Whats in your car

1
Whats in your car?

• Engines of interest
• By Wayne Chang
• March 14, 2002

2
What goes on in the engine

• Four-stroke combustion cycle
• a.k.a. The Otto Cycle
• - Intake
• - Compression
• - Combustion
• - Exhaust
• Two-stroke combustion cycle

3
Parts of an engine

• Cylinders
• Spark Plugs
• Valves
• Pistons and Piston Rings
• Combustion chamber
• Connecting rod and crankshaft
• Sump

4
Cylinders

• Can be arranged in 3 basic configurations
• Inline bank (all cylinders lined up)
• V bank (cylinders separated by an angle)
• Flat bank (a.k.a. horizontally opposed or boxer)
• Can have varying number of cylinders
• Most USA-made cars have 4, 6, or 8 cylinders
• European cars also have 3 and 5 cylinders

5
Cylinders

• The most common configurations are
• inline-4
• inline-6
• V6
• V8
• flat-4
• flat-6

6
Other parts of the engine

• Spark plug ignites air/fuel mixture
• Valves control intake/exhaust of gases
• Pistons move in the cylinders, while piston rings
  maintain a seal between chambers.
• Combustion in the combustion chamber
• Connecting rod and crankshaft link piston to
  driveshaft and provides power
• Sump holds oil to lubricate crankshaft

7
Engine Compartment Specifics

• The pistons in the cylinders move up and down,
  displacing a volume.
• This displacement is measured in liters (L) or
  cubic centimeters (CCs).
• For instance, a 6-cylinder inline engine with a
  displacement of 0.5 liter per cylinder leads to
  an engine that is a 3.0L inline-6.

8
Engine Compartment Specifics

• The valve train consists of the valves and a
  mechanism that opens and closes them.
• This mechanism is the camshaft, which is located
  above the cylinder bank.
• Its location above the cylinders lead to the
  term, Single OverHead Camshaft (SOHC)
• High performance cars have two camshafts per
  bank, hence, Dual OverHead Camshaft (DOHC)

9
Other types of engines

• Pushrod engine
• Diesel engine
• Rotary engine
• Stirling engine
• Gas Turbine engine

10
Other types of engines

• Pushrod engine
• Camshaft located between V bank
• Diesel engine
• different compression method
• higher compression ratios
• Rotary engines
• a.k.a. Wankel rotary engine

11
Other types of engines

• Stirling engine
• fixed amount of gas inside engine
• external heat source, no combustion
• Gas Turbine engine
• commonly found in aircraft
• large power to weight ratio

12
References

• How Stuff Works
• http//www.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm
• AllPar
• http//www.allpar.com/mopar/turbine.html
• Chrysler Turbine Car
• http//www.aardvark.co.nz/pjet/chrysler.shtml
• Car and Driver
• http//www.caranddriver.com/

13
Additional Interest

• 24-421
• Internal Combustion Engines
• offered in the fall, under the Mechanical
  Engineering Department
• search for Chrysler Jet Car
• Questions?