AUTOMOBILE DEFINITION

An automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers,
which also carries its own engine or motor. Most definitions of the term specify that automobiles
are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have
four wheels, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than
goods. However, the term automobile is far from precise, because there are many types of
vehicles that do similar tasks.
There are approximately 600 million passenger cars worldwide (roughly one car per eleven
people). Around the world, there were about 806 million cars and light trucks on the road in
2007; they burn over 1 billion m (260 billion US gallons) of petrol/gasoline and diesel fuel
yearly. The numbers are increasing rapidly, especially in China and India.

A self-propelled passenger vehicle that usually has four wheels and an internalcombustion engine, used for land transport. Also called motorcar.
Motorized vehicle consisting of four wheels and powered by an internal engine. Automobiles are
used to transport people and items from one location to another location. After years or
various designs, inventors were able todevelop a functional general design that is utilized by
major automakers as the foundation of their designs. Automobiles generally
use gasoline to fuel the internal engine, but technological advances have led to the design
of cars that run on electricity and even water.
CHASSIS FRAME AND BODY
Introduction of Chassis Frame: Chassis is a French term and was initially used
to denote the frame parts or Basic Structure of the vehicle. It is the back bone
of the vehicle. A vehicle with out body is called Chassis. The components of
the vehicle like Power plant, Transmission System, Axles, Wheels and Tyres,
Suspension, Controlling Systems like Braking, Steering etc., and also electrical
System parts are mounted on the Chassis frame. It is the main mounting for all
the components including the body. So it is also called as Carrying Unit.
1

Layout of Chassis and its main Com

The following main components of the Chassis are
1. Frame: it is made up of long two members called side members
riveted together with the help of number of cross members.
2. Engine or Power plant: It provides the source of power
3. Clutch: It connects and disconnects the power from the engine fly
wheel to the transmission system.
4. Gear Box
5. U Joint
6. Propeller Shaft
7. Differential
FUNCTIONS OF THE CHASSIS FRAME:
1. To carry load of the passengers or goods carried in the body.
2. To support the load of the body, engine, gear box etc.,
3. To withstand the forces caused due to the sudden braking or
acceleration
4. To withstand the stresses caused due to the bad road condition.
5. To withstand centrifugal force while cornering
TYPES OF CHASSIS FRAMES:
There are three types of frames
1. Conventional frame
2. Integral frame
3. Semi-integral frame
1. Conventional frame: It has two long side members and 5 to 6 cross
members joined together with the help of rivets and bolts. The frame sections
are used generally.
a. Channel Section - Good resistance to bending
b. Tabular Section - Good resistance to Torsion
c. Box Section - Good resistance to both bending and
2

Torsion
2. Integral Frame: This frame is used now a days in most of the cars. There is
no frame and all the assembly units are attached to the body. All the
functions of the frame carried out by the body itself. Due to elimination of
long frame it is cheaper and due to less weight most economical also. Only
disadvantage is repairing is difficult.
3. Semi - Integral Frame: In some vehicles half frame is fixed in the front end
on which engine gear box and front suspension is mounted. It has the
advantage when the vehicle is met with accident the front frame can be
taken easily to replace the damaged chassis frame. This type of frame is
used in FIAT cars and some of the European and American cars.
VARIOUS LOADS ACTING ON THE FRAME:
Various loads acting on the frame are
1. Short duration Load - While crossing a broken patch.
Chapter 1 Chassis Frame And body 3
2. Momentary duration Load - While taking a curve.
3. Impact Loads - Due to the collision of the vehicle.
4. Inertia Load - While applying brakes.
5. Static Loads - Loads due to chassis parts.
6. Over Loads - Beyond Design capacity.
STATE THE DIFFERENT BODIES USED IN AUTOMOBILES:
The Automobile bodies are divided in two groups

Passenger Body

Commercial body

According to Chassis design the body can divided into

1. Conventional Type
2. Integral Type
3. Semi- Integral Type
According to other usage:
1. Light vehicle Bodies - cars, jeeps
2. Heavy vehicle Bodies Busses, Lorries
3. Medium vehicle Bodies - Vans, Metadoors
REQUIREMENTS OF BODIES FOR VARIOUS TYPES OF VECHILE:
The body of the most vehicle should fulfill the following requirements:
1. The body should be light.
2. It should have minimum number of components.
3. It should provide sufficient space for passengers and luggage.
4. It should withstand vibrations while in motion.
5. It should offer minimum resistance to air.
6. It should be cheap and easy in manufacturing.
7. It should be attractive in shape and colour.
8. It should have uniformly distributed load.
9. It should have long fatigue life
10.It should provide good vision and ventilation.
Short Answer Questions:
1. List out the various components of chassis?
2. What are the functions of Chassis frame?
3. List out the types of Chassis frame?
4. What are the frame sections used in Automobiles?
5

5. What are the requirements of Bodies for various types of vehicles?

Essay Type Questions:
1. Draw the layout of conventional Chassis with a neat diagram and
explain about various parts on it?
2. What are the different classification of bodies used in Automobiles
and explain?

How Turbochargers Work

When people talk about race cars or high-performance sports cars, the topic
of turbochargers usually comes up. Turbochargers also appear on large diesel engines. A turbo
can significantly boost an engine's horsepower without significantly increasing its weight, which
is the huge benefit that makes turbos so popular!
In this article, we'll learn how a turbocharger increases the power output of an engine while
surviving extreme operating conditions. We'll also learn how waste gates, ceramic turbine blades
and ball bearings help turbochargers do their job even better. Turbochargers are a type offorced
induction system. Theycompress the air flowing into the engine (see How Car Engines
Work for a description of airflow in a normal engine). The advantage of compressing the air is
that it lets the engine squeeze more air into a cylinder, and more air means that more fuel can be
added. Therefore, you get more power from each explosion in each cylinder. A turbocharged
engine produces more power overall than the same engine without the charging. This can
significantly improve the power-to-weight ratio for the engine (see How Horsepower Works for
details).
In order to achieve this boost, the turbocharger uses the exhaust flow from the engine to spin
a turbine, which in turn spins an air pump. The turbine in the turbocharger spins at speeds of up
to 150,000 rotations per minute (rpm) -- that's about 30 times faster than most car engines can
go. And since it is hooked up to the exhaust, the temperatures in the turbine h

Turbochargers and Engines

One of the surest ways to get more power out of an engine is to increase the amount of air and
fuel that it can burn. One way to do this is to add cylinders or make the current cylinders bigger.
Sometimes these changes may not be feasible -- a turbo can be a simpler, more compact way to
add power, especially for an aftermarket accessory.

Where the turbocharger is located in the car.

Turbochargers allow an engine to burn more fuel and air by packing more into the existing
cylinders. The typical boost provided by a turbocharger is 6 to 8 pounds per square inch (psi).
Since normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi at sea level, you can see that you are getting about
50 percent more air into the engine. Therefore, you would expect to get 50 percent more power.
It's not perfectly efficient, so you might get a 30- to 40-percent improvement instead.
One cause of the inefficiencycomes from the fact that the power to spin the turbine is not free.
Having a turbine in the exhaust flow increases the restriction in the exhaust. This means that on
the exhaust stroke, the engine has to push against a higher back-pressure. This subtracts a little
bit of power from the cylinders that are firing at the same time.

Turbocharger Design

How a turbocharger is plumbed in a car

The turbocharger is bolted to the exhaust manifold of the engine. The exhaust from the
cylinders spins the turbine, which works like a gas turbine engine. The turbine is connected by a
shaft to the compressor, which is located between the air filter and the intake manifold. The
compressor pressurizes the air going into the pistons.

Inside a turbocharger
The exhaust from the cylinders passes through the turbine blades, causing the turbine to spin.
The more exhaust that goes through the blades, the faster they spin.
On the other end of the shaft that the turbine is attached to, the compressor pumps air into the
cylinders. The compressor is a type of centrifugal pump -- it draws air in at the center of its
blades and flings it outward as it spins.
In order to handle speeds of up to 150,000 rpm, the turbine shaft has to be supported very
carefully. Most bearings would explode at speeds like this, so most turbochargers use a fluid
bearing. This type of bearing supports the shaft on a thin layer of oil that is constantly pumped
around the shaft. This serves two purposes: It cools the shaft and some of the other turbocharger
parts, and it allows the shaft to spin without much friction.
There are many tradeoffs involved in designing a turbocharger for an engine. In the next section,
we'll look at some of these compromises and see how they affect performance.
Turbocharger Parts
One of the main problems with turbochargers is that they do not provide an immediate power
boost when you step on the gas. It takes a second for the turbine to get up to speed before boost
9

is produced. This results in a feeling of lag when you step on the gas, and then the car lunges
ahead when the turbo gets moving.
One way to decrease turbo lag is to reduce the inertia of the rotating parts, mainly by reducing
their weight. This allows the turbine and compressor to accelerate quickly, and start providing
boost earlier. One sure way to reduce the inertia of the turbine and compressor is to make the
turbocharger smaller. A small turbocharger will provide boost more quickly and at lower engine
speeds, but may not be able to provide much boost at higher engine speeds when a really large
volume of air is going into the engine. It is also in danger of spinning too quickly at higher
engine speeds, when lots of exhaust is passing through the turbine.

Turbochargers provide boost to engines at high speeds.

A large turbocharger can provide lots of boost at high engine speeds, but may have bad turbo lag
because of how long it takes to accelerate its heavier turbine and compressor. Luckily, there are
some tricks used to overcome these challenges.
Most automotive turbochargers have a wastegate, which allows the use of a smaller turbocharger
to reduce lag while preventing it from spinning too quickly at high engine speeds. The wastegate
is a valve that allows the exhaust to bypass the turbine blades. The wastegate senses the boost
pressure. If the pressure gets too high, it could be an indicator that the turbine is spinning too
quickly, so the wastegate bypasses some of the exhaust around the turbine blades, allowing the
blades to slow down.
10

Some turbochargers use ball bearings instead of fluid bearings to support the turbine shaft. But
these are not your regular ball bearings -- they are super-precise bearings made of advanced
materials to handle the speeds and temperatures of the turbocharger. They allow the turbine shaft
to spin with less friction than the fluid bearings used in most turbochargers. They also allow a
slightly smaller, lighter shaft to be used. This helps the turbocharger accelerate more quickly,
further reducing turbo lag.
Ceramic turbine blades are lighter than the steel blades used in most turbochargers. Again, this
allows the turbine to spin up to speed faster, which reduces turbo lag.

AERODYNAMICS

Aerodynamics means studying how air travels around something moving through it, and
reducing how much drag is caused. Streamlining is one of the major fields in aerodynamics.
Aerodynamics are used to reduce drag in vehicles.
Aerodynamics comes from Aero (Air), and Dynamic (Moving).
Automotive aerodynamics is the study of the aerodynamics of road vehicles. The main
concerns of automotive aerodynamics are reducing drag (though drag by wide wheels is
dominating most cars), reducing wind noise, minimising noise emission, and preventing
undesired lift forces and other causes of aerodynamic instability at high speeds. For some classes
of racing vehicles, it may also be important to produce desirable downwards aerodynamic forces
to improve traction and thus cornering abilities.
In physics, drag (sometimes called resistance) is a force which tends to slow down the
movement of an object through a liquid or gas. As a moving object pushes the liquid or gas out
of its way, the liquid or gas pushes back on the object. This drag force is always opposite to the
object's motion, and unlike friction between solid surfaces, the drag force increases as the object
moves faster.
11

Air resistance (drag) is a force that is caused by air, the force acts in the opposite direction to an
object moving through the air. It is where air particles hit the front of the object slowing it down.
The more surface area the more air particles hit it. For example a truck with a flat front will
experience high air resistance while a sports car with a streamlined shape will experience lower
air resistance, allowing the car to go faster.

Influence of flow characteristics on the

operation of vehicles
Objectives of improvement of flow past vehicle bodies:
reduction of fuel consumption
more favorable comfort characteristics (mud
deposition on body, noise, ventilating and cooling of
passenger compartment)
improvement of driving characteristics (stability,
handling, traffic safety)
Vehicle aerodynamics includes three interacting flow fields:
flow past vehicle body
flow past vehicle components (wheels, heat exchanger,
brakes, windshield),
flow in passenger compartment

12

AUTOMOBILE ENGINES
To start any engine, Two or Four stroke, you must have Three things.
One- A burnable mixture of something. It can be gasoline, starting fluid, carb cleaner, shoot, it
could be spray deodorant ! But it must be able to burn.
Two- It must be compressed, that is under compression by the piston.
Three- there must be a way to ignite the compressed mixture at the right time.
If all three things are present, the engine MUST run. It may not run long and it may not run
good, but it will run. Always remember that ! The reason I say that is because engines can do
funny things. Sometimes things that shouldn't work...work. Other times, things that should
work...don't. We need to remember that there is a reason why it works and why it doesn't work. If
you did it all right then it MUST work ! If it doesn't work...you did something wrong. When
things don't work, remember these three things and go back and double check your work.
In an engine these things occur as part of a cycle. That cycle is basically this -SUCK, SQUEEZE,
BURN, and BLOW. The fuel mixture must be brought into the cylinder -SUCK, compressed
13

-SQUEEZE, ignited -BURN, and then expelled from the cylinder -BLOW. All reciprocating
engines must go through these steps no matter what the design of the engine ( two-stroke, fourstroke, whatever ).
In a Four-Stroke engine the intake valve opens and the piston goes down, sucking the fuel
mixture into the cylinder. The intake valve then closes as the piston comes back up squeezing the
mixture. Spark now occurs and the burning gases expand, pushing the piston down with lots of
power. As the piston comes up again, the exhaust valve opens and the burnt gases are blown out
of the engine and the process starts over again.
This is all done in four strokes of the piston.
Piston down... Piston up... Piston down... Piston up.
Four-Strokes.
In a Two-Stroke engine the piston goes down, compressing the fuel mixture under the piston and
blowing it into the cylinder. As this mixture blows in it also blows the burnt exhaust gases out.
The fuel mixture is blown into the cylinder through passages ( Ports ) in the cylinder walls. The
piston comes up, covering the ports in the cylinder walls and compressing or squeezing the
mixture. This also creates a vacuum in the crankcase under the piston, sucking the fuel mixture
into the crankcase. The spark then ignites the mixture and the burning gases push the piston
down, starting everything again.
This is all done in two strokes of the piston.
Piston down... Piston up.
Two-Strokes.
About the smoothness of engines
The number of cylinders is not the primary reason for engine smoothness, another important
factor is the way the engine is constructed, if it's an inline-, V- or boxer-engine. Those concepts
will be discussed here.
The One-Cylinder Engine (general)
14

A one cylinder four-stroke engine delivers power only in the working/combustion cycle (the
compression cycle even needs power) and therefore, measured by the rotation of the crankshaft,
only every 720. To smoothen this rather jerky power delivery one needs a flywheel (which
lessens the engine's responsiveness) - or more cylinders.
An increase in cylinders does mainly mean more working cycles per crankshaft rotation and
therefore a smoother power delivery.
With four cylinders there is a working cycle every 720 / 4 = 180, with eight every 90 and with
twelve even every 60 (3: 240, 5: 144, 6: 120, 10: 72).
But now there are the vibrations caused by the moving parts inside the engine. I will restrict this
to pistons and connecting rods in order to keep it simple and because they are the main source of
vibrations.
Rods and pistons move up and down without counterweights and of course there is movement to
the side as well, but that only for the rods which don't weigh so much.

The crankshaft of a one cylinder engine.

For simplification the counterweights
for the crank pins have been left out.

The Inline-Two Engine

A two-cylinder engine has a working cycle every 360, which means that both pistons have to be
in the same position and move in same direction all the time. The vibrations therefore are twice
15

as bad as with a one-cylinder engine because the forces of both cyliders add up. This design has
the most vibrations and is therefore the less used one.

The crankshaft of an inline-two engine.

The Inline-Three Engine

Every 240 there is a working cycle. The frontal view shows that no matter at what angle the
crankshaft is, the center of gravity stays in the middle always so that no vibrations are generated.
Almost. The image and the calculation do not take the third dimension into account. The pistons
are not arranged in a plane but in line. While there is an upward force being generated by piston
and connecting rod in the frontmost cylinder, there is a downward force in the rear one. Because
these forces act on different ends of the engine, there is end-to-end vibration, around the center
cylinder.

16

Crankshaft of a inline three cylinder engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

The Inline-Four Engine

Now things get complicated. Although it seems that a four cylinder engine is free of vibration, it
is not.
An inline four engine fires every 180 which means that always two pistons are in the same
position and move in the same direction. Because of the symmetrical arrangement there is no
end-to-end vibration as with the three cylinder engine (piston 1 and 4 plus 2 and 3 are pairs).
Thre problem is the vertival movement. At first glance it seems that the forces generated by the
first piston are cancelled by the second and the forces of the third are cancelled by the fourth. But
that is not the case!
As you can see in the picture, pistons which are moving up, are moving at different speeds than
pistons that are moving down. So there are vibrations again which have to be cancelled by
balancer shafts.

The crankshaft of an inline four engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

17

Forces generated by pistons and rods which are moving up and

down do not cancel themselves but result in 'second order forces'.

The Inline-Five Engine

This type of engine is mentionned only to be complete, because it is not neceessary for
understanding engine smoothness. Except vibrations from end to end (like a three cylinder
engine) a five cylinder engine runs smoothly.

18

The crankshaft of an inline five engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

The Inline-Six Engine

As you can see an inline six engine consists basically of two mirrored three cylinder engines.
That results in two sorts of vibrations (around cylinder #2 and #5) which cancel themselves. So
there isn't even end-to-end vibration.
Because the crankshaft is identical to the one of a three cylinder, only twice as long and with
twice as much pistons, here as well is no change of the center of gravity and no forces are
generated, neither horizontal nor vertical ones. That is the reason why inline six cylinder engines
run so smoothly.

The crankshaft of an inline six engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

19

The V6-Engine
The V6 is a special kind of V-engine. It is normally the case that two pistons, one for the left and
one for the right cylinder bank, share a crank pin. In a V6 the crank pins have to be splitted and
shifted in order to avoid vibration between banks.
There are two kinds of V6 engines with different V-angles in use, 60 and 90. The 90-V6 has a
30 crank pin shift (see picture), the 60-V6 60 shift.
Just as the three cylinder engines, a V6 generates end-to-end vibration, so a balancer shaft is
needed. Thus V6-engines are inferior to inline six engines concerning smoothness, despite
having the same number of cylinders.
So why use V engines? Although twice as much camshafts are needed, the higher friction, the
lack of smoothness and the higher production cost, the V6 uses much less space, which helps
saving costs in other places and allows front wheel drive (which saves further costs).

Crankshaft of a 90-V6 with 30 pin shift.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

The V8-Engine
There are two types of V8s which differ by crankshaft. The V-angle is always 90. The two types
are called cross-plane (crank pins at a 90 angle) and flat-plane (crank pins at 180). V8 engines
have the advantage of not being in need of split crank pins in order to avoid vibrations between
cylinder banks.
With a cross-plane V8, however, the last cylinder is not in the same position as the first, so there
20

is end-to-end vibration again. That can be solved by adding counterweights to the crankshaft
which cancel the forced created by the pistons. That is possible only in a V-engine with a V-angle
of 90 and without splitted crank pins. These counterweights, fitted to an inline engine, would
move to the side when the piston moves up or down and therefore generate additional vibration.
But in a 90 V-engine there are pistons on the same crank pin which move exactly into the
opposite directions of the counterweights (because of the bank angle) and their forces can be
cancelled. Cross-plane V8s are therefore running quite smooth but because of the heavier
crankshaft they are not as revvy.
Flat-plane V8 engines do not have those problems. They are also more responsive because of
less rotational inertia. That increases maximum rpm and top-end power. In addition the crank
case can be smaller which lowers the center of gravity.
But why are the flat-plane engines used in sports cars only if there are so many advantages?
That's because of the crankshaft itself, the disadvantage of the flat-plane type. As you can see,
the arrangement of crank pins is identical to a four cylinder engine which means there are also
vibrations, only stronger, as basically two inline-four engines are running simultaneously. In
sports cars those vibrations are reduced by using very lightweight pistons and connecting rods.
That is of course expensive and because ride quality isn't too important either, the rough
characteristics (compared to a cross-plane) are tolerated. Because of the crankshaft, the sound of
such an engine is the one of two four cylinder engines. A (typical american) cross-plane burbling
cannot be achieved.

The crankshaft of a cross-plane V8-engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

21

The crankshaft of a flat-plane V8-engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

The V12 Engine

The V12 is said to be the most sophisticated engine design, being free of vibrations and running
smoothly. But so does an inline six. Now what is the difference between those two concepts
concerning smoothness, as even the crankshafts look alike?
Let us return to the one-cylinder. It was said there, that an engine's power delivery occurs in
'jerks', every time a combustion takes place. And that is the secret of a V12: the smoothness is
increased by more combustions per crankshaft revolution.

The crankshaft of a V12 engine.

Frontal view of crankshaft.

Boxer-Engines
22

In boxer engines the pistons are not aligned upright or in V-shape, but lie horizontally opposed.
This type of engine not only achieves an extraordinary low center of gravity but also runs
perfectly smooth and free of vibrations - regardless of number of cylinders.
As you can see in the following picture, a pair of pistons are not only always in the same position
but also move with the same speed - only into different directions so that all vibrations are
cancelled.

A boxer-engine runs always smoothly.

ENGINE COMPONENTS
An automobile engine is an example for I.C Engine. In these type of engines combustion is take place
inside the chamber.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-

23

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 point around 10 or 12 cylinders after which the addition of cylinders becomes an overall detriment to
performance and efficiency. Although, exceptions such as theW16 engine from Volkswagen exist.

Most car engines have four to eight cylinders with some high performance cars having ten, 12 or
even 16, 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 had from three to 28 cylinders; examples include the small Kinner B-5 and
the large Pratt & Whitney R-4360. Larger examples were built as multiple rows. As each row contains
an odd number of cylinders, to give an even firing sequence for a four-stroke engine, 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 bycompression

24

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 rating or cetane number 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 Engine knocking.
So at least in gasoline-burning engines, ignition timing is largely a compromise between a later "retarded"
spark which gives greater efficiency with high octane fuel and an earlier "advanced" spark that avoids
detonation with the fuel used. For this reason, high-performance diesel automobile proponents, such
as Gale Banks, believe that
Theres 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 turbo charging 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.

25

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 system because the timing of the injection
initiates and controls the combustion.
Auto gas 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.

26

Parts

An illustration of several key components in a typical four-stroke engine.

For a four-stroke engine, key parts of the engine include the crankshaft (purple), connecting rod (orange),
one or more camshafts (red and blue), and valves. For a two-stroke engine, there may simply be an
exhaust outlet and fuel inlet instead of a valve system. In both types of engines there are one or more
cylinders (grey and green), and for each cylinder there is a spark plug (darker-grey, gasolineengines only),
a piston (yellow), and a crankpin (purple). A single sweep of the cylinder by the piston in an upward or
downward motion is known as a stroke. The downward stroke that occurs directly after the air-fuel mix
passes from the carburetor or fuel injector to the cylinder (where it is ignited) is also known as a power
stroke.
A Wankel engine has a triangular rotor that orbits in an epitrochoidal (figure 8 shape) chamber around an
eccentric shaft. The four phases of operation (intake, compression, power, and exhaust) take place in what
is effectively a moving, variable-volume chamber.
[edit]Valves
Main article: valve
All four-stroke internal combustion engines employ valves to control the admittance of fuel and air into the
combustion chamber. Two-stroke engines use ports in the cylinder bore, covered and uncovered by the
piston, though there have been variations such as exhaust valves.

27

[edit]Piston engine valves

Main article: Piston engine valve
In piston engines, the valves are grouped into 'inlet valves' which admit the entrance of fuel and air and
'outlet valves' which allow the exhaust gases to escape. Each valve opens once per cycle and the ones that
are subject to extreme accelerations are held closed by springs that are typically opened by rods running on
a camshaft rotating with the engines' crankshaft.
[edit]Control valves
Continuous combustion enginesas well as piston enginesusually have valves that open and close to
admit the fuel and/or air at the startup and shutdown. Some valves feather to adjust the flow to control
power or engine speed as well.
[edit]Exhaust

systems

Exhaust manifold with ceramic plasma-sprayed system

Main article: exhaust system

Internal combustion engines have to effectively manage the exhaust of the cooled combustion gas from the
engine. The exhaust system frequently contains devices to control pollution, both chemical and noise
pollution. In addition, for cyclic combustion engines the exhaust system is frequently tuned to improve
emptying of the combustion chamber. The majority of exhausts also have systems to prevent heat from
reaching places which would encounter damage from it such as heat-sensitive components, often referred
to as Exhaust Heat Management.
For jet propulsion internal combustion engines, the 'exhaust system' takes the form of a high velocity
nozzle, which generates thrust for the engine and forms a colimated jet of gas that gives the engine its
name.
[edit]Cooling

systems

Main article: Engine cooling

28

Combustion generates a great deal of heat, and some of this transfers to the walls of the engine. Failure will
occur if the body of the engine is allowed to reach too high a temperature; either the engine will physically
fail, or any lubricants used will degrade to the point that they no longer protect the engine. The lubricants
must be clean as dirty lubricants may lead to over formation of sludge in the engines.
Cooling systems usually employ air (air cooled) or liquid (usually water) cooling while some very hot
engines using radiative cooling (especially some Rocket engines). Some high altitude rocket engines
use ablative cooling where the walls gradually erode in a controlled fashion. Rockets in particular can
use regenerative cooling which uses the fuel to cool the solid parts of the engine.
[edit]Piston
Main article: piston
A piston is a component of reciprocating engines. It is located in a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston
rings. Its purpose is to transfer force from expanding gas in the cylinder to the crankshaft via a piston
rod and/or connecting rod. In two-stroke engines the piston also acts as a valve by covering and
uncovering ports in the cylinder wall.
[edit]Propelling

nozzle

Main article: Propelling nozzle

For jet engine forms of internal combustion engines, a propelling nozzle is present. This takes the high
temperature, high pressure exhaust and expands and cools it. The exhaust leaves the nozzle going at much
higher speed and provides thrust, as well as constricting the flow from the engine and raising the pressure
in the rest of the engine, giving greater thrust for the exhaust mass that exits.
[edit]Crankshaft

A crankshaft for a 4 cylinder engine

Main article: Crankshaft

29

Most reciprocating internal combustion engines end up turning a shaft. This means that the linear motion of
a piston must be converted into rotation. This is typically achieved by a crankshaft.
[edit]Flywheels
Main article: flywheel
The flywheel is a disk or wheel attached to the crank, forming an inertial mass that stores rotational energy.
In engines with only a single cylinder the flywheel is essential to carry energy over from the power stroke
into a subsequent compression stroke. Flywheels are present in most reciprocating engines to smooth out
the power delivery over each rotation of the crank and in most automotive engines also mount a gear ring
for a starter. The rotational inertia of the flywheel also allows a much slower minimum unloaded speed and
also improves the smoothness at idle. The flywheel may also perform a part of the balancing of the system
and so by itself be out of balance, although most engines will use a neutral balance for the flywheel,
enabling it to be balanced in a separate operation. The flywheel is also used as a mounting for the clutch or
a torque converter in most automotive applications.
[edit]Starter

systems

All internal combustion engines require some form of system to get them into operation. Most piston
engines use a starter motor powered by the same battery as runs the rest of the electric systems. Large jet
engines and gas turbines are started with a compressed air motor that is geared to one of the engine's
driveshafts. Compressed air can be supplied from another engine, a unit on the ground or by the
aircraft's APU. Small internal combustion engines are often started by pull cords. Motorcycles of all sizes
were traditionally kick-started, though all but the smallest are now electric-start. Large stationary and marine
engines may be started by the timed injection of compressed air into the cylinders or occasionally with
cartridges. Jump starting refers to assistance from another battery (typically when the fitted battery is
discharged), while bump starting refers to an alternative method of starting by the application of some
external force, e.g. rolling down a hill.
[edit]Heat

shielding systems

30

Flexible ceramic heat shield commonly used on high-performance automobiles

Main article: Heat shield

These systems often work in combination with engine cooling and exhaust systems. Heat shielding is
necessary to prevent engine heat from damaging heat-sensitive components. The majority of older cars use
simple steel heat shielding to reduce thermal radiation and convection. It is now most common for modern
cars are to use aluminium heat shielding which has a lower density, can be easily formed and does not
corrode in the same way as steel. Higher performance vehicles are beginning to use ceramic heat shielding
as this can withstand far higher temperatures as well as further reductions in heat transfer.
[edit]Lubrication

systems

Internal combustions engines require lubrication in operation that moving parts slide smoothly over each
other. Insufficient lubrication subjects the parts of the engine to metal-to-metal contact, friction, heat buildup, rapid wear often culminating in parts becoming friction welded together e.g. pistons in their cylinders.Big
end bearings seizing up will sometimes lead to a connecting rod breaking and poking out through the
crankcase.
Several different types of lubrication systems are used. Simple two-stroke engines are lubricated by oil
mixed into the fuel or injected into the induction stream as a spray. Early slow-speed stationary and marine
engines were lubricated by gravity from small chambers similar to those used on steam engines at the time
with an engine tender refilling these as needed. As engines were adapted for automotive and aircraft
use, the need for a high power-to-weight ratio led to increased speeds, higher temperatures, and greater
pressure on bearings which in turn required pressure-lubrication for crank bearings and connectingrod journals. This was provided either by a direct lubrication from a pump, or indirectly by a jet of oil directed
at pickup cups on the connecting rod ends which had the advantage of providing higher pressures as the
engine speed increased.
[edit]Control

systems

Most engines require one or more systems to start and shutdown the engine and to control parameters
such as the power, speed, torque, pollution, combustion temperature, efficiency and to stabilise the engine
from modes of operation that may induce self-damage such as pre-ignition. Such systems may be referred
to as engine control units.
Many control systems today are digital, and are frequently termed FADEC (Full Authority Digital Electronic
Control) systems.

31

AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCHES, TRANSMISSIONS, AND TRANSAXLES

INTRODUCTION AUTOMOTIVE CLUTCHES
Learning Objective: State the operating principles and identify the components and the
maintenance for a clutch, a manual transmission, an automatic transmission, and a transaxle.
Learning Objective: State the operating principles and identify the components and maintenance
requirements for an automotive clutch.
In a vehicle, the mechanism that transmits the power developed by the engine to the wheels and/
or tracks and accessory equipment is called the power train. In a simple application, such as a
stationary engine-powered hoist, a set of gears or a chain and sprocket could perform this task.
However, auto-motive and construction equipment are not designed for such simple operating
conditions. They are designed to provide pulling power, to move at high speeds, to travel in
reverse as well as forward, and to operate on rough terrain as well as smooth roads. To meet these
varying conditions, vehicle power trains are equipped with a variety of components. This chapter
discusses the basic automotive clutch, transmissions (manual and automatic), and transaxles
(manual and automatic).
An automotive clutch is used to connect and disconnect the engine and manual (hand-shifted)
transmission or transaxle. The clutch is located between the back of the engine and the front of the
transmission.
With a few exceptions, the clutches common to the Naval Construction Force (NCF) equipment
are the single-, double-, and multiple-disc types. The clutch that you will encounter the most is the
single-disc type, as shown in figure 4-1. The double-disc clutch (fig. 4-2) is substantially the same
as the single disc, except that another driven disc and an intermediate driving plate are added. This
clutch is used in heavy-duty vehicles and construction equipment. The multiple-disc clutch is used
32

in the automatic transmission and for the steering clutch used in tracked equipment.

Figure 4-1.- Single-disc clutch.

Figure 4-2.- Double-disc clutch, exploded view.

33

Figure 4-3.- Clutch linkage mechanism.

The operating principles, component functions, and maintenance requirements are essentially the
same for each of the three clutches mentioned. This being the case, the single-disc clutch will be
used to acquaint you with the fundamentals of the clutch. hydraulic circuit, and the clutch fork.
Some manufacturers include the release bearing as part of the clutch release mechanism.
A clutch linkage mechanism uses levers and rods to transfer motion from the clutch pedal to the
clutch fork. One configuration is shown in figure 4-3. When the pedal is pressed, a pushrod
shoves on the bell crank and the bell crank reverses the forward movement of the clutch pedal.
The other end of the bell crank is connected to the release rod. The release rod transfers bell crank
movement to the clutch fork. It also provides a method of adjustment for the clutch.
The clutch cable mechanism uses a steel cable inside a flexible housing to transfer pedal
movement to the clutch fork. As shown in figure 4-4, the cable is usually fastened to the upper end
34

of the clutch pedal, with the other end of the cable connecting to the clutch fork. The cable
housing is mounted in a stationary position. This allows the cable to slide inside the housing
whenever the clutch pedal is moved. One end of the clutch cable housing has a threaded sleeve for
clutch adjustment.

DETONATION
Since the previous Wrenching With Rob, Chemical Soup: The Meaning of Gasoline we've been
besieged with questions and comments regarding the combustion process occurring in an engine.
In particular, the discussion focused on the problem of detonation, commonly referred to as
"knock," which is a very serious and detrimental problem when it occurs - usually the pressures
exerted onto the piston top during detonation are much larger (but of a shorter duration, like a
pressure spike) than the mean combustion pressure. Nevertheless they are very detrimental to
engine life, as the continual high shock loading of the piston, rod, crankshaft and bearings is
quite destructive.
Detonation is the result of an amplification of pressure waves, such as sound waves, occurring
during the combustion process when the piston is near top dead center (TDC).
The actual "knocking" or "ringing" sound of detonation is due to these pressure waves pounding
against the insides of the combustion chamber and the piston top, and is not due to 'colliding
flame fronts' or 'flame fronts hitting the piston or combustion chamber walls.'
Let's look in some detail at how detonation can occur during the combustion process:
First, a pressure wave, which is generated during the initial ignition at the plug tip, races through
the unburned air-fuel mix ahead of the flame front. Typical flame front speeds for a gasoline/air
mixture are on the order of 40 to 50 cm/s (centimeters per second), which is very slow compared
to the speed of sound, which is on the order of 300 m/s. In actuality, the true speed of the
outwards propagating flame front is considerably higher due to the turbulence of the mixture.
Basically, the "flame" is carried outwards by all the little eddies, swirls and flow patterns of the
35

turbulence resident in the air-fuel mix. This model of combustion is called the "eddy burning
model" (Blizzard & Keck, 1974).

Additionally, the genus of the flame front surface - that is the degree of 'wrinkling' - which
usually has a fractal nature (you know, those weird, seemingly random yet oddly patterned
computer drawings), is increased greatly by turbulence, which leads to an increased surface area
of the flame front. This increase in surface area is then able to burn more mixture since more
mixture is exposed to the larger flame front surface. This model of combustion is called the
"fractal burning model" (Goudin, F.C. et al. 1987, Abraham et al. 1985). The effects of this are
observed in so-called "Schlieren pictures," which are high-speed photographs taken though a
quartz window of a specially modified combustion chamber (Fig. 1, above).
Schlieren pictures show the various stages of the combustion process, in particular the highly
wrinkled and turbulent nature of the flame front propagation (initially called the flame 'kernel').

36

A higher degree of turbulence, and hence a higher "effective" flame front propagation velocity
can be achieved with a so-called squish band combustion chamber design. Sometimes a swirltype of induction process, in which the incoming mixture is rotating quickly, will achieve the
same goal of increasing the burn rate of the mixture.

As a general rule-of-thumb the pressure rise in the combustion chamber during the combustion
phase is typically 20-30 PSI per degree of crankshaft rotation. Once the pressure rises faster than
about 35 PSI/degree, the engine will run very roughly due to the mechanical vibration of the
engine components caused by too great of a pressure rise. Sometimes, the pressure wave can be
strong enough to cause a self ignition of the fuel, where free radicals (e.g. hydroxyl or other
molecules with similar open O-H chains) in the fuel promote this self ignition by the pressure
wave.As a general rule-of-thumb the pressure rise in the combustion chamber during the
combustion phase is typically 20-30 PSI per degree of crankshaft rotation. However, this can still
occur even without the presence of free radicals; it just won't be quite as likely to happen. This is
why high octane fuels, with fewer of these active radicals, can resist detonation better. However,
37

even high octane fuel can detonate - not because of too many free radicals - but because the
drastic increase in cylinder pressure has increased the local temperature (and molecular speed) so
high that it has reached the ignition temperature of the fuel. This ignition temperature is actually
somewhat lower than that of the main hydrocarbon chain of the fuel itself because of the creation
of additional radicals resulting from the break-up of the fuel's hydrocarbon chains in
intermolecular collisions.
Detonation usually happens first at the pressure wave's points of amplification, such as at the
edges of the piston crown where reflecting pressure waves from the piston or combustion
chamber walls can constructively recombine - this is called constructive interference to yield a
very high local pressure. If the speed at which this pressure build-up to detonation occurs is
greater than the speed at which the mixture burns, the pressure waves from both the initial
ignition at the plug and the pressure waves coming from the problem spots (e.g. the edges of the
piston crown, etc.) will set off immediate explosions, rather than combustion, of the mixture
across the combustion chamber, leading to further pressure waves and even more havoc.
Whenever these colliding pressure fronts meet, their destructive power is unleashed on the
engine parts, often leading to a mechanical destruction of the motor. The pinging sound of
detonation is just these pressure waves pounding against the insides of the combustion chamber
and piston top. Piston tops, ring lands and rod bearings are especially exposed to damage from
detonation. In addition, these pressure fronts (or shock waves) can sweep away the unburned
boundary layer (see figure 2 above) of air-fuel mix near the metal surfaces in the combustion
chamber.
The boundary layer is a thin layer of fuel-air mix just above the metal surfaces of the combustion
chamber (see figure 2, above).
Physical principles (aptly called boundary conditions) require that under normal circumstances
(i.e. equilibrium combustion, which means "nice, slow and thermally well transmitted") this
boundary layer stays close to the metal surfaces. It usually is quite thin, maybe a fraction of a
millimeter to a millimeter thick. This boundary layer will not burn even when reached by the
flame front because it is in thermal contact with the cool metal, whose temperature is always
well below the ignition temperature of the fuel-air mix.
38

DIESEL ENGINE
History
The modern diesel engine came about as the result of the internal combustion principles first
proposed by Sadi Carnot in the early 19th century. Dr. Rudolf Diesel applied Sadi Carnots
principles into a patented cycle or method of combustion that has become known as the
diesel cycle. His patented engine operated when the heat generated during the compression
of the air fuel charge caused ignition of the mixture, which then expanded at a constant
pressure during the full power stroke of the engine.
Dr. Diesels first engine ran on coal dust and used a compression pressure of 1500 psi to
increase its theoretical efficiency. Also, his first engine did not have provisions for any type of
cooling system. Consequently, between the extreme pressure and the lack of cooling, the
engine exploded and almost killed its inventor. After recovering from his injuries, Diesel tried
again using oil as the fuel, adding a cooling water jacket around the cylinder, and lowering the
compression pressure to approximately 550 psi. This combination eventually proved
successful. Production rights to the engine were sold to Adolphus Bush, who built the first
diesel engines for commercial use, installing them in his St. Louis brewery to drive various
pumps.
Diesel Engines
A diesel engine is similar to the gasoline engine used in most cars. Both engines are internal
combustion engines, meaning they burn the fuel-air mixture within the cylinders. Both are
reciprocating engines, being driven by pistons moving laterally in two directions. The
majority of their parts are similar. Although a diesel engine and gasoline engine operate with
similar components, a diesel engine, when compared to a gasoline engine of equal
horsepower, is heavier due to stronger, heavier materials used to withstand the greater
dynamic forces from the higher combustion pressures present in the diesel engine.
The greater combustion pressure is the result of the higher compression ratio used by diesel
engines. The compression ratio is a measure of how much the engine compresses the gasses in
the engines cylinder. In a gasoline engine the compression ratio (which controls the
compression temperature) is limited by the air-fuel mixture entering the cylinders. The lower
39

ignition temperature of gasoline will cause it to ignite (burn) at a compression ratio of less
than 10:1. The average car has a 7:1 compression ratio. In a diesel engine, compression ratios
ranging from 14:1 to as high as 24:1 are commonly used. The higher compression ratios are
possible because only air is compressed, and then the fuel is injected. This is one of the actors
that allows the diesel engine to be so efficient. Compression ratio will be discussed in greater
detail later in this module.
Another difference between a gasoline engine and a diesel engine is the manner in which
engine speed is controlled. In any engine, speed (or power) is a direct function of the amount
of fuel burned in the cylinders. Gasoline engines are self-speed-limiting, due to the method
the engine uses to control the amount of air entering the engine. Engine speed is indirectly
controlled by the butterfly valve in the carburetor. The butterfly valve in a carburetor limits
the amount of air entering the engine. In a carburetor, the rate of air flow dictates the amount
of gasoline that will be mixed with the air. Limiting the amount of air entering the engine
limits the amount of fuel entering the engine, and, therefore, limits the speed of the engine.
By limiting the amount of air entering the engine, adding more fuel does not increase engine
speed beyond the point where the fuel burns 100% of the available air (oxygen).
Diesel engines are not self-speed-limiting because the air (oxygen) entering the engine is
always the maximum amount. Therefore, the engine speed is limited solely by the amount of
fuel injected into the engine cylinders. Therefore, the engine always has sufficient oxygen to
burn and the engine will attempt to accelerate to meet the new fuel injection rate. Because of
this, a manual fuel control is not possible because these engines, in an unloaded condition,
can accelerate at a rate of more than 2000 revolutions per second. Diesel engines require a
speed limiter, commonly called the governor, to control the amount of fuel being injected into
the engine.
Unlike a gasoline engine, a diesel engine does not require an ignition system because in a
diesel engine the fuel is injected into the cylinder as the piston comes to the top of its
compression stroke. When fuel is injected, it vaporizes and ignites due to the heat created by
the compression of the air in the cylinder.
Diesel engine Components
40

To understand how a diesel engine operates, an understanding of the major components and
how they work together is necessary. Figure 2 is an example of a medium-sized, four-stroke,
supercharged, diesel engine with inlet ports and exhaust valves. Figure 3 provides a cross
section of a similarly sized V-type diesel engine.

41

Diesel Engine Support Systems

A diesel engine requires five supporting systems in order to operate: cooling, lubrication, fuel
injection, air intake, and exhaust. Depending on the size, power, and application of the diesel,
these systems vary in size and complexity.
Engine Cooling
Nearly all diesel engines rely on a liquid cooling system to transfer waste heat out of the
block and internals as shown in Figure 11. The cooling system consists of a closed loop
similar to that of a car engine and contains the following major components: water pump,
radiator or heat exchanger, water jacket (which consists of coolant passages in the block and
heads), and a thermostat.

42

Air Intake System

Because a diesel engine requires close tolerances to achieve its compression ratio, and
because most diesel engines are either turbocharged or supercharged, the air entering the
engine must be clean, free of debris, and as cool as possible. Turbocharging and
supercharging are discussed in more detail later in this chapter. Also, to improve a
turbocharged or supercharged engines efficiency, the compressed air must be cooled after
being compressed. The air intake system is designed to perform these tasks.
Air intake systems vary greatly from vendor to vendor but are usually one of two types, wet
or dry. In a wet filter intake system, as shown in Figure 14, the air is sucked or bubbled
through a housing that holds a bath of oil such that the dirt in the air is removed by the oil in
the filter.

43

The air then flows through a screen-type material to ensure any entrained oil is removed from
the air. In a dry filter system, paper, cloth, or a metal screen material is used to catch and trap
dirt before it enters the engine (similar to the type used in automobile engines).
In addition to cleaning the air, the intake system is usually designed to intake fresh air from as
far away from the engine as practicable, usually just outside of the engines building or
enclosure. This provides the engine with a supply of air that has not been heated by the
engines own waste heat.
The reason for ensuring that an engines air supply is as cool as possible is that cool air is
more dense than hot air. This means that, per unit volume, cool air has more oxygen than hot
air. Thus, cool air provides more oxygen per cylinder charge than less dense, hot air. More
oxygen means a more efficient fuel burn and more power.
After being filtered, the air is routed by the intake system into the engines intake manifold or
air box. The manifold or air box is the component that directs the fresh air to each of the
engines intake valves or ports. If the engine is turbocharged or supercharged, the fresh air

44

will be compressed with a blower and possibly cooled before entering the intake manifold or
air box. The intake system also serves to reduce the air flow noise.
Turbocharging
Turbocharging an engine occurs when the engines own exhaust gasses are forced through a
turbine (impeller), which rotates and is connected to a second impeller located in the fresh air
intake system. The impeller in the fresh air intake system compresses the fresh air. The
compressed air serves two functions. First, it increases the engines available power by
increasing the maximum amount of air (oxygen) that is forced into each cylinder. This allows
more fuel to be injected
and more power to be produced by the engine. The second function is to increase intake
pressure. This improves the scavenging of the exhaust gasses out of the cylinder.
Turbocharging is commonly found on high power four-stroke engines.
It can also be used on two-stroke engines where the increase in intake pressure generated by
the turbocharger is required to force the fresh air charge into the cylinder and help force the
exhaust gasses out of the cylinder to enable the engine to run.
Supercharging
Supercharging an engine performs the same function as turbocharging an engine. The
difference is the source of power used to drive the device that compresses the incoming fresh
air. In a supercharged engine, the air is commonly compressed in a device called a blower.
The blower is driven through gears directly from the engines crankshaft. The most common
type of blower uses two rotating rotors to compress the air. Supercharging is more commonly
found on two-stroke engines where the higher pressures that a supercharger is capable of
generating are needed.
Exhaust System
The exhaust system of a diesel engine performs three functions. First, the exhaust system
routes the spent combustion gasses away from the engine, where they are diluted by the
atmosphere. This keeps the area around the engine habitable. Second, the exhaust system
confines and routes the gasses to the turbocharger, if used. Third, the exhaust system allows
mufflers to be used to reduce the engine noise.
45

Operational Terminology
Before a detailed operation of a diesel engine can be explained, several terms must be
defined.
Bore and Stroke
Bore and stroke are terms used to define the size of an engine. As previously stated, bore
refers to the diameter of the engines cylinder, and stroke refers to the distance the piston
travels from the top of the cylinder to the bottom. The highest point of travel by the piston is
called top dead center (TDC), and the lowest point of travel is called bottom dead center
(BDC). There are 180o of travel between TDC and BDC, or one stroke.
Engine Displacement
Engine displacement is one of the terms used to compare one engine to another. Displacement
refers to the total volume displaced by all the pistons during one stroke. The displacement is
usually given in cubic inches or liters. To calculate the displacement of an engine, the volume
of one cylinder must be determined (volume of a cylinder = (phi*r^2)*h where h = the
stroke). The volume of one cylinder is multiplied by the number of cylinders to obtain the
total engine displacement.
Degree of Crankshaft Rotation
All events that occur in an engine are related to the location of the piston. Because the piston
is connected to the crankshaft, any location of the piston corresponds directly to a specific
number of degrees of crankshaft rotation. Location of the crank can then be stated as XX
degrees before or XX degrees after top or bottom dead center.
Firing Order
Firing order refers to the order in which each of the cylinders in a multicylinder engine fires
(power stroke). For example, a four cylinder engines firing order could be 1-4-3-2. This
means that the number 1 cylinder fires, then the number 4 cylinder fires, then the number 3
cylinder fires, and so on. Engines are designed so that the power strokes are as uniform as
possible, that is, as the crankshaft rotates a certain number of degrees, one of the cylinders
will go through a power stroke. This reduces vibration and allows the power generated by the
46

engine to be applied to the load in a smoother fashion than if they were all to fire at once or in
odd multiples.
The Basic Diesel Cycles
A diesel engine is a type of heat engine that uses the internal combustion process to convert
the energy stored in the chemical bonds of the fuel into useful mechanical energy. This occurs
in two steps. First, the fuel reacts chemically (burns) and releases energy in the form of heat.
Second the heat causes the gasses trapped in the cylinder to expand, and the expanding gases,
being confined by the cylinder, must move the piston to expand. The reciprocating motion of
the piston is then converted into rotational motion by the crankshaft.
To convert the chemical energy of the fuel into useful mechanical energy all internal
combustion engines must go through four events: intake, compression, power, and exhaust.
How these events are timed and how they occur differentiates the various types of engines.
All diesel engines fall into one of two categories, two-stroke or four-stroke cycle engines. The
word cycle refers to any operation or series of events that repeats itself. In the case of a fourstroke cycle engine, the engine requires four strokes of the piston (intake, compression,
power, and exhaust) to complete one full cycle. Therefore, it requires two rotations of the
crankshaft, or 720 of crankshaft rotation (360 x 2) to complete one cycle. In a two-stroke
cycle engine the events (intake, compression, power, and exhaust) occur in only one rotation
of the crankshaft, or 360.
Timing
In the following discussion of the diesel cycle it is important to keep in mind the time frame
in which each of the actions is required to occur. Time is required to move exhaust gas out of
the cylinder and fresh air in to the cylinders, to compress the air, to inject fuel, and to burn the
fuel. If a four-stroke diesel engine is running at a constant 2100 revolutions per minute (rpm),
the crankshaft would be rotating at 35 revolutions, or 12,600 degrees, per second. One stroke
is completed in about 0.01429 seconds.
The Four-Stoke Cycle
In a four-stroke engine the camshaft is geared so that it rotates at half the speed of the
crankshaft (1:2). This means that the crankshaft must make two complete revolutions before
47

the camshaft will complete one revolution. The following section will describe a four-stroke,
normally aspirated, diesel engine having both intake and exhaust valves with a 3.5-inch bore
and 4-inch stroke with a 16:1 compression ratio, as it passes through one complete cycle. We
will start on the intake stroke. All the timing marks given are generic and will vary from
engine to engine. Refer to Figures 10, 16, and 17 (compression) during the following
discussion.
Intake
As the piston moves upward and approaches 28 before top dead center (BTDC), as measured
by crankshaft rotation, the camshaft lobe starts to lift the cam follower. This causes the
pushrod to move upward and pivots the rocker arm on the rocker arm shaft. As the valve lash
is taken up, the rocker arm pushes the intake valve downward and the valve starts to open.
The intake stroke now starts while the exhaust valve is still open. The flow of the exhaust
gasses will have created a low pressure condition within the cylinder and will help pull in the
fresh air charge as shown in Figure 16.

The piston continues its upward travel through top dead center (TDC) while fresh air enters
and exhaust gasses leave. At about 12 after top dead center (ATDC), the camshaft exhaust
lobe rotates so that the exhaust valve will start to close. The valve is fully closed at 23
ATDC. This is accomplished through the valve spring, which was compressed when the valve
48

was opened, forcing the rocker arm and cam follower back against the cam lobe as it rotates.
The time frame during which both the intake and exhaust valves are open is called valve
overlap (51 of overlap in this example) and is necessary to allow the fresh air to help
scavenge (remove) the spent exhaust gasses and cool the cylinder. In most engines, 30 to 50
times cylinder volume is scavenged through the cylinder during overlap. This excess cool air
also provides the necessary cooling effect on the engine parts.
As the piston passes TDC and begins to travel down the cylinder bore, the movement of the
piston creates a suction and continues to draw fresh air into the cylinder.
THE TWO STROKE CYCLE
Like the four-stroke engine, the two-stroke engine must go through the same four events:
intake, compression, power, and exhaust. But a two-stroke engin requires only two strokes of
the piston to complete one full cycle. Therefore, it requires only on rotation of the crankshaft
to complete a cycle. This means several events must occur during eac stroke for all four
events to be completed in two strokes, as opposed to the four-stroke engin where each stroke
basically contains one event.
In a two-stroke engine the camshaft is geared so that it rotates at the same speed as the
crankshaft (1:1). The following section will describe a two-stroke, supercharged, diesel
engine having intake ports and exhaust valves with a 3.5-inch bore and 4-inch stroke with a
16:1 compression ratio, as it passes through one complete cycle. We will start on the exhaust
stroke. All the timing marks given are generic and will vary from engine to engine.
Exhaust and Intake
At 82 ATDC, with the piston near the end of its power stroke, the exhaust cam begins to lift
the exhaust valves follower. The valve lash is taken up, and 9 later (91 ATDC), the rocker
arm forces the exhaust valve off its seat. The exhaust gasses start to escape into the exhaust
manifold, as shown in Figure 21. Cylinder pressure starts to decrease.
After the piston travels three-quarters of its (down) stroke, or 132 ATDC of crankshaft
rotation, the piston starts to uncover the inlet ports. As the exhaust valve is still open, the
uncovering of the inlet ports lets the compressed fresh air enter the cylinder and helps cool the
49

cylinder and scavenge the cylinder of the remaining exhaust gasses (Figure 22). Commonly,
intake and exhaust occur over approximately 96 of crankshaft rotation.
At 43 ABDC, the camshaft starts to close the exhaust valve. At 53 ABDC (117BTDC), the
camshaft has rotated sufficiently to allow the spring pressure to close the exhaust valve. Also,
as the piston travels past 48ABDC (5 after the exhaust valve starts closing), the intake ports
are closed off by the piston.

Engine Control
The control of a diesel engine is accomplished through several components: the camshaft, the
fuel injector, and the governor. The camshaft provides the timing needed to properly inject the
fuel, the fuel injector provides the component that meters and injects the fuel, and the
governor
regulates the amount of fuel that the injector is to inject. Together, these three major
components ensure that the engine runs at the desired speed.
Fuel Injectors
Each cylinder has a fuel injector designed to meter and inject fuel into the cylinder at the
proper instant. To accomplish this function, the injectors are actuated by the engines
camshaft. The camshaft provides the timing and pumping action used by the injector to inject
50

the fuel. The injectors meter the amount of fuel injected into the cylinder on each stroke. The
amount of fuel to be injected by each injector is set by a mechanical linkage called the fuel
rack. The fuel rack position is controlled by the engines governor. The governor determines
the amount of fuel required to maintain the desired engine speed and adjusts the amount to be
injected by adjusting the position of the fuel rack.
Each injector operates in the following manner. As illustrated in Figure 26, fuel under
pressure enters the injector through the injectors filter cap and filter element. From the filter
element the fuel travels down into the supply chamber (that area between the plunger bushing
and the spill deflector). The plunger operates up and down in the bushing, the bore of which is
open to the fuel supply in the supply chamber by two funnel-shaped ports in the plunger
bushing.

51

The motion of the injector rocker arm (not shown) is transmitted to the plunger by the injector
follower which bears against the follower spring. As the plunger moves downward under
pressure of the injector rocker arm, a portion of the fuel trapped under the plunger is displaced
into the supply chamber through the lower port until the port is closed off by the lower end of
the plunger. The fuel trapped below the plunger is then forced up through the central bore of
the plunger and back out the upper port until the upper port is closed off by the downward
motion of the plunger. With the upper and lower ports both closed off, the remaining fuel
under the plunger is subjected to an increase in pressure by the downward motion of the
plunger.
When sufficient pressure has built up, the injector valve is lifted off its seat and the fuel is
52

forced through small orifices in the spray tip and atomized into the combustion chamber. A
check valve, mounted in the spray tip, prevents air in the combustion chamber from flowing
back into the fuel injector. The plunger is then returned back to its original position by the
injector follower spring.
On the return upward movement of the plunger, the high pressure cylinder within the bushing
is again filled with fresh fuel oil through the ports. The constant circulation of fresh, cool fuel
through the injector renews the fuel supply in the chamber and helps cool the injector. The
fuel flow also effectively removes all traces of air that might otherwise accumulate in the
system.
The fuel injector outlet opening, through which the excess fuel returns to the fuel return
manifold and then back to the fuel tank, is adjacent to the inlet opening and contains a filter
element exactly the same as the one on the fuel inlet side.
In addition to the reciprocating motion of the plunger, the plunger can be rotated during
operation around its axis by the gear which meshes with the fuel rack. For metering the fuel,
an upper helix and a lower helix are machined in the lower part of the plunger. The relation of
the helices to the two ports in the injector bushing changes with the rotation of the plunger.
Changing the position of the helices, by rotating the plunger, retards or advances the closing
of the ports and the beginning and ending of the injection period. At the same time, it
increases or decreases the amount of fuel injected into the cylinder. Figure 27 illustrates the
various plunger positions from NO LOAD to FULL LOAD. With the control rack pulled all
the way (no injection), the upper port is not closed by the helix until after the lower port is
uncovered.
Consequently, with the rack in this position, all of the fuel is forced back into the supply
chamber and no injection of fuel takes place. With the control rack pushed all the way in (full
injection), the upper port is closed shortly after the lower port has been covered, thus
producing a maximum effective stroke and maximum fuel injection. From this no-injection
position to the full-injection position (full rack movement), the contour of the upper helix
advances the closing of the ports and the beginning of injection.

53

Governor
Diesel engine speed is controlled solely by the amount of fuel injected into the engine by the
injectors. Because a diesel engine is not self-speed-limiting, it requires not only a means of
changing engine speed (throttle control) but also a means of maintaining the desired speed.
The governor provides the engine with the feedback mechanism to change speed as needed
and to maintain a speed once reached.
A governor is essentially a speed-sensitive device, designed to maintain a constant engine
speed regardless of load variation. Since all governors used on diesel engines control engine
speed through the regulation of the quantity of fuel delivered to the cylinders, these governors
may be classified as speed-regulating governors. As with the engines themselves there are
54

many types and variations of governors. In this module, only the common mechanicalhydraulic type governor will be reviewed.
The major function of the governor is determined by the application of the engine. In an
engine that is required to come up and run at only a single speed regardless of load, the
governor is called a constant-speed type governor. If the engine is manually controlled, or
controlled by an outside device with engine speed being controlled over a range, the governor
is called a variable-speed type governor. If the engine governor is designed to keep the engine
speed above a minimum and below a maximum, then the governor is a speed-limiting type.
The last category of governor is the load limiting type. This type of governor limits fuel to
ensure that the engine is not loaded above a specified limit. Note that many governors act to
perform several of these functions simultaneously.
Operation of a Governor
The following is an explanation of the operation of a constant speed, hydraulically
compensated governor using the Woodward brand governor as an example. The principles
involved are common in any mechanical and hydraulic governor.
The Woodward speed governor operates the diesel engine fuel racks to ensure a constant
engine speed is maintained at any load. The governor is a mechanical-hydraulic type governor
and receives its supply of oil from the engine lubricating system. This means that a loss of
lube oil pressure will cut off the supply of oil to the governor and cause the governor to shut
down the engine. This provides the engine with a built-in shutdown device to protect the
engine in the event of loss of lubricating oil pressure.
Simplified Operation of the Governor
The governor controls the fuel rack position through a combined action of the hydraulic
piston and a set of mechanical flyweights, which are driven by the engine blower shaft. Figure
28 provides an illustration of a functional diagram of a mechanical-hydraulic governor. The
position of the flyweights is determined by the speed of the engine. As the engine speeds up
or down, the weights move in or out. The movement of the flyweights, due to a change in
engine speed, moves a small piston (pilot valve) in the governors hydraulic system. This
motion adjusts flow of hydraulic fluid to a large hydraulic piston (servo-motor piston). The
55

large hydraulic piston is linked to the fuel rack and its motion resets the fuel rack for
increased/decreased fuel.

With the engine operating, oil from the engine lubrication system is supplied to the governor
pump gears, as illustrated in Figure 29. The pump gears raise the oil pressure to a value
determined by the spring relief valve. The oil pressure is maintained in the annular space
between the undercut portion of the pilot valve plunger and the bore in the pilot valve
bushing. For any given speed setting, the spring speeder exerts a force that is opposed by the
centrifugal force of the revolving flyweights. When the two forces are equal, the control land
on the pilot valve plunger covers the lower ports in the pilot valve bushing.

56

Under these conditions, equal oil pressures are maintained on both sides of the buffer piston
and tension on the two buffer springs is equal. Also, the oil pressure is equal on both sides of
the receiving compensating land of the pilot valve plunger due to oil passing through the
compensating needle valve. Thus, the hydraulic system is in balance, and the engine speed
remains constant.
When the engine load increases, the engine starts to slow down in speed. The reduction in
engine speed will be sensed by the governor flyweights. The flyweights are forced inward (by
the spring), thus lowering the pilot valve plunger (again, due to the downward spring force).
Oil under pressure will be admitted under the servo-motor piston (topside of the buffer piston)
57

causing it to rise. This upward motion of the servo-motor piston will be transmitted through
the terminal lever to the fuel racks, thus increasing the amount of fuel injected into the engine.
The oil that forces the servo-motor piston upward also forces the buffer piston upward
because the oil pressure on each side of the piston is unequal. This upward motion of the
piston compresses the upper buffer spring and relieves the pressure on the lower buffer
spring.
The oil cavities above and below the buffer piston are common to the receiving compensating
land on the pilot valve plunger. Because the higher pressure is below the compensating land,
the pilot valve plunger is forced upward, recentering the flyweights and causing the control
land of the pilot valve to close off the regulating port. Thus, the upward movement of the
servo-motor piston stops when it has moved far enough to make the necessary fuel correction.
Oil passing through the compensating needle valve slowly equalizes the pressures above and
below the buffer piston, thus allowing the buffer piston to return to the center position, which
in turn equalizes the pressure above and below the receiving compensating land. The pilot
valve plunger then moves to its central position and the engine speed returns to its original
setting because there is no longer any excessive outward force on the flyweights.
The action of the flyweights and the hydraulic feedback mechanism produces stable engine
operation by permitting the governor to move instantaneously in response to the load change
and to make the necessary fuel adjustment to maintain the initial engine speed.
Starting Circuits
Diesel engines have as many different types of starting circuits as there are types, sizes, and
manufacturers of diesel engines. Commonly, they can be started by air motors, electric
motors, hydraulic motors, and manually. The start circuit can be a simple manual start
pushbutton, or a complex auto-start circuit. But in almost all cases the following events must
occur for the starting engine to start.
1. The start signal is sent to the starting motor. The air, electric, or hydraulic motor, will
engage the engines flywheel.
2. The starting motor will crank the engine. The starting motor will spin the engine at a high
enough rpm to allow the engines compression to ignite the fuel and start the engine running.
58

3. The engine will then accelerate to idle speed. When the starter motor is overdriven by the
running motor it will disengage the flywheel.
Because a diesel engine relies on compression heat to ignite the fuel, a cold engine can rob
enough heat from the gasses that the compressed air falls below the ignition temperature of
the fuel. To help overcome this condition, some engines (usually small to medium sized
engines) have glowplugs. Glowplugs are located in the cylinder head of the combustion
chamber and use electricity to heat up the electrode at the top of the glowplug. The heat added
by the glowplug is sufficient to help ignite the fuel in the cold engine. Once the engine is
running, the glowplugs are turned off and the heat of combustion is sufficient to heat the
block and keep the engine running.
Larger engines usually heat the block and/or have powerful starting motors that are able to
spin the engine long enough to allow the compression heat to fire the engine. Some large
engines use air start manifolds that inject compressed air into the cylinders which rotates the
engine during the start sequence.
Engine Protection
A diesel engine is designed with protection systems to alert the operators of abnormal
conditions and to prevent the engine from destroying itself.
Overspeed device -Because a diesel is not self-speed-limiting, a failure in the governor,
injection system, or sudden loss of load could cause the diesel to overspeed. An overspeed
condition is extremely dangerous because engine failure is usually catastrophic and can
possibly cause the engine to fly apart.
An overspeed device, usually some type of mechanical flyweight, will act to cut off fuel to the
engine and alarm at a certain preset rpm. This is usually accomplished by isolating the
governor from its oil supply, causing it to travel to the no-fuel position, or it can override the
governor and directly trip the fuel rack to the no-fuel position.
Water jacket -Water-cooled engines can overheat if the cooling water system fails to remove
waste heat. Removal of the waste heat prevents the engine from seizing due to excessive
expansion of the components under a high temperature condition. The cooling water jacket is
commonly where the sensor for the cooling water system is located.
59

The water jacket temperature sensors provide early warning of abnormal engine temperature,
usually an alarm function only. The setpoint is set such that if the condition is corrected in a
timely manner, significant engine damage will be avoided. But continued engine operation at
the alarm temperature or higher temperatures will lead to engine damage.
Exhaust In a diesel engine, exhaust temperatures are very important and can temperatures
-provide a vast amount of information regarding the operation of the engine. High exhaust
temperature can indicate an overloading of the engine or possible poor performance due to
inadequate scavenging (the cooling effect) in the engine. Extended operation with high
exhaust temperatures can result in damage to the exhaust valves, piston, and cylinders. The
exhaust temperature usually provides only an alarm function.
Low lube oilLow oil pressure or loss of oil pressure can destroy an engine in short pressure
-order. Therefore, most medium to larger engines will stop upon low or loss of oil pressure.
Loss of oil pressure can result in the engine seizing due to lack of lubrication. Engines with
mechanical-hydraulic governors will also stop due to the lack of oil to the governor.
The oil pressure sensor usually stops the engine. The oil pressure sensors on larger engines
usually have two low pressure setpoints. One setpoint provides early warning of abnormal oil
pressure, an alarm function only. The second setpoint can be set to shutdown the engine
before permanent damage is done.
High crankcase High
crankcase pressure is usually caused by excessive blow-by (gas pressure pressure in the
cylinder blowing by the piston rings and into the crankcase). The high pressure condition
indicates the engine is in poor condition. The high crankcase pressure is usually used only as
an alarm function.

OTTO CYCLE- 4 STROKES

Nicolaus August Otto (Fig 1) the inventor of the four-stroke cycle was born on 14th June
1831 in Holzhausen (Germany).
60

In 1862 he began first experiments with four-strokes engines. Together with Eugen Langen
he founded the first engine company - "N.A.Otto & Cie". Then they improved the
atmospheric gas engine (Fig. 2) and in 1867 they won a gold medal at the Paris Exposition.
One of the first four-stroke engines is shown in Fig. 3. A working diagram of this engine is
shown in Fig. 4. It corresponds to the today's engines. He died on 26th January 1891 in
Cologne.

Fig 1: Nicolaus August Otto

Fig 3: four-stroke cycle engine 1876

Fig 2: atmospheric gas engine- about 1866/67 Fig 4: working diagram : 9th May 1876
61

(2) The Parts of the Engine

The figure at the right shows the main parts of a
simple four-stroke cycle engine. These are: the
Intake Valve (IV), the Exhaust Valve (EV), the
Piston (P), the Piston Rings (PR), the
Combustion Chamber (CC), the Connection
Rod (CR), the Crank Shaft (CS) and the Spark
Plug (SP).

the parts of a simple engine

(3) The Cycle - Introduction
A 4-stroke cycle engine carried out four piston strokes during one combustion cycle - Intake
Stroke, Compression Stroke, Power Stroke and Exhaust Stroke. During the intake stroke the
intake valve is opened and the piston moves toward the crank shaft. The movement of the piston
creates a negativ pressure in the combustion chamber. The air/fuel mixture is sucked into the
chamber. If the Bottom Dead Center (BDC) is reached the intake valve is closed and the piston
moves upwards (compression stroke). The air/fuel mixture is compressed. A short period before
the Top Dead Center (TDC) is reached the spark plug ignites the air/fuel mixture. Temperature
and the pressure into the combustion chamber increased rapidly. The hight pressure drives the
piston downward (power stroke). At the end of the power stroke - at the BDC - the exhaust valve
is opened. The piston is moved upward and the gases in the combustion chamber will be pushed
through the exhaust valve (exhaust stroke).
(4)The Cycle - The Four Strokes
If you have the ability to measure the pressure in the combustion chamber and its volume during
all four strokes you get a diagram like Fig. 6 (p-V diagram). It represents the state of the gas in
the chamber.

62

The figures of the state of a simplified engine as

so as the corresponding p-V diagrams were
taken form the Online Animation of a FourStroke Cycle site. The single point shown in the
p-V diagram represents the common state. The
color of the combustion chamber indicates the
temperaure (red: hot; blue: cold).

Bild 6: p-V diagram

INTAKE STROKE
The piston
moves down
the cylinder
and the
pressure will
drop
(negative
pressure). The
intake valve is
opend.

Fig 7: INTAKE STROKE

Because of the low pressure the air/fuel mixtures is sucked into the cylinder.
COMPRESSION STROKE

63

At Bottom
Dead Center
(BDC) the
cylinder is at
its maximum
volume and
the intake
valve is
closed. Now
the piston

COMPRESSION STROKE
moves backward the Top Dead Center (TDC) and compresses the air/fuel mixtures. The
pressure is increased and the volume is decreased. The necessary work for the compression
increases the internal energy of the mixtures - the temperature is increased. Because of the
fast compression only a small part of the energy is transfered to the environment.
Near the end
of the
compression
stroke, the
ignition starts
the
combustion
and the
mixture
burnes very

Fig 9: IGNITION
rapidly. The expanding gas creates a high preasures against the top of the piston. The
resulting force drives the piston downward in the cylinder.
POWER STROKE

64

The force
drives the
piston
downward to
crank shaft
(the valves
are closed).
The volume is
increased and
the preasure

Fig 10: POWER STROKE

is decreased. No more energy is added and because of this the internal energy of the gas is
decreased as so as the temperature.
EXHAUST STROKE
At BDC the
exhaust valve
is opend and
the piston
moves up the
cylinder. The
pressure drops
near the
preasure
outside the

Fig 11: EXHAUST STROKE

cylinder
because of the
opened
exhaust valve.
Exhaust gas
leaves the
cylinder. The
volume is
65

decreased.
4 STROKE I.C ENGINE-Fundamentals
Lesson Objectives:
After the presentation, you should be able to do the following:

understand the brief history of the internal combustion engine

understand the process of converting reciprocating motion to rotating motion

identify the four strokes of the internal combustion engine

identify the differences between the gasoline engine and the Diesel engine

Introduction: The History

Many people claimed the invention of the internal combustion engine in the 1860's, but only one
has the patent on the four stroke operating sequence. In 1867, Nikolaus August Otto, a German
engineer, developed the four-stroke "Otto" cycle, which is widely used in transportation even
today. Otto developed the four-stroke internal combustion engine when he was 34 years old.
The Diesel Engine came about in 1892 by another German engineer, Rudolph Diesel. The Diesel
engine is designed heavier and more powerful than gasoline engines and utilizes oil as fuel.
Diesel engines are a commonly used in heavy machinery, locomotives, ships, and some
automobiles.
It is important to mention that the basic operating principles of these engines have been around
for more than a hundred years and they are still in place. Some people get discouraged when they
look under the hood and cannot recognize a thing on their
automobile. Rest assured that underneath all of those wires and
sensors lies an engine with the same basic operating principles of
that "Otto" engine over a century old.
The Internal Combustion Engine:

66

Before explaining the operation of the four-stroke engine, some of the internal parts must be
identified. Refer to the drawing of the basic internal combustion engine. Throughout the
presentation, these parts are mentioned, so an understanding of what they do should be helpful.
The Intake Valve opens at a precise time to allow the air/fuel mixture to enter the cylinder. The
Exhaust Valve opens at a precise time to allow the burned gases to leave the cylinder. The Spark
Plug ignites the air/fuel mixture in the cylinder, which creates an explosion. The force of the
explosion is transferred to the Piston. The piston travels up and down in a Reciprocation Motion.
The force from the piston is then transferred to the Crankshaft through the Piston Rod
(connecting rod). The piston rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston, to the Rotating
Motion of the crankshaft. Now that the basic parts are identified, lets go through the four strokes
of the internal combustion engine, which are Intake, Compression, Power, and Exhaust.

The Intake Stroke:

On the intake stroke, the intake valve has opened. The piston is moving
down, and a mixture of air and vaporized fuel is being pushed by
atmospheric pressure into the cylinder through the intake valve port.

The Compression Stroke:

After the piston reaches the lower limit of its travel, it begins to move
upward. As this happens, the intake valve closes. The exhaust valve is
also closed, so the cylinder is sealed. As the piston moves upward, the
67

air/fuel mixture is compressed. On some small high compression engines, by the time the piston
reaches the top of its travel, the mixture is compressed to as little as one-tenth its original
volume. Thus, the compression of the air/fuel mixture increases the pressure in the cylinder. The
compression process also creates the air/fuel mixture to increase in temperature.

The Power Stroke:

As the piston reaches the top of its travel on the compression stroke, an
electric spark is produced at the spark plug. The ignition system delivers
a high voltage surge of electricity to the spark plug to create the spark.
The spark ignites the air/fuel mixture. The mixture burns rapidly and
cylinder pressure increases to as much as (600psi). All of this pressure
against the piston forces it down in the cylinder. The power impulse is
transmitted down through the piston, through the piston rod (connecting
rod), and to the crankshaft. The crankshaft is rotated due to the force.

The Exhaust Stroke:

As the piston reaches the bottom of its travel, the exhaust valve opens.
Now, as the piston moves up on the exhaust stroke, it forces the burned
gases out of the cylinder through the exhaust port. When the piston
reaches the top of its travel, the exhaust valve closes, and the intake valve
opens. The cycle repeats again with the intake stroke. The four strokes are
continuously repeated during the operation of the engine.
68

The Diesel Engine:

Not much is different in the Diesel engine. In the Diesel, the fuel is not mixed with the air
entering the cylinder during the intake stroke. Air alone is compressed during the compression
stroke. The Diesel fuel oil is injected or sprayed into the cylinder at the end of the compression
stroke. In Diesel engines, compression ratios are as high as (22.5 to 1) and provide pressures of
(500psi) at the end of the compression stroke. Through the compression process, the air can be
heated up (1000 degrees F). This temperature is high enough to spontaneously ignite the fuel as it
is injected into the cylinder. The high pressure of the explosion forces the piston down as in the
gasoline engine.

Summary:
The four strokes of the internal combustion engine are as follows (and in order): Intake,
Compression, Power, and Exhaust. These four strokes require two revolutions of the crankshaft.
The process continuously repeats itself during the operation of the engine. So, if a four-cylinder
engine requires two complete revolutions of the crankshaft to ignite all of its cylinders, how
many revolutions does an eight-cylinder engine require. Hopefully you answered two. It only
69

takes two revolutions of the crankshaft to fire all of the cylinders of any four-stroke engine. The
connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion (up and down) of the piston to the rotating
motion of the crankshaft. The Diesel engine differs from the gasoline engine in that the intake
stroke only pulls in air, not air and fuel. The fuel is injected into the cylinder at the end of the
compression stroke. The fuel burns immediately (without the use of a spark plug) because of the
high temperature of air in the cylinder.
The difference between 4 stroke and 2 stroke engines

First, some basic concepts. Well one basic concept really - the most common
types of internal combustion engine and how they work. It's worth reading
this bit first otherwise the whole section on octane later in the page will seem
a bit odd. Almost every car sold today has a 4 stroke engine. So do a lot of
motorbikes, lawnmowers, snowblowers and other mechanical equipment. But
there are still a lot of 2 stroke engines about in smaller motorbikes, smaller
lawnmowers, leaf-blowers, snowblowers and such.
The difference between the two engine types is the number of times the
piston moves up and down in the cylinder for a single combustion cycle. A
combustion cycle is the entire process of sucking fuel and air into the piston,
igniting it and expelling the exhaust.

How 2 stroke engines work

70

A 2 stroke engine is different from a 4 stroke engine in two basic ways. First,
the combustion cycle is completed within a single piston stroke as oppose to
two piston strokes, and second, the lubricating oil for the engine is mixed in
with the petrol or fuel. In some cases, such as lawnmowers, you are expected
to pre-mix the oil and petrol yourself in a container, then pour it into the fuel
tank. In other cases, such as small motorbikes, the bike has a secondary oil
tank that you fill with 2 stroke oil and then the engine has a small pump
which mixes the oil and petrol together for you.
The simplicity of a 2 stroke engine lies in the reed valve and the design of
the piston itself. The picture on the right shows a 4 stroke piston (left) and a
2 stroke piston (right). The 2 stroke piston is generally taller than the 4
stroke version, and it has two slots cut into one side of it. These slots,
combined with the reed valve, are what make a 2 stroke engine work the way
it does. The following animation shows a 2 stroke combustion cycle. As the
piston (red) reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plug ignites the fuel-airoil mixture. The piston begins to retreat. As it does, the slots cut into the
piston on the right begin to align with the bypass port in the cylinder wall
(the green oblong on the right). The receding piston pressurises the crank
case which forces the reed or flapper valve (purple in this animation) to
close, and at the same time forces the fuel-air-oil mixture already in the
crankcase out through the piston slots and into the bypass port. This
effectively routes the mixture up the side of the cylinder and squirts it into
the combustion chamber above the piston, forcing the exhaust gas to expel
through the green exhaust port on the left. Once the piston begins to advance
again, it generates a vacuum in the crank case. The reed or flapper valve is
sucked open and a fresh charge of fuel-air-oil mix is sucked into the crank
case. When the piston reaches the top of its travel, the spark plug ignites the
mixture and the cycle begins again.

71

For the same cylinder capacity, 2 stroke engines are typically more powerful
than 4 stroke versions. The downside is the pollutants in the exhaust; because
oil is mixed with the petrol, every 2 stroke engine expels burned oil with the
exhaust. 2 stroke oils are typically designed to burn cleaner than their 4
stroke counterparts, but nevertheless, the 2 stroke engine can be a smoky
beast. If, like me, you grew up somewhere in Europe where scooters were all
the rage for teenagers, then the mere smell of 2 stroke exhaust can bring back
fond memories. The other disadvantage of 2 stroke engines is that they are
noisy compared to 4 stroke engines. Typically the noise is described as
"buzzy".
How 4 stroke engines work

72

4 stroke engines are typically much larger capacity than 2 stroke ones, and
have a lot more complexity to them. Rather than relying on the simple
mechanical concept of reed valves, 4 stroke engines typically have valves at
the top of the combustion chamber. The simplest type has one intake and one
exhaust valve. More complex engines have two of one and one of the other,
or two of each. So when you see "16v" on the badge on the back of a car, it
means it's a 4-cylinder engine with 4 valves per cylinder - two intake and two
exhaust - thus 16 valves, or "16v". The valves are opened and closed by a
rotating camshaft at the top of the engine. The camshaft is driven by either
gears directly from the crank, or more commonly by a timing belt.
The following animation shows a 4 stroke combustion cycle. As the piston
(red) retreats on the first stroke, the intake valve (left green valve) is opened
and the fuel-air mixture is sucked into the combustion chamber. The valve
closes as the piston bottoms out. As the piston begins to advance, it
compresses the fuel-air mix. As it reaches the top of it's stroke, the spark
plug ignites the fuel-air mix and it burns. The expanding gasses force the
piston back down on its second stroke. At the bottom of this stroke, the
exhaust valve (right green valve) opens, and as the piston advances for a
second time, it forces the spent gasses out of the exhaust port. As the piston
begins to retreat again, the cycle starts over, sucking a fresh charge of fuelair mix into the combustion chamber.

73

Because of the nature of 4 stroke engines, you won't often find a singlecylinder 4 stroke engine. They do exist in some off-road motorbikes but they
have such a thump-thump-thump motion to them that they require some large
balancing shafts or counterweights on the crank to try to make the ride
smoother. They also take a little longer to start from cold because you need
to crank the single piston at least twice before a combustion cycle can start.
Any more than one piston and the engine gets a lot smoother, starts better,
and is nowhere near as thumpy. That's one of the advantages of V-6 and V-8
engines. Apart from the increased capacity, more cylinders typically means a
smoother engine because it will be more in balance.
Geek trivia : Mercedes-Benz needed to increase the performance of their
diesel passenger cars back in the 70's as their market share in the US was
increasing. As professionals with big V-8 luxury cars were trading them in
for 2.4l diesels, the demand for performance had to be addressed. Mercedes
74

did not want to retool their 114/115 series chassis and there wasn't enough
room in the engine bay for a six cylinder diesel. There was, however, room
for a straight-5. Benz engineers just hung another cylinder on the back of the
4 cyl block and presto! The five cylinder engine was born. This engine
acquired a lot of status among the high line car owners. When Audi
introduced the C2 series cars (the 5000 in America, the 100 in Europe) in
1976, they offered a 5-cylinder petrol engine too. It was basically a 1.8 litre
4-cylinder engine with an extra cylinder. That took it up to 2.0 litres but the
fifth piston made such an enormous difference to the smoothness of the
engine that it was often mistaken for a V6 or V8. Why only 5 cylinders
instead of going for a V6? Partly for the same rationale as Mercedes (and it
was a really tight fit) but primarily because Benz had made the straight-5
configuration fashionable. A straight-5 was also more fuel-efficient than a
V6. It's also worth pointing out that nowadays, both Audi and VW have V5
engines with three cylinders in one bank and two in the other. Same
smoothness, better gas-mileage.
4 stroke Diesel Engines
Mechanically, 4 stroke diesel engines work identically to four-stroke petrol
engines in terms of piston movement and crank rotation. (To be historically
accurate, petrol engines are mechanically similar to diesel engines - diesel
engines came first) It's in the combustion cycle where the differences come
through. First, during the intake cycle, the engine only sucks air into the
combustion chamber through the intake valve - not a fuel/air mix. Second,
there is no spark plug. Diesel engines work on self-ignition, or detonation the one thing you don't want in a petrol engine (see the section on Octane
later). At the top of the compression stroke, the air is highly compressed
(over 500psi), and very hot (around 700 C - 1292F). The fuel is injected
directly into that environment and because of the heat and pressure, it
spontaneously combusts (this system is known as direct-injection). This gives
the characteristic knocking sound that diesel engines make, and is also why
75

pre-igniting petrol engines are sometimes refered to as 'dieseling'.

Petrol engines typically run compression rations around 10:1, with lower end
engines down as low as 8:1 and sportier engines up near 12:1. Diesel engines
on the other hand typically run around 14:1 compression ratio and can go up
as high as 25:1. Combined with the higher energy content of diesel fuel
(around 147,000 BTU per gallon versus 125,000 BTU for a gallon of petrol),
this means that the typical diesel engine is also a lot more efficient than your
common or garden petrol engine, hence the much higher gas-mileage ratings.
Because of the design of the diesel engine, the injector is the most critical
part and has been subjected to literally hundreds of variations in both design
and position. It has to be able to withstand massive pressures and
temperatures, yet still deliver the fuel in a fine mist. One other component
that some diesel engines have is a glowplug. From cold, some lower-tech
engines can't retard the ignition enough, or get the air temperature high
enough on startup for the spontaneous combustion to happen. In those
engines, the glowplug is literally a hot wire in the top of the cylinder
designed to increase the temperature of the compressed air to the point where
the fuel will combust. These engines typically have a pictograph on the
dashboard that looks like a lightbulb. When starting the engine cold, you
need to wait for that light to go out - basically you're waiting for the
glowplugs to get up to temperature. In really old diesel designs, this could be
as long as 10 seconds. Nowadays it's nearly instantaneous, or in the case of
advanced ECM systems, not needed at all.
2 stroke Diesel Engines
Would you believe there is such a thing as a 2 stroke diesel engine? The twostroke cycle described above turns out to be highly beneficial for the diesel
model, the major difference being the inclusion of exhaust valves at the top
of the cylinder. The burn cycle works similarly too. At the top of the piston
travel, the air is hot and compressed, just like in a 4 stroke diesel. And like
the 4 stroke, the injector sprays fuel in at that point and it self-combusts. As
76

the gasses expand, the piston is forced downwards and towards the bottom of
its stroke, the exhaust valves on the top of the cylinder open. Because the gas
is still expanding at this point, the combustion chamber empties itself
through the open valves. At the very bottom of the power stroke, the piston
uncovers the air intake and pressurised air fills the combustion chamber
forcing the last remnants of the exhaust gas out. As the piston begins its
compression stroke, the exhaust valves close and the air is compressed and
voila - a two-stroke diesel engine. The other difference between a 4 stroke
and 2 stroke diesel engine is that the 2 stroke variety must have a
turbocharger or supercharger; you'll notice I mentioned the air intake fills the
cylinder with pressurised air. That doesn't happen by magic.
As with 2 stroke petrol engines, every downward piston stroke is a power
stroke, meaning the 2 stroke engine has the potential to product twice as
much power as its 4 stroke sibling. Typically you'll find 2 stroke diesels in
maritime engines (like those on freighters, tankers and cruise ships) and
diesel-electric trains where more power is needed for the same size of
engine.
"Clean" diesels? Toyota's D-Cat and DPNR
Old-school diesel engines used to sound like tractors when you started them
on a cold morning, and they used to spew particulates out of the exhaust to
the point where the back of the car went black. Newer generation diesels start
much less noisily but for the most part still have some issues with
particulates in the exhaust. Toyota claim to have solved this with their D-Cat
and DPNR system. D-Cat stands for Diesel Clean Advanced Technology and
DPNR stands for Diesel Particulate NOx Reduction. The operating principle
is fairly sound. D-Cat is an advanced computer-controlled system for
cleaning diesel exhaust gasses which relies on the DPNR catalyser. This is a
combination of particle filters and normal gas-reduction catalysing metals
that remove particulates, sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 )
from the exhaust gasses. A sensor measures can tell when these filters are
77

nearly full at which point a fifth diesel-injector sprays a little fuel directly
into the exhaust system. Combined with the exhaust gas recirculation system,
this results in all the collected pollutants being burned off, cleaning the filter
in the process. DPNR requires ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) to work
properly.
This all sounds very good but this system was launched on the D-4D engined
2.0litre Toyota Avensis, and very soon afterwards, the complaints started to
come in. Notably, Dutch car magazine AutoWeek (issue 42 / 2006) exposed
the problem when their DPNR-equipped Avensis started driving around with
a huge cloud of white smoke pouring out of the exhaust. They weren't the
only ones to have this problem. Hundreds of complaints have been filed in
Germany and other European countries for the same thing. The problem is
that the D-Cat/DPNR system needs to 'regenerate' as described above. The
particulate and gas filters are cleaned via a combustion mechanism in the
exhaust, but this only happens at speeds below 160km/h (99mph), and takes
about 20 minutes each time. In Germany especially, where they still have
sections of unlimited-speed autobahns, people have been driving well over
that speed for miles on end, then stopping and turning the car off, only to
repeat the cycle twice a day during their commute. When this happens, the
DPNR system never gets time to regenerate normally and the particle filters
become clogged. When this happens, the DPNR system forces a clean cycle
to happen and the combustion results in white smoke as there are too many
pollutants trying to be burned off at the same time. And not just a little white
smoke. In the AutoWeek test, they thought their Avensis was on fire it was
trailing so much smoke. Toyota has promised to sort this problem out with an
improved version of D-Cat, and will only be fitting it to the higher-spec
2.2litre engine.
Interference vs. non-interference engines

78

It's worth mentioning the two sub-types of 4 stroke engine at this point.
Because the valves always open inwards, into the combustion chamber, they
take up some space at the top of the chamber. In an interference engine, the
position of the piston at the top of its stroke will occupy the same physical
space that the open valves do whilst the piston is at the bottom of its stroke.
It's important to know if your engine is an interference engine because if the
timing belt breaks, at least one set of valves will stop in the open position
and the momentum of the engine will ram the piston in that cylinder up into
the valves requiring a very expensive engine repair or replacement. In a noninterference engine, the valves do not occupy any space that the piston could
move into, so if your timing belt snaps on one of these engines, in 99% of
cases you won't suffer any valve damage because the piston cannot physically
touch the open valves. That is the technical explanation of why its important
to get your timing belt changed at the manufacturer-specified mileage.
The picture here shows the difference between the two types. On the left,
circled in red is where the open valve interferes with the position of the
piston at the top of its travel. On the right, a non-interference engine shows
there is still a gap at the same point (exaggerated for my picture).
Top Dead Centre (TDC) and ignition timing
When a piston in an engine reaches the top of its travel, that point is known
as Top Dead Centre or TDC. This is important to know because I don't think
any engine actually fires the spark plug with the pistons at TDC. More often
than not, they fire slightly before TDC. So how does your ignition system
work, and what is ignition timing all about?
Well generating the spark is the easy part. The electrical system in your car
supplies voltage to your coil and ignition unit. The engine will have a trigger
79

for each cylinder, be it a mechanical trigger (points), electronic module or

crank trigger. Whatever it is, at that point, the engine effectively sends a
signal to the coil to discharge into the high voltage system. That charge
travels into the distributor cap and is routed to the relevant spark plug where
it is turned into a spark. The key to this, though, is the timing of the spark in
relation to the position of the piston in the cylinder. Hence ignition timing.
Having the spark ignite the fuel-air mixture too soon is basically the same as
detonation and is bad for all the mechanical components of your engine.
Having the spark come along too late will cause it to try to ignite the fuel-air
mixture after the piston has already started to recede down the cylinder,
which is inefficient and loses power.
Timing the spark nowadays is usually done with the engine management
system. It measures airflow, ambient temperature, takes input from knock
sensors and literally dozens of sensors all over the engine. It then has an
ignition timing map built into its memory and it cross references the input
from all the sensors to determine the precise time that it should fire the spark
plug, based on the ignition timing map. At 3000rpm, in a 4 cylinder engine, it
does this about 100 times a second. In older systems, the spark timing was
done using simple mechanical systems which had nowhere near the ability to
compensate for the all the variables involved in a running combustion engine.
Typically as an engine revs quicker, the ignition timing needs to advance
because the spark needs to get to the cylinder more quickly. Why? Well the
fuel-air mix takes a finite amount of time to combust. It won't burn any
quicker or slower for any given engine speed. So for higher speeds, the
mixture needs to be ignited earlier in the cycle to ensure that it begins to
burn at the optimum timing point. In modern systems, this is all taken
account of in the ignition timing map. On older mechanical system, they used
mechanical or vacuum advance systems, so that the more vacuum generated
in the intake manifold (due to the engine running quicker), the more
advanced the timing became.

80

Checking ignition timing

Despite the speed that an engine turns, it is possible for mere mortals like
you and me to be able to check the ignition timing or an engine using (and
you'd have never guessed this) an ignition timing light. Timing lights are
typically strobe lights. They work by being connected to the battery directly
and then having an induction coil clamped around one of the spark plug leads
- normally the first or last cylinder in the engine depending on the
manufacturer. When the engine fires the spark plug for that cylinder, the
inductive loop detects the current in the wire and flashes the strobe in the
timing light once. So if the engine is ticking over at 1100rpm, the strobe will
flash 550 times a minute (4 stroke engine, remember?). Fantastic. So you're
now holding a portable rave lighting rig but how does this help you see the
timing of an engine? Well it's simple. You must have seen strobe lights
working somewhere - a rave, a stage show - they're used to effectively freeze
the position of something in time and space by illuminating it only at a
certain point and for a fraction of a second. Shooting a strobe at someone
walking in a dark room will result in you seeing them walk as if they were a
flip-book animation on a reel of film. This effect is what's used to visualise
the timing of your engine. Somewhere on the front of the engine there will be
a notch near one of the timing belt pulleys and stamped into the metal next to
81

it will be timing marks in degrees. On the pulley itself there will be a bump,
recess or white-painted blob. When you point the timing light down towards
the timing belt pulley, remember it fires once for each firing of the cylinders?
Each time it fires, the white blob on the pulley should be at the same position
in its rotation - the strobe fires once for each ignition spark at which point
the mark should be in the same place, and the effect to you is that the whole
pulley, timing mark and all, are now standing still in the strobe light. The
mark on the pulley will line up with one of the degree marks stamped on the
engine, so for example if the white dot always aligns with the 10 mark, it
means your engine is firing at 10 degrees before TDC. When you rev the
engine, the timing will change so the mark will move closer or further away
from the TDC mark depending on how fast the engine is spinning.
Note that in some engines, the two marks are simply painted or stamped, and
there are no degree markings. In this case, the marks align when the first
piston is exactly at TDC.
Check the timing marks first
After all that, it's worth pointing out that crank timing marks can be way off
so it's worth confirming that your TDC marker is actually TDC before
pratting about with the timing. It's not as bad now as it used to be, but in the
bad old days, Rover V8's were particularly bad for this, with some being as
much as 12 off! So how you do confirm your TDC really is TDC? Small
cameras, a good set of feeler gauges, some cash and someone who knows
what they're doing.
Timing marks on cam belt pulleys
The same timing marks exist stamped into the metal near, and on the pulley
on the end the cam. Essentially these marks are used to line up the cam to the
correct position when you're changing the timing belt. You have to make sure
the engine is rotated to TDC and that the cams are properly aligned too. If
82

you don't, the cams will spin permanently out-of-synch with the engine crank
and the engine will run badly, if at all.
SI and CI Engine Injection

In fuel-injected spark ignition [SI] engines, fuel is always injected into

the air charge well before ignition takes place. This is necessary because the liquid or gaseous
fuel must be thoroughly mixed together with air into a combustible mixture and then be ignited
by the electrical arc generated by the sparkplug. If the ratio of air to fuel is not reasonably close
to 15:1 in the vicinity of the sparkplug, the mixture will not ignite at all and a miss-fire results.
Compression ignition [CI] engines always inject the fuel charge directly into a combustion
chamber in the engine. Fuel injection and ignition are inextricably tied together in compression
ignition [CI] engines. Recall that CI engines only work because they compress the air charge so
that it is hot enough to instantly ignite the fuel charge as it is being injected. The combustion of
the fuel begins at the instant it begins being injected (within a couple of milliseconds) into the
combustion chamber full of very hot air (more than 400 C).
This means the timing of ignition is intimately tied to the fuel injection process. So, the fuel
injection system of a CI engine is responsible for regulating both the quantity of fuel to be
injected and the timing at the very start of combustion. Many ingenious techniques have been
developed to achieve both these tasks with admirable accuracy, long before the advent of
sophisticated electronic controls.
As you can see, diesel and petrol/gasoline engines go about the task of releasing energy from
their fuels in quite different ways. For more general information on this topic see our Why
Diesels are Different article.
83

How Much Fuel?

There are many factors that will determine how much fuel is being
injected. To help understand how much fuel is being injected, a few calculations must be
observed. We will use a 1997 Land Rover as an example.
Example - 1997 Land Rover
This vehicle has a 4 cylinder 2.5 litre engine.
At 100 km/h in 5th gear it is doing very close to 2400 rpm or 40 revolutions per second
(2400 / 60 = 40).
Being a 4 cylinder, 4 stroke engine, it will be producing 2 power strokes every revolution. This
equates to 80 power strokes per second. (40 revolutions x 2 power strokes).
At a steady cruising speed of 100 km/h, it's likely to be covering 10 km/litre. In other words,
using 10 litres every 100 km.
Therefore, our fuel burn rate is 10 litres per hour or 10 / 3600 = 0.00278 litres per second.
This also works out to be: 2.78 mL/sec.
Now, this 2.78 mL is shared between the 80 power strokes of the engine per second.
So, for each power stroke of the engine while we are cruising at 100 km/h, the fuel injection
system is delivering 2.78 / 80 which equals: 0.03472 mL into each cylinder.
Not much is it? And the injection system delivers precisely this quantity of fuel to one of the 4
cylinders of the engine, 80 times per second and at the exact instant the cylinder needs to fire.
So you can imagine how crucial the accuracy of the timing and the amount of fuel that needs to
be injected into each cylinder. Its amazing that all of this is done by a mechanical system with
no electronic smarts at all.
How much pressure?

84

SI engine (petrol/gasoline) injection systems typically run at pressure of 2 to 3 bar (30 to 40 psi).
In contrast CI (diesel) engines employ injection pressures of at least 350 bar (~5000 psi) and
possibly in excess of 2000 bar (more than 29,000 psi) quite a bit different to petrol/gasoline
systems! This explains why CI injection systems are so solidly built and piped-up with strong
steel tubing, etc.
Petrol/gasoline readily vaporises in the air stream, entering the engines cylinders and in contact
with the hot cylinder head surfaces, to form an easily ignitable air/vapour mixture. On the other
hand, to instantly ignite the much less volatile diesel fuel in the hot air charge of a CI engine, it is
necessary to spray it into the combustion chamber in extremely small droplets. And to achieve
this, extremely high injection pressures are required the higher the better, in general.
Injectors and Pumps

We now know we need to pump a spray of fuel

under high pressure into the combustion chambers of our CI engine. So what equipment do we
need to achieve this? Generally we would use at least one high-pressure pump and a device
called an injector for each cylinder of the engine.

CI engine injectors come in a myriad of sizes, shapes and designs but all have at their end a
specialised nozzle through which the fuel is sprayed. Even nozzle designs may be one of very
many types, but they all aim to achieve a uniform, very fine spray of fuel when they operate and
to stop and start that spray instantly, with minimal leakage or dribble. Usually this is performed
by a finely machined needle which uncovers and covers the tiny orifices through which the fuel
is forced at very high pressure.
More modern injectors are two-spring types. In these, the needle opens a small amount at a lower
85

pressure and then fully at a higher pressure. This gives a softer start to combustion and a
reduction in the typical diesel rattle at idle and part-throttle.
The precision and accuracy of modern high-pressure injectors is truly mind-boggling. They are
manufactured under super clean conditions to avoid any contamination. If you were to pull the
needle out of a modern injector nozzle with your fingers, have a brief look at it and then put it
back, you could then throw that hundred dollars or so worth of nozzle into the rubbish bin. The
minute amounts of body oil and acid on your skin would have marred the surface of the needle
enough to make it inoperable! This is the main reason why diesel specialists agree on the
importance of always maintaining clean fuel filters.
High-pressure pumps also come in a wide variety of designs but again, they all have a common
aim: to generate a precisely metered high-pressure pulse of fuel and deliver it to the right
cylinder injector at the right time. Further, as requirements for performance (kW / Litre of engine
capacity) and emission control increase, CI injections systems are constantly evolving to produce
ever higher injection pressures.
Piston/Plunger Pump Systems
All mechanical and many electronically-controlled CI injection systems use a piston or plunger
pump. These are a type of positive displacement pump, in which a plunger slides in a cylinder to
push a volume of fuel out of the pump to an injector, similar to a hypodermic syringe. If you
have a plunger and pump thats of a fixed size, then it will always pump the same volume of
liquid with each stroke. Since this is true, then how can the volume of fuel which is injected into
the engine be varied over the wide range necessary? In general, the spill method is used.
Spill Method
At the beginning of each injection pulse, the plunger begins to move fuel out to an injector. Once
the required volume of fuel has been injected, the rest of the fuel in the plunger cylinder is
spilled, by opening a spill port in the side of the cylinder. The fuel is not spilled out all over
your engine, but back into the pump chamber, ready for use in the next injection pulse. It is the
precise control of the spill point that determines the volume of fuel injected in each pump stroke.
86

In-line Pumps
The traditional style of injection pump is the in-line pump. They have been used for many
decades and are still commonly found on agricultural and stationary diesels. They are also found
in many older model diesel road vehicles such as the Toyota Landcruiser 2H diesel. They are
typically capable of generating injection nozzle pressures up to about 750 bar in light road
vehicles towards the lower end of the range that is required these days.
87

How Does it Work?

In-line pump systems have a separate pump plunger for each cylinder of the engine, so a 4
cylinder engine has a four plunger pump, a 6 cylinder engine has a six plunger pump, etc. The
pump is run at half engine crankshaft speed and has a central shaft with four, six, etc. cam lobes
attached. Each plunger is operated by its cam once every two crankshaft revolutions, coinciding
of course with the power stroke of its engine cylinder. Each plunger also has a spiral groove or
helix machined on its side and cut through to the top of the plunger. When operating, the plunger
is pushed up by its cam lobe. At a certain point the spiral groove will line up with a spill port on
the side of the plunger cylinder and the rest of the fuel is spilled.

Because the groove is a spiral shape, the point in the plunger stroke when it uncovers the spill
port will vary as the plunger is rotated a few degrees either way. This adjusts the spill point and
hence, the volume of its fuel charge to the engine cylinder.

88

Since all of the engine cylinders receive the same sized fuel charge, all of the plungers are
rotated together. This is achieved by each plunger having gear teeth machined to its
circumference, which are engaged by a common gear rack which runs through the pump body.
As the rack moves back and forth, all four (or six or more) plungers are rotated together. The
extremes of travel of the pump rack control the minimum and maximum fuel charge quantities
the pump is capable of delivering.
In-line Pump Drawbacks
In-line pumps have the advantage of a straightforward method of operation but suffer a couple of
important disadvantages. They consist of a large number of moving parts which have to be
operating in close match to give efficient operation. When it comes to high performance
applications, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep the numerous plungers and control collars
exactly matched in their delivery, especially if they begin to wear unevenly. As a result, many
higher performance applications these days use a type of single plunger distributor pump.

89

Axial Piston Distributor Pumps

The most common type of single-plunger injection pump is the axial piston distributor pump.
The pertinent word here is distributor. Just as many SI engines have (or at least, used to have) a
distributor to distribute the high voltage pulses to each spark plug in the firing order of the
engine, a distributor-type injection pump distributes high-pressure fuel pulses to each injector in
the firing order of the engine. In fact, in some older engine designs, where the same basic engine
block was utilised for both petrol SI and diesel CI versions, the diesel distributor pump sits nearvertically up on the side of the block, in the same position as the petrol engines ignition
distributor. The Land Rover 2.25L diesels from the late 1950s to the early 1980s are an example
of this design, using Lucas CAV injection pumps. See the image below.

How Does it Work?

In a distributor pump, every fuel pulse is generated by the same, single plunger, so each
cylinders fuel pulse is pretty-well guaranteed to be of the same volume. The axial piston part
of the name comes from the single pump piston or plunger lying along the axis of the pumps
drive shaft at the non-drive end. This plunger rotates with the pump drive shaft and is stroked by
a cam plate with one cam lobe for each cylinder of the engine which rolls over a roller plate.

90

At the discharge end of the plunger cylinder is a valve body with a gallery and outlet valve for
each engine cylinders injector. The plunger has a discharge port on its side which lines up with
each cylinders outlet gallery, in the firing order of the engine. At the other end of the plunger is a
spill port which is covered by an adjustable control collar, to vary the spill point and hence the
fuel charge size.

91

It's quite likely that the most common form of this type of pump is the Bosch VE (Verteiler) type.
They have been manufactured in the millions by Bosch and, under licence, by many other
manufacturers including the Japanese builders Nippon Denso and Diesel Kiki. Mechanicallycontrolled VE type pumps can generate nozzle pressure up to about 1200 bar.
Its pretty evident that most light road vehicle CI engine designs of the 1990s utilised VE type
92

pumps, either mechanically-controlled or, in more recent years, versions with various
electronically-controlled functions.
VE type pumps are used in: Land Rover Tdi, Mitsubishi 2.8 TD Pajero/Shoguns, Isuzu/Holden
2.8TDs, Toyota 4.2 1HZ/1HD, Nissan Patrol TD42/T and many other engines.
The Nissan TD42Ti engine (TD6 Patrol) uses a variant of the VE type pump with added
electronically controlled timing advance (Covec-T) and some late Land Rover 300tdi engines
used the Bosch VE-EDC (Electronic Diesel Control) version with fully electronic control of both
fuel quantity and timing.
Radial Piston Distributor Pumps
While the axial piston injection pump is capable of moderately high nozzle pressures, it is
limited by the fact that the axial plunger designplaces enormous axial (thrust) loads on the pump
shaft bearings. To overcome this, Bosch developed the radial piston pump.
How Does it Work?
The design is similar to the axial piston pump, where there is a single pumping chamber and a
rotating distributor valve, however, in the radial piston pump, an annular cam ring forces two
small pistons/plungers inward toward each other in the common chamber or cylinder. In this
way, the enormous pressure forces on each plunger act in a radial way and cancel each other,
therefore giving no axial load on the pump shaft bearings.

93

Electronic Controlled
The Bosch VR-MV radial piston distributor is fully electronically controlled and is capable of
nozzle pressures up to 1700 bar. This is significantly higher even than the capability of the first
generations of Common Rail Injection systems. The Nissan Patrol 3.0 ZD30 engine uses a
version of the VR type radial piston distributor pump (VP44).
Unit Injector Systems

To attain even higher nozzle pressures, unit injector systems were

developed. Instead of a central high-pressure injection pump and high-pressure pipes feeding
individual cylinder injectors, this system combines a small high-pressure pump into each injector
94

assembly. A common low pressure feed pump supplies each unit injector with fuel.
Each cylinder of an engine with a UIS system has an extra lobe on the cam shaft. This lobe acts
on the unit injector (either directly or through a rocker arm) to operate its high-pressure plunger.
The regulation of fuel delivery quantity may be achieve by a common rack system as in in-line
pumps. Many Cummins heavy duty diesel engines used a unit injector system with an ingenious
totally-mechanical system to vary both delivery quantity and timing.

High-Speed Electric Solenoid

The Bosch UIS-P1 electronically controlled system uses a high-speed electric solenoid valve
built into each unit injector to control both injection quantity and timing. It is capable of nozzle
pressures up to 2050 bar. The Land Rover Td5 engine uses a fully electronically-controlled UIS.
The latest electronic unit injectors use piezo-crystal wafer stacks instead of solenoids for higher
speeds of operation.

95

Common Rail Injection Systems

While high-pressure injection systems such as radial piston pumps and

unit injection systems have greatly improved the precision and efficiency of diesel injection, they
still suffer a fundamental limitation. The actual injection process into each engine cylinder is
limited to a single event for each power stroke. That is, for each power stroke, the injector opens
(at the optimum timing) and stays open until the correct fuel charge for the current load on the
engine has been delivered. It then closes until the next power stroke.
To further improve the emission control and fuel efficiency of a CI engine it becomes desirable
to spread the injection process over longer periods of the power stroke. This means being able to
open and shut each injector several times during each delivery cycle. Modern Common Rail
(CR) injection systems allow this.
96

How Does it Work?

The Common Rail part of the system is simply a pipe full of very high-pressure diesel fuel.
This is known as a fuel manifold or accumulator, or fuel rail in automotive jargon. It has a
relatively large diameter steel pipe (around 20mm in diameter) running along the cylinder head
of the engine, quite close to the actual injectors. A common high-pressure pump keeps the rail
continuously supplied with fuel at pressures up to 2000 bar. A short high-pressure pipe then
supplies each injector. As far as each injector is concerned, the rail represents an infinite source
of high-pressure fuel. It simply needs to open and shut at the appropriates times to deliver this
fuel to the combustion chamber.
Bosch released the first CR system in 1997, capable of nozzle pressures up to 1350 bar. This was
increased to 1600 bar with the second generation system in 2001. However, the real revolution
arrived with the third generation systems in 2003.

97

The 1st and 2nd generation systems used injectors with electric solenoids to lift/release the
needles and hence open and close the nozzles. The 3rd generation systems did something
completely new in this field. Instead of electric solenoids, they used stacks of piezo crystal
wafers to operate the nozzle needles.

Piezo Crystals
Piezo crystals are remarkable materials which actually change their shape when electric signals
are applied to them. Piezo crystal wafer stacks have the ability not only to operate nozzle needles
against the enormous fluid pressures involved but to do it extremely quickly and repetitively if
required. The rapid speed at which the injectors can switch makes it possible to reduce the
intervals between injections and split the quantity of fuel delivered into a large number of
separate injections for each power stroke. This has allowed a quantum improvement in emissions
and noise control in modern diesels.

How Manual Transmissions Work

by Marshall Brain
Browse the article How Manual Transmissions Work
Introduction to How Manual Transmissions Work
Image Gallery: Transmissions

98

Photo courtesy DaimlerChrysler

Mercedes-Benz Actros, manual transmission. See morepictures of transmissions.
If you drive a stick-shift car, then you may have several questions floating in your head.
How does the funny "H" pattern that I am moving this shift knob through have any relation to
the gears inside the transmission? What is moving inside the transmission when I move the
shifter?
When I mess up and hear that horrible grinding sound, what is actually grinding? What would
happen if I were to accidentally shift into reverse while I am speeding down the freeway? Would
the entire transmission explode?
In this article, we'll answer all of these questions and more as we explore the interior of a manual
transmission.
Cars need transmissions because of the physics of the gasoline engine. First, any engine has
a redline -- a maximum rpm value above which the engine cannot go without exploding.
Second, if you have read How Horsepower Works, then you know that engines have narrow rpm
ranges where horsepower and torque are at their maximum. For example, an engine might
produce its maximum horsepower at 5,500 rpm. The transmission allows the gear ratio between
the engine and the drive wheels to change as the car speeds up and slows down. You shift gears
so the engine can stay below the redline and near the rpm band of its best performance.
Ideally, the transmission would be so flexible in its ratios that the engine could always run at its
single, best-performance rpm value. That is the idea behind the continuously variable
transmission (CVT).
99

Continuously Variable Transmissions

A CVT has a nearly infinite range of gear ratios. In the past, CVTs could not compete with fourspeed and five-speed transmissions in terms of cost, size and reliability, so you didn't see them in
production automobiles. These days, improvements in design have made CVTs more common.
The Toyota Prius is a hybrid car that uses a CVT.
The transmission is connected to the engine through the clutch. The input shaft of the
transmission therefore turns at the same rpm as the engine.

Photo courtesy DaimlerChrysler

Mercedes-Benz C-class sport coupe, six-speed manual
transmission, graphic illustration.

100

RPM at Transmission
Gear Ratio

Output Shaft with

Engine at 3,000 rpm

1st

2.315:1 1,295

2nd

1.568:1 1,913

3rd

1.195:1 2,510

4th

1.000:1 3,000

5th

0.915:1 3,278

A five-speed transmission applies one of five different gear ratios to the input shaft to produce a
different rpm value at the output shaft. Here are some typical gear ratios:
You can read How CVTs Work for even more information on how continuously variable
transmissions work. Now let's look at a simple transmission.
A Very Simple Transmission

To understand the basic idea behind a standard transmission, the diagram below shows a very
simple two-speed transmission in neutral:
Let's look at each of the parts in this diagram to understand how they fit together:
101

The green shaft comes from the engine through the clutch. The green shaft and green
gear are connected as a single unit. (The clutch is a device that lets you connect and
disconnect the engine and the transmission. When you push in the clutch pedal, the
engine and the transmission are disconnected so the engine can run even if the car is
standing still. When you release the clutch pedal, the engine and the green shaft are
directly connected to one another. The green shaft and gear turn at the same rpm as the
engine.)

The red shaft and gears are called the layshaft. These are also connected as a single
piece, so all of the gears on the layshaft and the layshaft itself spin as one unit. The
green shaft and the red shaft are directly connected through their meshed gears so that if
the green shaft is spinning, so is the red shaft. In this way, the layshaft receives its
power directly from the engine whenever the clutch is engaged.

The yellow shaft is a splined shaft that connects directly to the drive shaft through
the differential to the drive wheels of the car. If the wheels are spinning, the yellow
shaft is spinning.

The blue gears ride on bearings, so they spin on the yellow shaft. If the engine is off
but the car is coasting, the yellow shaft can turn inside the blue gears while the blue
gears and the layshaft are motionless.

The purpose of the collar is to connect one of the two blue gears to the yellow drive
shaft. The collar is connected, through the splines, directly to the yellow shaft and spins
with the yellow shaft. However, the collar can slide left or right along the yellow shaft
to engage either of the blue gears. Teeth on the collar, called dog teeth, fit into holes on
the sides of the blue gears to engage them.

Now, let's see what happens when you shift into first gear.
First Gear
The picture below shows how, when shifted into first gear, the collar engages the blue gear on
the right:

102

In this picture, the green shaft from the engine turns the layshaft, which turns the blue gear on the
right. This gear transmits its energy through the collar to drive the yellow drive shaft.
Meanwhile, the blue gear on the left is turning, but it is freewheeling on its bearing so it has no
effect on the yellow shaft.
When the collar is between the two gears (as shown in the first figure), the transmission is in
neutral. Both of the blue gears freewheel on the yellow shaft at the different rates controlled by
their ratios to the layshaft.
From this discussion, you can answer several questions:

When you make a mistake while shifting and hear a horrible grinding sound, you
are not hearing the sound of gear teeth mis-meshing. As you can see in these diagrams,
all gear teeth are all fully meshed at all times. The grinding is the sound of the dog
teeth trying unsuccessfully to engage the holes in the side of a blue gear.

The transmission shown here does not have "synchros" (discussed later in the article),
so if you were using this transmission you would have to double-clutchit. Doubleclutching was common in older cars and is still common in some modern race cars. In
double-clutching, you first push the clutch pedal in once to disengage the engine from
the transmission. This takes the pressure off the dog teeth so you can move the collar
103

into neutral. Then you release the clutch pedal and rev the engine to the "right speed."
The right speed is the rpm value at which the engine should be running in the next gear.
The idea is to get the blue gear of the next gear and the collar rotating at the same speed
so that the dog teeth can engage. Then you push the clutch pedal in again and lock the
collar into the new gear. At every gear change you have to press and release the clutch
twice, hence the name "double-clutching."

You can also see how a small linear motion in the gear shift knob allows you to
change gears. The gear shift knob moves a rod connected to the fork. The fork slides
the collar on the yellow shaft to engage one of two gears.

In the next section, we'll take a look at a real transmission.

A Real Transmission
The following animation shows you the internal workings of a four-speed transmission with
reverse.

Animation courtesy Geebee's Vector Animations

The five-speed manual transmission is fairly standard on cars today. Internally, it looks
something like this:
104

There are three forks controlled by three rods that are engaged by the shift lever. Looking at
the shift rods from the top, they look like this in reverse, first and second gear:

105

Keep in mind that the shift lever has a rotation point in the middle. When you push the knob
forward to engage first gear, you are actually pulling the rod and fork for first gear back.
You can see that as you move the shifter left and right you are engaging different forks (and
therefore different collars). Moving the knob forward and backward moves the collar to
engage one of the gears.

106

Reverse gear is handled by a small idler gear (purple). At all times, the blue reverse gear in this
diagram is turning in a direction opposite to all of the other blue gears. Therefore, it would be
impossible to throw the transmission into reverse while the car is moving forward -- the dog
teeth would never engage. However, they will make a lot of noise!
Synchronizers
Manual transmissions in modern passenger cars use synchronizers to eliminate the need for
double-clutching. A synchro's purpose is to allow the collar and the gear to make frictional
contact before the dog teeth make contact. This lets the collar and the gear synchronize their
speeds before the teeth need to engage, like this:

107

The cone on the blue gear fits into the cone-shaped area in the collar, and friction between the
cone and the collar synchronize the collar and the gear. The outer portion of the collar then slides
so that the dog teeth can engage the gear.
Every manufacturer implements transmissions and synchros in different ways, but this is the
general idea.
How Clutches Work
by Karim Nice and Charles W. Bryant

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
108

Inside this Article

1.

Introduction to How Clutches Work

2.

Fly Wheels, Clutch Plates and Friction

3.

Common Problems

4.

Types of Clutches

5.

Lots More Information

6.

See all Transmissions & Drivetrain articles

Car Maintenance Videos

More Auto Videos

Transmission Image Gallery

109

Diagram of car showing clutch location. See moretransmission images.

If you drive a manual transmissioncar, you may be surprised to find out that it has more than one
clutch. And it turns out that folks with automatic transmission cars have clutches, too. In fact,
there are clutches in many things you probably see or use every day: Many cordless drills have a
clutch,chain saws have a centrifugal clutch and even some yo-yos have a clutch.
In this article, you'll learn why you need a clutch, how the clutch in your car works and find out
some interesting, and perhaps surprising, places where clutches can be found.
Clutches are useful in devices that have two rotating shafts. In these devices, one of the shafts is
typically driven by a motor or pulley, and the other shaft drives another device. In a drill, for
instance, one shaft is driven by a motor and the other drives a drill chuck. The clutch connects
the two shafts so that they can either be locked together and spin at the same speed, or be
decoupled and spin at different speeds.
In a car, you need a clutch because the engine spins all the time, but the car's wheels do not. In
order for a car to stop without killing the engine, the wheels need to be disconnected from the
engine somehow. The clutch allows us to smoothly engage a spinning engine to a non-spinning
transmission by controlling the slippage between them.
To understand how a clutch works, it helps to know a little bit about friction, which is a measure
of how hard it is to slide one object over another. Friction is caused by the peaks and valleys that
are part of every surface -- even very smooth surfaces still have microscopic peaks and valleys.
110

The larger these peaks and valleys are, the harder it is to slide the object. You can learn more
about friction in How Brakes Work.
A clutch works because of friction between a clutch plate and a flywheel. We'll look at how these
parts work together in the next section.
Fly Wheels, Clutch Plates and Friction
In a car's clutch, a flywheel connects to the engine, and a clutch plate connects to
the transmission. You can see what this looks like in the figure below.

Exploded view of a clutch

When your foot is off the pedal, the springs push the pressure plate against the clutch disc, which
in turn presses against the flywheel. This locks the engine to the transmission input shaft, causing
them to spin at the same speed.

111

Photo courtesy Carolina Mustang

Pressure plate
The amount of force the clutch can hold depends on the friction between the clutch plate and the
flywheel, and how much force the spring puts on the pressure plate. The friction force in the
clutch works just like the blocks described in the friction section of How Brakes Work, except
that the spring presses on the clutch plate instead of weight pressing the block into the ground.

How a clutch engages and releases

When the clutch pedal is pressed, a cable or hydraulic piston pushes on the release fork, which
presses the throw-out bearing against the middle of the diaphragm spring. As the middle of the
112

diaphragm spring is pushed in, a series of pins near the outside of the spring causes the spring to
pull the pressure plate away from the clutch disc (see below). This releases the clutch from the
spinning engine.

Photo courtesy Carolina Mustang

Clutch plate
Note the springs in the clutch plate. These springs help to isolate the transmission from the shock
of the clutch engaging.
This design usually works pretty well, but it does have a few drawbacks. We'll look at common
clutch problems and other uses for clutches in the following sections
Common Problems
From the 1950s to the 1970s, you could count on getting between 50,000 and 70,000 miles from
yourcar's clutch. Clutches can now last for more than 80,000 miles if you use them gently and
maintain them well. If not cared for, clutches can start to break down at 35,000 miles. Trucks that
are consistently overloaded or that frequently tow heavy loads can also have problems with
relatively new clutches.

113

Click "play" to see the slip.

The most common problem with clutches is that the friction material on the disc wears out. The
friction material on a clutch disc is very similar to the friction material on the pads of a disc
brake or the shoes of a drum brake -- after a while, it wears away. When most or all of the
friction material is gone, the clutch will start to slip, and eventually it won't transmit any power
from the engine to thewheels.
The clutch only wears while the clutch disc and the flywheel are spinning at different speeds.
When they are locked together, the friction material is held tightly against the flywheel, and they
spin in sync. It's only when the clutch disc is slipping against the flywheel that wearing occurs.
So, if you are the type of driver who slips the clutch a lot, you'll wear out your clutch a lot faster.
Clutch Diagnostic Test
If you find that your clutch has failed, here is
an at-home diagnostic test that anyone can
perform:
1.

Start your car, set the parking

break, and put the car in neutral.

2.

With your car idling, listen for a

growling noise without pushing the
clutch in. If you hear something, it's
114

most likely a problem with the

transmission. If you don't hear a noise,
proceed to step three.
3.

With the car still in neutral, begin

to push the clutch and listen for noise.
If you hear a chirping noise as you
press, it's most likely the clutch release,
or throw-out bearing. If you don't hear
a noise, proceed to step four.

4.

Push the clutch all the way to the

floor. If you hear a squealing noise, it's
probably the pilot bearing or bushing.

If you don't hear any noise during these four

steps, then your problem is probably not the
clutch. If you hear the noise at idle and it
goes away when the clutch is pressed, it may
be an issue in the contact point between the
fork and pivot ball.
Sometimes the problem is not with slipping, but with sticking. If your clutch won't release
properly, it will continue to turn the input shaft. This can cause grinding, or completely prevent
your car from going into gear. Some common reasons a clutch may stick are:

Broken or stretched clutch cable - The cable needs the right amount of tension to
push and pull effectively.

Leaky or defective slave and/or master clutch cylinders - Leaks keep the cylinders
from building the necessary amount of pressure.

Air in the hydraulic line - Air affects the hydraulics by taking up space the fluid
needs to build pressure.

Misadjusted linkage - When your foot hits the pedal, the linkage transmits the wrong
amount of force.

Mismatched clutch components - Not all aftermarket parts work with your clutch.
115

A "hard" clutch is also a common problem. All clutches require some amount of force to depress
fully. If you have to press hard on the pedal, there may be something wrong. Sticking or binding
in the pedal linkage, cable, cross shaft, or pivot ball are common causes. Sometimes a blockage
or worn seals in the hydraulic system can also cause a hard clutch.
Another problem associated with clutches is a worn throw-out bearing, sometimes called
a clutch release bearing. This bearing applies force to the fingers of the spinning pressure plate
to release the clutch. If you hear a rumbling sound when the clutch engages, you might have a
problem with the throw-out.
In the next section, we'll examine some different types of clutches and how they are used.
Types of Clutches
There are many other types of clutches in your car and in your garage.
An automatic transmission contains several clutches. These clutches engage and disengage
various sets of planetary gears. Each clutch is put into motion using pressurized hydraulic fluid.
When the pressure drops, springs cause the clutch to release. Evenly spaced ridges,
called splines, line the inside and outside of the clutch to lock into the gears and the clutch
housing. You can read more about these clutches in How Automatic Transmissions Work.

Car air conditioning compressor with magnetic clutch

An air conditioning compressorin a car has an electromagneticclutch. This allows the
compressor to shut off even while the engine is running. When current flows through a magnetic
116

coil in the clutch, the clutch engages. As soon as the current stops, such as when you turn off
your air conditioning, the clutch disengages.
Most cars that have an engine-driven cooling fan have athermostatically controlled viscous
clutch -- the temperature of the fluid actually drives the clutch. This clutch is positioned at the
hub of the fan, in the airflow coming through the radiator. This type of clutch is a lot like
the viscous coupling sometimes found in all-wheel drive cars. The fluid in the clutch gets thicker
as it heats up, causing the fan to spin faster to catch up with the engine rotation. When the car is
cold, the fluid in the clutch remains cold and the fan spins slowly, allowing the engine to quickly
warm up to its proper operating temperature.
Many cars have limited slip differentials or viscous couplings, both of which use clutches to
help increase traction. When your car turns, one wheel spins faster than the other, which makes
the car hard to handle. The slip differential makes up for that with the help of its clutch. When
one wheel spins faster than the others, the clutch engages to slow it down and match the other
three. Driving over puddles of water or patches of ice can also spin your wheels. You can learn
more about differentials and viscous couplings in How Differentials Work.
Gas-powered chain saws and weed eaters have centrifugal clutches, so that the chains or
strings can stop spinning without you having to turn off the engine. These clutches work
automatically through the use of centrifugal force. The input is connected to the engine
crankshaft. The output can drive a chain, belt or shaft. As the rotations per minute increase,
weighted arms swing out and force the clutch to engage. Centrifugal clutches are also often
found in lawn mowers, go-karts, mopeds and mini-bikes. Even someyo-yos are manufactured
with centrifugal clutches.
How Manual Transmissions Work
by Marshall Brain

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
Inside this Article
1.

Introduction to How Manual Transmissions Work

117

2.

Continuously Variable Transmissions

3.

A Very Simple Transmission

4.

First Gear

5.

A Real Transmission

6.

Lots More Information

7.

See more
Car Maintenance Videos

More Auto Videos

Image Gallery: Transmissions

Photo courtesy DaimlerChrysler

Mercedes-Benz Actros, manual transmission. See morepictures of transmissions.
If you drive a stick-shift car, then you may have several questions floating in your head.
118

How does the funny "H" patternthat I am moving this shift knob through have any relation to
the gears inside the transmission? What is moving inside the transmission when I move the
shifter?
When I mess up and hear that horrible grinding sound, what is actually grinding? What would
happen if I were to accidentally shift into reverse while I am speeding down the freeway? Would
the entire transmission explode?
In this article, we'll answer all of these questions and more as we explore the interior of a manual
transmission.
Cars need transmissions because of the physics of the gasoline engine. First, any engine has
a redline -- a maximum rpm value above which the engine cannot go without exploding.
Second, if you have readHow Horsepower Works, then you know that engines have narrow rpm
ranges where horsepower and torque are at their maximum. For example, an engine might
produce its maximum horsepower at 5,500 rpm. The transmission allows the gear ratio between
the engine and the drive wheels to change as the car speeds up and slows down. You shift gears
so the engine can stay below the redline and near the rpm band of its best performance.
Ideally, the transmission would be so flexible in its ratios that the engine could always run at its
single, best-performance rpm value. That is the idea behind the continuously variable
transmission (CVT).
Continuously Variable Transmissions

A CVT has a nearly infinite range of gear ratios. In the past, CVTs could not compete with fourspeed and five-speed transmissions in terms of cost, size and reliability, so you didn't see them in
production automobiles. These days, improvements in design have made CVTs more common.
The Toyota Prius is a hybrid car that uses a CVT.
119

The transmission is connected to the engine through the clutch. The input shaft of the
transmission therefore turns at the same rpm as the engine.

Photo courtesy DaimlerChrysler

Mercedes-Benz C-class sport coupe, six-speed manual
transmission, graphic illustration.
RPM at Transmission
Gear Ratio

Output Shaft with

Engine at 3,000 rpm

1st

2.315:1 1,295

2nd

1.568:1 1,913

3rd

1.195:1 2,510

4th

1.000:1 3,000

5th

0.915:1 3,278

A five-speed transmission applies one of five different gear ratios to the input shaft to produce a
different rpm value at the output shaft. Here are some typical gear ratios:
You can read How CVTs Work for even more information on how continuously variable
transmissions work. Now let's look at a simple transmission.

VIDEO: Check out in-depth videos on pistons and 10 ingenious car parts videos.>>
120

A Very Simple Transmission

To understand the basic idea behind a standard transmission, the diagram below shows a very
simple two-speed transmission in neutral:
Let's look at each of the parts in this diagram to understand how they fit together:

The green shaft comes from the engine through theclutch. The green shaft and green
gear are connected as a single unit. (The clutch is a device that lets you connect and
disconnect the engine and the transmission. When you push in the clutch pedal, the
engine and the transmission are disconnected so the engine can run even if the car is
standing still. When you release the clutch pedal, the engine and the green shaft are
directly connected to one another. The green shaft and gear turn at the same rpm as the
engine.)

The red shaft and gears are called the layshaft. These are also connected as a single
piece, so all of the gears on the layshaft and the layshaft itself spin as one unit. The
green shaft and the red shaft are directly connected through their meshed gears so that
if the green shaft is spinning, so is the red shaft. In this way, the layshaft receives its
power directly from the engine whenever the clutch is engaged.

121

The yellow shaft is a splined shaft that connects directly to the drive shaft through
thedifferential to the drive wheels of the car. If the wheels are spinning, the yellow
shaft is spinning.

The blue gears ride on bearings, so they spin on the yellow shaft. If the engine is off
but the car is coasting, the yellow shaft can turn inside the blue gears while the blue
gears and the layshaft are motionless.

The purpose of the collar is to connect one of the two blue gears to the yellow drive
shaft. The collar is connected, through the splines, directly to the yellow shaft and
spins with the yellow shaft. However, the collar can slide left or right along the yellow
shaft to engage either of the blue gears. Teeth on the collar, called dog teeth, fit into
holes on the sides of the blue gears to engage them.

First Gear
The picture below shows how, when shifted into first gear, the collar engages the blue gear on
the right:

In this picture, the green shaft from the engine turns the layshaft, which turns the blue gear on the
right. This gear transmits its energy through the collar to drive the yellow drive shaft.
Meanwhile, the blue gear on the left is turning, but it is freewheeling on its bearing so it has no
effect on the yellow shaft.
122

When the collar is between the two gears (as shown in the first figure), the transmission is in
neutral. Both of the blue gears freewheel on the yellow shaft at the different rates controlled by
their ratios to the layshaft.
From this discussion, you can answer several questions:

When you make a mistake while shifting and hear a horrible grinding sound, you
are nothearing the sound of gear teeth mis-meshing. As you can see in these diagrams,
all gear teeth are all fully meshed at all times. The grinding is the sound of the dog
teeth trying unsuccessfully to engage the holes in the side of a blue gear.

The transmission shown here does not have "synchros" (discussed later in the article),
so if you were using this transmission you would have to double-clutch it. Doubleclutching was common in older cars and is still common in some modern race cars. In
double-clutching, you first push the clutch pedal in once to disengage the engine from
the transmission. This takes the pressure off the dog teeth so you can move the collar
into neutral. Then you release the clutch pedal and rev the engine to the "right speed."
The right speed is the rpm value at which the engine should be running in the next
gear. The idea is to get the blue gear of the next gear and the collar rotating at the same
speed so that the dog teeth can engage. Then you push the clutch pedal in again and
lock the collar into the new gear. At every gear change you have to press and release
the clutch twice, hence the name "double-clutching."

You can also see how a small linear motion in the gear shift knob allows you to
change gears. The gear shift knob moves a rod connected to the fork. The fork slides
the collar on the yellow shaft to engage one of two gears.

In the next section, we'll take a look at a real transmission.

A Real Transmission
The following animation shows you the internal workings of a four-speed transmission with
reverse.

123

Animation courtesy Geebee's Vector Animations

The five-speed manual transmission is fairly standard on cars today. Internally, it looks
something like this:

There are three forks controlled by three rods that are engaged by the shift lever. Looking at
the shift rodsfrom the top, they look like this in reverse, first and second gear:
124

Keep in mind that the shift lever has a rotation point in the middle. When you push the knob
forward to engage first gear, you are actually pulling the rod and fork for first gear back.
You can see that as you move the shifter left and right you are engaging different forks (and
therefore different collars). Moving the knob forward and backward moves the collar to
engage one of the gears.

125

Reverse gear is handled by a small idler gear (purple). At all times, the blue reverse gear in this
diagram is turning in a direction opposite to all of the other blue gears. Therefore, it would be
impossible to throw the transmission into reverse while the car is moving forward -- the dog
teeth would never engage. However, they will make a lot of noise!
Synchronizers
Manual transmissions in modern passenger cars use synchronizers to eliminate the need for
double-clutching. A synchro's purpose is to allow the collar and the gear to make frictional
contact before the dog teeth make contact. This lets the collar and the gear synchronize their
speeds before the teeth need to engage, like this:

126

The cone on the blue gear fits into the cone-shaped area in the collar, and friction between the
cone and the collar synchronize the collar and the gear. The outer portion of the collar then slides
so that the dog teeth can engage the gear.
Every manufacturer implements transmissions and synchros in different ways, but this is the
general idea.
For more information on transmissions and related topics, check out the links on the next page.
How Automatic Transmissions Work
by Karim Nice

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share
127

Recommend

Inside this Article

1.

Introduction to How Automatic Transmissions Work

2.

Purpose of an Automatic Transmission

3.

The Planetary Gearset

4.

Planetary Gearset Ratios

5.

Compound Planetary Gearset

6.

First Gear

7.

See more
Car Maintenance Videos

More Auto Videos

Image Gallery: Transmissions

128

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The 6L50 transmission is a Hydra-Matic six-speed rear and all-wheel drive automatic
transmission produced by GM. See more transmission pictures.
If you have ever driven a car with an automatic transmission, then you know that there are two
big differences between an automatic transmission and a manu al transmission:

There is no clutch pedal in an automatic transmission car.

There is no gear shift in an automatic transmission car. Once you put the transmission
into drive, everything else is automatic.

Next Up

How Manual
Transmissions Work

Transmission Quiz

Discovery.com: 10
Fuel-Efficient Cars

Both the automatic transmission (plus its torque converter) and amanual transmission (with
itsclutch) accomplish exactly the same thing, but they do it in totally different ways. It turns out
that the way an automatic transmission does it is absolutely amazing!

129

In this article, we'll work our way through an automatic transmission. We'll start with the key to
the whole system: planetary gearsets. Then we'll see how the transmission is put together, learn
how the controls work and discuss some of the intricacies involved in controlling a transmission.
Purpose of an Automatic Transmission

Location of the automatic transmission.

Just like that of a manual transmission, the automatic transmission's primary job is to allow
the engine to operate in its narrow range of speeds while providing a wide range of output
speeds.
Without a transmission, cars would be limited to one gear ratio, and that ratio would have to be
selected to allow the car to travel at the desired top speed. If you wanted a top speed of 80 mph,
then the gear ratio would be similar to third gear in most manual transmission cars.
You've probably never tried driving a manual transmission car using only third gear. If you did,
you'd quickly find out that you had almost no acceleration when starting out, and at high speeds,
the engine would be screaming along near the red-line. A car like this would wear out very
quickly and would be nearly undriveable.
So the transmission uses gears to make more effective use of the engine's torque, and to keep the
engine operating at an appropriate speed. When towing or hauling heavy objects, your vehicle's
transmission can get hot enough to burn up the transmission fluid. In order to protect the

130

transmission from serious damage, drivers who tow should buy vehicles equipped
with transmission coolers.
The key difference between a manual and an automatic transmission is that the manual
transmission locks and unlocks different sets of gears to the output shaft to achieve the various
gear ratios, while in an automatic transmission, the same set of gears produces all of the different
gear ratios. The planetary gearset is the device that makes this possible in an automatic
transmission.
Let's take a look at how the planetary gearset works.
The Planetary Gearset

From left to right: the ring gear, planet carrier, and two sun gears
When you take apart and look inside an automatic transmission, you find a huge assortment of
parts in a fairly small space. Among other things, you see:

An ingenious planetary gearset

A set of bands to lock parts of a gearset

A set of three wet-plate clutches to lock other parts of the gearset

An incredibly odd hydraulic system that controls the clutches and bands

A large gear pump to move transmission fluid around

The center of attention is the planetary gearset. About the size of a cantaloupe, this one part
creates all of the different gear ratios that the transmission can produce. Everything else in the
transmission is there to help the planetary gearset do its thing. This amazing piece of gearing has
appeared on HowStuffWorks before. You may recognize it from the electric screwdriver article.
131

An automatic transmission contains two complete planetary gearsets folded together into one
component. See How Gear Ratios Work for an introduction to planetary gearsets.
Any planetary gearset has three main components:

The sun gear

The planet gears and the planet gears' carrier

The ring gear

Each of these three components can be the input, the output or can be held stationary. Choosing
which piece plays which role determines the gear ratio for the gearset. Let's take a look at a
single planetary gearset.
Planetary Gearset Ratios
One of the planetary gearsets from our transmission has a ring gear with 72 teeth and a sun gear
with 30 teeth. We can get lots of different gear ratios out of this gearset.

Input
A Sun (S)
B

Planet
Carrier (C)

C Sun (S)

Output
Planet
Carrier (C)
Ring (R)
Ring (R)

Gear

Stationary

Calculation

Ring (R)

1 + R/S

Sun (S)

1 / (1 + S/R) 0.71:1

Planet Carrier
(C)

-R/S

Ratio
3.4:1

-2.4:1

Also, locking any two of the three components together will lock up the whole device at a 1:1
gear reduction. Notice that the first gear ratio listed above is a reduction -- the output speed is
slower than the input speed. The second is an overdrive -- the output speed is faster than the
input speed. The last is a reduction again, but the output direction is reversed. There are several
other ratios that can be gotten out of this planetary gear set, but these are the ones that are
relevant to our automatic transmission. You can try these out in the animation below:

132

Animation of the different gear ratios related to automatic transmissions

Click on the buttons on the left in the table above.
So this one set of gears can produce all of these different gear ratios without having to engage or
disengage any other gears. With two of these gearsets in a row, we can get the four forward gears
and one reverse gear our transmission needs. We'll put the two sets of gears together in the next
section
Compound Planetary Gearset
This automatic transmission uses a set of gears, called a compound planetary gearset, that
looks like a single planetary gearset but actually behaves like two planetary gearsets combined. It
has one ring gear that is always the output of the transmission, but it has two sun gears and two
sets of planets.
Let's look at some of the parts:

133

How the gears in the transmission are put together

Left to right: the ring gear, planet carrier, and two sun
gears
The figure below shows the planets in the planet carrier. Notice how the planet on the right sits
lower than the planet on the left. The planet on the right does not engage the ring gear -- it
engages the other planet. Only the planet on the left engages the ring gear.

Planet carrier: Note the two sets of planets.

Next you can see the inside of the planet carrier. The shorter gears are engaged only by the
smaller sun gear. The longer planets are engaged by the bigger sun gear and by the smaller
planets.
134

Inside the planet carrier: Note the two sets of planets.

The animation below shows how all of the parts are hooked up in a transmission.

Move the shift lever to see how power is transmitted through the transmission.
First Gear
In first gear, the smaller sun gear is driven clockwise by the turbine in the torque converter. The
planet carrier tries to spin counterclockwise, but is held still by the one-way clutch (which only
allows rotation in the clockwise direction) and the ring gear turns the output. The small gear has
30 teeth and the ring gear has 72, so the gear ratio is:
135

Ratio = -R/S = - 72/30 = -2.4:1

So the rotation is negative 2.4:1, which means that the output direction would be opposite the
input direction. But the output direction is really the same as the input direction -- this is where
the trick with the two sets of planets comes in. The first set of planets engages the second set, and
the second set turns the ring gear; this combination reverses the direction. You can see that this
would also cause the bigger sun gear to spin; but because that clutch is released, the bigger sun
gear is free to spin in the opposite direction of the turbine (counterclockwise).

Move the shift lever to see how power is transmitted through the transmission.
Second Gear
This transmission does something really neat in order to get the ratio needed for second gear. It
acts like two planetary gearsets connected to each other with a common planet carrier.
The first stage of the planet carrier actually uses the larger sun gear as the ring gear. So the first
stage consists of the sun (the smaller sun gear), the planet carrier, and the ring (the larger sun
gear).
The input is the small sun gear; the ring gear (large sun gear) is held stationary by the band, and
the output is the planet carrier. For this stage, with the sun as input, planet carrier as output, and
the ring gear fixed, the formula is:
1 + R/S = 1 + 36/30 = 2.2:1
136

The planet carrier turns 2.2 times for each rotation of the small sun gear. At the second stage, the
planet carrier acts as the input for the second planetary gear set, the larger sun gear (which is held
stationary) acts as the sun, and the ring gear acts as the output, so the gear ratio is:
1 / (1 + S/R) = 1 / (1 + 36/72) = 0.67:1
To get the overall reduction for second gear, we multiply the first stage by the second, 2.2 x 0.67,
to get a 1.47:1 reduction. This may sound wacky, but if you watch the video you'll get an idea of
how it works.
Third Gear
Most automatic transmissions have a 1:1 ratio in third gear. You'll remember from the previous
section that all we have to do to get a 1:1 output is lock together any two of the three parts of the
planetary gear. With the arrangement in this gearset it is even easier -- all we have to do is
engage the clutches that lock each of the sun gears to the turbine.
If both sun gears turn in the same direction, the planet gears lockup because they can only spin in
opposite directions. This locks the ring gear to the planets and causes everything to spin as a unit,
producing a 1:1 ratio.

Overdrive
By definition, an overdrive has a faster output speed than input speed. It's a speed increase -- the
opposite of a reduction. In this transmission, engaging the overdrive accomplishes two things at
once. If you readHow Torque Converters Work, you learned about lockup torque converters. In
order to improve efficiency, some cars have a mechanism that locks up the torque converter so
that the output of the engine goes straight to the transmission.
In this transmission, when overdrive is engaged, a shaft that is attached to the housing of the
torque converter (which is bolted to the flywheel of the engine) is connected by clutch to the
planet carrier. The small sun gear freewheels, and the larger sun gear is held by the overdrive
band. Nothing is connected to the turbine; the only input comes from the converter housing. Let's
go back to our chart again, this time with the planet carrier for input, the sun gear fixed and the
ring gear for output.
Ratio = 1 / (1 + S/R) = 1 / ( 1 + 36/72) = 0.67:1
137

So the output spins once for every two-thirds of a rotation of the engine. If the engine is turning
at 2000 rotations per minute (RPM), the output speed is 3000 RPM. This allows cars to drive at
freeway speed while the engine speed stays nice and slow.
Reverse Gear
Reverse is very similar to first gear, except that instead of the small sun gear being driven by the
torque converter turbine, the bigger sun gear is driven, and the small one freewheels in the
opposite direction. The planet carrier is held by the reverse band to the housing. So, according to
our equations from the last page, we have:
Ratio = -R/S = 72/36 = 2.0:1
So the ratio in reverse is a little less than first gear in this transmission.
Gear Ratios
This transmission has four forward gears and one reverse gear. Let's summarize the gear ratios,
inputs and outputs:
Gear

Input

1st

30-tooth sun
30-tooth sun

2nd

Planet carrier

Output

Fixed

72-tooth

Planet

ring

carrier

Planet

36-tooth

carrier

ring

72-tooth

36-tooth

ring

sun
Total 2nd

3rd
OD

30- and 36-tooth

72-tooth

suns

ring

Planet carrier

Reverse 36-tooth sun

Gear
Ratio
2.4:1
2.2:1
0.67:1
1.47:1
1.0:1

72-tooth

36-tooth

ring

sun

72-tooth

Planet

ring

carrier

0.67:1
-2.0:1

After reading these sections, you are probably wondering how the different inputs get connected
138

and disconnected. This is done by a series of clutches and bands inside the transmission. In the
next section, we'll see how these work.
How Gears Work
by Karim Nice

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
Inside this Article
1.

Introduction to How Gears Work

2.

Basics

3.

Spur Gears

4.

Helical Gears

5.

Bevel Gears

6.

Worm Gears

7.

See more
How Its Made Videos

More Science Videos

Gears are used in tons of mechanical devices. They do several
important jobs, but most important, they provide a gear
reduction in motorized equipment. This is key because, often, a
small motor spinning very fast can provide enough power for a

Photo courtesy

device, but not enough torque. For instance, an electric

Emerson Power Transmission

Corp.

139

Gears are found in

everything from cars to
clocks.

screwdriver has a very large gear reduction because it needs lots of torque to turn screws, bu t the
motor only produces a small amount of torque at a high speed. With a gear reduction, the output
speed can be reduced while the torque is increased.
Up Next

Gear Quiz

How Pendulum
Clocks Work

How Bicycles Work

Another thing gears do is adjust the direction of rotation. For instance, in the differential between

the rear wheels of your car, the power is transmitted by a shaft that runs down the center of the
car, and the differential has to turn that power 90 degrees to apply it to the wheels.
There are a lot of intricacies in the different types of gears. In this article, we'll learn exactly how
the teeth on gears work, and we'll talk about the different type s of gears you find in all sorts of
mechanical gadgets.
Basics

Figure 1. Animation of peg wheel gear

140

On any gear, the ratio is determined by the distances from the center of the gear to the point of
contact. For instance, in a device with two gears, if one gear is twice the diameter of the other,
the ratio would be 2:1.
One of the most primitive types of gears we could look at would be a wheel with wooden pegs
sticking out of it.
The problem with this type of gear is that the distance from the center of each gear to the point of
contact changes as the gears rotate. This means that the gear ratio changes as the gear turns,
meaning that the output speed also changes. If you used a gear like this in your car, it would be
impossible to maintain a constant speed -- you would be accelerating and decelerating constantly.
Many modern gears use a special tooth profile called an involute. This profile has the very
important property of maintaining a constant speed ratio between the two gears. Like the peg
wheel above, the contact point moves; but the shape of the involute gear tooth compensates for
this movement. See this section for details.
Now let's take a look at some of the different types of gears.
Spur Gears

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 2. Spur gears
Spur gears are the most common type of gears. They have straight teeth, and are mounted on
parallel shafts. Sometimes, many spur gears are used at once to create very large gear reductions.
141

Spur gears are used in many devices that you can see all over HowStuffWorks, like the electric
screwdriver, dancing monster,oscillating sprinkler, windup alarm clock, washing
machine andclothes dryer. But you won't find many in your car.
This is because the spur gear can be really loud. Each time a gear tooth engages a tooth on the
other gear, the teeth collide, and this impact makes a noise. It also increases the stress on the gear
teeth.
To reduce the noise and stress in the gears, most of the gears in your car are helical.
Helical Gears

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 3. Helical gears
The teeth on helical gears are cut at an angle to the face of the gear. When two teeth on a helical
gear system engage, the contact starts at one end of the tooth and gradually spreads as the gears
rotate, until the two teeth are in full engagement.
This gradual engagement makes helical gears operate much more smoothly and quietly than spur
gears. For this reason, helical gears are used in almost all cartransmissions.
Because of the angle of the teeth on helical gears, they create a thrust load on the gear when they
mesh. Devices that use helical gears have bearings that can support this thrust load.
One interesting thing about helical gears is that if the angles of the gear teeth are correct, they
can be mounted on perpendicular shafts, adjusting the rotation angle by 90 degrees.

142

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 4. Crossed helical gears
Bevel Gears
Bevel gears are useful when the direction of a shaft's rotation needs to be changed. They are
usually mounted on shafts that are 90 degrees apart, but can be designed to work at other angles
as well.
The teeth on bevel gears can be straight, spiral or hypoid. Straight bevel gear teeth actually
have the same problem as straight spur gear teeth -- as each tooth engages, it impacts the
corresponding tooth all at once.

143

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 5. Bevel gears
Just like with spur gears, the solution to this problem is to curve the gear teeth. These spiral teeth
engage just like helical teeth: the contact starts at one end of the gear and progressively spreads
across the whole tooth.

144

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 6. Spiral bevel gears
On straight and spiral bevel gears, the shafts must be perpendicular to each other, but they must
also be in the same plane. If you were to extend the two shafts past the gears, they would
intersect. The hypoid gear, on the other hand, can engage with the axes in different planes.

145

Figure 7. Hypoid bevel gears in a car differential

This feature is used in many car differentials. The ring gear of the differential and the input
pinion gear are both hypoid. This allows the input pinion to be mounted lower than the axis of
the ring gear. Figure 7shows the input pinion engaging the ring gear of the differential. Since the
driveshaft of the car is connected to the input pinion, this also lowers the driveshaft. This means
that the driveshaft doesn't intrude into the passenger compartment of the car as much, making
more room for people and cargo.
Worm Gears

Photo courtesy Emerson Power Transmission Corp.

Figure 8. Worm gear
Worm gears are used when large gear reductions are needed. It is common for worm gears to
have reductions of 20:1, and even up to 300:1 or greater.
Many worm gears have an interesting property that no other gear set has: the worm can easily
turn the gear, but the gear cannot turn the worm. This is because the angle on the worm is so
146

shallow that when the gear tries to spin it, the friction between the gear and the worm holds the
worm in place.
This feature is useful for machines such as conveyor systems, in which the locking feature can
act as a brake for the conveyor when the motor is not turning. One other very interesting usage of
worm gears is in the Torsen differential, which is used on some high-performance cars and
trucks.

VIDEO: Check out videos of extreme engineering. >>

Rack and Pinion Gears

Figure 9. Rack and pinion gears from a household scale

Rack and pinion gears are used to convert rotation into linear motion. A perfect example of this
is the steering system on many cars. The steering wheel rotates a gear which engages the rack. As
the gear turns, it slides the rack either to the right or left, depending on which way you turn the
wheel.
Rack and pinion gears are also used in some scales to turn the dial that displays your weight.
Planetary Gearsets & Gear Ratios
Any planetary gearset has three main components:
147

The sun gear

The planet gears and the planet gears' carrier

The ring gear

Each of these three components can be the input, the output or can be held stationary. Choosing
which piece plays which role determines the gear ratio for the gearset. Let's take a look at a
single planetary gearset.
One of the planetary gearsets from our transmission has a ring gear with 72 teeth and a sun gear
with 30 teeth. We can get lots of different gear ratios out of this gearset.

Input
A Sun (S)

Output
Planet
Carrier (C)

Gear

Stationary

Calculation

Ring (R)

1 + R/S

Sun (S)

1 / (1 + S/R) 0.71:1

Ratio
3.4:1

Planet
B Carrier

Ring (R)

(C)
C Sun (S)

Ring (R)

Planet Carrier
(C)

-R/S

-2.4:1

Also, locking any two of the three components together will lock up the whole device at a 1:1
gear reduction. Notice that the first gear ratio listed above is a reduction -- the output speed is
slower than the input speed. The second is an overdrive -- the output speed is faster than the
input speed. The last is a reduction again, but the output direction is reversed. There are several
other ratios that can be gotten out of this planetary gear set, but these are the ones that are
relevant to our automatic transmission. You can try these out in the animation below:

148

Animation of the different gear ratios related to automatic transmissions. Click on the
buttons on the left in the table above.
So this one set of gears can produce all of these different gear ratios without having to engage or
disengage any other gears. With two of these gearsets in a row, we can get the four forward gears
and one reverse gear our transmission needs. We'll put the two sets of gears together in the next
section.
Details on Involute Gear Profiles

Figure 10. Animation of involute gear

On an involute profile gear tooth, the contact point starts closer to one gear, and as the gear
spins, the contact point moves away from that gear and toward the other. If you were to follow
149

the contact point, it would describe a straight line that starts near one gear and ends up near the
other. This means that the radius of the contact point gets larger as the teeth engage.
The pitch diameter is the effective contact diameter. Since the contact diameter is not constant,
the pitch diameter is really the average contact distance. As the teeth first start to engage, the top
gear tooth contacts the bottom gear tooth inside the pitch diameter. But notice that the part of the
top gear tooth that contacts the bottom gear tooth is very skinny at this point. As the gears turn,
the contact point slides up onto the thicker part of the top gear tooth. This pushes the top gear
ahead, so it compensates for the slightly smaller contact diameter. As the teeth continue to rotate,
the contact point moves even further away, going outside the pitch diameter -- but the profile of
the bottom tooth compensates for this movement. The contact point starts to slide onto the skinny
part of the bottom tooth, subtracting a little bit of velocity from the top gear to compensate for
the increased diameter of contact. The end result is that even though the contact point diameter
changes continually, the speed remains the same. So an involute profile gear tooth produces
aconstant ratio of rotational speed.
How Car Engines Work
by Marshall Brain

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
Inside this Article
1.

Introduction to How Car Engines Work

2.

Internal Combustion

3.

Basic Engine Parts

4.

Engine Problems

5.

Engine Valve Train and Ignition Systems

6.

Engine Cooling, Air-intake and Starting Systems

7.

See more
Massive Engines Videos
150

More Auto Videos

Car Engine Image Gallery

Photo courtesy General Motors

The Corvette ZR1's supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine produces 620 horsepower standard.
See more pictures of car engines.See more pictures of car engines.
Have you ever opened the hood of your car and wondered what was going on in there? A car
engine can look like a big confusing jumble of metal, tubes and wires to the uninitiated.
You might want to know what's going on simply out of curiosity. Or perhaps you are buying a
new car, and you hear things like "3.0 liter V-6" and "dual overhead cams" and "tuned port fuel
injection." What does all of that mean?
In this article, we'll discuss the basic idea behind an engine a nd then go into detail about how all
the pieces fit together, what can go wrong and how to increase performance.
151

The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can
move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an
engine. Therefore, a car engine is an internal combustion engine -- combustion takes place
internally.
Two things to note:

There are different kinds of internal combustion engines. Diesel engines are one form
andgas turbine engines are another. See also the articles on HEMI engines, rotary
engines andtwo-stroke engines. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

There is such a thing as an external combustion engine. A steam engine in oldfashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine.
The fuel (coal, wood, oil, whatever) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to
create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine. Internal combustion is a
lot more efficient (takes less fuel per mile) than external combustion, plus an internal
combustion engine is a lot smaller than an equivalent external combustion engine. This
explains why we don't see any cars from Ford and GM using steam engines.

Let's look at the internal combustion process in more detail in the next section.
Internal Combustion
The principle behind any reciprocating internal combustion engine: If you put a tiny amount of
high-energy fuel (like gasoline) in a small, enclosed space and ignite it, an incredible amount of
energy is released in the form of expanding gas. You can use that energy to propel a potato 500
feet. In this case, the energy is translated into potato motion. You can also use it for more
interesting purposes. For example, if you can create a cycle that allows you to set off explosions
like this hundreds of times per minute, and if you can harness that energy in a useful way, what
you have is the core of a car engine!

152

Figure 1
Almost all cars currently use what is called a four-stroke combustion cycle to convert gasoline
into motion. The four-stroke approach is also known as the Otto cycle, in honor of Nikolaus
Otto, who invented it in 1867. The four strokes are illustrated in Figure 1. They are:

Intake stroke

Compression stroke

Combustion stroke

Exhaust stroke

You can see in the figure that a device called a piston replaces the potato in the potato cannon.
The piston is connected to the crankshaft by a connecting rod. As the crankshaft revolves, it
has the effect of "resetting the cannon." Here's what happens as
the engine goes through its cycle:
1. The piston starts at the top, the intake valve opens, and
the piston moves down to let the engine take in a
cylinder-full of air and gasoline. This is the intake
stroke. Only the tiniest drop of gasoline needs to be
mixed into the air for this to work. (Part 1 of the figure)

153

2. Then the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture. Compression makes
the explosion more powerful. (Part 2 of the figure)
3. When the piston reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plugemits a spark to ignite the
gasoline. The gasoline charge in the cylinder explodes, driving the piston down. (Part
3 of the figure)
4. Once the piston hits the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust valve opens and
the exhaust leaves the cylinder to go out the tailpipe. (Part 4 of the figure)
Now the engine is ready for the next cycle, so it intakes another charge of air and gas.
Notice that the motion that comes out of an internal combustion engine is rotational, while the
motion produced by a potato cannon is linear (straight line). In an engine the linear motion of
the pistons is converted into rotational motion by the crankshaft. The rotational motion is nice
because we plan to turn (rotate) the car's wheels with it anyway.
Now let's look at all the parts that work together to make this happen, starting with the cylinders.
Basic Engine Parts
The core of the engine is the cylinder, with the piston moving up and down inside the cylinder.
The engine described above has one cylinder. That is typical of most lawn mowers, but
most cars have more than one cylinder (four, six and eight cylinders are common). In a multicylinder engine, the cylinders usually are arranged in one of three ways: inline, V or flat (also
known as horizontally opposed or boxer), as shown in the following figures.

Figure 2. Inline - The cylinders are arranged in a line in a single bank.

154

Figure 3. V - The cylinders are arranged in two banks set at an angle to one another.

Figure 4. Flat - The cylinders are arranged in two banks on opposite sides of the engine.
Different configurations have different advantages and disadvantages in terms of smoothness,
manufacturing cost and shape characteristics. These advantages and disadvantages make them
more suitable for certain vehicles.
Let's look at some key engine parts in more detail.
Spark plug
The spark plug supplies the spark that ignites the air/fuel mixture so that combustion can occur.
The spark must happen at just the right moment for things to work properly.
Valves
The intake and exhaust valves open at the proper time to let in air and fuel and to let out exhaust.

155

Note that both valves are closed during compression and combustion so that the combustion
chamber is sealed.
Piston
A piston is a cylindrical piece of metal that moves up and down inside the cylinder.
Piston rings
Piston rings provide a sliding seal between the outer edge of the piston and the inner edge of the
cylinder. The rings serve two purposes:

They prevent the fuel/air mixture and exhaust in the combustion chamber from
leaking into the sump during compression and combustion.

They keep oil in the sump from leaking into the combustion area, where it would be
burned and lost.

Most cars that "burn oil" and have to have a quart added every 1,000 miles are burning it because
the engine is old and the rings no longer seal things properly.
Connecting rod
The connecting rod connects the piston to the crankshaft. It can rotate at both ends so that its
angle can change as the piston moves and the crankshaft rotates.
Crankshaft
The crankshaft turns the piston's up and down motion into circular motion just like a crank on a
jack-in-the-box does.
Sump
The sump surrounds the crankshaft. It contains some amount of oil, which collects in the bottom
of the sump (the oil pan).
Next, we'll learn what can go wrong with engines.
Engine Problems
So you go out one morning and your engine will turn over but it won't start... What could be
wrong? Now that you know how an engine works, you can understand the basic things that can
keep an engine from running. Three fundamental things can happen: a bad fuel mix, lack
of compression or lack of spark. Beyond that, thousands of minor things can create problems, but
these are the "big three." Based on the simple engine we have been discussing, here is a quick
rundown on how these problems affect your engine:
156

Bad fuel mix - A bad fuel mix can occur in several ways:

You are out of gas, so the engine is getting air but no fuel.

The air intake might be clogged, so there is fuel but not enough air.

The fuel system might be supplying too much or too little fuel to the mix, meaning
that combustion does not occur properly.

There might be an impurity in the fuel (like water in your gas tank) that makes the fuel
not burn.

Lack of compression - If the charge of air and fuel cannot be compressed properly, the
combustion process will not work like it should. Lack of compression might occur for these
reasons:

Your piston rings are worn (allowing air/fuel to leak past the piston during
compression).

The intake or exhaust valves are not sealing properly, again allowing a leak during
compression.

There is a hole in the cylinder.

The most common "hole" in a cylinder occurs where the top of the cylinder (holding the valves
and spark plug and also known as the cylinder head) attaches to the cylinder itself. Generally,
the cylinder and the cylinder head bolt together with a thin gasket pressed between them to
ensure a good seal. If the gasket breaks down, small holes develop between the cylinder and the
cylinder head, and these holes cause leaks.

157

Scott Olson/Getty Images

Doing regular engine maintenance can help you avoid future repairs.
Lack of spark - The spark might be nonexistent or weak for a number of reasons:

If your spark plug or the wire leading to it is worn out, the spark will be weak.

If the wire is cut or missing, or if the system that sends a spark down the wire is not
working properly, there will be no spark.

If the spark occurs either too early or too late in the cycle (i.e. if the ignition timing is
off), the fuel will not ignite at the right time, and this can cause all sorts of problems.

Many other things can go wrong. For example:

If the battery is dead, you cannot turn over the engine to start it.

If the bearings that allow the crankshaft to turn freely are worn out, the crankshaft
cannot turn so the engine cannot run.

If the valves do not open and close at the right time or at all, air cannot get in and
exhaust cannot get out, so the engine cannot run.

If someone sticks a potato up your tailpipe, exhaust cannot exit the cylinder so the
engine will not run.

If you run out of oil, the piston cannot move up and down freely in the cylinder, and
the engine will seize.

In a properly running engine, all of these factors are within tolerance.

158

As you can see, an engine has a number of systems that help it do its job of converting fuel into
motion. We'll look at the different subsystems used in engines in the next few sections.
Engine Valve Train and Ignition Systems
Most engine subsystems can be implemented using different technologies, and better
technologies can improve the performance of the engine. Let's look at all of the different
subsystems used in modern engines, beginning with the valve train.
The valve train consists of the valves and a mechanism that opens and closes them. The opening
and closing system is called a camshaft. The camshaft has lobes on it that move the valves up
and down, as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The camshaft

Most modern engines have what are called overhead cams. This means that the camshaft is
located above the valves, as you see in Figure 5. The cams on the shaft activate the valves
directly or through a very short linkage. Older engines used a camshaft located in the sump near
the crankshaft. Rods linked the cam below to valve lifters above the valves. This approach has
more moving parts and also causes more lag between the cam's activation of the valve and the
valve's subsequent motion. A timing belt or timing chain links the crankshaft to the camshaft so
that the valves are in sync with the pistons. The camshaft is geared to turn at one-half the rate of
the crankshaft. Many high-performance engines have four valves per cylinder (two for intake,
two for exhaust), and this arrangement requires two camshafts per bank of cylinders, hence the
phrase "dual overhead cams." See How Camshafts Work for details.

159

The ignition system (Figure 6) produces a high-voltage electrical charge and transmits it to the
spark plugs via ignition wires. The charge first flows to a distributor, which you can easily find
under the hood of most cars. The distributor has one wire going in the center and four, six, or
eight wires (depending on the number of cylinders) coming out of it. These ignition wires send
the charge to each spark plug. The engine is timed so that only one cylinder receives a spark
from the distributor at a time. This approach provides maximum smoothness. See How
Automobile Ignition Systems Work for more details.

Figure 6. The ignition system

Engine Cooling, Air-intake and Starting Systems
The cooling system in most cars consists of the radiator and water pump. Water circulates
through passages around the cylinders and then travels through the radiator to cool it off. In a
few cars (most notably Volkswagen Beetles), as well as most motorcycles and lawn mowers, the
engine is air-cooled instead (You can tell an air-cooled engine by the fins adorning the outside of
each cylinder to help dissipate heat.). Air-cooling makes the engine lighter but hotter, generally
decreasing engine life and overall performance. See How Car Cooling Systems Work for details.

160

Diagram of a cooling system showing how all the plumbing

is connected
So now you know how and why your engine stays cool. But why is air circulation so important?
Most cars are normally aspirated, which means that air flows through an air filter and directly
into the cylinders. High-performance engines are either turbocharged or supercharged, which
means that air coming into the engine is first pressurized (so that more air/fuel mixture can be
squeezed into each cylinder) to increase performance. The amount of pressurization is
called boost. A turbocharger uses a small turbine attached to the exhaust pipe to spin a
compressing turbine in the incoming air stream. A supercharger is attached directly to the engine
to spin the compressor.

Photo courtesy Garrett

See How Turbochargers Work for details.
161

Increasing your engine's performance is great, but what exactly happens when you turn the key
to start it? The starting system consists of an electric starter motor and a starter solenoid. When
you turn the ignition key, the starter motor spins the engine a few revolutions so that the
combustion process can start. It takes a powerful motor to spin a cold engine. The starter motor
must overcome:

All of the internal friction caused by the piston rings

The compression pressure of any cylinder(s) that happens to be in the compression

stroke

The energy needed to open and close valves with the camshaft

All of the "other" things directly attached to the engine, like the water pump, oil
pump, alternator, etc.

Because so much energy is needed and because a car uses a 12-volt electrical system, hundreds
of amps of electricity must flow into the starter motor. The starter solenoid is essentially a large
electronic switch that can handle that much current. When you turn the ignition key, it activates
the solenoid to power the motor.
Next, we'll look at the engine subsystems that maintain what goes in (oil and fuel) and what
comes out (exhaust and emissions).
Engine Lubrication, Fuel, Exhaust and Electrical Systems
When it comes to day-to-day car maintenance, your first concern is probably the amount
of gas in your car. How does the gas that you put in power the cylinders? The engine's fuel
system pumps gas from the gas tank and mixes it with air so that the proper air/fuel mixture can
flow into the cylinders. Fuel is delivered in three common ways: carburetion, port fuel injection
and direct fuel injection.

In carburetion, a device called a carburetor mixes gas into air as the air flows into the
engine.

In a fuel-injected engine, the right amount of fuel is injected individually into each
cylinder either right above the intake valve (port fuel injection) or directly into the
cylinder (direct fuel injection).

See How Fuel Injection Systems Work for more details.

162

Oil also plays an important part. The lubrication system makes sure that every moving part in
the engine gets oil so that it can move easily. The two main parts needing oil are the pistons (so
they can slide easily in their cylinders) and any bearings that allow things like the crankshaft
and camshafts to rotate freely. In most cars, oil is sucked out of the oil pan by the oil pump, run
through the oil filter to remove any grit, and then squirted under high pressure onto bearings and
the cylinder walls. The oil then trickles down into the sump, where it is collected again and the
cycle repeats.

THOMAS LOHNES/AFP/Getty Images

The exhaust system of a Porsche 911.
Now that you know about some of the stuff that you put in your car, let's look at some of the stuff
that comes out of it. The exhaust system includes the exhaust pipe and the muffler. Without a
muffler, what you would hear is the sound of thousands of small explosions coming out your
tailpipe. A muffler dampens the sound. The exhaust system also includes a catalytic converter.
See How Catalytic Converters Work for details.
The emission control system in modern cars consists of a catalytic converter, a collection of
sensors and actuators, and a computer to monitor and adjust everything. For example, the
catalytic converter uses a catalyst and oxygen to burn off any unused fuel and certain other
chemicals in the exhaust. An oxygen sensor in the exhaust stream makes sure there is enough
oxygen available for the catalyst to work and adjusts things if necessary.
Besides gas, what else powers your car? The electrical system consists of a battery and
an alternator. The alternator is connected to the engine by a belt and generates electricity to
163

recharge the battery. Thebattery makes 12-volt power available to everything in the car needing
electricity (the ignition system,radio, headlights, windshield wipers, power windows and
seats, computers, etc.) through the vehicle's wiring.
How are 4-cylinder and V6 engines different?
The number of cylinders that an engine contains is an important factor in the overall performance
of the engine. Each cylinder contains a piston that pumps inside of it and those pistons connect to
and turn the crankshaft. The more pistons there are pumping, the more combustive events are
taking place during any given moment. That means that more power can be generated in less
time.
4-Cylinder engines commonly come in straight or inline configurations while 6-cylinder
engines are usually configured in the more compact V shape, and thus are referred to as V6
engines. V6 engines have been the engine of choice for American automakers because theyre
powerful and quiet but still light and compact enough to fit into most car designs.

All imagery HowStuffWorks or their respective copyright Holder.

The inline 4-cylinder engine of the Lotus Elise.
Historically, American auto consumers turned their noses up at 4-cylinder engines, believing
them to be slow, weak, unbalanced and short on acceleration. However, when Japanese auto
makers, such as Honda and Toyota, began installing highly-efficient 4-cylinder engines in their
cars in the 1980s and 90s, Americans found a new appreciation for the compact engine. Even
though Japanese models, such as the Toyota Camry, began quickly outselling comparable
164

American models, U.S. automakers, believing that American drivers were more concerned with
power and performance, continued to produce cars with V6 engines. Today, with rising gas
prices and greater public environmental awareness, Detroit seems to be reevaluating the 4cylinder engine for its fuel efficiency and lower emissions.

All imagery HowStuffWorks or their respective copyright Holder.

The turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 engine of a Nissan GT-R.
As for the future of the V6, in recent years the disparity between 4-cylinder and V6 engines has
lessened considerably. In order to keep up with the demand for high gas-mileage and lower
emission levels, automakers have worked diligently to improve the overall performance of V6
engines. Many current V6 models come close to matching the gas-mileage and emissions
standards of the smaller, 4-cylinder engines. So, with the performance and efficiency gaps
between the two engines lessening, the decision to buy a 4-cylinder or V6 may just come down
to cost. In models that are available with either type of engine, the 4-cylinder version can run up
to $1000 cheaper than the V6. So, regardless of what kind of performance youre looking to get
out of your car, the 4-cylinder will always be the budget buy.
One final note: Its not a good idea to try to install a V6 engine into a car model that comes with
a standard 4-cylinder. Retrofitting a 4-cylinder car to handle a V6 engine could cost more than
simply buying a new car.
Producing More Engine Power
Horsepower
For a complete explanation of what
165

horsepower is and what horsepower means,

check out How Horsepower Works.
Using all of this information, you can begin to see that there are lots of different ways to make an
engine perform better. Car manufacturers are constantly playing with all of the following
variables to make an engine more powerful and/or more fuel efficient.
Increase displacement - More displacement means more power because you can burn more gas
during each revolution of the engine. You can increase displacement by making the cylinders
bigger or by adding more cylinders. Twelve cylinders seems to be the practical limit.
Increase the compression ratio - Higher compression ratios produce more power, up to a point.
The more you compress the air/fuel mixture, however, the more likely it is to spontaneously
burst into flame (before the spark plug ignites it). Higher-octane gasolines prevent this sort of
early combustion. That is why high-performance cars generally need high-octane gasoline -their engines are using higher compression ratios to get more power.

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

The turbocharger system of the Nissan GT-R.
Stuff more into each cylinder - If you can cram more air (and therefore fuel) into a cylinder of a
given size, you can get more power from the cylinder (in the same way that you would by
increasing the size of the cylinder). Turbochargers and superchargers pressurize the incoming air
to effectively cram more air into a cylinder. See How Turbochargers Work for details.
Cool the incoming air - Compressing air raises its temperature. However, you would like to
have the coolest air possible in the cylinder because the hotter the air is, the less it will expand
166

when combustion takes place. Therefore, many turbocharged and supercharged cars have
anintercooler. An intercooler is a special radiator through which the compressed air passes to
cool it off before it enters the cylinder. See How Car Cooling Systems Work for details.
Let air come in more easily - As a piston moves down in the intake stroke, air resistance can
rob power from the engine. Air resistance can be lessened dramatically by putting two intake
valves in each cylinder. Some newer cars are also using polished intake manifolds to eliminate
air resistance there. Bigger air filters can also improve air flow.
Let exhaust exit more easily - If air resistance makes it hard for exhaust to exit a cylinder, it
robs the engine of power. Air resistance can be lessened by adding a second exhaust valve to
each cylinder (a car with two intake and two exhaust valves has four valves per cylinder, which
improves performance -- when you hear a car ad tell you the car has four cylinders and 16
valves, what the ad is saying is that the engine has four valves per cylinder). If the exhaust pipe
is too small or the muffler has a lot of air resistance, this can cause back-pressure, which has the
same effect. High-performance exhaust systems use headers, big tail pipes and free-flowing
mufflers to eliminate back-pressure in the exhaust system. When you hear that a car has "dual
exhaust," the goal is to improve the flow of exhaust by having two exhaust pipes instead of one.
Make everything lighter - Lightweight parts help the engine perform better. Each time a piston
changes direction, it uses up energy to stop the travel in one direction and start it in another. The
lighter the piston, the less energy it takes.
Inject the fuel - Fuel injection allows very precise metering of fuel to each cylinder. This
improves performance and fuel economy. See How Fuel Injection Systems Work for details.
In the next sections, we'll answer some common engine-related questions submitted by readers.
Engine Questions and Answers
Here is a set of engine-related questions from readers and their answers:

What is the difference between a gasoline engine and a diesel engine? In a diesel
engine, there is no spark plug. Instead, diesel fuel is injected into the cylinder, and the
heat and pressure of the compression stroke cause the fuel to ignite. Diesel fuel has a
higher energy density than gasoline, so a diesel engine gets better mileage. See How
Diesel Engines Work for more information.

Take the Quiz

167

Think you're an expert on engines? Test your

knowledge with this quiz from Turbo: Car
Engine Quiz

What is the difference between a two-stroke and a four-stroke engine?Most chain

saws and boat motors use two-stroke engines. A two-stroke engine has no moving
valves, and the spark plug fires each time the piston hits the top of its cycle. A hole in
the lower part of the cylinder wall lets in gas and air. As the piston moves up it is
compressed, the spark plug ignites combustion, and exhaust exits through another hole
in the cylinder. You have to mix oil into the gas in a two-stroke engine because the
holes in the cylinder wall prevent the use of rings to seal the combustion chamber.
Generally, a two-stroke engine produces a lot of power for its size because there are
twice as many combustion cycles occurring per rotation. However, a two-stroke engine
uses more gasoline and burns lots of oil, so it is far more polluting. See How Twostroke Engines Work for more information.

You mentioned steam engines in this article -- are there any advantages to steam
engines and other external combustion engines? The main advantage of a steam
engine is that you can use anything that burns as the fuel. For example, a steam engine
can use coal, newspaper or wood for the fuel, while an internal combustion engine
needs pure, high-quality liquid or gaseous fuel. See How Steam Engines Work for
more information.

Are there any other cycles besides the Otto cycle used in car engines? The twostroke engine cycle is different, as is the diesel cycle described above. The engine in
the Mazda Millenia uses a modification of the Otto cycle called the Miller cycle. Gas
turbine engines use the Brayton cycle. Wankel rotary engines use the Otto cycle, but
they do it in a very different way than four-stroke piston engines.

Why have eight cylinders in an engine? Why not have one big cylinder of the
same displacement of the eight cylinders instead? There are a couple of reasons
why a big 4.0-liter engine has eight half-liter cylinders rather than one big 4-liter
cylinder. The main reason is smoothness. A V-8 engine is much smoother because it
has eight evenly spaced explosions instead of one big explosion. Another reason is
starting torque. When you start a V-8 engine, you are only driving two cylinders (1
168

liter) through their compression strokes, but with one big cylinder you would have to
compress 4 liters instead.

SUSPENSION SYSTEM
Apart from your car's tyres and seats, the suspension is the prime mechanism
that separates your bum (arse for the American) from the road. It also
prevents your car from shaking itself to pieces. No matter how smooth
you think the road is, it's a bad, bad place to propel over a ton of metal at
high speed. So we rely upon suspension. People who travel on underground
trains wish that those vehicles relied on suspension too, but they don't and
that's why the ride is so harsh. Actually it's harsh because underground trains
have no lateral suspension to speak of. So as the rails deviate side-to-side
slightly, so does the entire train, and it's passengers. In a car, the rubber in
your

tyre

helps

with

this

little

problem.

In it's most basic form, suspension consists of two basic components:

Springs
These come in three types. They are coil springs , torsion bars and leaf
springs. Coil springs are what most people are familiar with, and are actually
coiled torsion bars. Leaf springs are what you would find on most American
cars up to about 1985 and almost all heavy duty vehicles. They look like
layers of metal connected to the axle. The layers are called leaves, hence
leaf-spring. The torsion bar on its own is a bizarre little contraption which
gives coiled-spring-like performance based on the twisting properties of a
steel bar. It's used in the suspension of VW Beetles and Karmann Ghias, aircooled Porsches (356 and 911 until 1989 when they went to springs), and the
rear suspension of Peugeot 205s amongst other cars. Instead of having a
coiled spring, the axle is attached to one end of a steel shaft. The other end is
169

slotted into a tube and held there by splines. As the suspension moves, it
twists the shaft along it's length, which in turn resist. Now image that same
shaft but instead of being straight, it's coiled up. As you press on the top of
the coil, you're actually inducing a twisting in the shaft, all the way down the
coil. I know it's hard to visualise, but believe me, that's what is happening.
There's a whole section further down the page specifically on torsion
bars and progressive

springs.

Shock

absorbers

These dampen the vertical motion induced by driving your car along a rough
surface and so should technically be referred to by their 'proper' name dampers. If your car only had springs, it would boat and wallow along the
road until you got physically sick and had to get out. It would be a travelling
deathtrap. Or at least it would be a travelling deathtrap until the incessant
vibration

caused

it

to

fall

apart.

Shock absorbers (dampers) perform two functions. As mentioned above, they

absorb any larger-than-average bumps in the road so that the upward velocity
of the wheel over the bump isn't transmitted to the car chassis. But secondly,
they keep the suspension at as full a travel as possible for the given road
conditions

they

keep

your

wheels

planted

on

the

road.

You want more technical terms? Technically they are velocity-sensitive

hydraulic damping devices - in other words, the faster they move, the more
resistance there is to that movement. They work in conjunction with the
springs. The spring allows movement of the wheel to allow the energy in the
road shock to be transformed into kinetic energy of the unsprung mass,
whereupon it is dissipated by the damper. The damper does this by forcing
gas or oil through a constriction valve (a small hole). Adjustable shock
absorbers allow you to change the size of this constriction, and thus control
the rate of damping. The smaller the constriction, the stiffer the suspension.
Phew!....and you thought they just leaked oil didn't you?

170

A modern coil-over-oil unit

The image here shows a typical modern coil-over-oil unit. This is an all-inone system that carries both the spring and the shock absorber. The type
illustrated here is more likely to be an aftermarket item - it's unlikely you'd
get this level of adjustment on your regular passenger car. The adjustable
spring plate can be used to make the springs stiffer and looser, whilst
the adjustable damping valve can be used to adjust the rebound damping of
theshocks . More sophisticated units have adjustable compression damping as
well as a remote reservoir. Whilst you don't typically get this level of
engineering on car suspension, most motorbikes do have preload, rebound
and spring tension adjustment. See the section later on in this page about
the ins and outs of complex suspension units.

Suspension Types
In their infinite wisdom, car manufacturers have set out to baffle use with the
sheer number of different types of suspension available for both front and
rear axles. The main groupings are dependent and independent suspension
types. If you know of any not listed here, e-mail me and let me know - I
would like this page to be as complete as possible.
Front suspension - dependent systems

171

So-called because the front wheel's suspension systems are physically linked.
For everyday use, they are, in a word, shite. I hate to be offensive, but they
are. There is only one type of dependent system you need to know about. It is
basically a solid bar under the front of the car, kept in place by leaf springs
and shock absorbers. It's still common to find these on trucks, but if you find
a car with one of these you should sell it to a museum. They haven't been
used on mainstream cars for years for three main reasons:

Shimmy - because the wheels are physically linked, the beam can be set
into oscillation if one wheel hits a bump and the other doesn't. It sets up a
gyroscopic torque about the steering axis which starts to turn the axle left-toright. Because of the axle's inertia, this in turn feeds back to amplify the
original motion.

Weight - or more specifically unsprung weight. Solid front axles weigh a

lot and either need sturdy, heavy leaf springs or heavy suspension linkages to
keep their wheels on the road.

Alignment - simply put, you can't adjust the alignment of wheels on a

rigid axis. From the factory, they're perfectly set, but if the beam gets even
slightly distorted, you can't adjust the wheels to compensate.

I frequently get pulled-up on the above statements from people jumping to

defend solid-axle suspension. They usually send me pictures like this and
claim it's the best suspension system for off-road use. I have to admit,
for off-road stuff, it probably is pretty good. But let's face it; how many
172

people with these vehicles ever go off-road? The closest they come to having
maximum wheel deflection is when the mother double-parks the thing with
one wheel on the kerb during the school-run.......

Picture credit: Landrover Owner's Group

Like the site? The page you're reading is free, but if you like what you see and feel you've learned
something, throw me a $5 bone as a token of your appreciation or send a donation to my chosen
charity. Click here if you feel like helping out.
Front suspension - independent systems
So-named because the front wheel's suspension systems are independent of
each other (except where joined by an antiroll bar ) These came into existence
around 1930 and have been in use in one form or another pretty much ever
since then.
MacPherson Strut or McPherson strut

This is currently, without doubt, the most widely used front suspension
system in cars of European origin. It is simplicity itself. The system basically
comprises of a strut-type spring and shock absorber combo, which pivots on a
173

ball joint on the single, lower arm. At the top end there is a needle roller
bearing on some more sophisticated systems. The strut itself is the loadbearing member in this assembly, with the spring and shock absorber merely
performing their duty as oppose to actually holding the car up. In the picture
here, you can't see the shock absorber because it is encased in the black
gaiter

inside

the

spring.

The steering gear is either connected directly to the lower shock absorber
housing, or to an arm from the front or back of the spindle (in this case).
When you steer, it physically twists the strut and shock absorber housing
(and consequently the spring) to turn the wheel. Simple. The spring is seated
in a special plate at the top of the assembly which allows this twisting to take
place. If the spring or this plate are worn, you'll get a loud 'clonk' on full
lock as the spring frees up and jumps into place. This is sometimes confused
for CV joint knock.
Rover 2000 MacPherson derivative

During WWII, the British car maker Rover worked on experimental gasturbine engines, and after the war, retained a lot of knowledge about them.
The gas-turbine Rover T4, which looked a lot like the Rover P6, Rover 2000
and Rover 3500, was one of the prototypes. The chassis was fundamentally
the same as the other Rovers and the net result was the the 2000 and 3500
ended up with a very odd front suspension layout. The gas turbine wasn't
exactly small, and Rover needed as much room as possible in the engine bay
to fit it. The suspension was derived from a normal MacPherson strut but
174

with an added bellcrank. This allowed the suspension unit to sit horizontally
along the outside of the engine bay rather than protruding into it and taking
up space. The bellcrank transferred the upward forces from the suspension
into rearward forces for the spring / shock combo to deal with. In the end, the
gas turbine never made it into production and the Rover 2000 was fitted with
a 2-litre 4-cylinder engine, whilst the Rover 3500 was fitted with an
'evergreen' 3.5litre V8. Open the hood of either of these classics and the
engine looks a bit lost in there because there's so much room around it that
was never utilised. The image on the left shows the Rover-derivative
MacPherson strut.
Potted history of MacPherson: Earle S. MacPherson of General Motors
developed the MacPherson strut in 1947. GM cars were originally designbound by accountants. If it cost too much or wasn't tried and tested, then it
didn't get built/used. Major GM innovations including the MacPherson Strut
suspension system sat stifled on the shelf for years because innovation
cannot be proven on a spreadsheet until after the product has been produced
or manufactured. Consequently, Earle MacPherson went to work for Ford UK
in 1950, where Ford started using his design on the 1950 'English' Ford
models straight away. Today the strut type is referred to both with and
without the "a" in the name, so both McPherson Strut and MacPherson Strut
can be used to describe it.
Further note: Earle MacPherson should never be confused with Elle
McPherson - the Australian ber-babe. In her case, the McPherson Strut is
something she does on a catwalk, or in your dreams if you like that sort of
thing. And if you're a bloke, then you ought to....
Double wishbone suspension systems.
The following three examples are all variations on the same theme.
Coil Spring type 1
175

This is a type of double-A or double wishbone suspension. The wheel

spindles are supported by an upper and lower 'A' shaped arm. In this type, the
lower arm carries most of the load. If you look head-on at this type of
system, what you'll find is that it's a very parallelogram system that allows
the spindles to travel vertically up and down. When they do this, they also
have a slight side-to-side motion caused by the arc that the wishbones
describe around their pivot points. This side-to-side motion is known as
scrub. Unless the links are infinitely long the scrub motion is always present.
There are two other types of motion of the wheel relative to the body when
the suspension articulates. The first and most important is a toe angle (steer
angle). The second and least important, but the one which produces most pub
talk is the camber angle, or lean angle. Steer and camber are the ones which
wear tyres.

Coil Spring type 2

176

This is also a type of double-A arm suspension although the lower arm in
these systems can sometimes be replaced with a single solid arm (as in my
picture). The only real difference between this and the previous system
mentioned above is that the spring/shock combo is moved from between the
arms to above the upper arm. This transfers the load-bearing capability of the
suspension almost entirely to the upper arm and the spring mounts. The lower
arm in this instance becomes a control arm. This particular type of system
isn't so popular in cars as it takes up a lot room.

Multi-link suspension

This is the latest incarnation of the double wishbone system described above.
It's currently being used in the Audi A8 and A4 amongst other cars. The basic
principle of it is the same, but instead of solid upper and lower wishbones,
each 'arm' of the wishbone is a separate item. These are joined at the top and
bottom of the spindle thus forming the wishbone shape. The super-weird
thing about this is that as the spindle turns for steering, it alters the geometry
of the suspension by torquing all four suspension arms. They have complex
pivot

systems

designed

to

allow

this

to

happen.

Car manufacturers claim that this system gives even better road-holding
properties, because all the various joints make the suspension almost
infinitely adjustable. There are a lot of variations on this theme appearing at
the moment, with huge differences in the numbers and complexities of joints,
177

numbers of arms, positioning of the parts etc. but they are all fundamentally
the same. Note that in this system the spring (red) is separate from the shock
absorber (yellow).

Trailing-arm suspension

The trailing arm system is literally that - a shaped suspension arm is joined at
the front to the chassis, allowing the rear to swing up and down. Pairs of
these become twin-trailing-arm systems and work on exactly the same
principle as the double wishbones in the systems described above. The
difference is that instead of the arms sticking out from the side of the
chassis, they travel back parallel to it. This is an older system not used so
much any more because of the space it takes up, but it doesn't suffer from the
side-to-side scrubbing problem of double wishbone systems. If you want to
know what I mean, find a VW beetle and stick your head in the front wheel
arch - that's a double-trailing-arm suspension setup. Simple.

Twin I-Beam suspension

178

Used almost exclusively by Ford F-series trucks, twin I-beam suspension was
introduced in 1965. This little oddity is a combination of trailing arm
suspension and solid beam axle suspension. Only in this case the beam is
split in two and mounted offset from the centre of the chassis, one section for
each side of the suspension. The trailing arms are actually (technically)
leading arms and the steering gear is mounted in front of the suspension
setup. Ford claim this makes for a heavy-duty independent front suspension
setup capable of handling the loads associated with their trucks. In an empty
truck, however, going over a bump with twin I-beam suspension is like
falling down stairs in leg irons.

Moulton rubber suspension

This suspension system is based on the compression of a solid mass of rubber

- red in both these images. The two types are essentially derivatives of the
same design. It is named after Dr. Alex Moulton - one of the original design
179

team on the Mini, and the engineer who designed its suspension system in
1959. This system is known by a few different names including cone and
trumpet suspension (due to the shape of the rubber bung shown in the right
hand picture). The rear suspension system on the original Mini also used
Moulton's rubber suspension system, but laid out horizontally rather than
vertically, to save space again. The Mini was originally intended to have
Moulton's fluid-filled Hydrolastic suspension, but that remained on the
drawing board for a few more years. Eventually, Hydrolastic was developed
into Hydragas (see later on this page), and revised versions were adopted on
the

Mini

Metro

and

the

current

MGF-sportscar.

For a while, Moulton rubber suspension was used in a lot of bicycles - racing
and mountain bikes. Due to the compact design and the simplicity of its
operation and maintenance, it was an ideal solution, but has since been
superceded by more advanced, lightweight designs. If you're interested in
further reading, there's a memoir book out now about Alex Moulton and his
original designs. Alex Moulton - a lifetime in engineering .

Transverse leaf-spring

This system is a bit odd in that it combines independent double wishbone

suspension with a leaf spring like you'd normally find on the rear suspension.
Famously

used

on

the

Corvette,

it

involves

one

leaf

spring

mounted across the vehicle, connected at each end to the lower wishbone.
180

The centre of the spring is connected to the front subframe in the middle of
the car. There are still two shock absorbers, mounted one to each side on the
lower wishbones. Chevy insist that this is the best thing since sliced bread
for a suspension system but there are plenty of other experts, manufacturers
and race drivers who think it's junk. It's never been clear if this was a
performance and design decision or a cost issue, but this type of system is
very rare.

Historically, Triumph used transverse leaf spring suspension on their small

chassis cars (Herald, Vitesse, Spitfire & GT6). In the good old British school
of thought, they did this because it was cheap. The spring was bolted to the
differential, rather than the chassis, and under (very) hard cornering you got
jacking and tuck-under. If you got this whilst driving and panicked enough to
let off the gas, or worse, step on the brake, you got massive over-steer, and
pirouetted off into the nearest tree. There were plenty of complaints about
this suspension system in the late 60's, so Triumph changed to a 'swing
spring' system on some cars (no longer bolted to the diff), and what they
called 'rotoflex' on the GT6. Again from the good old British school of
thought, the replacement system was unnecessarily complicated and allegedly
very fragile.
Photo credit : Triumph Herald Tricks & Tips
There was also a rare Swedish sports car in the 1990's called JC Indigo which
had transverse leaf spring as both front and rear suspension. The composite
181

spring was derived from the Volvo 760 station wagon but Indigo used it both
as rear suspension and in a modified form in the front. The car had mostly
Volvo running gear but the company had no relationship to Volvo themselves.
It went out of business pretty quickly and I'm not even sure if the Indigo ever
reached mass production. Interesting factoid for you: Sweden has had over
120 car manufacturers. Only three remain, only two are really mass producers
and it is unlikely that more than one of them will survive to see 2020.
Speaking specifically about Corvette leaf-spring suspension.
The Corvette was not the first car to combine leaf springs with independent
suspension. As well as the Triumph Herald, Fiat did something similar in the
50s with steel springs. The recent Volvo 960 Wagon (not sedan) also used
fibreglass leaf springs in the rear with independent suspension. The Corvette
is, as far as I know, the only vehicle that uses this setup both front and rear.
The system is definitely independent, not like a live axle or a twist beam rear
end. With dependent systems, when one wheel moves, the other is forced to
move too. The design of the Corvette suspension is such that even though
both sides are linked one side can move without affecting the other, hence its
classification as independent. But how - what about that leaf spring? Surely
if it's attached to both sides, that makes this a dependent suspension system?
On the older Corvettes (C2, C3, C4 rear end) the leaf spring was rigidly
clamped to the subframe in the centre. That made it act like two separate leaf
springs, one for each side. As two separate leaf springs it, like a torsion bar,
was

simply

an

alternative

to

coil

springs.

When considering coil-spring type suspension, the 'third spring' is essentially

forgotten - the two visible coils are considered to be the springing part of the
suspension. Not so - there's the anti-roll bar too. Whilst not technically a
spring, it does act as a transverse torsion bar linking both sides of the
suspension

together.

So the way GM started using the tranverse leaf spring is actually very clever;
182

it lets one spring act as both a traditional spring and an anti-roll. Yes - if one
wheel moves, spring forces (not geometric displacements like we see with a
live axle) are applied to the other wheel - however, in a car with an anti-roll
bar the same thing happens (see the section on anti roll bars ). The problem
was that it worked well as a spring, but not so well as an anti-roll bar, so in
the end GM had to add anti-roll bars too.
Typically, aftermarket tuners will tear the leaf springs out and replace them
with coil spring systems simply to make life easier. GM left many things on
the Corvette with room for improvement. Leaf springs are not really a
fundamental problem - typically the view is that Corvettes would be no better
from the factory with coil springs. A traditional leaf spring live axle saves
money because the cost of leaf springs is less than coils, trailing arms, pan
hard rod etc. The Corvette has all the same suspension arms as a system with
coil springs, so the only difference is the cost of the fibreglass leaf vs. the
cost of the coil spring; leaf springs cost more than a coil so GM didn't do it
to save money. It's not immediately clear then why they did it other than
perhaps 'because they could'.
To round off this section then, here is an excellent link talking about how this
suspension works - it does a far better job than I can: Fibreglass springs

How Anti-Lock Brakes Work

by Karim Nice

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
Inside this Article
1.

Introduction to How Anti-Lock Brakes Work

183

2.

The ABS System

3.

Anti-Lock Brake Types

4.

ABS Questions

5.

Anti-Lock Brake Diagram

6.

Lots More Information

7.

See more
Wrecks to Riches Videos

Image Gallery: Brakes

184

More Auto Videos

Location of anti-lock brake components. See more pictures of brakes.

Stopping a car in a hurry on a slippery road can be very challenging. Anti-lock braking systems
(ABS) take a lot of the challenge out of this sometimes nerve-wracking event. In fact, on slippery
surfaces, even professional drivers can't stop as quickly without ABS as an average driver can
with ABS.
In this article, the last in a six-part series on brakes, we'll learn all about anti-lock braking
systems -- why you need them, what's in them, how they work, some of the common types and
some associated problems.
The ABS System

185

Anti-lock brake pump and valves

The theory behind anti-lock brakes is simple. A skidding wheel(where the tire contact patch is
sliding relative to the road) has lesstraction than a non-skidding wheel. If you have been stuck
on ice, you know that if your wheels are spinning you have no traction. This is because the
contact patch is sliding relative to the ice (seeBrakes: How Friction Works for more). By keeping
the wheels from skidding while you slow down, anti-lock brakes benefit you in two ways: You'll
stop faster, and you'll be able to steer while you stop.
There are four main components to an ABS system:

Speed sensors

Pump

Valves

Controller

Speed Sensors
The anti-lock braking system needs some way of knowing when a wheel is about to lock up. The
speed sensors, which are located at each wheel, or in some cases in the differential, provide this
information.
Valves
There is a valve in the brake line of each brake controlled by the ABS. On some systems, the
valve has three positions:
186

In position one, the valve is open; pressure from the master cylinder is passed right
through to the brake.

In position two, the valve blocks the line, isolating that brake from the master
cylinder. This prevents the pressure from rising further should the driver push the
brake pedal harder.

In position three, the valve releases some of the pressure from the brake.

Up Next

How Brakes Work

How Drum Brakes

Work

How Disc Brakes

Work

How Power Brakes

Wor

Turbo.com: How to

Inspect Brakes
Pump
Since the valve is able to release pressure from the brakes, there has to be some way to put that
pressure back. That is what the pump does; when a valve reduces the pressure in a line, the pump
is there to get the pressure back up.
Controller
The controller is a computer in the car. It watches the speed sensors and controls the valves.
ABS at Work
There are many different variations and control algorithms for ABS systems. We will discuss
how one of the simpler systems works.
The controller monitors the speed sensors at all times. It is looking for decelerations in the
wheel that are out of the ordinary. Right before a wheel locks up, it will experience a rapid
deceleration. If left unchecked, the wheel would stop much more quickly than any car could. It
might take a car five seconds to stop from 60 mph (96.6 kph) under ideal conditions, but a wheel
that locks up could stop spinning in less than a second.

187

The ABS controller knows that such a rapid deceleration is impossible, so it reduces
the pressure to that brake until it sees an acceleration, then it increases the pressure until it sees
the deceleration again. It can do this very quickly, before the tire can actually significantly
change speed. The result is that the tire slows down at the same rate as the car, with the brakes
keeping the tires very near the point at which they will start to lock up. This gives the system
maximum braking power.
When the ABS system is in operation you will feel a pulsing in the brake pedal; this comes from
the rapid opening and closing of the valves. Some ABS systems can cycle up to 15 times per
second.
Anti-Lock Brake Types
Anti-lock braking systems use different schemes depending on the type of brakes in use. We will
refer to them by the number of channels -- that is, how many valves that are individually
controlled -- and the number of speed sensors.
Four-channel, four-sensor ABS
This is the best scheme. There is a speed sensor on all four wheels and a separate valve for all
four wheels. With this setup, the controller monitors each wheel individually to make sure it is
achieving maximum braking force.
Three-channel, three-sensor ABS
This scheme, commonly found on pickup trucks with four-wheel ABS, has a speed sensor and a
valve for each of the front wheels, with one valve and one sensor for both rear wheels. The speed
sensor for the rear wheels is located in the rear axle.
This sys tem provides individual control of the front wheels, so they can both achieve maximum
braking force. The rear wheels, however, are monitored together; they both have to start to lock
up before the ABS will activate on the rear. With this system, it is possible that one of the rear
wheels will lock during a stop, reducing brake effectiveness.
One-channel, one-sensor ABS
This system is commonly found on pickup trucks with rear-wheel ABS. It has one valve, which
controls both rear wheels, and one speed sensor, located in the rear axle.

188

This system operates the same as the rear end of a three-channel system. The rear wheels are
monitored together and they both have to start to lock up before the ABS kicks in. In this system
it is also possible that one of the rear wheels will lock, reducing brake effectiveness.
This system is easy to identify. Usually there will be one brake line going through a T-fitting to
both rear wheels. You can locate the speed sensor by looking for an electrical connection near the
differential on the rear-axle housing.
ABS Questions
Should I pump the brake pedal when stopping in slippery conditions?
You absolutely should not pump the brake pedal in a car with ABS. Pumping the brakes is a
technique that is sometimes used in slippery conditions to allow the wheels to unlock so that the
vehicle stays somewhat straight during a stop. In a car with ABS the wheels should never lock in
the first place, so pumping the brakes will just make you take longer to stop.
In an emergency stop in a car with ABS, you should apply the brake pedal firmly and hold it
while the ABS does all the work. You will feel a pulsing in the pedal that may be quite violent,
but this is normal so don't let off the brake.
Do anti-lock brakes really work?
Anti-lock brakes really do help you stop better. They prevent wheels from locking up and
provide the shortest stopping distance on slippery surfaces. But do they really prevent accidents?
This is the true measure of the effectiveness of ABS systems.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has conducted several studies trying to
determine if cars equipped with ABS are involved in more or fewer fatal accidents. It turns out
that in a 1996 study, vehicles equipped with ABS were overall no less likely to be involved in
fatal accidents than vehicles without. The study actually stated that although cars with ABS were
less likely to be involved in accidents fatal to the occupants of other cars, they are more likely to
be involved in accidents fatal to the occupants of the ABS car, especially single-vehicle
accidents.
There is much speculation about the reason for this. Some people think that drivers of ABSequipped cars use the ABS incorrectly, either by pumping the brakes or by releasing the brakes
when they feel the system pulsing. Some people think that since ABS allows you to steer during
a panic stop, more people run off the road and crash.
189

Some more recent information may indicate that the accident rate for ABS cars is improving, but
there is still no evidence to show that ABS improves overall safety.
Anti-Lock Brake Diagram
Now let's put the parts together to see how anti-lock brakes work as a whole. This diagram
provides both a closeup view and an example of where the brakes are located in your vehicle.

190

Anti-lock brake components

191

How Airbags Work

by Marshall Brain

Print

Cite

Feedback

Share

Recommend
Inside this Article
1.

Introduction to How Airbags Work

2.

Airbag Inflation

3.

Airbag Safety Concerns

4.

Airbag Deactivation

5.

The Future of Airbags

6.

Lots More Information

7.

See more
Car Maintenance Videos

Car Safety Image Gallery

192

More Auto Videos

Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

The deployed airbag inside the remains of an Enzo Ferrari. See more car safety pictures.

For years, the trusty seat beltprovided the sole form of passive restraint in our cars. There were
debates about their safety, especially relating to children, but over time, much of the country
adopted mandatory seat-belt laws. Statistics have shown that the use of seat belts has saved
thousands of lives that might have been lost in collisions.
Like seat belts, the concept of the airbag -- a soft pillow to land against in a crash -- has been
around for many years. The firstpatent on an inflatable crash-landing device for airplanes was
filed during World War II. In the 1980s, the first commercial airbags appeared in automobiles.
Up Next

How Seatbelts
Work

How Crash Testing

Works

Can a car really be

death-proof?

Discovery.com:
Smart Cars Predict
193

Crashes
Since model year 1998, all new cars sold in the United States have been required to have airbags
on both driver and passenger sides. (Light trucks came under the rule in 1999.) To date, statistics
show that airbags reduce the risk of dying in a direct frontal crash by about 30 percent. Then
came seat-mounted and door-mounted side airbags. Today, some cars go far beyond having dual
airbags to having six or even eight airbags. Having evoked some of the same controversy that
surrounded seat-belt use in its early years, airbags are the subject of serious government and
industry research and tests.
In this article, you'll learn about the science behind the airbag, how the device works, what its
problems are and where the technology goes from here.
Laws of Motion
Before looking at specifics, let's review our knowledge of the laws of motion. First, we know
that moving objects have momentum (the product of the mass and the velocity of an object).
Unless an outside forceacts on an object, the object will continue to move at its present speed
and direction. Cars consist of several objects, including the vehicle itself, loose objects in the car
and, of course, passengers. If these objects are not restrained, they will continue moving at
whatever speed the car is traveling at, even if the car is stopped by a collision.
Stopping an object's momentum requires force acting over a period of time. When a car crashes,
the force required to stop an object is very great because the car's momentum has changed
instantly while the passengers' has not -- there is not much time to work with. The goal of any
supplemental restraint system is to help stop the passenger while doing as little damage to him or
her as possible.
What an airbag wants to do is to slow the passenger's speed to zero with little or no damage. The
constraints that it has to work within are huge. The airbag has the space between the passenger
and thesteering wheel or dashboard and a fraction of a second to work with. Even that tiny
amount of space and time is valuable, however, if the system can slow the passenger evenly
rather than forcing an abrupt halt to his or her motion.
In the next section, we'll look at the parts of an airbag and see how it inflates.
Airbag Inflation

194

The goal of an airbag is to slow the passenger's forward motion as evenly as possible in a
fraction of a second. There are three parts to an airbag that help to accomplish this feat:

The bag itself is made of a thin, nylon fabric, which is folded into the steering wheel
or dashboard or, more recently, the seat or door.

The sensor is the device that tells the bag to inflate. Inflation happens when there is a
collision force equal to running into a brick wall at 10 to 15 miles per hour (16 to 24
km per hour). A mechanical switch is flipped when there is a mass shift that closes an
electrical contact, telling the sensors that a crash has occurred. The sensors receive
information from an accelerometer built into a microchip.

The airbag's inflation system reacts sodium azide (NaN3) with potassium nitrate
(KNO3) to produce nitrogen gas. Hot blasts of the nitrogen inflate the airbag.

195

The airbag and inflation system stored in the steering wheel. See more car safety images.
Early efforts to adapt the airbag for use in cars bumped up against prohibitive prices and
technical hurdles involving the storage and release of compressed gas. Researchers wondered:

If there was enough room in a car for a gas canister

Whether the gas would remain contained at high pressure for the life of the car

How the bag could be made to expand quickly and reliably at a variety of operating
temperatures and without emitting an ear-splitting bang

The inflation system uses a solid propellant and an igniter.

196

They needed a way to set off a chemical reaction that would produce the nitrogen that would
inflate the bag. Small solid-propellant inflators came to the rescue in the 1970s.
The inflation system is not unlike a solid rocket booster (see How Rocket Engines Work for
details). The airbag system ignites a solid propellant, which burns extremely rapidly to create a
large volume of gas to inflate the bag. The bag then literally bursts from its storage site at up to
200 mph (322 kph) -- faster than the blink of an eye! A second later, the gas quickly dissipates
through tiny holes in the bag, thusdeflating the bag so you can move.
Even though the whole process happens in only one-twenty-fifth of a second, the additional
time is enough to help prevent serious injury. The powdery substance released from the airbag,
by the way, is regular cornstarch or talcum powder, which is used by the airbag manufacturers to
keep the bags pliable and lubricated while they're in storage.
Airbag Safety Concerns
Since the early days of auto airbags, experts have cautioned that airbags are to be used in tandem
with seat belts. Seat belts were still completely necessary because airbags worked only in frontend collisions occurring at more than 10 mph (6 kph). Only seat belts could help in side swipes
and crashes (although side-mounted airbags are becoming more common now), rear-end
collisions and secondary impacts. Even as the technology advances, airbags still are only
effective when used with a lap/shoulder seat belt.
It didn't take long to learn that the force of an airbag can hurt those who are too close to it.
Researchers have determined that the risk zone for driver airbags is the first 2 to 3 inches (5 to 8
cm) of inflation. So, placing yourself 10 inches (25 cm) from your driver airbag gives you a clear
margin of safety. Measure this distance from the center of the steering wheel to your breastbone.
If you currently sit less than 10 inches away, you can adjust your driving position in the
following ways:

Move your seat to the rear as far as possible while still reaching the pedals
comfortably.

Slightly recline the back of your seat. Although car designs vary, most drivers can
achieve the 10-inch distance even with the driver seat all the way forward by slightly
reclining the back of the seat. If reclining the seat makes it hard to see the road, you

197

can raise yourself up by using your car's seat-raising system (not all cars have this!) or
a firm, non-slippery cushion to achieve the same effect.

Point the airbag toward your chest, instead of your head and neck, by tilting your
steering wheel downward (this only works if your steering wheel is adjustable).

The rules are different for children. An airbag can seriously injure or even kill an unbuckled
child who is sitting too close to it or is thrown toward the dash during emergency braking.
Experts agree that the following safety points are important:

Children 12 and under should ride buckled up in a properly installed, ageappropriate car seat in the rear seat.

Infants in rear-facing child seats (under one year old and weighing less than 20 pounds
/ 10 kg) should never ride in the front seat of a car that has a passenger-side airbag.

If a child over one year old must ride in the front seat with a passenger-side airbag, he
or she should be in a front-facing child safety seat, a booster seat or a properly fitting
lap/shoulder belt, and the seat should be moved as far back as possible.

For more information about child car seats, read Car Seats: Fast Facts.
In certain special cases, car owners can request the ability to deactivate their airbags. In the next
section, we'll discuss steps to take if you want to have your airbag deactivated.
Airbag Deactivation
In response to concerns about children -- and others, especially smaller people -- being killed or
seriously injured by malfunctioning or overly powerful airbags, the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration(NHTSA) in 1997 issued a final rule to allow auto manufacturers to use
lower-powered airbags. This rule permits airbags to be depowered by 20 to 35 percent. In
addition, starting in 1998, repair shops and dealers were allowed to install on/off switches that
allow airbags to be deactivated. Vehicle owners could now be authorized (by the NHTSA) to get
on/off switches installed for one or both airbags in their car if they (or other users of their car)
fell into one or more of these specific risk groups:

For both driver and passenger sides - Individuals with medical conditions in which
the risks of deploying the airbag exceed the risk of impact in the absence of an airbag

198

For the driver side (in addition to medical conditions) - Those who cannot position
themselves to properly operate their cars at least 10 inches (25.4 cm) back from the
center of the driver airbag cover

For the passenger side (in addition to medical conditions) - Individuals who need to
transport a baby in a rear-facing child restraint in the front seat because the car has no
rear seat, the rear seat is too small to accommodate a rear-facing child seat or because
it's necessary to constantly monitor a child's medical condition

For the passenger side (in addition to medical conditions) - Individuals who need to
carry children between one and 12 years old in the front seat because (a) the car has no
rear seat, (b) the vehicle owner must carry more children than can fit into the back seat
or (c) because it's necessary to constantly monitor a child's health

If you would like to get an on-off switch installed in your car, you need a copy of NHTSA's
brochure, "airbags and On-Off Switches: Information for an Informed Decision," and the
accompanying form,Request for airbag On-Off Switch. You can find these on the NHTSA Web
site, as well as at AAA clubs, new-car dealers and state motor vehicle departments. The NHTSA
will send you a letter of authorization that you can take to a repair shop. (Before you bother with
all this, you should check with your auto dealer or repair shop to see if an on-off switch is
available for your car.) Some retrofit on-off switches can be found and used if federal
requirements are met -- switches must be operated by a key and equipped with warning lights to
indicate whether the bags are turned off or on.
Obviously, even you have the option of turning it off, the airbag should be left on for drivers who
can sit at least 10 inches back. For those who can't (even with the suggestions listed above), the
bag can be turned off. A group of doctors at the National Conference on Medical Indications for
airbag Deactivation considered the medical conditions commonly reported in letters to the
NHTSA as possible justification for turning off airbags. They did not, however, recommend
turning off airbags for relatively common conditions, such as:

pacemakers

eyeglasses

angina

emphysema

asthma
199

mastectomy

previous back or neck surgery

advanced age

osteoporosis

arthritis

pregnancy

Generally speaking, you can't deactivate your airbag without installing a retrofit on-off switch.
However, if a retrofit on-off switch is not yet available (from the vehicle manufacturer) for your
car, the NHTSA will authorize airbag deactivation on a case-by-case basis under appropriate
conditions. Never try to disable the bag yourself -- remember, this is no soft cushion! It packs a
wallop and can hurt you when you don't know what you're doing.
As for factory-installed on-off switches, the NHTSA allows car manufacturers to
install passenger airbag on-off switches in new vehicles under limited circumstances -- only if
the vehicle has no rear seat or if the rear seat is too small to accommodate a rear-facing child
safety seat. And manufacturers are not currently allowed to install on-off switches for the driver
airbag in any new vehicle. Why these rules? The NHTSA decided against widespread factoryinstalled on-off switches for fear that they would become standard equipment in all new vehicles
-- even those purchased by people not in at-risk groups. They also saw the integration of on-off
switches into new cars (and the subsequent redesign of instrument panels) as something that
would divert resources from the development of safer, more advanced airbag systems.
What is a Suspension System?

A suspension system is made up of many components that work together,

to assist in softening the undesirable effects of the surface that a vehicle is travelling on. It works
by delicately balancing these effects, whilst still providing the driver with the necessary road
response for driving, steering and braking safely.

200

The two main aspects of a suspension system include the springs and shock absorbers that help
control the suspension movement and the network of control rods, linkages and bushes that
connect the wheels to the vehicle. This network is intricately designed to be rigid, whilst
allowing vertical movement for the wheels.
Suspension gives all the wheels of the vehicle more chance of making contact with the surface
especially when driving over bumpy uneven tracks. When you travel at speed, these effects are
amplified and driving over smaller track imperfections could now be quite noticeable. A good
suspension system will dramatically help suppress these effects.
Springs
Springs are an amazing device that can store energy when its altered from its original state. The
spring can then release this energy when the load is removed and therefore returning it to its
original state.
Springs are used in vehicles to help absorb changes in the terrain such as bumps or potholes that
would otherwise jolt the vehicle. At the time a wheel enters a pothole for example, the spring
releases energy at the time the wheel moves into the hole. The spring would then reabsorb this
energy as the wheel exits the hole.
The spring rate is the measurement of a springs energy storage and is measured in terms of how
much force is required to deflect it by a given amount.
Linear or Fixed-rate Behaviour
Is when the spring compresses at a constant rate or measurement to the increase in load placed
upon it. For example, if 50kg were placed on a spring and it moved 1cm. The springs rate would
be 50kgs/cm and an additional 50kg would result in a 2cm compression.
Rising-rate Behaviour
This spring rate is more exponential and is highly suitable for vehicle applications. For example,
if 50kg were placed on a spring and it moved 1cm, it may take 150kg for it to move another
centimetre. This spring behaviour may allow substantial compressions for medium loads but
201

without fully compressing under heavy loads. The downside to a linear rate spring is that the
spring may be rigid enough for heavy loads but too rigid for light loads.

Suspension Arms and Linkages

The suspension arms and linkages all form the core framework of the suspension system. They
all work together to serve a common purpose and thats to keep everything locked in place,
whilst providing the support and leverage where necessary. The design of this framework is very
important in ensuring that the suspension system operates as intended and in general, the
linkages be sturdy and rigid as possible to eliminate undesired movement.
Shock Absorbers
Shock absorbers, also known as dampers or shockies are used to help slow down or dampen the
movement of the suspension system. They consist of a piston moving inside an oil or gas filled
tube and have various holes and spring loaded valves to control its resistance to movement.
Unlike a spring, a shock absorber will keep moving with the force that was applied until the
force has stopped or reached its energy limits. When this force is exhausted, the shock absorber
will attempt to return to a fully extended position however the weight of the vehicle will limit
this travel. In a correctly setup suspension system the shock absorber should be centered to the
travel of the device.

202

Pivot Points
Pivot points, which are joints between moving components need to have either restricted
movement or be able to rotate freely in the desired way. There are two main types used in
suspension systems and they are bushes and bearings.
Bushes
These components, also known as bushings are made of rubber, nylon or polyurethane and are
generally used between joints where vibration needs to be absorbed. These bushes are used to
help absorb road shock, reduce noise vibration and harshness. They are used to prevent steel on
steel and minimise movement, which is the main cause of vibration transference, which in turn
leads to steel degradation. Many of these bushes are designed to slightly flex to allow for a
certain amount of linkage misalignment.
Bearings
Metal spherical bearings, also known as rose joints are commonly used to allow free rotation.
They are more expensive than bushes; however, they provide a very stiff and solid joint. These
components dont offer the joint the impact absorption of rubber, nylon or polyurethane bushes.

Leaf Springs
The leaf spring, which is the simplest and oldest suspension system, serves a dual purpose to
locate the axle and to provide the suspension. Both ends of the spring's length are attached to the
chassis with a bush and a through-bolt. The spring then passes under (although, on some
occasions over) the axle and is usually attached to it with U-bolts. Leaf springs are usually made
up of multiple leaves, which slide against each other as the spring flexes. The springs length
203

changes as it flexes, so shackles are required to take up this change. There are three main types
of leaf springs: quarter-elliptical, semi-elliptical and parabolic.
Quarter-ellipticals
Quarter-elliptical leaf springs have been around for many years and were used in the Austin 7s of
the 1920s. A quarter-elliptical suspension system is literally half of a semi-elliptical leaf spring
and its use in vehicles is not that common anymore. These springs usually work by having one
end, which is often the thickest part of the leaf-stack bolted to the chassis and the free end
attached to the differential.

Semi-elliptical
This type of suspension is by far the most commonly used spring especially in heavy vehicle
applications such as trucks and trailers. In regards to passenger vehicles, it would be ideal to
have a soft suspension for a comfortable ride. This is true to a degree, but unfortunately not very
practical because a very soft suspension will compress too easy with large bumps and potholes.
4WDs that are going off-road will no doubt experience these conditions, so its vital to have a
balance between comfort and rigidity. What is required is a rising-rate leaf spring that gets stiffer
the more it is compressed. Extra helper leaves, which are normally straighter and smaller than
the standard leaves is what achieves this. As the load increases, and the standard leaves become
near parallel with the helper leaves, the helper leaves will then come into play to take some of
the load.

204

Parabolic
The parabolic leaf spring is a more modern version of the standard semi-elliptical leaf spring.
This design consists of a thickness variation in the leaf which follows a parabolic arc. In other
words, its thicker at the center and thinner towards the ends. The advantages of this system, is
there is more contact between the springs at the ends and the center, providing less inter-leaf
friction as they slide. Having less friction, results in a more supple and flexible spring that reacts
smoother to small loads, whilst still retaining the stiffness needed to take heavier loads.

Advantages & Disadvantages of Leaf Springs

Below is a list of advantages and disadvantages in regards to leaf springs:
Advantages:

When the spring is attached to the axle and chassis, the spring itself can hold everything
in place minimising the complications of additional linkages and support bars.

Friction as the leaves slide across each other, provides frictional resistance to movement
which aides in stopping the spring bouncing out of control.

Leaf springs can be easily designed to take heavy loads

The simple design of the leaf spring system is not as expensive as other systems

Disadvantages:

205

The friction that is generated from inter-leaf sliding can also work against the intended
use

As the spring gets older and rust starts to settle in, the springs dont slide across each
other as smoothly and therefore creating a stiffer spring

Leaf springs need to be well looked after for maintaining good performance

What to Look For?

Below is a list of some of the things to look out for when choosing a quality leaf spring
suspension system:

Tapered Leaf Ends - To reduce inter-leaf friction & to improve pressure distribution in the
bearing area

Shot Peened & Scragged Tested - To ensure longevity and reduce stress

Leaf Inserts Assists in a further reduction of friction

Bolt Clips & Military Wraps This helps prevent leaf spread & provide extra safety

Bolt Clip Liners Assists to reduce noise and friction.

206

Inter-Leaf Graphite Coating - Assists in a further reduction of friction

Coil Springs

A coil spring is basically a torsion bar that is twisted into a spiral. Similar
to a torsion bar, which works in storing energy by twisting, a coil will store this twisting energy
by compressing it down.
A coils stiffness is related to multiple factors such as the diameter of the coil and the diameter
and the overall length of the steel used to manufacture the coil. Since a coil is basically a curled
torsion bar, a 400mm coil with 10 winds will be stiffer than an 800mm coil with 20 winds. This
is because the length of steel used to make the 800mm coil will be twice as long in its straight
form and therefore being easier to twist.

Main Advantages
Coil springs are very popular suspension systems in off road vehicles. Since a coil spring doesn't
have the friction losses that a leaf spring does, a smooth and predictable suspension system can
be designed. These springs are often mounted between a lower suspension wishbone and either
the chassis or a chassis outrigger. In 4WD applications, the coil spring can work very well with a
telescopic shock absorber, giving greater suspension values and clearance in true off-road
conditions.
207

What to Look For

Below is a list of some of the things to look out for when choosing a quality coil spring
suspension system.

Shot Peened - To relieve stress of the outer surface of the coil. The coil can then operate
under higher fatigue & repeated load conditions to ensure longevity

Scragged for Quality Control Scragging is achieved by compressing the coil beyond its
yield point to set up residual stresses. Doing this will increase the elastic limit of the
spring

Powder Coated Helps resist corrosion. Also used for aesthetics

Air Springs
With an air spring attached to a compressor, you get both a rising-rate spring with almost infinite
adjustability. Air can be pumped into the spring or released to help level the vehicle depending
on various driving conditions such as driving in rough terrain and driving with heavy loads.
Automated air suspension systems are electronic and usually have these features:

Load monitoring

Automatic traction control

208

Automatic pre-set levels. (e.g. parallel to the road surface, including uneven loads)

4WD Applications
The advantage of using air springs especially in 4WDs is you can raise and lower the suspension
at will. The vehicle can have a raised suspension dedicated for those uneven bumpy tracks and a
lowered suspension for driving on the tar. Some 4WDs such as the latest Range Rovers have a
more sophisticated system which can raise or lower each corner individually to keep the vehicle
level over rough terrain.

Air Spring Add-ons

An aftermarket option is the adjustable add-on air spring. These air systems can be installed to
work with coil and leaf springs and can either be permanently connected to a mounted
compressor or adjusted with a separate pump. These systems are relatively cheap and are
designed to assist in levelling the vehicle when its heavily loaded.

Suspension Considerations
There are many things to think about before rushing out and buying a suspension upgrade.
Some of these considerations are outlined below:

Standard suspension supplied by the manufacturer is designed to carry the load of the
vehicle in it's standard format. This may be 8 persons or 4 people and some luggage.
209

Outback 4WD travellers generally carry 2 - 4 people, extra fuel, recovery equipment,
water and the list goes on. This stuff is extremely heavy and not what the original
manufacturer made the vehicle to carry.

Overloaded, under capacity suspension will not ride very well and is dangerous.

How will the set-up ride when the vehicle is unladen? Super heavy suspension may give
a hard ride when unloaded but perfect when fully loaded for the big trip.

How will you be using the vehicle? If you only travel outback 4 weeks a year then you
will need a system that will ride well in the city and have the flexibility to give good
performance when you are outback.

When you change the springs or coils it is advisable to change the shock absorbers at the
same time. If lifting your vehicle with new springs then longer travel shocks will be
required.

Some vehicles will ride at a different height on each side of the vehicle. A lot of new
suspensions system are designed with different heights in the springs and these are to go
in the vehicle in a certain way.

Your ride and comfort are everything - do not skimp on your choice of suspension.

Suspension Installation
While you can often fit aftermarket suspension yourself, it is highly recommended that you have
this job professionally done. On average, it takes around two hours to install a new system with
the aid of hydraulic lifts etc. One of the things to look at and tell the installers about is where
210

your load is going to be and how much you are thinking of carrying. Some systems can be
configured independently.
Before Coil Spring Installation:

After Coil Spring Installation:

New Suspension Laws for NSW

From August 1st 2009, vehicle owners in New South Wales will be limited to raising or lowering
their suspension by no more than five centimetres, and all modifications will need approval from
Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) engineers. Before this time (August 1st 2009), a vehicle
could be raised or lowered by up to five centimetres without approval and by up to 15
centimetres with approval.
NSW Roads Minister - Hon. Michael John Daley says - its about saving lives. Raising or
lowering a vehicle's height can put the driver, passengers and other road users at risk. It can
affect handling, braking and safety features such as electronic stability control."

211