Story of an Engine || Internal Combustion Engine

Pic 1: IC Engine

There are two types of engines namely an Internal Combustion Engine used in automobiles and an External Combustion Engine typically used in trains. Below we are going to discuss the working of an internal combustion engine only.

An ICE (i.e. Internal Combustion Engine) is one of the greatest achievements ever in human history. One of the dominant advantages an ICE has over other engines is that it used petrol/diesel as a fuel, and so had a range that was far superior to other vehicles, for instance, battery vehicles. Hence it can gain more power & torque over a battery-powered vehicle. In a similar manner, the one and only major disadvantage are its emissions.

Most of the mass-produced internal combustion engines (ICEs) in cars nowadays run on a typical 4 stroke system, consisting of an intake stroke, a compression stroke, a combustion event that causes sudden expansion of the gases and to cover up there's a power stroke that pushes the piston travelling at high speeds down into the cylinder.

* Working of an Engine :

The working of internal combustion goes as follows... 

The fuel(gasoline) is injected into a fine spray from the Inlet Valve into the Combustion Cylinder so as to spread it evenly into the cylinder. This intake is taken as the first step into this process when pistons go down making a wide-open area for the fuel to come in. This is the 1st stroke of the piston known as suction stroke.

Later on, the piston comes up as so as to make compression in the cylinder and it compresses the sprayed fuel into a very small area. This is the 2nd stroke of the piston that is known as compression stroke.

Then it is time for the 3rd stroke which is termed as the Power stroke. A Spark Plug is used in this stroke as it ignites the compressed petrol sprayed into fine particle form. The ignition takes place at the correct time with the help of the Distribution System. The ignited fuel burns rapidly creating a controlled explosion into the cylinder that pushes the piston down with a lot of power. The power travels from the Piston to the crankshaft through various small but powerful parts.

Coming to the final stroke i.e. 4th stroke also known as Exhaust Stroke.  Here the piston comes up again after pushing the crankshaft in a circular motion. In this stroke, the exhaust manifolds open up and the piston pushes all of the leftovers. This is how an IC engine works over a 4 stroke power principle. 

Pic 2: Labelled Diagram of Combustion Chamber

This cycle proceeds very very fast that it can go up to 1500 to 6500 RPMs. 

Usually, the IC engines work over “Petrol” aka gasoline or “Diesel” but alternatively, we have too many substitutes for these two. In petrol engines, it peaks at higher RPMs (revolutions per minute), great for a race car, no good for a dump truck and that is why heavy-duty vehicles always go with diesel engines.

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