Four Stroke Petrol Engine

What is an Engine?
The word Engine comes from the Latin word ingenium which means 'ability'. Engine is
machinery. Generally a combustion engine is defined as a machine that produces
power(mechanical) by the combustion of substance like water or a fuel.
Engines are classified into various categories based on the type of cycle they use, the
layout, the energy source used, the cooling mechanism employed or its use.

Based on the layout, there are two types of Engines

•Internal Combustion Engines

An engine is called an Internal Combustion Engine, If the combustion of a fuel like
petrol takes place inside it, in a chamber. The oxidizer used for combustion is usually
air. The gases produced as a result of combustion are high temperature and pressure.
These gases exert pressure on components such as a piston which moves over and
produces energy (mechanical). E.g. Petrol Engine

•External Combustion Engines

An External Combustion engine is one in which the energy is externally applied on a
non combustible fluid like pressurized/hot water, liquid sodium etc. Here these fluids are
heated in an external chamber like boiler and steam is used to drive the engine. E.g.
Steam Engine

Based on the source of energy, internal combustion engines are classified as

•Petrol Engines
•Diesel Engines

Petrol Engine is again categorized into

1.2 stroke engine
2.4 stroke engine

Here we will discuss about a Four Stroke Petrol Engine and its working.

Principle of a Four Stroke Petrol Engine

The principle used in a four stroke petrol engine is commonly known as Otto Cycle. It
states that there would be one power stroke for every four strokes. Such engines use a
spark plug which is used for the ignition of the combustible fuel used in the engine. Most
of the cars, bikes and trucks use a 4 stroke engines.

In every Otto cycle there is an adiabatic compression, addition of heat at constant

volume, an adiabatic expansion and the release of heat at constant volume. The P-V
diagram for a 4 stroke engine is as follows:

Working of a Four Stroke Petrol Engine

A stroke is the movement of the piston from the top, to the bottom of the cylinder.

As the name suggest the Four Stroke Petrol Engine uses a cycle of four strokes and
petrol as the fuel. Each cycle includes 2 rotations of the crankshaft and four strokes,
namely:
1.An Intake Stroke
2.A Compression Stroke
3.A Combustion Stroke also called Power Stroke
4.An Exhaust Stroke

The steps involved are as follows:

1.Intake Stroke: As the name suggests in this stroke the intake of fuel takes place.
When the engine starts, the piston descends to the cylinder's bottom from the top. Thus
the pressure inside the cylinder reduces. Now the intake valve opens and the fuel and
air mixture enters the
cylinder. The valve then
closes.

2.Compression Stroke:
This stroke is known as
compression stroke
because the compression
of the fuel mixture takes
place at this stage. When
the intake valve closes
(exhaust valve is already
closed), the piston forced
back to the top of the
cylinder and the fuel
mixture gets compressed. The compression is around 1/8th of the original volume. An
engine is considered more efficient if its compression ratio is higher.

3.Combustion/Power Stroke: Now in case of petrol engine when the fuel mixture
compresses to the maximum value the spark plug produces spark which ignites the fuel
mixture. The combustion leads to the production of high pressure gases. Due to this
tremendous force the piston is driven back to the bottom of the cylinder. As the piston
moves downwards, the crankshaft rotates which rotates the wheels of the vehicle.
4.Exhaust Stroke: As the wheel moves to the bottom the exhaust valve opens up and
due to the momentum gained by the wheel the piston is pushed back to the top of the
cylinder. The gases due to combustion are hence expelled out of the cylinder into the
atmosphere through the exhaust valve.

The exhaust valve closes

after the exhaust stroke
and again the intake valve
opens and the four strokes
are repeated.