CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 3 – ENGINE TYPES
CONTENTS PAGE
Multi-Cylinders 02
Firing orders 06
2 Stroke Cycle 08
Diesel Cycle 10
Wankel Engine 12
Radial/Rotary 14
Engine Types – Multi Cylinders
Below are illustrated various engine layouts; there are others
such as the V 12.
Generally speaking, the more cylinders there are, the more
power the engine will produce and the smoother the engine
will run.
These layouts are not limited to petrol engines, diesel engines
can also vary in layout.
The only limit to the variety of layouts is the designers
imagination, except to say that, it is uneconomical (both in
manufacturing costs and capacity, and use) to design and
build an engine of say 4 litre V8 layout when a 2 litre V6 would
be adequate.
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Single V Twin Inline 3 Inline 4 Inline 5
V5 V6 V8
Piston Engine Types - Layouts
3
Engine Types – Firing Order
All multi-cylinder internal combustion piston engines operate On Vee engines the angle between the rows of cylinders
under the same operating cycle of:- (banks) is also important; 60° being ideal for 6 cylinders and
90° for larger engines.
Induction ‘Suck’
Compression ‘Squeeze’
Power ‘Bang’
Exhaust ‘Blow
Every power stroke is used to power the vehicle, drive the
other cylinders during other parts of the cycle and overcome
friction.
It is important that the firing order is timed to even out all of
the power stroke forces on the engine components and
provide a smooth running engine where damaging vibration
levels are kept to an absolute minimum.
We have already looked at the firing order for the ‘Inline 4’
engine, and below is illustrated the firing order for the ‘Flat 4’,
typical of the original VW Beetle and Porsche series cars, and
the ‘Vee 8’ used in many high performance supercars.
The firing order of various other engines are listed below: -
Inline 6 1-5-3-6-2-4
V4 1 – 3 - 4 – 2 (as per the Inline 4)
V6 1–4–2–5–3-6
4
Horizontally Opposed (Or flat) 4 Vee 8
Firing Order: -
1–4–3–2 1–8–4–3–6–5–7–2
Piston Engine Types - Layouts
5
Engine Types – The ‘Two-stroke’ Cycle
As its name suggests, the operating cycle of this engine is Valve opening and closing is simply the piston movement
completed in two strokes, i.e. one complete revolution of the covering or uncovering the ports.
crankshaft.
Other variants
The two strokes are described below, starting with Some 2 stroke engines, have a ‘reed’ valve mechanism. This
compression: - is a flap type valve, opened by the suction effect when the
Stroke 1 – the Upward stroke piston rises and is pressured closed when the piston
descends.
Above the piston, air and fuel is trapped and being
compressed when both the cylinder inlet and exhaust parts Applications
are closed. 2 strokes are used where a small lightweight power supply is
At around top dead centre combustion is initiated either by required, such as in Chainsaws, Outboard Motors, Strimmers,
spark, compression induced heat or by ‘glow plug’ (explained small motor cycles and model installations.
later).
Lubrication
Below the piston, the increasing volume under the piston and Because the crankcase is integral to the supply of the air/fuel
in the crankcase draws a charge of fuel and air into the mixture, there is no easy means of providing a recirculating oil
crankcase. lubricating system. Therefore, oil is added to the fuel to
Stroke 2 – the Downward stroke provide the necessary lubrication.
Above the piston, the expanding gases force the piston down Glow Plugs and Ignition systems
the cylinder, providing power. When the exhaust port is Glow plugs are like small spark plugs, but instead of a spark
opened, burnt gases escape out of the cylinder. gap, there is a coil. This is heated electrically for starting, then
Below the piston, the piston moving down closes the remains hot from the combustion process. Used extensively in
crankcase inlet port, opens the cylinder inlet and the exhaust model type engines.
ports. The downward traveling piston forces the charge of Some 2 strokes feature a sparking ignition system, similar to
air/fuel from the crankcase into the cylinder (induction) above spark plugs in the 4 stroke cycle engines.
the piston, and helps to force out the last of the exhaust gases
from the cylinder.
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Port C - Stroke 1
Port B – Exhaust
Cylinder
Piston rising pulls
Inlet
fuel/air mixture into
Piston at TDC Port A – crankcase;
Crankcase compression
Inlet causes combustion
Stroke 2
Piston pushed
down forces
Piston at BDC fuel/air mixture
into cylinder
Piston Engine Types – 2 Stroke Cycle
7
Engine Types – The Diesel
In a Diesel engine the operating cycle is the same as petrol
engines, i.e. this engine features similar valve mechanism and
oil systems etc.
The big difference is that diesels do not have an ignition
system nor spark plugs.
In the diesel engine, combustion is initiated by the
temperature increase in the compressed air/fuel mixture.
This means that ignition is timed exactly when required
without relying on the timing of a spark.
Fuel feed
Because the diesel engine operates at higher compression
ratios, fuel needs to be injected to obtain the correct supply
rate.
Fuel is injected either Indirectly i.e. into the inlet manifold just
outside the inlet valve or Directly i.e. into the cylinder.
The injection of fuel is timed with the compression of air in the
cylinder, ensuring fuel is introduced at the right time and in the
right quantity.
Fuel injection systems are described in the fuel section.
8
Direct
Injection Engine Cross
Section
Indirect
Injection Inlet Exhaust
Same mechanical set-up
as petrol engine
Combustion initiated by
hot compressed air
But no spark plugs!
Diesel
Mechanical Arrangement – Petrol
9
Engine Types – The Wankel Engine - Description
This engine was designed by Felix Wankel and first fitted to a
car, the NSU Ro 80, in 1967.
The engine features a rotating triangular rotor running in an
elongated chamber (almost figure of 8). The shape of the rotor
and the chamber means that there is a small amount of lateral
movement of the rotor.
The triangular rotor engages with a fixed (none-rotating)
pinion gear. The rotor drives an output shaft via a crank off-set
(similar in effect to a piston engine crankshaft).
For each rotation of the rotor, the output shaft is rotated four
times.
There are four points of contact between the rotor and the
chamber. The three corners of the rotor are in permanent
sliding contact (illustrated by the yellow arrows on the diagram
below) with the inner wall of the chamber. Sealing at this point
is very important, any leakage and the engine loses power.
The contact indicated below by the yellow circle, changes
from side to side with rotation of the rotor.
Wankel engines can have multiple rotors, each in its own
chamber, just as piston engines can have more than one
piston.
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Engine Cross Section
Casing Rotating
Triangular
‘Piston’
Fixed (non-
rotating)
Pinion
Inlet
Port
Exhaust
Port
Rotating
‘Crankshaft’
Spark
Plug
Output Shaft
Mechanical Arrangement – Wankel Engine
11
Engine Types – The Wankel Engine - Operation
There are three separate chambers formed by the triangular power stroke for every two turns of the crankshaft for every
rotor and the casing, shown below as A, B and C. piston.
We will look at what is happening in each of these chambers.
Chamber A
As the rotor rotates, chamber A is expanding, this draws the
fuel/air mixture into the engine. – Induction.
Chamber B
The fuel/air mixture has been compressed and is about to
start the power stroke.
Chamber C
The exhaust port is open, and chamber C is getting smaller
therefore the burnt gases are being forced out through the
exhaust port.
Chamber Sequencing
As Chamber A rotates with the rotor, first it will draw fuel/air in
(induction) then the chamber gets smaller (compression), the
mixture is ignited by the spark plug; the expanding gases then
force the rotor round. As the chamber rotates, the exhaust
port is opened and the gases are forced out.
All three chambers follow the same sequence of Induction,
Compression, Power and Exhaust; the same as a
conventional piston engine.
In the Wankel engine there is a power stroke for every rotation
of the crankshaft, for each rotor; in the piston engine there is a
12
Engine Cycle
Chamber A
Chamber B
Inlet
Port
Exhaust
Port
Chamber C
Mechanical Arrangement – Wankel Engine
13
Engine Types – Radial/Rotary Types
Other types of engine, not in common use these days are the Shown below are: -
Radial and Rotary engines, both commonly used with early A miniature radial for model aircraft applications
aircraft, particularly during WW1.
An aircraft type radial adapted to power a motorbike!
Radials and Rotary engines look similar, they both had a
number of cylinders equally and radially spaced around the And the Pratt and Whitney Wasp had four banks of seven
central crankshaft. The side views below have had some cylinders, twenty-eight cylinders in total. Such engines are
cylinders omitted for clarity. extremely powerful but the weight of the engine restricted its
use to the larger aircraft of the day.
The big difference in the two are:-
We will see later how these engines became mostly obsolete
A. In Radial engines, the crankcase and cylinders are when JET engines (gas-turbines), with their much improved
stationary (as with modern car engines) and the crankshaft power to weight ratio and simplicity, became common.
rotated the propeller.
Note: making an engine obsolete does not mean it
B. In Rotary engines, the crankcase and cylinders rotated disappeared overnight, it would be far too expensive and
driving the propeller, and the crankshaft was stationary. technically difficult to remove all piston engines from existing
Rotary engines, whilst being the best engine for power to aircraft and replace them with gas turbines.
weight ratio at the time, suffered some disadvantages, such It meant that gas turbines became the engine of choice in the
as: - design of new aircraft.
Gyroscopic effect – rotating such a large mass caused aircraft Having stated the above, some isolated engine changes were
handling problems. tried, notably the Rolls-Royce Dart Turbo-Props were fitted
Oil system – a total loss system was used as it was difficult to into both the P51 Mustang fighter (replacing a single Packard
recirculate the oil. The oil used was castor oil which literally Merlin) and the McDonald Douglas Dakota transport
splashed everywhere after leaving the engine; pilots had to (replacing two Pratt &Whitney R-1830-90 - a multi bank
use a scarf to wipe the goo off their goggles so they could see radial).
to fly! Firing order: - For the 9 cylinder = 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8.
Radial engines were used quite commonly during WW2 in
various transports, bombers and fighters.
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Radial/Rotary
Radial Rotary
R H ON E
Aircraft Aircraft
Nose Nose
(viewed from the front) (viewed from the side) (viewed from the side)
Model
aero
engine Radial powered motorbike
28 Cylinder Radial
Mechanical Arrangement – Radial/Rotary Engines
15
Engine Types - Sizes
Engine sizes can vary as the illustration below shows.
The small engine is used in model aircraft, gauge the size
from the hand holding the engine.
Whereas the huge monster being assembled below could only
be used in an oil tanker. Again gauge the size by comparing to
the assembly technicians.
Size, use, complexity are only limited by imagination.
There are other types of engines, different types of valve
mechanisms, all available for viewing on the internet.
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Is there any limits to size?
They go from
tiny: -
To fairly big!
Mechanical Arrangement – Engine Size
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