When the brake petal is pressed, it forces a brake linkage to compress, sending brake fluid (hydraulic fluid) from the master cylinder through the brake lines and to the brake unit of each wheel. The purpose for using this type of hydraulic force multiplication braking system requires a greater force than you could actually apply using just your leg. The fluid can be directed through all the twists and turns of the brake lines in order to reach each wheel cylinder. However if air gets in the hydraulic line, it will interfere with the performance of the brake system by making them spongy, and causing the brake pedal to go down slightly lower than normal.

Goodyear is probably the leading company that makes brake components; however, there are a number of companies around the world that take the work load as well. Sanyco Grand Industries is renowned company, and Monroe Brakes is another brake component manufacturer. Both companies does a good job building all their components.

Many people wonder what the difference is in Turbocharging and supercharging of a car. Both concepts are to increase the air intake in order to create more power. When turbochargers were first manufactured they were referred as turbosuperchargers, however there is a difference between the two, but the term has been shortened to turbocharger.

A turbocharger is a fan pump composed of a turbine and a compressor. Exhaust gases from the vehicle drive the turbine which in turn powers the compressor. Essentially, the turbine uses the exhaust gases to cause the rotation of the turbine wheel, this causes more air to enter each cylinder at a very high pressure.

Supercharger refers to a different kind of compressor which is powered by the cranshaft of the engine, often via a chain or a belt .

Both turbochargers and the superchargers improve the efficiency of an engine. This is done by allowing more oxygen to enter each cylinder to increase the torque and the power output of the engine. The housing that fits around the compressor and the turbine not only collects the gas flow they also direct it as the wheels spin. So, the larger the turbocharger the more power the engine will have.

When the pressure is increased it is called boost; this increase in power is generated by the turbocharger from the intake manifold. The boost is measured by a pressure gauge, which is installed on the dashboard of a vehicle.

Turbochargers provide more direct fuel savings than a supercharger. Boost is related to the amount of load that is put on the engine, whereas, a supercharger, is geared more to the engine and is more to increase the vehicles speed which has a very high fuel consumption. Therefore, it is much better to have a larger turbocharger than a small one. The turbo spins at a very high rate, which causes the RPMs to run higher, between 20,000 and 100,000 RPM’s. This high speed would be a problem if the used standard ball bearings, so most turbochargers use fluid bearings that allow a layer of oil to cool the moving parts. Lower friction means that a turbo can be manufactured using much lighter materials.

Many manufacturers that produce turbochargers recommend that people change their oil much more frequently; instead of changing it every 6,000 or 10,000 miles; people with turbochargers should change the oil every 3,000 to 5,000 miles. Turbocharging is very common on diesel engines, such as trucks and locomotives. Diesel engines are naturally aspirated which develop less power than a gasoline engine. This is why diesel engines require much stronger and heavier components. Because of this, the diesel engine will lose power if it were not for Turbocharging.

Today turbochargers are most commonly found not only in diesel engines but on high performance gasoline engines as well. Small cars benefit from this technology, simply because there is not enough room to fit a larger engine underneath the car.

If you were comparing a turbocharger to a supercharger, the supercharger would lose the battle. A supercharger requires energy to be bled from the engine in order to operate. The engine has to burn extra fuel to provide the power for the supercharger to work, which then causes more fuel to be used, and the owner has to spend more money, more often to refuel his vehicle. Turbochargers can achieve more power from an engine with the same volume. They also have better thermal efficiency because the excess exhaust pressure contributes some of the work that is required to compress the air.

When looking at the modern four-stroke petrol engine that is manufactured today, typically it is an internal combustion engine that has been designed to run using petrol, or similar fuels. There are a few variances from engine to engine depending on the type of ignition system that is housed in your engine and the type of ECU or Engine Control Unit that helps control the operation. With this style of petrol engine, fuel and air are pre-mixed before the compression injection, which allows it to run at a much higher speed but does limit the compression, which can adversely affect its efficiency.

You can find a modern four-stroke petrol engine in a variety of common places such as cars, trucks, motorcycles, aircraft, and even construction machinery along with many other power-driven applications. The four-strokes itself refers specifically to the intake, compression, combustion and exhaust strokes that are required during operation. These movements will occur during two crankshaft rotations per working cycle, or the movements of a piston in the cylinder itself during this time period.

First patented in 1854, the four-stroke engine was initially the creation of Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci. Afterwards a prototype was introduced along with the French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas conceptualizing it back in 1862. Today it is commonly known as the Otto cycle due to the German engineer Nicolaus Otto, who with help devised the first functioning four-stroke engine. These specific types of engines use spark plugs and consist of adiabatic compression, which uses heat addition at constant volume and adiabatic expansion and rejection of heat at constant volume.

The power that is outputted by a modern four-stroke engine is directly related to its speed and is limited by the material’s overall strength. Where such components as valves, pistons and connecting rods can suffer acceleration forces at high RPM’s, physical breaking as well as piston ring fluttering will cause power loss or even damage to the engine itself. When piston rings ‘flutter’ and oscillate vertically within the piston grooves that they are encased in and the seal is compromised, there is loss of cylinder pressure and power and contact can result in severe damage.

The ECU, or Engine Control Unit of the modern four-stroke petrol engine is the electronic control unit that determines the quantity of fuel, ignition timing and other necessary aspects to operate that are monitored through the engine sensors. The ECU workings include other such operations as the control of idle speed, variable valve timing and valve control in order to complete regular operations. ECU modules can be found on both automatic and manual transmission petrol engines and have similar functions depending on the specific type of engine.

There are programmable ECU’s that you can find on the market today which do not have fixed behaviours for your engine, but rather can be programmed by a user for the desired outputs. Typically, these programmable units are required when there have been significant aftermarket modifications to your four-stroke petrol engine. Engines that have modifications including changes to the exhaust system or others will need a programmable ECU in order to provide appropriate control for these new modifications for smooth operation of your four-stroke petrol engine. While wired in, these programmable units can be mapped with a laptop computer while the engine is running.

The loyalty of the Japanese car company Mazda to the Wankel rotary engine is one of curious quirks of the automotive world.  In a way, this makes sense—the Wankel rotary engine is compact and lightweight.  Smaller and lighter engines help produce better fuel efficiency.  It is therefore perfectly suited for a company manufacturing cars for a country like Japan, where gas is expensive and space is precious.  The Wankel rotary engine, however, operates utterly, completely differently from regular internal combustion piston engines, and thus is often poorly understood.  This article will help explain the basic operation of the rotary engine, hopefully with a minimum of technical jargon and in simple enough laymen’s terms to be easily understood by anyone.

The key to understanding the difference between a piston engine and a rotary engine is this: In a regular piston engine, the piston cylinder performs four different jobs in sequence—intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust—that all take place within the cylinder to more the piston.  In a Wankel rotary engine, each function occurs in its own separate part of the engine (that performs only that one job) arranged in a sequential circle around the ‘piston’ (in this case, a triangular rotor).  The ‘piston’ then continually rotates (yes, I said the piston moves) around to the four different parts of the engine to achieve intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust.

In a piston engine, the engine harnesses the pressure, trapped within the cylinder, created by detonating a mixture of fuel and air to move the pistons back and forth.  Connecting rods and crankshafts convert the back-and-forth motion of the pistons into rotational motion used to run the car.

In a Wankel rotary engine, the engine harnesses the pressure of the detonation, trapped in the space between one side of the triangular rotor and the wall of the detonation chamber, to turn the triangular rotor and push it on to the next stage of the ignition sequence (in this case, exhaust).  This spinning rotor is what runs the car—there is no need for connecting rods and crankshafts to convert it into rotational motion—it’s already rotating!

As the triangular rotor turns, first it passes by the intake valve, and the gaseous fuel-air mixture is injected into the space between one side of the triangular rotor and the chamber wall and trapped there.  Second, as the rotor continues to turn, the space between the chamber wall and the rotor side shrinks, and the fuel-air gas is compressed.  Third, as the rotor continues to turn, it drags this compressed fuel-air gas past spark plugs in the chamber wall.  This ignites the fuel-air gas, and the pressure released by the combustion turn the rotor (in fact, pressure from previous detonations is what has been turning the rotor this whole time).  Fourth and finally, as the rotor continues to turn, the exhaust fumes left over from the detonated fuel-air gas is dragged past the exhaust valve and removed from the engine.

Well, that’s the basic operation of the Wankel rotary engine.  Of course, there’s a lot more to the rotary engine—entire books could be (and have been) written on this topic.  Hopefully, this article explained it to you plainly enough to help you understand this brilliant and efficient engine.

Have you ever wondered why semi trucks use diesel engines and not gas engines? The answer is because diesel engines are more efficient, and they last longer.

A regular gas engine is powered be a controlled explosion of gasoline, which is ignited by a spark plug. Diesel engines don’t have spark plugs. They are powered by high air pressure combustion. Diesel fuel burns, while gasoline explodes. This allows for better fuel economy, as well as lower emissions.

Diesel engines are good for hauling large amounts of weight because the torque is higher than gasoline engines. The higher torque allows for a smoother start from a stop position, as well as the ability to pull the load at lower RPMs. (Revolutions Per Minute) The combustion engine also has less wear and tear, and a diesel engine will last much longer than a gasoline engine.

There are a few drawbacks to having a diesel engine, which may have contributed to their lack of use in cars in the United States. They can be hard to start in cold weather, which is why they have glow plugs installed. When the engine block and cylinder heads are extremely cold, they absorb the heat of the air compression, not allowing the fuel to combust. Glow plugs are small electric heaters inside the pre-chamber which allow the diesel fuel to combust. In many cold weather climates diesel engines are equipped with an “Engine Block Heater”, which prevents this problem from occurring.

Diesel engines equipped with an engine block heater have an electrical plug located inside the front grill. Just plug it in to an electrical outlet, and the engine will start easily in cold weather.  Also, the fuel can become thick and clog up fuel lines in extreme cold weather. This is called “gelling”. When this happens, you may have to wait for warmer weather, or push the vehicle (if possible) inside a garage and wait for the fuel to un gel.

Another unpopular feature of the diesel engine is the noise it produces. Diesel engines tend to be much louder than gasoline engines.

However, diesel engines produce much less carbon dioxide than gasoline engines, and most diesel engines can run on vegetable oil with little or no modifications, and they can also run on Bio diesel, which is a type of refined vegetable oil.

Diesel engines are in most semi trucks, and trucks are what transport goods from the manufacturer to the stores where you buy them.

Diesel engines are also popular in farm equipment, due to their durability and efficiency. Farmers in the United States can purchase “farm diesel” which is a cheaper diesel fuel that has a higher sulfur content.

Military trucks, whose dependability could be the difference between life and death because they are vital in delivering supplies to the front lines, use diesel engines, as did many of the first submarines.

Most buses have diesel engines. Busses are used daily and rack up lots of miles, so the durability and fuel economy of a diesel engine is an attractive feature.

The diesel engine today is a little thought of but important component to our infrastructure. The next time you shop at your local grocery store, remember the food you are buying there was probably farmed and delivered to the store by vehicles with a diesel engine.