Motor Oil

We just learned about the Timing Belt.

Another part of how a car works is Motor Oil.

When all the parts of a metal car engine are moving around, things can get very hot.
If you've ever heard metal scraping on metal, you know that two pieces of metal don't slide against each other smoothly.

To make the engine parts move smooth and not scrape against each other, cars use a slippery oil that lets helps things move around quickly without problems.

We learned before about the holes in the main engine called oil galleries.
That is where the motor oil goes, and it goes through all those holes to get to parts like the camshaft and crankshaft that need oil as they move around.

After a while the oil gets dirty from being used, so the oil has to be emptied out of a car and replaced with fresh oil.



(from: wikipedia - motor oil)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Vacuum Pump

Timing Belt

We just learned about the Crankshaft.

Another part of a car's engine is the Timing Belt, Timing Chain or Cambelt.

We know that the Crankshaft spins around with the up and down movement of the pistons,
and the Camshaft spins around to open and close the intake and exhaust valves.

Both the Crankshaft and the Camshaft need to spin at exactly the same time so that the valves open and close while the pistons are going up and down.
The timing belt is wrapped around both the crankshaft and camshaft to make sure they move at the same speed so the valves and pistons are all moving at the right time together.


(from: wikipedia - timing belt (camshaft))


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Crankshaft

We just learned about the Long Block.

Another part of a car is the Crankshaft.

We know the pistons go up and down with the car, and the power of those pistons is what makes the car go.

Underneath the pistons is something called the crankshaft.

When the pistons are pushed down when the gasoline burns up, they push down on the crankshaft.
That energy pushing down then turns the crankshaft and it spins around.
The spinning movement is what is used to help turn the wheels and make the car go.


(from: wikipedia - crankshaft)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Turbine

Long Block

We just learned about the Valvetrain.

Another part of the engine is the Long Block.

The long block is the cylinder head, head gasket, intake vales, exhaust valves and camshaft, together with what is called the short block.

The short block is all the parts of the engine under the head gasket.
Like the cylinder block, cylinders, coolant passages and oil galleries.


(from: wikipedia - automobile engine replacement)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pneumatic Cylinder

Valvetrain

We just learned about the Tappet.

Another part of a car is the Valvetrain.

We've learned about the camshaft that spins around with cams on it, that pushes on the intake and exhaust valves for the pistons.

The Valvetrain is the name for all of the valves hooked together on the camshaft, pushing the valves in and out.


(from: wikipedia - valvetrain)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pneumatics

Tappet

We just learned about the Exhaust Valve.

Another part of a car is the Tappet.

The tappet is the part of the car that pushes on the intake or exhaust valves to open or close them.

Remember that the camshaft is above the valves, and is a rod with cams on it spinning around.
The bump on the cam pushes on the tappet, which pushes on the pushrod, which opens or closes the valves.


(from: wikipedia - tappet)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pulse Coder

Exhaust Valve

We just learned about the Intake Valve.

Another part of a car's engine is the Exhaust Valve.

Just like we learned that the intake valves bring fuel into the piston, after the fuel is used up it needs to be pushed out of the piston.
The exit, or exhaust valve opens up and lets all the burned up fuel out so the piston can start over again.


(from: wikipedia - valvetrain)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hydraulic Brake

Intake Valve

We just learned about the Camshaft.

Another part of a car's engine is the Intake Valve.

There are valves right above the cylinders where the pistons go up and down, and they either let in fuel for the piston or let out the bad stuff called exhaust.

Remember we learned that pistons take in gasoline fuel, then push up so it is pressurized, it explodes with a spark, pushes the piston back down and also makes exhaust which is like smoke from a fire.

So one valve opens to let the fuel in, and the other valve opens to let the exhaust out.
The one that lets fuel in is called the intake valve.


(from: wikipedia - valvetrain)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hydraulic Cylinder

Camshaft

We just learned about the Oil Galleries.

Another part of a car engine is the Camshaft.

We learned a long time ago that a Cam is a disc with a bump on it that spins around and pushes down to open up valves for the engine.

The camshaft is the long metal pole that cams are attached to.
The shaft spins around, and the cams take turns pushing down with their bumps at different times.



(from: wikipedia - camshaft)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hydraulics

Oil Galleries

We just learned about the Coolant Passages.

Some other parts of a car's engine are called the Oil Galleries.

Oil in the engine helps things run smoothly, so that the metal parts don't grind against each other.
There are holes for oil that go like tunnels all through the engine block, carrying the oil around to keep everything slippery and smooth.


(from: wikipedia - engine block)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Negative Feedback

Coolant Passages

We just learned about the Head Gasket.

Some more parts of the engine block on a car are the Coolant Passages.

The pistons going up and down with the burning fuel makes a lot of heat for the engine.
To cool the engine down, there are little tunnels or passages that go through the engine, and when the engine is running there is cooling liquid that goes in one side of those holes and out the other.

The cool liquid helps keep the engine from overheating.


(from: wikipedia - engine block)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Encoder

Head Gasket

We just learned about the Cylinder Head.

Another part of a car's engine is the Head Gasket.

We learned already that there is a cylinder block which holds all of the pistons that go up and down, and a cylinder head that goes up above the piston to give it fuel and take away the exhaust.

The Head Gasket is in between the cylinder block and cylinder head.
It helps make sure that there is no gas or liquid leaking out when the block and head are connected together.


(from: wikipedia - head gasket)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Servo

Cylinder Head

We just learned about the Cylinder in the engine block.

Another part of a car's engine block is the Cylinder Head.

The engine block cylinders are the piece that holds that pistons that move up and down.
On top of that cylinder part is the cylinder head.
This is the big metal piece that goes on top and closes in the pistons.

It also has other parts that let in fuel and take out the wasted exhaust from the piston.


(from: wikipedia - cylinder head)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Valve Types

Cylinder

We just learned about the Engine Block of a car.

One part of the engine block is the Cylinder.

The engine has a piston that goes up and down to make the car move, and the cylinder is the place that holds the piston.

Sometimes a car will 4, 6 or 8 cylinders depending on how many pistons there are.


(from: wikipedia - cylinder (engine))


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Poppet Valve

Engine Block

We just learned about the Coupling on a locomotive.

Let's learn a little more about how most cars work.

The biggest most important part of the car is the Engine Block, sometimes called the cylinder block under the hood.

This is a big solid piece of metal in the car.
The engine block does not move, but it has parts hooked into it that move to help make the car go.

Because the moving engine is so powerful, this block has to be made in a cast or mold.
That means they take hot liquid metal, pour it into something to hold it's shape and then let it cool.
After it is cooled the block is very strong and can hold onto other pieces that are moving very fast and pushing very hard.


(from: wikipedia - engine block)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ball Valve

Car ignition

We just learned a little about Spark Plugs.

The ignition or starter is the part of the car that you put your keys into, then turn them, and it starts the car.

When you turn your keys, the car takes electricity from the battery and sends it to the sparkplugs to make a spark.
That spark explodes the gas inside the piston and starts the engine.


(From: Wikipedia - ignition system)

Spark Plug

We just learned about a car's Muffler

Inside a car engine, when the pistons go up to push on the gas and make it ready to explode, the spark plug is the thing that lets out a little spark like a match lighting a fire, and BOOM the gas explodes and pushes the piston back down.


(From: Wikipedia - spark plug)

The spark plug gets it's electricity from the car's battery, which looks like a big square block.


(From: Wikipedia - lead acid battery)

Muffler

A muffler is the part of the car that helps make the engine quieter.
When the engine runs it creates smoke, or exhaust, and that exhaust goes out through the muffler and then the tailpipe.


(from: wikipedia - exhaust system)

Without the muffler the car engine would be very loud.
The word "muffle" actually means to wrap something up to make it quieter,
so just like you can cover your mouth to make sounds quieter the muffler makes a car quieter.

Pistons

We just learned about Hardware and Software.

Let's learn a little about car engines.

Inside a car's engine is something called a piston.
It is inside a small metal tube, and it moves up and down.
When it moves up, it squishes the gasoline in the tube (which comes from the gas tank) and electricity comes from the spark plug and BOOM the gas explodes.

The gas explosion pushes the piston down, and that pushing over and over again is what makes the pistons run the engine and spin the wheels.


(from: wikipedia - internal combustion piston engine)