Saturday, March 19, 2011

continued engine basics

continuing off my last post, i am just going to put in a quick word about diesel engines and carburetors here.

what is unique about diesel engines is there lack of spark plugs, and improved efficiency, and power.

the idea around a diesel engine, is instead of using spark to ignite the fuel, you use pure compression to ignite the fuel. These engines run with a much higher compression in the pistons, and this combined with the different type of fuel allows for the fuel to be squeezed so much that it ignites. the more pressure on an explosion the more power you get from it, and the more power you get from it, the more compression on the next explosion.

with the logic of this design, this engine becomes extremely efficient, and simple to understand.
as you can see from this, there is no need for a spark plug.

as you can also see from this, not every time the piston goes up it burns fuel. in order for a 4 stroke engine to work properly, it ignites fuel, gets the benefits from the explosion, and goes back up to push it out the exaust. after it pushes everything out of the exaust, more fuel and air is added as it goes back down, and when it returns up, thats when another ignition of gas will happen.

with engines with multiple cylinders, while one piston is firing, another is pushing exaust. this is the firing order.

what controls what gives the engines the fuel it needs when it needs it?

the answer is simple. a carburetor. depending on throttle input, decides how much fuel the carb gives to the engine. as you push it harder, a vent for air opens up, along with a valve for fuel. over time these get dirty, and need to be cleaned.

modern engines use fuel injectors to give fuel to the engines. these are run typically by computers, and are far more efficient.

comment with what you want to learn next!

13 comments:

  1. This relates to my day job lol. I manufacture computers that control motors and turbines for power plants, submarines, etc...

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  2. you dog I heard you like chicps and dip

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  3. Cool i didnt know all this! Its really helpful to see animation how it actually works :)

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  4. This is already going straight over my head.... D=

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  5. Wow. This is really complicated.
    You seem to know your stuff!

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  6. if you want i could try to make it more basic, but just try to think real hard about this in a real world enviorment

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  7. Interesting. I have followed you

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  8. followed for awesomeness, now, how does the turbocharger work its way into the mix?

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  9. Very informative, your interest in the subject is very evident :)

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  10. I knew about this already, but it was good to get a nice fresher on how everything works.. maybe you could do something about why petrol doesn't work in diesel cars and viceversa.. tbh i dont know and i can't be bothered to google it :)

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  11. Fascinating stuff, the animation helps. Got a veryyyyy rough understanding of it haha

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