How Does an Automobile Engine Work?
Well, it works something like this, when you turn the key, electricity is allowed to flow to the starter, which then turns the flywheel. Next, the flywheel is attached to the crankshaft so the crankshaft is turned. There are things called cylinders and they are basically just hollow tubes with pistons inside them. Attached to the pistons and the crankshaft are metal bars called connecting rods. At the same time that the starter is turning, an electric flow is going through the distributor cap and gong through the spark wires that are attached to the spark plugs. The spark plug is called that because it plugs a hole in the header (top of cylinder) and sparks to ignite the vapor fuel that is injected into the cylinder. When the fuel is ignited, it explodes forcing the piston down and turning the crankshaft, which turns the flywheel and then is off to the transmission. Once you get the vehicle running, the engine does not need to have the starter running, trying to turn it over. The jet e
What is that sound we hear and the propulsion we feel when the accelerator is depressed? We know gasoline is flammable. It burns. And we know gasoline creates heat energy when it ignites. Heat created by the igniting gasoline and air mixture is what gives us the power necessary to propel our Mustangs. With all of this in mind, let s talk about internal combustion engines. Internal combustion means we burn fuel and air inside the engine to create heat and generate the power necessary to propel a car. External combustion, for example, is similar to that found with a steam engine. Fuel is burnt outside of the engine in a boiler to heat water that becomes steam and heat energy. With both internal and external combustion engines, heat energy (expansion) exerts force on a piston and connecting rod tied to a crankshaft to make rotary motion. In physics class, we call this turning linear motion into rotary motion. Okay, so what does all of this linear and rotary stuff mean? Think about what yo
Most cars on the road today are powered by an internal combustion engine. This engine contains a number of hollow chambers, called cylinders, and each chamber has a large metal plug, a piston, that moves up and down in its cylinder. Gasoline and air mix in the cylinder. As a piston moves upward in its cylinder, it compresses the
