How Does a Car Motor Engine Work?

[DMSG]

Introduction

 

Almost all car motors work on the principle of a four-stroke combustion sequence. The sequence is intake, compression, ignition and release. All these strokes happen one after another to create power that moves the car. The parts needed to make this work are a piston, intake and outtake valves, a spark plug and a rod that connects to the crankshaft so the energy created can move the car. Most car motors need at least four cylinders to generate enough power to move the car at an acceptable rate of speed, and some cars have six, eight, 10 or even 12 cylinders.

 

Intake

At the beginning of the engine's process of generating power, the piston lowers to the bottom of the cylinder in the motor where it is housed, and a mixture of fuel and air is injected into the cylinder. This mixture is mostly air, since only a small amount of fuel is needed to generate the power needed to move the car. Almost all cars manufactured today use a fuel injector that controls the mixture of fuel and air using sensors and a computer.

Compression

Next, the piston moves up and there is a compression phase where the space for the fuel and the air mixture is decreased by the movement of the piston head toward the top of the cylinder. The intensity of the explosion depends on the amount of pressure in this space, so the air flow out of the cylinder is prevented by a seal placed on the top of the cylinder.

Ignition

The object that ignites the mixture of fuel and air is the spark plug. The spark plug is placed at the top of the piston's cycle in the cylinder, and it generates a spark to ignite the mixture. The spark must be timed correctly with the apex of the piston's motion, or the engine will not function at its optimum level, since the explosion sends the piston down toward the bottom of the cylinder and moves the crankshaft, which propels the car forward.

 

Release

At the finish of the downward stroke of the piston, there is an opening provided by an exhaust valve that exudes the waste gas created by the ignition of the fuel and air. After the gas leaves the piston cylinder, it is sent to the catalytic converter, which reduces the amount of pollutants before it makes the final exit from the tailpipe.

Edited December 5, 2013 by DMSG