VALVES AND VALVE TRAINS

PURPOSE OF VALVES
*Each engine cylinder has at least two valves.
●an Intake valve
●an Exhaust valve
*INTAKE VALVE-opens just before the intake
stroke begins.This allows the air-fuel mixture to
enter the cylinder.
*EXHAUST VALVE-open just before the exhaust
stroke begins so the burned gases can escape
from the cylinder.
• The valves are operated by a valve train (>12-9).
• There are two basic types of valve trains (Fig.12-17)
*These are overhead camshaft with bucket tappets
or rocker arms
*camshaft in block with pushrods.
 Valves and valve trains
• Th3 valves may be arranged in various ways in
the cylinder head or block (Fig.14-1)
●L-HEAD ENGINES
•The L-head engine has the valves and the
camshaft in the cylinder block
•This arrangement was once popular for
automotive engines
•Now it is used only in small engines for lawn
mowers and similar equipment.
• These are applications where light weight and
simplicity are important.
• The L-head engine has two drawbacks for
automotive use
• first,it cannot be designed to have a high
compression ratio (<15-10).
• Th3 higher the compression ratio, the more
power the engine produces (<15-11).
• Second ,the L-head engine has excessive exhaust
emissions.
• The exhaust gas contains too much unburned and
partly burned fuel.
• The reason is that the combustion chamber
surfaces are large and relatively cool.
• This prevents combustion of the layers of air-fuel
mixture close to those surfaces.
• Automotive manufacturers completed the switch
to overhead-valve engines during the 1950s.
●OVERHEAD-VALVE ENGINES
•In an overhead-valve or pushrod engine,the
camshaft is in the cylinder block and the valves
are in the cylinder head (Fig.14-1 and 14-2) .
•In -line engines usually have the valves in a
single row
•In V-type engines,the valves may be in single
rows in each bank (Fig.12-6 and 12-14),or in
double rows in each bank.
•With double rows,one row is intake valves.
•The other row is exhaust valves.
• Overhead-valve engines have higher compression
ratios than L-head engines.
• Locating the valves directly over the piston
permits the clearance volume to be smaller.
• This is the volume above the piston at TDC (B in
Fig.11-14).
• When the air-fuel mixture is compressed into a
smaller space,the compression ratio is higher.
• This means more engine torque and power (<15-
13)
• Some overhead-valve engines have valve reliefs
cut into the piston heads (Figs.13-4 and 14-2).
• The valve reliefs provide spaces into which the
valves can open without striking the piston.
• Figure 14-3 shows the valve action in an
overhead-valve engine with the camshaft in
the cylinder block.
• When the cam lobe comes up under the valve
lifter,the lobe pushes the lifter up (fig.14-
3,left).
• This pushes the pushrod up
• Pushrod movement causes the rocker arm to
rock on its pivot.
• As one end of the rocker arm moves up,the
other end moves down.
•The valve spring is compressed as the rocker
arm pushes the valve stem down.
•This forces the valve off its seat to open the
valve.
•When the cam lobe passes out from under the
valve lifter (Fig.14-3,right),the valve spring
expands.
•The spring forces the valve back uo onto its
seat.
•The stem end of the rocker arm goes up
•As the other end goes down,it pushes the
pushrod and valve lifter back down.
●OVERHEAD-CAMSHAFT ENGINES
•Many newer engine designs place the camshaft
on the cylinder head.
•These are overhead camshaft (OHC)engines.
•One reason for the shift to OHC engines is that
pushrods and rocker arms have inertia.
•this is a property of all objects.
•They resist changing speed and direction .
•Pushrod and rocker-arm inertia affects valve
action.
•They resist moving until sufficient force is
applied to them .
• As a result,the rocker arm and especially the
pushrod bend or flex slightly before they open
the valve.
• Flexing has little effect at lower speeds.
• But flexing increases as speed increases,and with
the length of the pushrod.
• This causes an increasing lag in valve action that
tends to limit top speed.
• With the camshaft on the cylinder head,the cams
can act directly on the bucket tappets or rocker
arms.
• Valve action in an OHC engine using bucket
tappets is described in >11-12 and shown in
Fig.11-17.
• Many in-line OHC engines use one camshaft
(Figs.11-1 and 11-17).
• These are single overhead camshaft
(SOHC)engines.
• Other in-line engines use two over head camshaft
(Figs.12-5 and 14-4).
• They are double overhead camshaft
(DOHC)engines.
• One camshaft operates the intake valves.
• The other camshaft operates the exhaust valve.
• V-type engines may have one or two camshaft in
each cylinder head.
●MULTIVALVE ENGINES
•Engines have two,three,four,five,and even six
valves per cylinder.
•Two valves and four valves per cylinder are the
most common.
•For many years,most engines had two valves
per cylinder.
•But to improve engine breathing and increase
power output,many engines now have four
valves per cylinder(Figs.12-15 and 14-5)
•Engines with more than two valves per cylinder
are referred to as multivalve engines.
• The additional valves allow more air-fuel
mixture to enter and the exhaust gas to
escape more easily.
• This improves the volumetric efficiency (>15-
12) of the engine.
• Also,the valve-head diameter is smaller and
the valves weigh less.
• This reduces the effects of inertia (>15-5)and
reduces the valve-spring force needed to close
a larger valve at high engine speed (>14-2).