WHAT IS ENGINE AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

The engine then?partially converts the energy from the combustion to work. The engine consists of a fixed cylinder and a moving piston. The expanding combustion gases push the piston, which in turn rotates the crankshaft. Ultimately, through a system of gears in the powertrain, this motion drives the vehicle's wheels.What powers those pistons up and down are thousands of tiny controlled explosions occurring each minute, created by mixing fuel with oxygen and igniting the mixture. Each time the fuel ignites is called the combustion, or power, stroke. The heat and expanding gases from this miniexplosion push the piston down in the cylinder.

Almost all of today's internal-combustion engines (to keep it simple, we'll focus on gasoline powerplants here) are of the four-stroke variety. Beyond the combustion stroke, which pushes the piston down from the top of the cylinder, there are three other strokes: intake, compression, and exhaust. The core of the engine is the cylinder, with the piston moving up and down inside the cylinder. Single cylinder engines are typical of most lawn mowers, but usually cars have more than one cylinder (four, six and eight cylinders are common). In a multi-cylinder 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 figures to the left.

So that inline four we mentioned at the beginning is an engine with four cylinders arranged in a line. 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.