ZIMSEC O Level Combined Science Notes: The Petrol engine
- Four strokes are involved in the operation of most petrol engines
- They are thus known as four-stroke engines
- The first stroke is known as the inlet stroke
- During the inlet stroke the piston moves downwards
- Drawing in air and petrol vapor from the carburetor through the open inlet valve
- The compression stroke
- During this stroke the piston moves upwards and the all the valves are closed
- This compresses the air and petrol mixture
- The power stroke comes next
- During this phase the gas is ignited by a spark plug
- The gas mixture explodes giving off a lot of heat energy
- This causes a large rise in pressure in the cylinder and the piston is forced downwards
- The last stroke is known as the exhaust stroke
- The piston rises and the exhaust valve opens
- The exhaust gas is pushed out of the cylinder
- The piston is kept moving between power strokes by the flywheel
- A flywheel is a heavy revolving wheel that machine which is used to increase the machine’s momentum
- and they provide greater stability or reserve of available power in an engine
- The crankshaft connects the movement of the pistons to the driving shaft through a system of gears
- There are at least four cylinders in a motor car
- During every half-revolution of the crankshaft the cylinders “fire” in turn
- This results in a much smoother running operation and evens out the distribution of power
- Lubrication of the engine results in higher speed in the pistons
- Oil is ed under pressure into the moving parts
To access more topics go to the Combined Science Notes page.