylinder drives most of the exhaust gases out
of cylinder, as shown here:
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.
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.
So now you know how and why your engine stays cool. But why is air
circulation so important? Most cars are normally aspirated, which means
that air flows through an air filter and directly into the cylinders. High-
performance engines are either turbocharged or supercharged, which
means that air coming into the engine is first pressurized (so that more air/fuel
mixture can be squeezed into each cylinder) to increase performance. The
amount of pressurization is called boost. A turbocharger uses a small turbine
attached to the exhaust pipe to spin a compressing turbine in the incoming air
stream. A supercharger is attached directly to the engine to spin the
compressor.
Turbocharger
Next, we'll look at the engine subsystems that maintain what goes in (oil and
fuel) and what comes out (exhaust and emissions).
Engine Lubrication, Fuel, Exhaust and Electrical
Systems
When it comes to day-to-day car maintenance, your first concern is probably
the amount of gas in your car. How does the gas that you put in power the
cylinders? The engine's fuel system pumps gas from the gas tank and mixes
it with air so that the proper air/fuel mixture can flow into the cylinders. Fuel is
delivered in three common ways: carburetion, port fuel injection and direct fuel
injection.
Oil also plays an important part. The lubrication system makes sure that
every moving part in the engine gets oil so that it can move easily. The two
main parts needing oil are the pistons (so they can slide easily in their
cylinders) and any bearings that allow things like the crankshaft and
camshafts to rotate freely. In most cars, oil is sucked out of the oil pan by the
oil pump, run through the oil filter to remove any grit, and then squirted under
high pressure onto bearings and the cylinder walls. The oil then trickles down
into the sump, where it is collected again and the cycle repeats.
Now that you know about some of the stuff that you put in your car, let's look
at some of the stuff that comes out of it. The exhaust system includes the
exhaust pipe and the muffler. Without a muffler, what you would hear is the
sound of thousands of small explosions coming out your tailpipe. A muffler
dampens the sound. The exhaust system also includes a catalytic converter.
See How Catalytic Converters Work for details.
The emission control system in modern cars consists of a catalytic
converter, a collection of sensors and actuators, and a computer to monitor
and adjust everything. For example, the catalytic converter uses a catalyst
and oxygen to burn off any unused fuel and certain other chemicals in the
exhaust. An oxygen sensor in the exhaust stream makes sure there is enough
oxygen available for the catalyst to work and adjusts things if necessary.
Besides gas, what else powers your car? The electrical system consists of a
battery and an alternator. The alternator is connected to the engine by a belt
and generates electricity to recharge the battery. The battery makes 12-volt
power available to everything in the car needing electricity (the ignition
system, radio, headlights, windshield wipers, power windows and seats,
computers, etc.) through the vehicle's wiring.
Now that you know all about the main engine subsystems, let's look at ways
that you can boost engine performance.
The goal of a carburetor is to mix just the right amount of gasoline with air so
that the engine runs properly. If there is not enough fuel mixed with the air, the
engine "runs lean" and either will not run or potentially damages the engine. If
there is too much fuel mixed with the air, the engine "runs rich" and either will
not run (it floods), runs very smoky, runs poorly (bogs down, stalls easily), or
at the very least wastes fuel. The carburetor is in charge of getting the mixture
just right.
It has to work when you are trying to start the engine cold.
It has to work when the engine is idling.
It has to work when the engine is wide open.
Carburetor Tuning
The carb is operating "normally" at full throttle. In this case the throttle plate is
parallel to the length of the tube, allowing maximum air to flow through the
carb. The air flow creates a nice vacuum in the venturi and this vacuum draws
in a metered amount of fuel through the jet. You can see a pair of screws on
the right top of the carb in photo. One of these screws (labeled "Hi" on the
case of the chain saw) controls how much fuel flows into the venturi at full
throttle.
This is the side that receives the outside air through the air filter.
When the engine is idling, the throttle plate is nearly closed (the position of the
throttle plate in the photos is the idle position). There is not really enough air
flowing through the venturi to create a vacuum. However, on the back side of
the throttle plate there is a lot of vacuum (because the throttle plate is
restricting the airflow). If a tiny hole is drilled into the side of the carb's tube
just behind the throttle plate, fuel can be drawn into the tube by the throttle
vacuum. This tiny hole is called the idle jet. The other screw of the pair seen
in photo 1 is labeled "Lo" and it controls the amount of fuel that flows through
the idle jet.
Both the Hi and Lo screws are simply needle valves. By turning them you
allow more or less fuel to flow past the needle. When you adjust them you are
directly controlling how much fuel flows through the idle jet and the main jet.
When the engine is cold and you try to start it with the pull cord, the engine is
running at an extremely low RPM. It is also cold, so it needs a very rich
mixture to start. This is where the choke plate comes in. When activated, the
choke plate completely covers the venturi see this video of the choke plate to
see it in action). If the throttle is wide open and the venturi is covered, the
engine's vacuum draws a lot of fuel through the main jet and the idle jet (since
the end of the carb's tube is completely covered, all of the engine's vacuum
goes into pulling fuel through the jets). Usually this very rich mixture will allow
the engine to fire once or twice, or to run very slowly. If you then open the
choke plate the engine will start running normally.
Using all of this information, you can begin to see that there are lots of
different ways to make an engine perform better. Car manufacturers are
constantly playing with all of the following variables to make an engine more
powerful and/or more fuel efficient.
Increase displacement - More displacement means more power because
you can burn more gas during each revolution of the engine. You can increase
displacement by making the cylinders bigger or by adding more cylinders.
Twelve cylinders seems to be the practical limit.
Stuff more into each cylinder - If you can cram more air (and therefore fuel)
into a cylinder of a given size, you can get more power from the cylinder (in
the same way that you would by increasing the size of the cylinder).
Turbochargers and superchargers pressurize the incoming air to effectively
cram more air into a cylinder.
Cool the incoming air - Compressing air raises its temperature. However,
you would like to have the coolest air possible in the cylinder because the
hotter the air is, the less it will expand when combustion takes place.
Therefore, many turbocharged and supercharged cars have an intercooler.
An intercooler is a special radiator through which the compressed air passes
to cool it off before it enters the cylinder.
Let air come in more easily - As a piston moves down in the intake stroke,
air resistance can rob power from the engine. Air resistance can be lessened
dramatically by putting two intake valves in each cylinder. Some newer cars
are also using polished intake manifolds to eliminate air resistance there.
Bigger air filters can also improve air flow.
Let exhaust exit more easily - If air resistance makes it hard for exhaust to
exit a cylinder, it robs the engine of power. Air resistance can be lessened by
adding a second exhaust valve to each cylinder (a car with two intake and two
exhaust valves has four valves per cylinder, which improves performance --
when you hear a car ad tell you the car has four cylinders and 16 valves, what
the ad is saying is that the engine has four valves per cylinder). If the exhaust
pipe is too small or the muffler has a lot of air resistance, this can cause back-
pressure, which has the same effect. High-performance exhaust systems use
headers, big tail pipes and free-flowing mufflers to eliminate back-pressure in
the exhaust system. When you hear that a car has "dual exhaust," the goal is
to improve the flow of exhaust by having two exhaust pipes instead of one.
Make everything lighter - Lightweight parts help the engine perform better.
Each time a piston changes direction, it uses up energy to stop the travel in
one direction and start it in another. The lighter the piston, the less energy it
takes.
Inject the fuel - Fuel injection allows very precise metering of fuel to each
cylinder. This improves performance and fuel economy.
As for the future of the V6, in recent years the disparity between 4-cylinder
and V6 engines has lessened considerably. In order to keep up with the
demand for high gas-mileage and lower emission levels, automakers have
worked diligently to improve the overall performance of V6 engines. Many
current V6 models come close to matching the gas-mileage and emissions
standards of the smaller, 4-cylinder engines. So, with the performance and
efficiency gaps between the two engines lessening, the decision to buy a 4-
cylinder or V6 may just come down to cost. In models that are available with
either type of engine, the 4-cylinder version can run up to $1000 cheaper than
the V6. So, regardless of what kind of performance youre looking to get out of
your car, the 4-cylinder will always be the budget buy.
One final note: Its not a good idea to try to install a V6 engine into a car
model that comes with a standard 4-cylinder. Retrofitting a 4-cylinder car to
handle a V6 engine could cost more than simply buying a new car.
Camber angle
The 1960 Milliken MX1 Camber Car showing a large negative camber.
In cars with double wishbone suspensions, camber angle was usually adjustable, but
in newer with MacPherson strut suspensions, it is normally fixed. While this may
reduce maintenance requirements, if the car is lowered by use of shortened springs,
this changes the camber angle (as described in MacPherson strut) and can lead to
increased tire wear and impaired handling. For this reason, individuals who are
serious about modifying their car for better handling will not only lower the body, but
also modify the mounting point of the top of the struts to the body to allow some
inward/outward (relative to longitudinal centerline the of vehicle) movement for
camber adjustment. Aftermarket plates with slots for strut mounts instead of just
holes are available for most of the commonly modified models of cars.
Off-Road vehicles such as agricultural tractors generally use positive camber. In such
vehicles, the positive camber angle helps to achieve a lower steering effort. Also,
some single-engined general aviation aircraft, such as bush planes amd cropdusters,
have their taildragger gear's main wheels equipped with positive-cambered main
wheels to better handle the deflection of the landing gear, as the aircraft settles on
rough, unpaved airstrips.
Road camber
In roads, an adverse camber refers to any road that tilts on the same side that a
vehicle leans to on a road. The term camber or cant refers to the way in which a road
slopes from its centre. Usually on a right hand bend the road would slope downwards
from left to right, this is known as a crossfall camber or cross slope- the opposite to
an adverse camber. Adverse cambers can occur at road works.
Caster angle
is the caster angle, red line is the pivot line, grey area is the tire. A positive
caster angle is shown with the front of the vehicle being to the left.
A motorcycle's front wheel pivot angle is easily visualized. Choppers sometimes have an
extreme caster angle for aesthetic reasons
Caster angle is the angular displacement from the vertical axis of the
suspension of a steered wheel in a car, bicycle or other vehicle, measured in
the longitudinal direction. It is the angle between the pivot line (in a car - an
imaginary line that runs through the center of the upper ball joint to the center
of the lower ball joint) and vertical. Car racers sometimes adjust caster angle
to optimize their car's handling characteristics in particular driving situations.
The pivot points of the steering are angled such that a line drawn through
them intersects the road surface slightly ahead of the contact point of the
wheel. The purpose of this is to provide a degree of self-centering for the
steering - the wheel casters around so as to trail behind the axis of steering.
This makes a car easier to drive and improves its straight line stability
(reducing its tendency to wander). Excessive caster angle will make the
steering heavier and less responsive, although, in racing, large caster angles
are used to improve camber gain in cornering. Caster angles over 10 degrees
with radial tires are common. Power steering is usually necessary to
overcome the jacking effect from the high caster angle.
The steering axis (the dotted line in the diagram above) does not have to pass
through the center of the wheel, so the caster can be set independently of the
mechanical trail, which is the distance between where the steering axis hits
the ground, in side view, and the point directly below the axle. The interaction
between caster angle and trail is complex, but roughly speaking they both aid
steering, caster tends to add damping, while trail adds 'feel', and returnability.
In the extreme case of the shopping trolley (shopping cart in the US) wheel,
the system is undamped but stable, as the wheel oscillates around the
'correct' path. The shopping trolley/cart setup has a great deal of trail, but no
caster. Complicating this still further is that the lateral forces at the tire do not
act at the center of the contact patch, but at a distance behind the nominal
contact patch. This distance is called the pneumatic trail and varies with
speed, load, steer angle, surface, tire type, tire pressure and time. A good
starting point for this is 30 mm behind the nominal contact patch.
Kingpin & Suspension (automotive part)
.
Suspension, showing tie rod, steering arm, king pin (axis) ball joints
The kingpin is the main pivot in the steering mechanism of a car or other
vehicle. Originally this was literally a steel pin on which the moveable,
steerable wheel was mounted to the suspension. Free to rotate on a single
axis, it limited the degrees of freedom of motion of the rest of the front
suspension. When its bearings were replaced starting in the 1950s by ball
joints, more complicated suspension designs became available to designers.
It is usually made of metal.
No longer restricted to moving like a pin, the part was not necessarily still
called a king pin; but in newer designs, the term may be used not for an actual
pin but the axis around which the steered wheels pivot.
The double wishbone suspension can also be referred to as double 'A' arms,
and short long arm (SLA) suspension if the upper and lower arms are of
unequal length.
SLAs are very common on front suspensions for medium to large cars such
as the Honda Accord, Volkswagen Passat, or Chrysler 300, pickups, SUVs,
and are very common on sports cars and racing cars.
The suspension consists of a pair of upper and lower lateral arms. The upper
arm is usually shorter to induce negative camber as the suspension jounces
(rises). When the vehicle is in a turn, body roll results in positive camber gain
on the outside wheel. The outside wheel also jounces and gains negative
camber due to the shorter upper arm. The suspension designer attempts to
balance these two effects to cancel out and keep the tire perpendicular to the
ground. This is especially important for the outer tire because of the weight
transfer to this tire during a turn.
Between the outboard end of the arms is a knuckle with a spindle (the
kingpin), hub, or upright which carries the wheel bearing and wheel. Knuckles
with an integral spindle usually do not allow the wheel to be driven. A bolt on
hub design is commonly used if the wheel is to be driven.
In order to resist fore-aft loads such as acceleration and braking, the arms
need two bushings or ball joints at the body.
At the knuckle end, single ball joints are typically used, in which case the
steering loads have to be taken via a steering arm, and the wishbones look A-
or L-shaped. An L-shaped arm is generally preferred on passenger vehicles
because it allows a better compromise of handling and comfort to be tuned in.
The bushing in line with the wheel can be kept relatively stiff to effectively
handle cornering loads while the off-line joint can be softer to allow the wheel
to recess under fore aft impact loads. For a rear suspension, a pair of joints
can be used at both ends of the arm, making them more H-shaped in plan
view.
In elevation view, the suspension is a 4-bar link, and it is easy to work out the
camber gain (see camber angle) and other parameters for a given set of
bushing or ball joint locations.
The disadvantage is that it is slightly more complex than other systems like a
MacPherson strut.
Prior to the dominance of front wheel drive in the 1980s, many everyday cars
used double wishbone front suspension systems, or a variation on it. Since
that time, the MacPherson strut has become almost ubiquitous, as it is simpler
and cheaper to manufacture. In most cases, a MacPherson strut requires less
space to engineer into a chassis design, and in front wheel drive layouts, can
allow for more room in the engine bay. A good example of this is observed in
the Honda Civic, which changed its front suspension design from a double
wishbone design, to a MacPherson strut design after the year 2000 model.
The change was made to lower costs, as well as allow more engine bay room
for the newly introduced Honda K-series engine.