How Does an Engine Work? ⚙️

Morning Motorheads!

What actually happens when you…hit the gas?

Well, let's open up the hood…

See that?

That's something called an Internal Combustion Engine.

AKA what makes cars go…

If you go inside this thing, you’ll see a cluster of cylinders.

There will be 4, 6 or 8 of these.

Basically, the more cylinders you’ve got, the more powerful the car.

Simple right?

Now, If, you look inside each of these cylinders, you’ll find a piston.

That moves up and down like this:

Spinning a little bar, known as a crankshaft.

This converts the up and down motion of the piston into a rotating motion

To drive the wheels.

Great!

But what powers these pistons???

The secret is in the name… COMBUSTION!

Let's look back at one of the cylinders…

As the piston lowers, air and fuel are sprayed in above the piston.

Then, as the piston comes back up, this mixture gets SQUEEEEEZED up against the top of the cylinder.

Like this:

Lastly, in petrol powered engines, there's a little doo-dad in there that makes a spark.

Which Ignites the gas and…

BOOOOOOM!!!

The gas expands rapidly… forcing the piston downwards really, really quickly!

Then more fuel and air is then released into the chamber…

And it goes again and again and again.

More you press the pedal = more gas in chamber = car go FASTER!!

Stay Cute,
Reece, Henry & Dylan 🌈

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