Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals

Internal combustion is based on the idea that you can create lots of energy when you burn gasoline in a small enclosed area. When you are able to harness the expanding gas that comes from this process then you have created the core of an internal combustion engine. From there, the energy from this gas is converted into motion. Virtually every car that you see on the road uses a four-stroke combustion cycle to create motion from gasoline. These strokes go in order from intake, compression, combustion and then to exhaust.

The intake stroke is the first part of the internal combustion process. What happens is there’s a connecting rod that connects the piston to the crankshaft. The piston moves from the top to the bottom once the intake valve opens up. From there, the piston allows gasoline and air to get into the engine from the cylinder. The intake stroke occurs when the gasoline mixes with the air. There doesn’t have to be a lot of gasoline for this to work either. Just a small drop of gasoline mixed together with air will create a stroke. After that, the piston moves upwards and compresses the mixture of air and gasoline to give it a more powerful effect. This is known as the compression stroke.

The piston eventually makes it back to the top after compressing the air and gasoline mixture. Once it does, a spark is discharged by the spark plug which causes the gasoline to ignite. There is a mini-explosion inside of the cylinder where the gasoline charge is still active. This is known as the combustion stroke. After the explosion, the piston falls back down to the bottom and causes the exhaust valve to open up. All of the exhaust that was created in the cylinder starts to leave through the exhaust valve and comes out of the car’s tailpipe.  The engine has now gone through one rotation of the four-stroke combustion cycle.

The cycle keeps repeating over and over again as you put your foot on the gas pedal to accelerate the vehicle. If there was a problem with any one of these strokes then it would prevent the whole combustion cycle from happening. Either that or it would gradually damage the components of the engine. Some cars may have slight differences in this process, like with the number of cylinders it has. But the overall concept is still the same.