Petrol Engine

Petrol engine was introduced by the engineers Gottlieb Daimler and Karl
Benz (both from Germany) in 1885.

It is considered as one of biggest achievement in the automotive field. It

uses petrol called as gasoline in USA as a fuel. It is made up of about 150
moving parts. Within the engine burning of fuel mixed with air causes hot
gases to expand against parts of the engine and force them to move. So
petrol engines are called internal-combustion engines.
Petrol engines are compact and light in weight for the power they produce.
The rate at which it produces work is usually measured in horsepower or
watts.
Working of Petrol Engine:
The Working of an internal combustion engine is divided into four stages
called four strokes of the engine and hence the engine is called a
Four Stroke Engine.

1. The Intake Stroke:

When the engine starts, the piston moves downwards in the cylinder,
because of which a region of low pressure is created in the cylinder, above
the piston. At this moment, the intake valve opens and the fuel mixture
(petrol vapour and air mixture) is sucked into the cylinder from the
carburetor.
2. The Compression Stroke
When the sufficient amount of the fuel mixture (petrol vapour and air
mixture) has entered the cylinder, the intake valve gets closed. The piston is
then forced to move upwards which compresses the fuel-mixture to about
one-eighth of its original volume. Higher the compression ratio more will be
the efficiency of the engine.

3. The Power Stroke

Before the piston completes its upward movement, compressing the petrol
vapour and air mixture, the spark plug produces a little electric spark inside
the cylinder and this spark sets fire to the petrol-air mixture. The petrol
vapour burns quickly in a little explosion, producing a large volume of gases
and enormous heat. The heat thus produced expands the gases rapidly. The
pressure of rapidly expanding hot gases pushes the piston downward with a
great force. The piston pushes the piston rod and the piston rod pushes the
crank shaft. The crank shaft is joined to the wheels of a car. When the crank
shaft turns, the wheels rotate and move the car.
4. The Exhaust Stroke
When the piston has been pushed to the bottom of the cylinder by the hot
expanding gases in the power stroke, then the exhaust valve opens. After that,
due to the momentum gained by the wheels, the piston is pushed upwards. The
upward movement of the piston expels the spent gases through the exhaust
valve into the atmosphere, carrying away the unused heat. The exhaust valve
then closes, the intake valve opens up, and the above four strokes of the engine
are repeated again and again.
Carburetor:- It is the heart of gasoline engine. They meter the fuel and
mix it with the air in precise proportions. Old carburetors do spark advance
by measuring the difference in pressure between the outside and inside of
the carburetor. The amount of throttle advance is also measured. The
engine's remains which may be carbon monoxide or unburned hydrocarbons
shows how well the carburetor is working.
In new engines, a small computer is used to calculate these parameters and
control one or more electric injectors. Most of the new cars use electronic
fuel injection as it allows the engine computer to precisely control the fuel
air mixture which increases energy efficiency and reduces pollution.

Classification based on number of stokes per cycle:-

Petrol Engine

Two Strokes Four Strokes

1. Four Stroke petrol engine:

The four stroke engine is called so because the Working of internal
combustion engine is divided into four stages called four stroke of the
engine
2. Two stroke petrol engine:

From the name itself we get the idea about the functioning of the engine.
The engine ignites fuel at every upward stroke, so there are two strokes
for every ignition of fuel. They are called upward and downward stroke.
As the piston moves in upward direction from bottom to top in the first
stroke the air and fuel mixture gets compressed and ignited by spark plug
as upward stroke comes to end. This results in an explosion of mixture
which forces the piston to move downwards thereby producing power.

Application
These engines are widely used in vehicles, portable power plants it
supply the power to run pumps and other machinery on farms. Many
small boats, aero planes, trucks and buses also use it