Have you ever opened the hood of your car and wondered what was going on in there? A car engine can look like a big confusing jumble of metal, tubes and wires to the uninitiated.
[image: A Jeep Grand Cherokee engine is one example of an internal combustion engine.]<http://auto.howstuffworks.com/enlarge-image.htm?terms=car+engines&page=0> You might want to know what's going on simply out of curiosity. Or perhaps you are buying a new car, and you hear things like "3.0 liter V-6" and "dual overhead cams" and "tuned port fuel injection." What does all of that mean? In this article, we'll discuss the basic idea behind an engine and then go into detail about how all the pieces fit together, what can go wrong and how to increase performance. The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an engine. Therefore, a car engine is an *internal combustion engine* -- combustion takes place internally. Two things to note: - There are different kinds of internal combustion engines. Diesel engines are one form and gas turbine engines are another. See also the articles on HEMI engines, rotary engines and two-stroke engines. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. - There is such a thing as an *external* combustion engine. A steam engine in old-fashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine. The fuel (coal, wood, oil, whatever) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine. Internal combustion is a lot more efficient (takes less fuel per mile) than external combustion, plus an internal combustion engine is a lot smaller than an equivalent external combustion engine. This explains why we don't see any cars from Ford and GM using steam engines. Let's look at the internal combustion process in more detail in the next section. Learn More: Performance Cars *Porsche* Hundreds of pictures, scores of specifications charts, and the entire evolution of Porsche's sports cars; you'll even get the lowdown on the company's controversial Cayenne sport-utility vehicle and the very latest Cayman coupe. *Ferrari *Clothed in graceful bodywork by Enzo Ferrari's friend, Battista "Pinin" Farina, the early Ferrari road cars were only slightly tamed versions of racing cars. Find out about Ferrari's history and various models, and peruse image galleries of some of the most beautiful cars ever designed. *Corvette* Corvette was born of the post-war sports-car boom, an optimistic time when nearly anything seemed possible, including the world's largest automaker building a two-seat "image" car. -- ~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~--- Connect your World with Us join Now - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dimpill_gang/join Affiliated group from dimpill_gang for Only Adult Mails - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fantazies/join Affiliated group from dimpill_gang for Only Health and Food Mails - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Health_and_Gourmet/join -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~
