INSTITUTO TECNICO HINO

2nd UNIT “V”

Piston

These are the Components of a typical, four stroke cycle, DOHC piston engine. (E) Exhaust
camshaft, (I) Intake camshaft, (S) Spark plug, (V) Valves, (P) Piston, (R) Connecting rod, (C)
Crankshaft, (W) Water jacket for coolant flow.

A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, pumps and gas compressors. It is located in a

cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings. In an engine, its purpose is to transfer force from
expanding gas in the cylinder to the crankshaft via a piston rod and/or connecting rod. In a pump,
the function is reversed and force is transferred from the crankshaft to the piston for the purpose
of compressing or ejecting the fluid in the cylinder. In some engines, the piston also acts as a valve
by covering and uncovering ports in the cylinder wall.

Piston engines

Internal combustion engines

There are two ways that an internal combustion piston engine can transform combustion into
motive power: the two-stroke cycle and the four-stroke cycle. A single-cylinder two-stroke engine
produces power every crankshaft revolution, while a single-cylinder four-stroke engine produces
power once every two revolutions. Older designs of small two-stroke engines produced more
pollution than four-stroke engines. However, modern two-stroke designs, like the Vespa ET2
Injection utilise fuel-injection and are as clean as four-strokes. Large diesel two-stroke engines, as
used in ships and locomotives, have always used fuel-injection and produce low emissions. One of
the biggest internal combustion engines in the world, the Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C is a two-stroke;
it is bigger than most two-storey houses, has pistons nearly 1 metre in diameter and is one of the
most efficient mobile engines in existence. In theory, a four-stroke engine has to be larger than a
two-stroke engine to produce an equivalent amount of power. Two-stroke engines are becoming
less common in developed countries these days, mainly due to manufacturer reluctance to invest
in reducing two-stroke emissions. Traditionally, two-stroke engines were reputed to need more
maintenance (despite exceptions like the Ricardo Dolphin engine, and the Twingle engines of the
Trojan car and the Puch 250 motorcycle). Even though the simplest two-stroke engines have fewer
moving parts, they could wear out faster than four-stroke engines. However fuel-injected two-
strokes achieve better engine lubrication, and cooling and reliability should improve considerably.

Gallery

CAD drawing of crankshaft

A piston and its Large pistons (over 0.5 mSimplified piston
and pistons.
connecting rod. incl. connecting rod). animation.
Steam engines

Steam engines are usually double-acting (i.e. steam pressure acts alternately on each side of the
piston) and the admission and release of steam is controlled by slide valves, piston valves or
poppet valves.

Drawbacks

Since it is a main reciprocating part of engine and hence it create the problems of unbalancing due
to its inertia. Due to the friction between wall of the cylinder and piston rings its life becomes
short and it generates the unpleasant sound due reciprocating mechanism. To transmit the energy
of reciprocating piston, it is connected to a connecting rod and crank mechanism and due to these
part there occurs mechanical loss. The motion of the crank shaft is not smooth, since energy
supplied by the piston is not continuous and it is impulsive in nature. To supply the fuel into the
cylinder there is need of the valves and valve mechanism and during opening and closing and the
valve mechanical noise occurs also mechanical vibration.

Piston ring
Spring-loaded piston rings.

A pair of piston rings mounted on a 47mm two-stroke cycle scooter piston.

A piston ring is an open-ended ring that fits into a groove on the outer diameter of a piston in a
reciprocating engine such as an internal combustion engine or steam engine.

The three main functions of piston rings in reciprocating engines are:

1. Sealing the combustion/expansion chamber.

2. Supporting heat transfer from the piston to the cylinder wall.

3. Regulating engine oil consumption.

The gap in the piston ring compresses to a few thousandths of an inch when inside the cylinder
bore.

Automotive

Most automotive pistons have three rings: The top two while also controlling oil are primarily for
compression sealing (compression rings); the lower ring is for controlling the supply of oil to the
liner which lubricates the piston skirt and the compression rings (oil control rings). Typical
compression ring designs will have an essentially rectangular cross section or a keystone cross
section. The periphery will then have either a barrel profile (top compression rings) or a taper
napier form (second compression rings). There are some taper faced top rings and on some old
engines simple plain faced rings were used.
Oil control rings typically are of three types. Single piece cast iron, helical spring backed cast iron
or steel, multipiece steel. The spring backed oil rings and the cast iron oil rings have essentially the
same range of peripheral forms which consist of two scraping lands of various detailed form. The
multipiece oil control rings usually consist of two rails or segments (these are thin steel rings) with
a spacer expander spring which keeps the two rails apart and provides the radial load.

Wear due to piston side-load

Piston rings are subject to wear as they move up and down the cylinder bore. To minimize this,
they are made of wear-resistant materials, such as cast iron and steel, and coated or treated to
enhance the wear resistance. Two-stroke port design is critical to ring life. Newer modern
motorcycle manufacturers have many single function but serrated ports to retain the ring.
Typically, top ring and oil control rings will be coated with Chromium, or Nitrided-possibly plasma
sprayed or have a PVD (physical vapour deposit) ceramic coating. For enhanced scuff resistance
and further improved wear, most modern diesel engines have top rings coated with a modified
chromium coating known as CKS, a patent coating from Goetze. The lower oil control ring is
designed to leave a lubricating oil film, a few micrometres thick on the bore, as the piston
descends. Three piece oil rings, i.e. with two rails and one spacer, are used for four-stroke gasoline
engines.

Fitting new piston rings

When fitting new piston rings, the end gap is a crucial measurement. In order that a ring may be
fitted into the "grooves" of the piston, it is not continuous but is broken at one point on its
circumference. The ring gap may be checked by putting the ring into the bore/liner (squared to
bore) and measuring with a feeler gauge. End gap should be within recommended limits for size of
bore and intended "load" of engine. Metals expand with a rise in temperature, so too small a gap
may result in overlapping or bending when used under hot running conditions (racing, heavy
loads, towing), and even at normal temperatures, a small ring gap may lead to ring gap closure,
ring breakage, bore damage and possible seizure of the piston. Too large a gap may give
unacceptable compression and levels of blow-by gasses or oil consumption. When being measured
in a used bore it may indicate excessive bore wear or ring wear.(Radial wear on ring face reduces
thickness of used/worn ring (face wear in bore) essentially decreasing face circumference of ring
and thereby increasing size of ring end gap.)

When fitting new rings to a used engine, special "ridge dodger" rings are sometimes used for the
top compression ring, to improve compression and oil consumption without reboring the cylinder.
These have a small step of iron removed from the top section to avoid making contact with any
wear ridge at the top of the cylinder, which could break a conventional ring. Generally, these are
not recommended as they are probably not required and may give inferior oil consumption. A
more acceptable method is to remove the wear ridge with a "ridge reamer" tool before lightly
honing the bore to accept new rings.

What is a piston ring?

Located between the

cylinder and the
Function1.Compression gas sealing

Piston rings maintain gas compression between the piston and the cylinder wall.

Piston rings seal the cylinder so that combustion gas

generated at the time of ignition does not leak into the
opening between the piston and the cylinder. If
combustion gas leaks, the engine cannot output sufficient
power, increasing fuel consumption?not good both in
terms of economy and the environment.

Function2.Lubricating oil film control

Piston rings usually make necessary minimum lubricating oil film for preventing scuffing.

Since gas ignition is repeated

many times, the piston goes up
and down inside the engine at a
rate of several thousand times
per minute. A small amount of
oil is poured over the pistons so
they move smoothly, with little
friction between metal and
metal. Piston rings adjust the
amount of oil.

Figure 2. Lubrication oil

Function3.Heat transfer

Piston rings transfer heat from the piston crown to the cylinder.

When gas ignition takes place,

Function4.Support piston in the cylinder

Piston rings prevent the piston from knocking on the cylinder wall.

If the piston inclines inside the

cylinder, it may touch inside
parts and cause engine failure as
well. Piston rings support pistons
to allow for smooth up and
down motion.

Figure 4.Receiving force for piston ring

With the recent demands for fuel efficiency, higher performance, and lighter weight engines,
there is a growing trend for improving cooling performance, reducing clearance between
cylinders, and using aluminum engine blocks. Consequently, TPR is striving to improve
adherence to the aluminum block by applying centrifugal casting method to make liners thinner,
and thereby achieve lower costs.

Teipi Industries Co., Ltd.

Cast-in cylinder liner

[Features]
We can achieve low-cost through making As-cast spiny
type. (Centrifugal casting method)It is superior in adhesion
with aluminum by special As-cast spiny type.

[Applications]
Various cars with aluminum engines

Thin wall dry liner

 [Features]
The relatively small cylinder bore bitch makes it possible to
design the engine smaller and lighter.

[Applications]
Diesel engines for automobiles and motor sports

Nitriding cylinder liner

[Features]
This cylinder liner has a stiffened nitride layer on the inner
surface, where sliding friction occurs, with improved wear-
resistance and anti-galling properties.

[Applications]
Diesel engines for automobiles and others

Phosphate coating cylinder liner

[Features]
There are specifications for both dry and wet types which
have excellent anti-galling properties.

[Applications]
Diesel engines for automobiles

Wet liner

[Features]
Outer chrome plating is applied to prevent cavitation.

[Applications]
Diesel engines for automóviles

Connecting rod
piston (top) and connecting rod from typical automotive engine (scale is in centimetres)

In a reciprocating piston engine, the connecting rod or conrod connects the piston to the crank or
crankshaft. The connecting rod was invented sometime between 1174 and 1200 when a Muslim
inventor, engineer and craftsman named al-Jazari built five machines to pump water for the kings
of the Turkish Artuqid dynasty — one of which incorporated the connecting rod. Transferring
rotary motion to reciprocating motion was made possible by connecting the crankshaft to the
connecting rod, which was described in the "Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices".
The double-acting reciprocating piston pump was the first machine to offer automatic motion, but
its mechanisms and others such as the cam, would also help intitiate the Industrial Revolution.

Crankshaft

The crankshaft, sometimes casually abbreviated to crank, is the part of an engine which translates
reciprocating linear piston motion into rotation. To convert the reciprocating motion into rotation,
the crankshaft has "crank throws" or "crankpins", additional bearing surfaces whose axis is offset
from that of the crank, to which the "big ends" of the connecting rods from each cylinder attach.

It typically connects to a flywheel, to reduce the pulsation characteristic of the four-stroke cycle,
and sometimes a torsional or vibrational damper at the opposite end, to reduce the torsion
vibrations often caused along the length of the crankshaft by the cylinders farthest from the
output end acting on the torsional elasticity of the metal.

Design
Large engines are usually multicylinder to reduce pulsations from individual firing strokes, with
more than one piston attached to a complex crankshaft. Many small engines, such as those found
in mopeds or garden machinery, are single cylinder and use only a single piston, simplifying
crankshaft design. This engine can also be built with no riveted seam.

Bearings

The crankshaft has a linear axis about which it rotates, typically with several bearing journals riding
on replaceable bearings (the main bearings) held in the engine block. As the crankshaft undergoes
a great deal of sideways load from each cylinder in a multicylinder engine, it must be supported by
several such bearings, not just one at each end. This was a factor in the rise of V8 engines, with
their shorter crankshafts, in preference to straight-8 engines. The long crankshafts of the latter
suffered from an unacceptable amount of flex when engine designers began using higher
compression ratios and higher rotational speeds. High performance engines often have more main
bearings than their lower performance cousins for this reason.

Piston stroke

The distance the axis of the crank throws from the axis of the crankshaft determines the piston
stroke measurement, and thus engine displacement. A common way to increase the low-speed
torque of an engine is to increase the stroke. This also increases the reciprocating vibration,
however, limiting the high speed capability of the engine. In compensation, it improves the low
speed operation of the engine, as the longer intake stroke through smaller valve(s) results in
greater turbulence and mixing of the intake charge. For this reason, even such high speed
production engines as current Honda engines are classified as "under square" or long-stroke, in
that the stroke is longer than the diameter of the cylinder bore.

Engine configuration

The configuration and number of pistons in relation to each other and the crank leads to straight,
V or flat engines. The same basic engine block can be used with different crankshafts, however, to
alter the firing order; for instance, the 90 degree V6 engine configuration, in older days sometimes
derived by using six cylinders of a V8 engine with what is basically a shortened version of the V8
crankshaft, produces an engine with an inherent pulsation in the power flow due to the "missing"
two cylinders. The same engine, however, can be made to provide evenly spaced power pulses by
using a crankshaft with an individual crank throw for each cylinder, spaced so that the pistons are
actually phased 120 degrees apart, as in the GM 3800 engine. While production V8 engines use
four crank throws spaced 90 degrees apart, high-performance V8 engines often use a "flat"
crankshaft with throws spaced 180 degrees apart. The difference can be heard as the flat-plane
crankshafts result in the engine having a smoother, higher-pitched sound than cross-plane (for
example, IRL IndyCar Series compared to NASCAR Nextel Cup, or a Ferrari 355 compared to a
Chevrolet Corvette). See the main article on crossplane crankshafts.

Engine balance

For some engines it is necessary to provide counterweights for the reciprocating mass of each
piston and connecting rod to improve engine balance. These are typically cast as part of the
crankshaft but, occasionally, are bolt-on pieces. While counter weights add a considerable amount
of weight to the crankshaft it provides a smoother running engine and allows higher RPMs to be
reached.

Rotary engines

Many early aircraft engines (and a few in other applications) had the crankshaft fixed to the
airframe and instead the cylinders rotated, known as a rotary engine design. Rotary engines such
as the Wankel engine are referred to as pistonless rotary engines.

In the Wankel engine, also called a rotary engine, the rotors drive the eccentric shaft, which could
be considered the equivalent of the crankshaft in a piston engine.

Construction

Continental engine marine crankshafts, 1942

Crankshafts can be monolithic (made in a single piece) or assembled from several pieces.
Monolithic crankshafts are most common, but some smaller and larger engines use assembled
crankshafts.

Forging and casting

Crankshafts can be forged from a steel bar usually through roll forging or cast in ductile steel.
Today more and more manufacturers tend to favor the use of forged crankshafts due to their
lighter weight, more compact dimensions and better inherent dampening. With forged
crankshafts, vanadium microalloyed steels are mostly used as these steels can be air cooled after
reaching high strengths without additional heat treatment, with exception to the surface
hardening of the bearing surfaces. The low alloy content also makes the material cheaper than
high alloy steels. Carbon steels are also used, but these require additional heat treatment to reach
the desired properties. Iron crankshafts are today mostly found in cheaper production engines
(such as those found in the Ford Focus diesel engines) where the loads are lower. Some engines
also use cast iron crankshafts for low output versions while the more expensive high output
version use forged steel.

Machining

Crankshafts can also be machined out of a billet, often using a bar of high quality vacuum remelted
steel. Even though the fiber flow (local inhomogeneities of the material's chemical composition
generated during casting) doesn’t follow the shape of the crankshaft (which is undesirable), this is
usually not a problem since higher quality steels which normally are difficult to forge can be used.
These crankshafts tend to be very expensive due to the large amount of material removal which
needs to be done by using lathes and milling machines, the high material cost and the additional
heat treatment required. However, since no expensive tooling is required, this production method
allows small production runs of crankshafts to be made without high costs.

Fatigue strength

The fatigue strength of crankshafts is usually increased by using a radius at the ends of each main
and crankpin bearing. The radius itself reduces the stress in these critical areas, but since the radii
in most cases are rolled, this also leaves some compressive residual stress in the surface which
prevents cracks from forming.

Hardening

Most production crankshafts use induction hardened bearing surfaces since that method gives
good results with low costs. It also allows the crankshaft to be reground without having to redo
the hardening. But high performance crankshafts, billet crankshafts in particular, tend to use
nitridization instead. Nitridization is slower and thereby more costly, and in addition it puts certain
demands on the alloying metals in the steel, in order to be able to create stable nitrides. The
advantage with nitridization is that it can be done at low temperatures, it produces a very hard
surface and the process will leave some compressive residual stress in the surface which is good
for the fatigue properties of the crankshaft. The low temperature during treatment is
advantageous in that it doesn’t have any negative effects on the steel, such as annealing. With
crankshafts that operate on roller bearings, the use of carburization tends to be favored due to the
high Hertzian contact stresses in such an application. Like nitriding, carburization also leaves some
compressive residual stresses in the surface.

Counterweights

Some expensive, high performance crankshafts also use heavy-metal counterweights to make the
crankshaft more compact. The heavy-metal used is most often a tungsten alloy but depleted
uranium has also been used. A cheaper option is to use lead, but compared with tungsten its
density is much lower.

Stress on crankshafts

The shaft is subjected to various forces but generally needs to be analysed in two positions. Firstly,
failure may occur at the position of maximum bending; this may be at the centre of the crank or at
either end. In such a condition the failure is due to bending and the pressure in the cylinder is
maximal. Second, the crank may fail due to twisting, so the conrod needs to be checked for shear
at the position of maximal twisting. The pressure at this position is the maximal pressure, but only
a fraction of maximal pressure.

Internal combustion engines

Failure of a connecting rod is one of the most common causes of catastrophic engine failure.

In modern automotive internal combustion engines, the connecting rods are most usually made of
steel for production engines, but can be made of aluminium (for lightness and the ability to absorb
high impact at the expense of durability) or titanium (for a combination of strength and lightness
at the expense of affordability) for high performance engines, or of cast iron for applications such
as motor scooters. They are not rigidly fixed at either end, so that the angle between the
connecting rod and the piston can change as the rod moves up and down and rotates around the
crankshaft.

The small end attaches to the piston pin, gudgeon pin (the usual British term) or wrist pin, which is
currently most often press fit into the con rod but can swivel in the piston, a "floating wrist pin"
design. The big end connects to the bearing journal on the crank throw, running on replaceable
bearing shells accessible via the con rod bolts which hold the bearing "cap" onto the big end;
typically there is a pinhole bored through the bearing and the big end of the con rod so that
pressurized lubricating motor oil squirts out onto the thrust side of the cylinder wall to lubricate
the travel of the pistons and piston rings.

The con rod is under tremendous stress from the reciprocating load represented by the piston,
actually stretching and relaxing with every rotation, and the load increases rapidly with increasing
engine speed. Failure of a connecting rod, usually called "throwing a rod" is one of the most
common causes of catastrophic engine failure in cars, frequently putting the broken rod through
the side of the crankcase and thereby rendering the engine irreparable; it can result from fatigue
near a physical defect in the rod, lubrication failure in a bearing due to faulty maintenance, or
from failure of the rod bolts from a defect, improper tightening, or re-use of already used
(stressed) bolts where not recommended. Despite their frequent occurrence on televised
competitive automobile events, such failures are quite rare on production cars during normal daily
driving. This is because production auto parts have a much larger factor of safety, and often more
systematic quality control.
When building a high performance engine, great attention is paid to the con rods, eliminating
stress risers by such techniques as grinding the edges of the rod to a smooth radius, shot peening
to induce compressive surface stresses (to prevent crack initiation), balancing all con rod/piston
assemblies to the same weight and Magnafluxing to reveal otherwise invisible small cracks which
would cause the rod to fail under stress. In addition, great care is taken to torque the con rod bolts
to the exact value specified; often these bolts must be replaced rather than reused. The big end of
the rod is fabricated as a unit and cut or cracked in two to establish precision fit around the big
end bearing shell. Therefore, the big end "caps" are not interchangeable between con rods, and
when rebuilding an engine, care must be taken to ensure that the caps of the different con rods
are not mixed up. Both the con rod and its bearing cap are usually embossed with the
corresponding position number in the engine block.

Recent engines such as the Ford 4.6 liter engine and the Chrysler 2.0 liter engine, have connecting
rods made using powder metallurgy, which allows more precise control of size and weight with
less machining and less excess mass to be machined off for balancing. The cap is then separated
from the rod by a fracturing process, which results in an uneven mating surface due to the grain of
the powdered metal. This ensures that upon reassembly, the cap will be perfectly positioned with
respect to the rod, compared to the minor misalignments which can occur if the mating surfaces
are both flat.

A major source of engine wear is the sideways force exerted on the piston through the con rod by
the crankshaft, which typically wears the cylinder into an oval cross-section rather than circular,
making it impossible for piston rings to correctly seal against the cylinder walls. Geometrically, it
can be seen that longer con rods will reduce the amount of this sideways force, and therefore lead
to longer engine life. However, for a given engine block, the sum of the length of the con rod plus
the piston stroke is a fixed number, determined by the fixed distance between the crankshaft axis
and the top of the cylinder block where the cylinder head fastens; thus, for a given cylinder block
longer stroke, giving greater engine displacement and power, requires a shorter connecting rod (or
a piston with smaller compression height), resulting in accelerated cylinder wear.

Compound rods

Many-cylinder multi-bank engines such as a V-12 layout have little space available for that many
connecting rod journals on a limited length of crankshaft. This is a difficult compromise to solve
and its consequence has often led to engines being regarded as failures (Sunbeam Arab, Rolls-
Royce Vulture).

The simplest solution, almost universal in road car engines, is to use simple rods where cylinders
from both banks share a journal. This requires the rod bearings to be narrower, increasing bearing
load and the risk of failure in a high-performance engine. This also means the opposing cylinders
are not exactly in line with each other.
Articulated connecting rods in a WW1 aero-engine

In certain types of engine, master/slave rods are used rather than the simple type shown in the
picture above. The master rod carries one or more ring pins to which are bolted the much smaller
big ends of slave rods on other cylinders. Radial engines typically have a master rod for one
cylinder and slave rods for all the other cylinders in the same bank. Certain designs of V engines
use a master/slave rod for each pair of opposite cylinders. A drawback of this is that the stroke of
the subsidiary rod is slightly shorter than the master, which increases vibration in a vee engine,
catastrophically so for the Sunbeam Arab.

The usual solution for high-performance aero-engines is a "forked" connecting rod. One rod is split
in two at the big end and the other is thinned to fit into this fork. The journal is still shared
between cylinders. The Rolls-Royce Merlin used this "fork-and-blade" style.

Cylinder head

A 302/5.0L Ford cylinder head.

In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits above the cylinders and consists of a
platform containing part of the combustion chamber and the location of the valves and spark
plugs. In a flathead engine, the mechanical parts of the valve train are all contained within the
block, and the head is essentially a flat plate of metal bolted to the top of the cylinder bank with a
head gasket in between; this simplicity leads to ease of manufacture and repair, and accounts for
the flathead engine's early success in production automobiles and continued success in small
engines, such as lawnmowers. This design, however, requires the incoming air to flow through a
convoluted path, which limits the ability of the engine to perform at higher rpm, leading to the
adoption of the overhead valve head design.

In the overhead valve head, the top half of the cylinder head contains the camshaft in an overhead
cam engine, or another mechanism (such as rocker arms and pushrods) to transfer rotational
mechanics from the crankshaft to linear mechanics to operate the valves (pushrod engines
perform this conversion at the camshaft lower in the engine and use a rod to push a rocker arm
that acts on the valve). Internally the cylinder head has passages called ports for the fuel/air
mixture to travel to the inlet valves from the intake manifold, for exhaust gases to travel from the
exhaust valves to the exhaust manifold, and for antifreeze to cool the head and engine.

The number of cylinder heads in an engine is a function of the engine configuration. A straight
engine has only one cylinder head. A V engine usually has two cylinder heads, one at each end of
the V, although Volkswagen, for instance, produces a V6 called the VR6, where the angle between
the cylinder banks is so narrow that it utilizes a single head. A boxer engine has two heads.

The cylinder head is key to the performance of the internal combustion engine, as the shape of the
combustion chamber, inlet passages and ports (and to a lesser extent the exhaust) determines a
major portion of the volumetric efficiency and compression ratio of the engine.

Gallery

The bottom (left) and top

(right) of a Malossi cylinder
A cylinder head sliced in A dual overheadhead for single-cylinder,
half showing the intake camshaft cylindertwo-stroke scooters. Hole
and exhaust valves,A single overheadhead from a Honda
in the middle for the spark
intake and exhaust ports,camshaft cylinder headK20Z3.
plug, four holes for the
coolant passages, cams,from a Honda D15A3.
cylinder bolt posts.
tappets and valve springs.

Overhead view of an air

cooled cylinder headThe cylinder head from
from a Suzuki GS550a GMC van. The valves
showing dual camshafts,and part of the exhaust
drive sprockets andmanifold are visible.
cooling fins.

Head gasket
Different kinds of gaskets, #4 indicating a V4 head gasket.

A replacement head gasket sitting loosely on top of a four cylinder engine block. Once positioned
correctly the cylinder head will be bolted down on top of it.

A head gasket is a gasket that sits between the engine block and cylinder head in an internal
combustion engine. Its purpose is to seal the cylinders to ensure maximum compression and avoid
leakage of coolant or engine oil into the cylinders; as such, it is the most critical sealing application
in any engine, and, as part of the combustion chamber, it shares the same strength requirements
as other combustion chamber components.

Head gasket types

 MLS - stands for "Multiple Layers Steel,". Most modern head engines are produced with
MLS gaskets. These typically consist of three layers of steel.

The contact faces are usually coated with a rubber-like coating such as Viton that adheres to the
cylinder block and cylinder head respectively whilst the thicker center layer is bare.
  Solid copper - A solid sheet of copper, and typically requires special machining called 'o-
ringing' that places a piece of wire around the circumference of the cylinder to bite into
the copper. When this is performed copper gaskets are extremely durable. Recently
companies have started producing copper gaskets with integral sealing wires permitting
their retrofit into engines without the removal of the engine block for machine work.

 Composite -- an older technology. Typically these are made from asbestos or graphite but
are more prone to blowouts than newer gaskets. Asbestos gaskets are becoming
increasingly rare due to health concerns. [2]

 Elastomeric - a gasket type used by Rover on their K Series engines. It utilised a steel core
plate with molded in place silicon rubber beads to seal oil and coolant passages. The bores
were sealed by rolled steel fire rings in a more conventional manner. The idea behind the
gasket design was to produce a production version of the technology used in F1 engines at
the time. The original application of the gasket on the smaller versions of the K Series was
very successful. However, an engine redesign resulted in persistent problems with the
design - the joint interface became unstable and the gasket could not cope.

Gasket problems

Occasionally, the compression in the cylinder will cause a leak to form in the gasket and the gasket
will have to be replaced, or severe damage can take place (a "blown" head gasket). This problem
has been exacerbated by the use of aluminum rather than iron cylinder heads; while lighter than
iron, aluminum has a much greater thermal expansion rate, which in turn causes a great deal more
stress to be placed on the head gasket. Engine makers have responded to this by adding a non-
stick coating such as Teflon to the surface of the head gasket.

If the gasket fails, a variety of problems can occur, from compression loss (leading to power
reduction, or a rough engine), to exhaust gases being forced into the cooling system, leading to
the engine overheating and increased engine wear due to the motor oil being mixed with
antifreeze. Coolant can leak into the cylinders, causing the exhaust to issue steam [3] and the
catalytic converter to be damaged. If a very large amount of coolant does this, hydrolock can
occur, causing extensive engine damage. Sometimes, all that may happen when a head gasket is
blown is excessive steam erupting from the tailpipe; yet the engine may act and drive like normal,
until all the coolant is gone and the engine overheats.

A damaged head gasket can cause compression to leak between cylinders.

Head gasket condition can be investigated by checking the compression pressure with a pressure
gauge, or better, a leak-down test, and/or noting any indication of combustion gasses in the
cooling system on a water-cooled engine. Oil mixed with coolant and excessive coolant loss with
no apparent cause, or presence of carbon monoxide or hydrocarbon gases in the expansion tank
of the cooling system can also be signs of head gasket problems.

Driving with a blown head gasket (if possible) can cause additional extensive damage due to
overheating or loss of lubrication.

Blue exhaust smoke may be indicative of oil-burning.

Combustion chamber

A combustion chamber is the part of an engine in which fuel is burned.

Internal combustion engine

Diagram of jet engine showing the combustion chamber.

The hot gases produced by the combustion occupy a far greater volume than the original fuel, thus
creating an increase in pressure within the limited volume of the chamber. This pressure can be
used to do work, for example, to move a piston on a crankshaft or a turbine disc in a gas turbine.
The energy can also be used to produce thrust when directed out of a nozzle as in a rocket engine.

Petrol or gasoline engine

A reciprocating engine is often designed so that the moving pistons are flush with the top of the
cylinder block at top dead centre. The combustion chamber is recessed in the cylinder head and
commonly contains a single intake valve and a single exhaust valve. Some engines use a dished
piston and in this case the combustion chamber can be considered as partly within the cylinder.
Various shapes of combustion chamber have been used, such as L-head (or flathead) for side-valve
engines;"bathtub", "hemispherical" and "wedge" for overhead valve engines; and "pent-roof" for
engines having 3, 4 or 5 valves per cylinder. The shape of the chamber has a marked effect on
power output, efficiency and harmful emissions; the designer's objectives are to burn all of the
mixture as completely as possible while avoiding excessive temperatures (which create NOx). This
is best achieved with a compact rather than elongated chamber. The intake valve/port is usually
placed to give the mixture a pronounced "swirl" (the term is preferred to "turbulence" which
implies uncontrolled movement) above the rising piston, improving mixing and combustion. The
shape of the piston top also affects the amount of "swirl." Finally, the spark plug must be situated
in a position from which the flame front can reach all parts of the chamber at the desired point,
usually around 15 degrees after top dead centre. It is strongly desirable to avoid narrow crevices
where stagnant "end gas" can become trapped, as this tends to detonate violently after the main
charge, adding little useful work and potentially damaging the engine. Also, the residual gasses
displace room for fresh air/fuel mixture and will thus reduce the power potential of each firing
stroke.

Diesel engine

Diesel engines fall into two broad classes:

 Direct injection, where the combustion chamber consists of a dished piston

 Indirect injection, where the combustion chamber is in the cylinder head

Direct injection engines usually give better fuel economy but indirect injection engines can use a
lower grade of fuel.

Harry Ricardo was prominent in developing combustion chambers for diesel engines.

Steam engine

The term combustion chamber is also used to refer to an additional space between the firebox
and boiler in a steam locomotive. This space is used to allow further combustion of the fuel,
providing greater heat to the boiler.

Large steam locomotives usually have a combustion chamber in the boiler to allow the use of
shorter firetubes. This is because:

 Long firetubes have a theoretical advantage in providing a large heating surface but,
beyond a certain length, this is subject to diminishing returns.

 Very long firetubes are prone to sagging in the middle.

Combustion Chambers (and a little engine theory)

The combustion chamber is the area inside the engine where the fuel/air mixture is compressed
and then ignited. It is generally formed on one side by the shape cast into the cylinder head, and
on the other side by the top of the piston. When the piston is at top-dead-center the chamber is at
its smallest dimension, and this is the time when the fuel/air mixture is at its most unstable
condition and ready to be ignited. The better the combustion chamber is designed the better the
engine "breathes;" that is, the more efficient the overall flow of air through the engine.

The engine's overall efficiency is determined by the shape of the chamber, shape of the top of the
piston, location of valves and spark plug and overall airflow through the intake and exhaust. This
article will concentrate only on the various types of combustion chambers and not on the myriad
of dynamics that affect flame propagation.

Types of Combustion Chambers

To properly identify a combustion chamber, all its aspects including shape need to be considered.
For purposes of this article we will limit the discussion to those found on most production engines
in America.
Hemispherical or Pentroof - The "Hemi" Combustion Chamber

Hemi combustion chamber

design.
A chamber of this design is considered to offer the least amount of compromise for the efficiency
gained. Effectively, a hemispherical combustion chamber is one half of a sphere cast into the
bottom of the cylinder head. The valves are placed at the outside of the bore area and at a specific
angle from the crankshaft centerline. Optimizing this position allows for huge airflow gains, since it
moves the valve away from the wall to keep it from creating turbulence.

This creates a more efficient cross-flow movement of the charge during valve overlap and limits
thermal transfer from the exhaust valve to the fresh charge. As mentioned previously, this design
offers the best surface-to-volume ratio and also creates a very short direct exhaust port, essential
in limiting heat rejection into the coolant.

Hemispherical chambers generally have a central spark plug, which offers excellent octane
tolerance. An additional benefit is the distance between the intake and exhaust valves, which
further limits heat transfer.

Wedge-Shaped Chambers

Wedge shaped
combustion chamber.
Used over the years by almost every manufacturer, this type of chamber resembles an inclined
basin recessed into the deck of the head. Inline valves are normally tilted to accommodate the
sloping roof of this design. The spark plug is located on the thick side of the wedge and is usually
positioned midway between the valves.

The relatively steep walls in such chamber design force the air/fuel flow path and deflect and force
it to move in a downward spiral around the cylinder axis. During the compression stroke, the
compressed air/fuel area reduces to such an extent that the trapped mixture is violently thrust
from the thin to the thick end of the chamber. This builds up significant kinetic energy, which
when ignited contributes to overall power.

Bathtub or Heart-shaped Combustion Chamber

Bathtub design
The bathtub designation is generally reserved for any chamber that's not a wedge or
hemispherical. Most domestic engines of pushrod design have used it in varying forms. In some
instances the shape of the combustion chamber was almost oval, with later trends being the more
efficient heart shape.

An example of this would be the current LS1 by Chevrolet. The deck of the cylinder head that
overlaps the piston forms two squish regions: a large area across from the spark plug and a smaller
region on the opposite side. Its crescent shape makes it look like a heart chamber.

The valves are inline and partially masked by the chamber wall, being more exposed on the plug
side. The area across from the major squish region is generally tapered and does not have the
steep wall of a wedge style. Spark plug location is maximized by biasing toward the exhaust valve
and as central as possible, making the overall design very efficient for producing power. However,
heat transfer from the close proximity of the valves limits volumetric efficiency and octane
tolerance. Bowl in Piston
 Bowl & Piston with flathead on right.
This approach is essentially the reverse of a chamber-in-head design. It isn't popular with U.S.
engine designers, although it was in the early part of the 20th Century in flat-head engine
configurations. European engine designers do still occasionally use this design, however.

It consists of a flat cylinder head deck with a single row of valves facing a circular cavity cast into
the piston. An annular squish region is created around the piston perimeter. Known for very
turbulent combustion, it works well for diesel engines but was deemed excessively noisy for
American standards.

Making Sense From All This

How the combustion chamber uses the airflow is just as important as the flow itself. Of equal
importance is the shape of the top of the piston, since any protrusion into the combustion
chamber will slow the flame speed. The ideal design is a dished or flat piston, since theoretically
the flame front can spread evenly across its surface.

All that said, the name of the game in engine design is thermal efficiency. The ideal engine should
have a high compression ratio for thermal efficiency and throttle response but needs to work in
unison with a combustion chamber that has a fast burn rate.

This is essential to increase the engine's octane tolerance and limit the production of the emission
oxides of nitrogen (NOx). A high compression ratio increases the production of NOx by its elevated
cylinder pressure and the heating of the charge as it is forced into a smaller region. The way to
limit the production of Nox is to have a fast burn rate, but this is difficult to accomplish in the real
world.

Looking beyond emissions and octane tolerance to produce power, it's necessary to have the
cylinder pressure rise as quickly as possible, allowing it to be used to expand against the piston for
as much of the stroke as possible.

Internal combustion engine

An automobile engine partly opened and colored to show components

The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an
oxidiser (usually air) in a combustion chamber. In an internal combustion engine the expansion of
the high temperature and pressure gases, that are produced by the combustion, directly apply
force to a movable component of the engine, such as the pistons or turbine blades and by moving
it over a distance, generate useful mechanical energy.[1][2][3][4]

The term internal combustion engine usually refers to an engine in which combustion is
intermittent, such as the more familiar four-stroke and two-stroke piston engines, along with
variants, such as the Wankel rotary engine. A second class of internal combustion engines use
continuous combustion: gas turbines, jet engines and most rocket engines, each of which are
internal combustion engines on the same principle as previously described.

The internal combustion engine (or ICE) is quite different from external combustion engines, such
as steam or Stirling engines, in which the energy is delivered to a working fluid not consisting of,
mixed with or contaminated by combustion products. Working fluids can be air, hot water,
pressurised water or even liquid sodium, heated in some kind of boiler by fossil fuel, wood-
burning, nuclear, solar etc.

A large number of different designs for ICEs have been developed and built, with a variety of
different strengths and weaknesses. While there have been and still are many stationary
applications, the real strength of internal combustion engines is in mobile applications and they
completely dominate as a power supply for cars, aircraft, and boats, from the smallest to the
biggest. Only for hand-held power tools do they share part of the market with battery powered
devices. Powered by an energy-dense fuel (nearly always liquid, derived from fossil fuels) the ICE
delivers an excellent power-to-weight ratio with very few safety or other disadvantages.

Internal combustion engines are most commonly used for mobile propulsion in vehicles and
portable machinery. In mobile equipment, internal combustion is advantageous since it can
provide high power-to-weight ratios together with excellent fuel energy density. Generally using
fossil fuel (mainly petroleum), these engines have appeared in transport in almost all vehicles
(automobiles, trucks, motorcycles, boats, and in a wide variety of aircraft and locomotives).

Internal combustion engines appear in the form of gas turbines as well where a very high power is
required, such as in jet aircraft, helicopters, and large ships. They are also frequently used for
electric generators and by industry.

Principles of operation
Reciprocating:

 Two-stroke cycle

 Four-stroke cycle

 Six stroke engine

 Diesel engine

 Atkinson cycle

Rotary:

 Wankel engine

Continuous combustion: Brayton cycle:

 Gas turbine

 Jet engine (including turbojet, turbofan, ramjet, Rocket etc.)

Engine configurations

Internal combustion engines can be classified by their configuration.

Four stroke configuration

Operation

Four-stroke cycle (or Otto cycle)

1. Intake
2. compression
3. power
4. exhaust

Basic process

As their name implies, operation of a four stroke internal combustion engines have 4 basic steps
that repeat with every two revolutions of the engine:

1. Intake

o Combustible mixtures are emplaced in the combustion chamber

2. Compression

o The mixtures are placed under pressure

3. Combustion/Expansion

o The mixture is burnt, almost invariably a deflagration, although a few systems

involve detonation. The hot mixture is expanded, pressing on and moving parts of
the engine and performing useful work.

4. Exhaust

o The cooled combustion products are exhausted into the atmosphere

Many engines overlap these steps in time, jet engines do all steps simultaneously at different parts
of the engines.

Combustion

All internal combustion engines depend on the exothermic chemical process of combustion: the
reaction of a fuel, typically with oxygen from the air (though it is possible to inject nitrous oxide in
order to do more of the same thing and gain a power boost). The combustion process typically
results in the production of a great quantity of heat, as well as the production of steam and carbon
dioxide and other chemicals at very high temperature; the temperature reached is determined by
the chemical make up of the fuel and oxidisers (see stoichiometry).

The most common modern fuels are made up of hydrocarbons and are derived mostly from fossil
fuels (petroleum). Fossil fuels include dieselfuel, gasoline and petroleum gas, and the rarer use of
propane. Except for the fuel delivery components, most internal combustion engines that are
designed for gasoline use can run on natural gas or liquefied petroleum gases without major
modifications. Large diesels can run with air mixed with gases and a pilot diesel fuel ignition
injection. Liquid and gaseous biofuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel (a form of diesel fuel that is
produced from crops that yield triglycerides such as soybean oil), can also be used. Some engines
with appropriate modifications can also run on hydrogen gas.

Internal combustion engines require ignition of the mixture, either by spark ignition (SI) or
compression ignition (CI). Before the invention of reliable electrical methods hot tube and flame
methods were used.

Gasoline Ignition Process

Gasoline engine ignition systems generally rely on a combination of a lead-acid battery and an
induction coil to provide a high-voltage electrical spark to ignite the air-fuel mix in the engine's
cylinders. This battery is recharged during operation using an electricity-generating device such as
an alternator or generator driven by the engine. Gasoline engines take in a mixture of air and
gasoline and compress it to not more than 12.8 bar (1.28 MPa), then use a spark plug to ignite the
mixture when it is compressed by the piston head in each cylinder.

Diesel Ignition Process

Diesel engines and HCCI(Homogeneous charge compression ignition) engines, rely solely on heat
and pressure created by the engine in its compression process for ignition. The compression level
that occurs is usually twice or more than a gasoline engine. Diesel engines will take in air only, and
shortly before peak compression, a small quantity of diesel fuel is sprayed into the cylinder via a
fuel injector that allows the fuel to instantly ignite. HCCI type engines will take in both air and fuel
but continue to rely on an unaided auto-combustion process, due to higher pressures and heat.
This is also why diesel and HCCI engines are more susceptible to cold-starting issues, although they
will run just as well in cold weather once started. Light duty diesel engines with indirect injection
in automobiles and light trucks employ glowplugs that pre-heat the combustion chamber just
before starting to reduce no-start conditions in cold weather. Most diesels also have a battery and
charging system; nevertheless, this system is secondary and is added by manufacturers as a luxury
for the ease of starting, turning fuel on and off (which can also be done via a switch or mechanical
apparatus), and for running auxiliary electrical components and accessories. Most new engines
rely on electrical and electronic control system that also control the combustion process to
increase efficiency and reduce emissions.

Two stroke configuration

Engines based on the two-stroke cycle use two strokes (one up, one down) for every power stroke.
Since there are no dedicated intake or exhaust strokes, alternative methods must be used to
scavenge the cylinders. The most common method in spark-ignition two-strokes is to use the
downward motion of the piston to pressurize fresh charge in the crankcase, which is then blown
through the cylinder through ports in the cylinder walls.

Spark-ignition two-strokes are small and light for their power output and mechanically very
simple; however, they are also generally less efficient and more polluting than their four-stroke
counterparts. In terms of power per cubic centimetre, a single-cylinder small motor application
like a two-stroke engine produces much more power than an equivalent four-stroke engine due to
the enormous advantage of having one power stroke for every 360 degrees of crankshaft rotation
(compared to 720 degrees in a 4 stroke motor).

Small displacement, crankcase-scavenged two-stroke engines have been less fuel-efficient than
other types of engines when the fuel is mixed with the air prior to scavenging allowing some of it
to escape out of the exhaust port. Modern designs (Sarich and Paggio) use air-assisted fuel
injection which avoids this loss, and are more efficient than comparably sized four-stroke engines.
Fuel injection is essential for a modern two-stroke engine in order to meet ever more stringent
emission standards.

Research continues into improving many aspects of two-stroke motors including direct fuel
injection, amongst other things. The initial results have produced motors that are much cleaner
burning than their traditional counterparts. Two-stroke engines are widely used in snowmobiles,
lawnmowers, weed-whackers, chain saws, jet skis, mopeds, outboard motors, and many
motorcycles. Two-stroke engines have the advantage of an increased specific power ratio (i.e.
power to volume ratio), typically around 1.5 times that of a typical four-stroke engine.

The largest compression-ignition engines are two-strokes and are used in some locomotives and
large ships. These particular engines use forced induction to scavenge the cylinders; an example of
this type of motor is the Wartsila-Sulzer turbocharged two-stroke diesel as used in large container
ships. It is the most efficient and powerful engine in the world with over 50% thermal efficiency.
[citation needed]
For comparison, the most efficient small four-stroke motors are around 43% thermal
efficiency (SAE 900648); size is an advantage for efficiency due to the increase in the ratio of
volume to surface area.

Common cylinder configurations include the straight or inline configuration, the more compact V
configuration, and the wider but smoother flat or boxer configuration. Aircraft engines can also
adopt a radial configuration which allows more effective cooling. More unusual configurations
such as the H, U, X, and W have also been used.

Multiple crankshaft configurations do not necessarily need a cylinder head at all because they can
instead have a piston at each end of the cylinder called an opposed piston design. This design was
used in the Junkers Jumo 205 diesel aircraft engine, using at either end of a single bank of
cylinders with two crankshafts, and most remarkably in the Napier Deltic diesel engines. These
used three crankshafts to serve three banks of double-ended cylinders arranged in an equilateral
triangle with the crankshafts at the corners. It was also used in single-bank locomotive engines,
and continues to be used for marine engines, both for propulsion and for auxiliary generators. The
Gnome Rotary engine, used in several early aircraft, had a stationary crankshaft and a bank of
radially arranged cylinders rotating around it.

Wankel
The Wankel cycle. The shaft turns three times for each rotation of the rotor around the lobe and
once for each orbital revolution around the eccentric shaft.

The Wankel engine (rotary engine) does not have piston strokes. It operates with the same
separation of phases as the four-stroke engine with the phases taking place in separate locations
in the engine. In thermodynamic terms it follows the Otto engine cycle, so may be thought of as a
"four-phase" engine. While it is true that three power strokes typically occur per rotor revolution
due to the 3/1 revolution ratio of the rotor to the eccentric shaft, only one power stroke per shaft
revolution actually occurs; this engine provides three power 'strokes' per revolution per rotor
giving it a greater power-to-weight ratio than piston engines. This type of engine is most notably
used in the current Mazda RX-8, the earlier RX-7, and other models.

Gas turbines

A gas turbine is a rotary machine similar in principle to a steam turbine and it consists of three
main components: a compressor, a combustion chamber, and a turbine. The air after being
compressed in the compressor is heated by burning fuel in it. About two-thirds of the heated air
combined with the products of combustion is expanded in a turbine resulting in work output
which is used to drive the compressor. The rest (about one-third) is available as useful work
output.

Fuels

Nowadays, fuels used include:

 Petroleum:

o Petroleum spirit (North American term: gasoline, British term: petrol)

o Petroleum diesel.

o Autogas (liquified petroleum gas).

o Compressed natural gas.

o Jet fuel (aviation fuel)

 o Residual fuel

 Coal:

o Most methanol is made from coal.

o Gasoline can be made from carbon (coal) using the Fischer-Tropsch process

o Diesel fuel can be made from carbon using the Fischer-Tropsch process

 Biofuels and vegoils:

o Peanut oil and other vegoils.

o Biofuels:

 Biobutanol (replaces gasoline).

 Biodiesel (replaces petrodiesel).

 Bioethanol and Biomethanol (wood alcohol) and other biofuels (see

Flexible-fuel vehicle).

 Biogas

 Hydrogen (mainly spacecraft rocket engines)

 Oxyhydrogen

 Liquid nitrogen

Even fluidized metal powders and explosives have seen some use. Engines that use gases for fuel
are called gas engines and those that use liquid hydrocarbons are called oil engines, however
gasoline engines are also often colloquially referred to as, "gas engines" ("petrol engines" in the
UK).

The main limitations on fuels are that it must be easily transportable through the fuel system to
the combustion chamber, and that the fuel releases sufficient energy in the form of heat upon
combustion to make practical use of the engine.

Diesel engines are generally heavier, noisier, and more powerful at lower speeds than gasoline
engines. They are also more fuel-efficient in most circumstances and are used in heavy road
vehicles, some automobiles (increasingly so for their increased fuel efficiency over gasoline
engines), ships, railway locomotives, and light aircraft. Gasoline engines are used in most other
road vehicles including most cars, motorcycles, and mopeds. Note that in Europe, sophisticated
diesel-engined cars have taken over about 40% of the market since the 1990s. There are also
engines that run on hydrogen, methanol, ethanol, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and biodiesel.
Paraffin and tractor vaporizing oil (TVO) engines are no longer seen.

Hydrogen
At present, hydrogen is mostly used as fuel for rocket engines. In the future, hydrogen might
replace more conventional fuels in traditional internal combustion engines. If hydrogen fuel cell
technology becomes widespread, then the use of internal combustion engines may be phased out.

Although there are multiple ways of producing free hydrogen, those methods require converting
combustible molecules into hydrogen or consuming electric energy. Unless that electricity is
produced from a renewable source—and is not required for other purposes—it seems hydrogen
does not solve any energy crisis. The disadvantage of hydrogen in many situations is its storage.
Liquid hydrogen has extremely low density (14 times lower than water) and requires extensive
insulation—whilst gaseous hydrogen requires heavy tankage. Even when liquefied, hydrogen has a
higher specific energy but the volumetric energetic storage is still roughly five times lower than
petrol. The 'Hydrogen on Demand' process (see direct borohydride fuel cell) creates hydrogen as it
is needed, but has other issues such as the high price of the sodium borohydride which is the raw
material.

Oxidizers

Since air is plentiful at the surface of the earth, the oxidizer is typically atmospheric oxygen which
has the advantage of not being stored within the vehicle, increasing the power-to-weight and
power to volume ratios. There are other materials that are used for special purposes, often to
increase power output or to allow operation under water or in space.

 Compressed air has been commonly used in torpedoes.

 Compressed oxygen, as well as some compressed air, was used in the Japanese Type 93
torpedo. Some submarines are designed to carry pure oxygen. Rockets very often use
liquid oxygen.

 Nitromethane is added to some racing and model fuels to increase power and control
combustion.

 Nitrous oxide has been used—with extra gasoline—in tactical aircraft and in specially
equipped cars to allow short bursts of added power from engines that otherwise run on
gasoline and air. It is also used in the Burt Rutan rocket spacecraft.

 Hydrogen peroxide power was under development for German World War II submarines
and may have been used in some non-nuclear submarines and some rocket engines.

 Other chemicals such as chlorine or fluorine have been used experimentally, but have not
been found to be practical.
One-cylinder gasoline engine (ca. 1910).

Engine capacity

For piston engines, an engine's capacity is the displacement or swept volume by the pistons of the
engine. It is generally measured in litres (L) or cubic inches (c.i.d. or cu in or in³) for larger engines,
and cubic centimetres (abbreviated cc) for smaller engines. Engines with greater capacities are
usually more powerful and provide greater torque at lower rpm, but also consume more fuel.
Apart from designing an engine with more cylinders, there are two ways to increase an engines'
capacity. The first is to lengthen the stroke: the second is to increase the pistons' diameter (See
also: Stroke ratio). In either case, it may be necessary to make further adjustments to the fuel
intake of the engine to ensure optimum performance.

Common components

Combustion chambers

Internal combustion engines can contain any number of combustion chambers (cylinders), with
numbers between one and twelve being common, though as many as 36 (Lycoming R-7755) have
been used. Having more cylinders in an engine yields two potential benefits: first, the engine can
have a larger displacement with smaller individual reciprocating masses, that is, the mass of each
piston can be less thus making a smoother-running engine since the engine tends to vibrate as a
result of the pistons moving up and down. Doubling the number of the same size cylinders will
double the torque and power. The downside to having more pistons is that the engine will tend to
weigh more and generate more internal friction as the greater number of pistons rub against the
inside of their cylinders. This tends to decrease fuel efficiency and robs the engine of some of its
power. For high-performance gasoline engines using current materials and technology—such as
the engines found in modern automobiles, there seems to be a break-point around 10 or 12
cylinders after which the addition of cylinders becomes an overall detriment to performance and
efficiency. Although, exceptions such as the W16 engine from Volkswagen exist.

 Most car engines have four to eight cylinders with some high performance cars having ten,
twelve—or even sixteen, and some very small cars and trucks having two or three. In
previous years, some quite large cars such as the DKW and Saab 92, had two-cylinder or
two-stroke engines.
  Radial aircraft engines (now obsolete) had from three to 28 cylinders; an example is the
Pratt & Whitney R-4360. A row contains an odd number of cylinders so an even number
indicates a two- or four-row engine. The largest of these was the Lycoming R-7755 with 36
cylinders (four rows of nine cylinders), but it did not enter production.

 Motorcycles commonly have from one to four cylinders, with a few high performance
models having six; although, some 'novelties' exist with 8, 10, or 12.

 Snowmobiles Usually have one to four cylinders and can be both 2 stroke or 4 stroke,
normally in the in-line configuration however there are again some novelties that exist
with V-4 Engines

 Small portable appliances such as chainsaws, generators, and domestic lawn mowers most
commonly have one cylinder, but two-cylinder chainsaws exist.

 Large reversible two cycle marine diesels have a minimum of three to over ten cylinders.
Freight diesel locomotives usually have around 12 to 20 cylinders due to space limitations
as larger cylinders take more space (volume ) per kwh, due to the limit on average piston
speed of less than 30 ft/sec on engines lasting more than 40000 hours under full power.

Ignition system

The ignition system of an internal combustion engines depends on the type of engine and the fuel
used. Petrol engines are typically ignited by a precisely timed spark, and diesel engines by
compression heating. Historically, outside flame and hot-tube systems were used, see hot bulb
engine.

Spark

The mixture is ignited by an electrical spark from a spark plug—the timing of which is very
precisely controlled. Almost all gasoline engines are of this type. Diesel engines timing is precisely
controlled by the pressure pump and injector.

Compression

Ignition occurs as the temperature of the fuel/air mixture is taken over its autoignition
temperature, due to heat generated by the compression of the air during the compression stroke.
The vast majority of compression ignition engines are diesels in which the fuel is mixed with the air
after the air has reached ignition temperature. In this case, the timing comes from the fuel
injection system. Very small model engines for which simplicity and light weight is more important
than fuel costs use easily ignited fuels (a mixture of kerosene, ether, and lubricant) and adjustable
compression to control ignition timing for starting and running.

Ignition Timing

For reciprocating engines, the point in the cycle at which the fuel-oxidizer mixture is ignited has a
direct effect on the efficiency and output of the ICE. The thermodynamics of the idealized Carnot
heat engine tells us that an ICE is most efficient if most of the burning takes place at a high
temperature, resulting from compression—near top dead center. The speed of the flame front is
directly affected by the compression ratio, fuel mixture temperature, and octane or cetane rating
of the fuel. Leaner mixtures and lower mixture pressures burn more slowly requiring more
advanced ignition timing. It is important to have combustion spread by a thermal flame front
(deflagration), not by a shock wave. Combustion propagation by a shock wave is called detonation
and, in engines, is also known as pinging or knocking.

So at least in gasoline-burning engines, ignition timing is largely a compromise between an earlier

"advanced" spark—which gives greater efficiency with high octane fuel—and a later "retarded"
spark that avoids detonation with the fuel used. For this reason, high-performance diesel
automobile proponents such as, Gale Banks, believe that

There’s only so far you can go with an air-throttled engine on 91-octane gasoline. In other words, it
is the fuel, gasoline, that has become the limiting factor. ... While turbocharging has been applied
to both gasoline and diesel engines, only limited boost can be added to a gasoline engine before
the fuel octane level again becomes a problem. With a diesel, boost pressure is essentially
unlimited. It is literally possible to run as much boost as the engine will physically stand before
breaking apart. Consequently, engine designers have come to realize that diesels are capable of
substantially more power and torque than any comparably sized gasoline engine. [6]

Fuel systems

Animated cut through diagram of a typical fuel injector, a device used to deliver fuel to the
internal combustion engine.

Fuels burn faster and more efficiently when they present a large surface area to the oxygen in air.
Liquid fuels must be atomized to create a fuel-air mixture, traditionally this was done with a
carburetor in petrol engines and with fuel injection in diesel engines. Most modern petrol engines
now use fuel injection too - though the technology is quite different. While diesel must be injected
at an exact point in that engine cycle, no such precision is needed in a petrol engine. However, the
lack of lubricity in petrol means that the injectors themselves must be more sophisticated.

Carburetor

Simpler reciprocating engines continue to use a carburetor to supply fuel into the cylinder.
Although carburetor technology in automobiles reached a very high degree of sophistication and
precision, from the mid-1980s it lost out on cost and flexibility to fuel injection. Simple forms of
carburetor remain in widespread use in small engines such as lawn mowers and more
sophisticated forms are still used in small motorcycles.

Fuel injection
Larger gasoline engines used in automobiles have mostly moved to fuel injection systems (see
Gasoline Direct Injection). Diesel engines have always used fuel injection because the timing of the
injection initiates and controls the combustion.

Autogas (LPG) engines use either fuel injection systems or open- or closed-loop carburetors.

Fuel pump

Most internal combustion engines now require a fuel pump. Diesel engines use an all-mechanical
precision pump system that delivers a timed injection direct into the combustion chamber, hence
requiring a high delivery pressure to overcome the pressure of the combustion chamber. Petrol
fuel injection delivers into the inlet tract at atmospheric pressure (or below) and timing is not
involved, these pumps are normally driven electrically. Gas turbine and rocket engines use
electrical systems.

Other

Other internal combustion engines like jet engines and rocket engines employ various methods of
fuel delivery including impinging jets, gas/liquid shear, preburners and others.

Oxidiser-Air inlet system

Some engines such as solid rockets have oxidisers already within the combustion chamber but in
most cases for combustion to occur, a continuous supply of oxidiser must be supplied to the
combustion chamber.

Natural aspirated engines

When air is used with piston engines it can simply suck it in as the piston increases the volume of
the chamber. However, this gives a maximum of 1 atmosphere of pressure difference across the
inlet valves, and at high engine speeds the resulting airflow can limit potential power output.

Superchargers

A supercharger is a "forced induction" system which uses a compressor powered by the shaft of
the engine which forces air through the valves of the engine to achieve higher flow. When these
systems are employed the maximum absolute pressure at the inlet valve is typically around 2
times atmospheric pressure or more.