How car engines work has long fascinated people who want to know how things work.
Engines are the most complex and essential part of a car. Still, they’re among the most valuable parts in other vehicles and machinery, making them worth understanding on multiple levels.
Here’s a look at how car engines work.
Parts of a Car Engine
There are six main parts of a car engine, each of which plays a vital role in how your car runs smoothly.
Ignition coil
This is a crucial component in your car’s ignition system. An ignition coil helps deliver a high-voltage electrical charge to your engine’s spark plugs.
The design of your engine can determine where these coils are located with each other, but you can find it near your carburetor or cylinder head.
Fuel Injector
A fuel injector delivers gas and air to each cylinder’s intake manifold. Its job is to help mix gas and air before delivering them precisely at the right time, creating a fuel-air mixture that will burn efficiently.
The exact design of your engine can determine how many fuel injectors you have, but they can be found near your carburetor or cylinder head.
Carburetor
The car’s engine uses a carburetor device to mix air and fuel and supply it to each cylinder at just the right time.
If you check your owner’s manual, you can see what specific brand of carburetor your car uses.
Intake Manifold
The intake manifold is a cylinder-shaped chamber designed to distribute fuel and air equally to each of your engine’s cylinders.
This device is usually made of plastic or cast iron but can be found in other materials.
Cylinder Head
The cylinder head is a device that holds your engine’s spark plugs, fuel injectors, valves, and ports.
It is made from cast iron, aluminum, or other metal and contains several passages that allow exhaust gases to leave when a new fuel-air mixture is introduced.
Exhaust Manifold
An engine’s exhaust manifold is designed to collect spent fuel and transfer it from each cylinder to your car’s catalytic converter.
This part is made of cast iron, aluminum, or other metal. A popular carburetor in use today is a unit created by Carter YH, but many options exist.
How a Car Engine Works?
Now that you know the main parts of a car engine, you can better understand how a car engine works.
First, a car engine works using a typical four-stroke combustion cycle:
Intake
This is where your car breathes in fuel and air. The carburetor first draws air through an air filter and mixes it with gasoline before pulling it into cylinders.
From there, small valves are called throttle plates to control how much of that gas/air mixture gets sucked into each cylinder.
Compression
The engine’s valves are closed, filling each cylinder with a gas/air mixture.
The piston quickly moves up and down, forcing the gas/air mixture into a small space and compressing it.
A spark plug ignites that compressed fuel-air mixture at maximum compression, creating an explosion of power (see below). Without compression, there’d be no explosion—and no combustion cycle.
Combustion
Once that gas/air mixture is ignited, it quickly releases a massive amount of energy.
Because of that enormous release of energy, your car’s pistons are forced to move up and down with tremendous force.
This movement turns a crankshaft connected to your car’s transmission and drive wheels.
Exhaust
The exhaust manifold is where your car removes all that used-up, carbon dioxide-rich gas/air mixture.
It releases gases into one pipe, ultimately leading to your vehicle’s exhaust pipe.
From there, it’s released into the atmosphere as CO2—the same stuff we breathe each time we exhale! All in all, each step of a four-stroke cycle takes about 1/10th of a second.
