Have you ever opened the hood of your car and wondered what was going on in there? Well I have, and that's why I have been so interested in cars. Internal combustion engines have been getting us around since the 1800's. A car engine can look like a big confusing jumble of metal, tubes and wires to the uninitiated, but if you want to get down in the dirt they really work in a simple way. You might want to know to, because it is something that you use everyday of your life.
I have been interested in cars and motors since I was a little kid, but recently within the past 5 years I have really gotten into the engine them selves and seeing how they work. I first got into them by hanging out with friends, and us wanting to make things go faster. It did help that we had my friends dad, that has been drag racing cars since he was a little kid. So he knew a lot about making things go fast. One of the first things that we did was build a go-cart, and there are kids that have normal go-carts that can go 15 mph not us though we had to make ours the fastest. We built that go-cart out of an old frame, and took a chainsaw motor out of one of his dads chainsaws. We ran the go-cart on gas first, and it probably did around 50 mph. After a while we got board and thought it went to slow. So we went into the race car trailer and took some of his dads race gas(nitro). Which is a very combustable fuel. Then the go-cart went about 70 mph, and we got to ride it for about 30 minutes and then the motor blew up. That is what happens when you use a fuel like nitro in a little chainsaw motor it eats away at the caburator and the cylinder walls.
Motors have been around for hundreds of years. The first self powered road vehicle was powered by a steam engine that was built by Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France in 1769. It was recognized by the British Royal Automobile Club as the first vehicle to power it self, and it went 2 miles per hour and weighed about 8000 lbs. It looked like a frame with wheels. It had a bench seat with a steering wheel in front with a big steam engine hung over the front of the vehicle.
My focus on this project is how one of these engines is “rebuilt”, and how can they be changed (from stock) to create more power or be more efficient, through what is called “porting”. I chose this topic because when I was introduced to the rotary engine last year when I bought my second car, I immediately fell in love with the idea. My cars engine was “blown”
The Physics Behind the Power of an Engine Insert the key, turn, and vroom. And down the road you go. Most people take for granted the strange conglomeration of metal and plastic under that sheet of metal, either in front or back of their vehicle. The engine, as you may have guessed, is a modern marvel- so to speak. They’re found in cars, trucks, boats, airplanes.
Take a look at your car, it probably can only hit eighty on a good day. Then watch the top fuel and funny car dragsters of the National Hot Rod Association who get three hundred miles per hour on a bad day. You would be blown away at the diffrence in power. The pure power and the amount of noise that these cars produce will blow you away. I'm going to inform you on a lot of the amazing facts about the nitro powered dragsters of the NHRA. First, i'm going to inform you on how drag racing started and on how drag racing works, then how the dragsters work. Following that i'm going to explain how the equipment keeps the drivers and workers safe, finally I will explain how the sport is evolving,
After the steam engine was created in the early 17th century, many people and companies tried to take that same technology and apply it to automobiles. Nobody was successful until a British inventor by the name of Richard Trevithick created a multi passenger automobile that ran on a power source that was driven by a steam-propelled piston at high pressure (Bellis). Up until the mid 1900’s cars were only produced by specifically skilled blacksmiths, and were very expensive. There were only about 4,000 cars produced from the 1890’s to mid 1900’s (Bellis).
Starting in the late 1700's, European engineers began tinkering with motor powered vehicles. Steam, combustion, and electrical motors had all been attempted by the mid 1800's. By the 1900's, it was uncertain which type of engine would power the automobile. At first, the electric car was the most popular, but at the time a battery did not exist that would allow a car to move with much speed or over a long distance. Even though some of the earlier speed records were set by electric cars, they did not stay in production past the first decade of the 20th century. The steam-driven automobile lasted into 1920's. However, the price on steam powered engines, either to build or maintain was incomparable to the gas powered engines. Not only was the price a problem, but the risk of a boiler explosion also kept the steam engine from becoming popular. The combustion engine continually beat out the competition, and the early American automobile pioneers like Ransom E. Olds and Henry Ford built reliable combustion engines, rejecting the ideas of steam or electrical power from the start.
Starting in the late 1700’s, European engineers began messing with motor powered vehicles. By the mid 1800’s, steam, combustion, and electrical motors had all been attempted. By the 1900’s it wasn’t very clear on which type of engine would really power the automobile. At that time, electric cars were the most popular but there were no batteries at that time that would allow a car to move very fast or a long distance. Commercial production in the United States began at the beginning of the 1900’s. In the early 1900’s, the United States had about two thousand firms producing one or more cars.
The image of a self-propelled vehicle dates back around the early thirteenth century. Europe is the birthplace of the automobile, but it was adopted by America. Roger Bacon had a vision of cars being made without animals so they can be at astonishing speeds and maneuverability . About three hundreds years later, Leonardo Da Vinci rejuvenate Bacon's idea with hopes of creating a military vehicle. His idea was transformed into the modern day tank. The first step in making a self-propelled vehicle was taken by Nicholas Joseph Cugnot. He was an eighteenth century French artillery officer. "In 1769 he built and ran a three-wheeled carriage mounting a steam engine of his own design, with the idea that it might be used for pulling guns"2. It was very clumsy vehicle that was shot into the air when it reached the top speed of three miles an hour. Cugnot's vehicle provided almost no improvement of the horse. In the early years of the nineteenth century an American and British duo had began an automotive experiment. Richard Trevithick, a British engineer, and American genius, Oliver Evans created a workable but crude vehicle propelled by steam3. This early experiment was an improvement, but the railroads and stagecoach companies joined together. With this new combining of forces the new steam vehicle, the Orkuter Amphibolos, was brought down.
In my undergraduate years, I have acquired a strong background in the fundamentals of basic mechanical engineering, having studied subjects such as Strength of Materials, Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Heat and Mass Transfer, Design of Machine Elements and Automobile Engineering. Whilst pursuing my diploma & degree courses, my interest for Automotive Engineering grew even more having learnt more on the different types of internal combustion engines, their configuration and importance. However, what I lacked was a practical understanding on these core areas of Automotive Engineering. To gain a better understandi...
The Invention of The Automobile The first automobile was invented in Europe, however the automobile industry had an enormous favorable impact on the United States economy. Brown & Co. 329) There was not one specific person who "invented the automobile," but, there were many people who contributed to the invention of the automobile. (Ingrassia, 5) (Boyne, 31) These people include Isaac Newton, who developed a power carriage in the fourteen twenties, and Joseph Cugnot, who built the first steam powered automobile in seventeen sixty nine.
Now, what are electric vehicles really? Simply put, electric vehicles are vehicles that are powered by an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles use electricity as the “fuel” instead of gasoline or some other combustible fuel. The electric motor in an electric vehicle converts electricity, usually from a battery pack, into mechanical power to turn the wheels. Major auto manufacturers are producing high-performance electric vehicles not only in the form of cars but also in a wide range of styles and sizes, including, mini-vans, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks.
Before the invention of the modern day engine, lifestyles were completely different. Letters were sent by horse drawn wagons, people traveled by horses and other such animals, often taking an entire day to go twenty miles. The first direct injection fuel engine was not invented until 1923.[1] It only took a year before this engine was put into automobiles, making the lives of the general public much easier. The invention of the engine not only made it possible to travel by road, but also by water and air. Mail was no longer delivered by horses and families were able to travel from one place to another in less than an entire day. However, the affects of the modern day engine can be seen all over the world. Take Los Angeles for example; the city is filled with smog which is from the overcrowding of all the freeways with automobiles. Technology has escalated to a level where engines are no longer made by the working man. Now, engines can be made simply machines and computer based tools. However, these thought of simple ways of creating engines are not as easy as the first seemed. There are many positive and negative aspects of using technology to design engines.
So what was the original thinking behind the car? Well to get a person and their family from point A to point B in a faster time than a horse. And it has evolved greatly ever since, even starting to loop back to Edison’s original plan for an electric car. So its safe to say that that the automobile is one of, if not, the most influential inventions on the United states.
Most people today fill up their car with different qualities of petrol, because that's what the average car takes. They don't usually consider an alternative for the petrol that they load into their cars. Although petrol is widely used, it is not the only source for a car to get its power from; diesel and electricity are alternatives to the general petrol used by most cars. Although different from each other, diesel and electricity are alternatives to the average gasoline received at a gas station. Diesel is a more concentrated type of fuel that is usually used by big automobiles because they require a lot of power in a little amount of time. Electricity is a method that uses the power of batteries to produce a low horsepower but, nevertheless fast automobile. Electric cars are generally created to be soundless and environment friendly. The purpose of this paper is to classify and educate the reader of the different types of fuel available for an automobile to use: petrol, diesel, and electricity. The general petrol, used by most people, is usually the only type of fuel accepted on the average car in the United States today.
This along with the lighter construction of a two-stroke makes it the preferred motor used in small vehicles and tools (Two Stroke Engine). A two-stroke engine is operated by first drawing the mixture of fuel and air into the chamber by the vacuum caused by the upward stroke of the piston. During the downward piston stroke, the poppet valve is forced closed due to the increased pressure within the chamber. The mixture is compressed in the chamber throughout the stroke. As the stroke ends, the intake port is exposed allowing the mixture to escape into the main cylinder, expelling the exhaust gasses in the process and some of the fuel mixture as well. Momentum then causes the piston to rise, compressing the mixture as another stroke is beginning. Once the stroke reaches its peak, the spark plug will ignite the mixture causing the fuel to expand driving the piston down thus completing the cycle while additionally initiating a new
A Four-stroke engine has different parts to how it works. The basics are the intake where the piston is at the top dead center then moves to the bottom. While the piston is down the intake valve open letting in fuel-air mixture inside. Then a spark is created making an explosion . This moves this piston making the back wheel move and the other valve opens letting exhaust out then it accelerates and increase speed.