Whenever a car needs repairs, it may feel like the servicemen are speaking Finnish to the inexperienced. Through the ambiguous nature of the car, it is much easier to trust the repairmen with the car than to become acquainted with the inner workings of a car.
It is time to return to childhood and develop a curiosity that cannot be sated. The more that is known about a car by the owner, the better it can be taken care of.
Most cars are gasoline cars, meaning they transform gasoline into energy that is used to perform motion. An internal combustion engine is an engine that burns the gasoline as part of the process to create this energy.
In the past, there have also been external combustion engines. For example, the steam engine in steam boats and trains burned fuel outside the engine to create steam that forced the engine to move.
However, internal combustion has proven to be the better of the two due to its higher mileage and efficiency. In addition the internal combustion engines are much smaller than external engines.
These advantages have made internal combustion engines much more common today. The functioning main idea in an internal engine is to start by putting a little high-energy fuel, such as gasoline, into a small space and lighting it.
The burning gas will expand creating a lot of pressure as it pushes against the small container it is in. This pressure creates a lot of energy.
Studies believe that this energy could fling a potato 500 feet. This process creates a humongous amount of energy.
In an internal combustion engine, the creation of pressure from burning gas is incorporated into a cycle that occurs repeatedly. In fact, this process happens hundreds of times every minute a car is running.
For the most part, cars depend on a four-stroke combustion cycle to create energy. This cycle is also known as the Otto cycle to remember the inventor of this process, Nikolaus Otto.
In 1867, he created the four strokes which are the intake stroke, compression stroke, combustion stroke, and exhaust stroke. During the intake stroke the piston is positioned at the very top.
The intake valves open and the piston falls down to allow the engine to be filled with one cylinder worth of air and gasoline. It is important that a little air enters the chamber for the gasoline to burn.
Then, the piston moves back up to compress the gas and air. This helps the ending pressure, and therefore energy to be greater.
With the proper pressure applied, the spark plug lights to gasoline causing it to explode and the piston to fall back down. As the piston impacts the bottom of its stroke the exhaust valve is opens to allow exhaust to exit through the tailpipe.
Then, the cycle starts over. There are many vital parts to this process.
The most central piece to this process is the cylinder. The cylinder contains the piston and allows it to move up and down.
Normal cars usually have four to eight cylinders. These cylinders can be organized in three different ways.
They are in-line, V, or flat. The flat arrangement can also be known as a horizontally opposed or a boxer configuration.
Each of these arrangements performs specific functions better. Various cars have different arrangements to meet different needs.
Another vital part of the engine is the spark plug. The spark plug is the part that initiates the process through lighting the gasoline at the right time.
In addition, the piston is also a very vital part to the engine and must function correctly. The piston is a piece of metal shaped similarly to the cylinder and moves up and down within the cylinder.
The valves also let the gas and air into the cylinder at the right times. Throughout the compression and combustion stokes, the valves are closed to maximize the pressure within the chamber.
Other vital parts of the engine are the piston rings, connecting rod, crankshaft, and sump. The sump is the part that encompasses the crankshaft and contains the oil to keep the process running smoothly.
The engine is not as hard to understand as many people think. Yet the understanding of it can maximize the opportunity for a car to be taken care of properly.
Author Resource:-
Tom Selwick has worked in a body shop for the last 14 years and written hundreds of articles about collision repair and orem auto body repair.
Contact Info:
Tom Selwick
TomSelwick09@gmail.com
http://www.AdamsG3CollisionRepair.com
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