Everything You Should Know About A Car Engine The engine usually looks like a giant jumble of wires, tubes and metal, occupying the space under the hood of a car. Everything under the hood that seems to be impossible to understand is the reason why your vehicle is running. In the era of continuously evolving technology, car engines come in a variety having different features, but with the same purpose.

How Do Car Engines Work? The continuously developing technology has simplified the ways for us to turn up a car. In today’s market, there are cars available that can be turned on remotely from a defined distance. Numerous drivers spare a thought for all technological wizardry taking place beneath the bonnet as an immensely impressive feat of engineering. Technically speaking, engines rely on internal combustion, which refers to small and controlled explosions that generate power. The reason behind this controlled explosion is the ignition of the air-fuel mixture in the cylinder which takes place thousands of times a minute. The continuous repetition of this process helps the car to move.

In most of the automotive vehicles, the engine is powered by the action of four- strokes. These four-strokes can be described as: 1. Intake As the pistons move up/down with the crankshaft, the air- fuel mixture reaches to the valves mounted on camshaft. The timing belt mounted on both crankshaft and camshaft, causes the valves to open and release the air-fuel mixture. This is known as Intake- Stroke.

2. Compression The upward movement of piston forces the air-fuel mixture to move in a tight space leading to the Compression- Stroke.

3. Combustion As the fuel gets compressed in the tight space, a spark plug is used to create a spark which ignites the air-fuel mixture causing an explosion. This explosion is responsible for the downward movement of the piston.

4. Exhaust As the piston reaches its Bottom Dead Center, it causes the opening of exhaust valves. Again with the upward movement of piston, the burned air-fuel mixture is expelled from the combustion chamber.

Types of Automotive Engines  Depending on the Engine Layouts, automotive engines can be classified as: 1. Straight In a straight engine, all the cylinders are arranged systematically in a parallel line from front to back. This system of arrangement allows to accommodate more cylinders, and are commonly observed in powerful saloon cars like BMW and Mercedes.

2. Inline This type of layout is seen where the cylinders are arranged side-by-side in an upright position across the engine bay, perpendicular to the car. This set of arrangement contributes to a small and compact engine having other components like radiator, battery, cooling system fitted outside. Inline engines are most widely used and found in the majority of hatchbacks and family cars.

3. V As the name suggests, the cylinders are mounted on their side at a 60°, having two rows facing outwards, connected by a crankshaft at the base of the V shape. This type of arrangement is found in supercars as it allows to squeeze a higher number of cylinders onto a V-style engine.

4. Flat A flat engine layout is observed in vehicles where cylinders are mounted horizontally, with two rows facing outwards. This type of arrangement is not very common due to its low-centre-of gravity within the engine bay. The most prominent example of a flat engine is Porsche, which used a flat-six engine in their legendary 911 sports car.

 Depending on Engine Cylinder Configurations, automotive engines can be classified as: 1. Twin-Cylinder Twin-Cylinder engines are known to offer a low power output and capacity, contributing to its decline in the automotive market. However, some manufacturers like Fiat are using turbochargers like Fiat TwinAir to make small and eco-friendly twin cylinder engines.

2. Three-Cylinder Three-Cylinder engines are used on small cars, and they produce a distinctive burbling noise and are known for their shuddering vibration, due to the odd number of cylinders affecting the engine’s balance.

3. Four-Cylinder This type of arrangement is found on a vast majority of small to mid- range cars, and are almost set up in an inline layout. Thus, to add a significant amount of power to a four-cylinder engine, the automakers came up with the idea of introducing a turbocharger.

4. Five-Cylinder Having the odd number of cylinders, this type of arrangement is seen very rarely and suffer a similar vibration disturbance to that of a three-cylinder engine. Volvo is the most significant example that uses a five-cylinder engine.

5. Six-Cylinder Six-Cylinder engines are found on high-end performance and sports cars and are commonly set up in a V or straight engine layout. After the introduction of turbochargers, six-cylinder engines have gained their name among the world’s most powerful engines.

6. Eight+ Cylinders Cars fitted with Eight+ cylinders generally fall into the supercar bracket, given their massive capacity and power output. Some of the common examples of this type of set up are V8, V10 or V12 engines which boast more than eight cylinders.

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