How Car Engines Work ( Internal Combustion )

The principle behind any reciprocating internal combustion engine: If you put a tiny amount of high-energy fuel (like gasoline) in a small, enclosed space and ignite it, an incredible amount of energy is released in the form of expanding gas. You can use that energy to propel a potato 500 feet. In this case, the energy is translated into potato motion. You can also use it for more interesting purposes. For example, if you can create a cycle that allows you to set off explosions like this hundreds of times per minute, and if you can harness that energy in a useful way, what you have is the core of a car engine!

Almost all cars currently use what is called a four-stroke combustion cycle to convert gasoline into motion. The four-stroke approach is also known as the Otto cycle, in honor of Nikolaus Otto, who invented it in 1867. The four strokes are illustrated in Figure 1. They are:

Intake stroke

Compression stroke

Combustion stroke

Exhaust stroke

You can see in the figure that a device called a piston replaces the potato in the potato cannon. The piston is connected to the crankshaft by a connecting rod. As the crankshaft revolves, it has the effect of "resetting the cannon." Here's what happens as the engine goes through its cycle:

The piston starts at the top, the intake valve opens, and the piston moves down to let the engine take in a cylinder-full of air and gasoline. This is the intake stroke. Only the tiniest drop of gasoline needs to be mixed into the air for this to work. (Part 1 of the figure)

Then the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture. Compression makes the explosion more powerful. (Part 2 of the figure)

When the piston reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plug emits a spark to ignite the gasoline. The gasoline charge in the cylinder explodes, driving the piston down. (Part 3 of the figure)

Once the piston hits the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust valve opens and the exhaust leaves the cylinder to go out the tailpipe. (Part 4 of the figure)

Now the engine is ready for the next cycle, so it intakes another charge of air and gas.

Notice that the motion that comes out of an internal combustion engine is rotational, while the motion produced by a potato cannon is linear (straight line). In an engine the linear motion of the pistons is converted into rotational motion by the crankshaft. The rotational motion is nice because we plan to turn (rotate) the car's wheels with it anyway.

Now let's look at all the parts that work together to make this happen, starting with the cylinders.

Basic Engine Parts

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).

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.

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

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.

Engine Cooling, Air-intake and Starting Systems

he cooling system in most cars consists of the radiator and water pump. Water circulates through passages around the cylinders and then travels through the radiator to cool it off. In a few cars (most notably Volkswagen Beetles), as well as most motorcycles and lawn mowers, the engine is air-cooled instead (You can tell an air-cooled engine by the fins adorning the outside of each cylinder to help dissipate heat.). Air-cooling makes the engine lighter but hotter, generally decreasing engine life and overall performance

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.

ncreasing your engine's performance is great, but what exactly happens when you turn the key to start it? The starting system consists of an electric starter motor and a starter solenoid. When you turn the ignition key, the starter motor spins the engine a few revolutions so that the combustion process can start. It takes a powerful motor to spin a cold engine. The starter motor must overcome:

All of the internal friction caused by the piston rings

The compression pressure of any cylinder(s) that happens to be in the compression stroke

The energy needed to open and close valves with the camshaft

All of the "other" things directly attached to the engine, like the water pump, oil pump, alternator, etc.

Because so much energy is needed and because a car uses a 12-volt electrical system, hundreds of amps of electricity must flow into the starter motor. The starter solenoid is essentially a large electronic switch that can handle that much current. When you turn the ignition key, it activates the solenoid to power the motor.

Black Smoke

Black smoke is caused by too much fuel being processed inside your car's engine and then released from the tailpipe of your car. Malfunctions in fuel delivery or internal system leaks will cause black smoke to come from the tailpipe. Before fuel injection became available in automobiles in the mid 1980's, the carburetor was the main fuel and air mixer in most vehicles. A carburetor was a simple device that supplied the engine with proper fuel to air mixtures. Carburetors performed two operations 1. meter air flow 2. deliver the correct amount of fuel to air mixture. This mix could be kept even during the wide range of extra factors associated with an engine such as high temperature, cold starting, hot starting, idling and acceleration.

The primary difference between a carburetor and a fuel injection system is that the fuel injection system atomizes fuel by pushing it through a small nozzle under pressure, while a carburetor utilizes vacuum created by air flow into the intake manifold. Airflow in an injection engine is controlled by the throttle body; fuel is distributed directly in each cylinder. This creates better fuel control, lower emissions and faster acceleration. The process of measuring the amount of fuel a fuel injector is dispersing is determined by the ECM (engine control module). The fuel injection system has several parts: the mass airflow sensor or map sensor, throttle body, throttle position sensor, idle control valve, fuel pump, fuel pressure regulator, fuel lines, and oxygen sensors.

Cause of Black Smoke

Black smoke is caused when the mix of fuel and air becomes un-balanced. Normal mixture is 14.5 parts air to1 part fuel. When the fuel to air mixtures change because of a malfunction the mixture can go as high as 14.5 to 2 or 3, two to three times the proper amount. The black smoke is the excess fuel generated from the rich mixture and can be cause by one of the following:

Plugged Air Filter

Shorted or stuck fuel injector

Failed fuel pressure regulator

Vacuum leak

Shorted ECM Sensor

How a Serpentine Belt Tensioner Works?

A multi rib belt tensioner is designed to automatically hold a predetermined amount of tension on a drive belt while the engine is in operation. If the drive belt is loose the tensioner has failed or the wrong size belt has been installed. The tensioner should be about half way through its travel to hold proper tension, most have a gauge stamped on them to determine belt stretch for replacement On rare occasions an engine can buck or jerk at start up and can suddenly cause a belt to jump out of place. Other problems can occur if the belt itself snaps this can be due to fatigue of the belt. The most common reason for the belt to snap is age coupled with the natural wear and tear of the belt. Before belt tensioners there was a simple adjustment bolt that was used to set the tension on the belt. The disadvantage to this set up is once the belt stretches slightly it would have to be re-adjusted. If re-adjustment is not performed the belt can create a loud screeching noise. A belt tensioner consists of a main body, swing arm, tension spring, pulley and pulley bearing.