Introduction

What is an automobile?
What is use of it?
An automobile is a self propagating wheeled vehicle which also carries
its own engine or motor. Automobile ranges from small two strokes
motorcycle to large size rockets. Considering its importance in modern
life, anyone can’t imagine the world without automobiles. Goods can’t be
transported, reaching Bombay to New Delhi would require many months,
world would be horrible without automobiles.

What is automobile engineering?

Automobile engineering is a branch of engineering associated with the
manufacturing of self propagated vehicle or automobiles.

As automobile consists of wide range of vehicle, it is very difficult to

describe each and every aspects of it ,so here we only discuss about the
cars and technologies used in their working.

Understanding the technologies used in

an four wheeled automobile
Introduction to engine systems
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. 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
engine.

Internal Combustion
The principle behind any reciprocating internal combustion engine: If you
put a tiny amount of high-energy fuel (like gasoline) in a small, enclosed
space and ignite it, an incredible amount of energy is released in the form
of expanding gas. We can use that energy to propel a potato 500 feet. In
this case, the energy is translated into potato motion. We can also use it
for more interesting purposes. For example, if we can create a cycle that
allows you to set off explosions like this hundreds of times per minute,
and if you can harness that energy in a useful way, what we have is the
core of a car engine!

Almost all cars currently use what is called a four-stroke combustion

cycle to convert gasoline into motion. The four-stroke approach is also
known as the Otto cycle, in honor of Nikolaus Otto, who invented it in
1867. They are:

• Intake stroke
• Compression stroke
• Combustion stroke
• Exhaust stroke

The piston is connected to the crankshaft by a connecting rod. As the

crankshaft revolves. Here's what happens as the engine goes through its
cycle:

 The piston starts at the top, the intake valve opens, and the piston
moves down to let the engine take in a cylinder-full of air and gasoline.
This is the intake stroke. Only the tiniest drop of gasoline needs to be
mixed into the air for this to work.

 Then the piston moves back up to compress this fuel/air mixture.

Compression makes the explosion more powerful.
 When the piston reaches the top of its stroke, the spark plug emits a
spark to ignite the gasoline. The gasoline charge in the cylinder explodes,
driving the piston down.
 Once the piston hits the bottom of its stroke, the exhaust valve opens
and the exhaust leaves the cylinder to go out the tailpipe.

Now the engine is ready for the next cycle, so it intakes another charge of
air and gas.

Notice that the motion that comes out of an internal combustion engine is
rotational. In an engine the linear motion of the pistons is converted into
rotational motion by the crankshaft. The rotational motion is nice because
we plan to turn (rotate) the car's wheels with it anyway.

Basic Engine Parts

The core of the engine is the cylinder, with the piston moving up and
down inside the cylinder. Most cars have more than one cylinder (four,
six and eight cylinders are common). In a multi-cylinder engine, the
cylinders usually are arranged in one of three ways: inline, V or flat (also
known as horizontally opposed or boxer).

Different configurations have different advantages and disadvantages in

terms of smoothness, manufacturing cost and shape characteristics. These
advantages and disadvantages make them more suitable for certain
vehicles.

Let's look at some key engine parts in more detail.

Spark plug
The spark plug supplies the spark that ignites the air/fuel mixture so that
combustion can occur. The spark must happen at just the right moment
for things to work properly.

Valves
The intake and exhaust valves open at the proper time to let in air and
fuel and to let out exhaust. Note that both valves are closed during
compression and combustion so that the combustion chamber is sealed.

Piston
A piston is a cylindrical piece of metal that moves up and down inside the
cylinder.

Piston rings
Piston rings provide a sliding seal between the outer edge of the piston
and the inner edge of the cylinder. The rings serve two purposes:
 • They prevent the fuel/air mixture and exhaust in the combustion
chamber from leaking into the sump during compression and
combustion.
• They keep oil in the sump from leaking into the combustion area,
where it would be burned and lost.

Most cars that "burn oil" and have to have a quart added every 1,000
miles are burning it because the engine is old and the rings no longer seal
things properly.

Connecting rod
The connecting rod connects the piston to the crankshaft. It can rotate at
both ends so that its angle can change as the piston moves and the
crankshaft rotates.

Crankshaft
The crankshaft turns the piston's up and down motion into circular motion
.

Sump
The sump surrounds the crankshaft. It contains some amount of oil,
which collects in the bottom of the sump (the oil pan).

Basic difference between diesel engines and petrol or

gasoline engines.
diesel engines and gasoline engines are quite similar. They are both
internal combustion engines designed to convert the chemical energy
available in fuel into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy moves
pistons up and down inside cylinders. The pistons are connected to a
crankshaft, and the up-and-down motion of the pistons, known as linear
motion, creates the rotary motion needed to turn the wheels of a car
forward.

Both diesel engines and gasoline engines covert fuel into energy through
a series of small explosions or combustions. The major difference
between diesel and gasoline is the way these explosions happen. In a
gasoline engine, fuel is mixed with air, compressed by pistons and ignited
by sparks from spark plugs. In a diesel engine, however, the air is
compressed first, and then the fuel is injected. Because air heats up when
it's compressed, the fuel ignites.

The diesel engine uses a four-stroke combustion cycle just like a gasoline
engine. The four strokes are:
Intake stroke -- The intake valve opens up, letting in air and moving the
piston down.
Compression stroke -- The piston moves back up and compresses the
air.
Combustion stroke -- As the piston reaches the top, fuel is injected at
just the right moment and ignited, forcing the piston back down.
Exhaust stroke -- The piston moves back to the top, pushing out the
exhaust created from the combustion out of the exhaust valve.

Remember that the diesel engine has no spark plug, that it intakes air and
compresses it, and that it then injects the fuel directly into the combustion
chamber (direct injection). It is the heat of the compressed air that lights
the fuel in a diesel engine.

Diesel Fuel Injection

One big difference between a diesel engine and a gas engine is in the
injection process. Most car engines use port injection or a carburetor. A
port injection system injects fuel just prior to the intake stroke (outside
the cylinder). A carburetor mixes air and fuel long before the air enters
the cylinder. In a car engine, therefore, all of the fuel is loaded into the
cylinder during the intake stroke and then compressed. The compression
of the fuel/air mixture limits the compression ratio of the engine -- if it
compresses the air too much, the fuel/air mixture spontaneously ignites
and causes knocking. Because it causes excessive heat, knocking can
damage the engine.

Diesel engines use direct fuel injection -- the diesel fuel is injected
directly into the cylinder.

The injector on a diesel engine is its most complex component and has
been the subject of a great deal of experimentation -- in any particular
engine, it may be located in a variety of places. The injector has to be
able to withstand the temperature and pressure inside the cylinder and
still deliver the fuel in a fine mist. Getting the mist circulated in the
cylinder so that it is evenly distributed is also a problem, so some diesel
engines employ special induction valves, pre-combustion chambers or
other devices to swirl the air in the combustion chamber or otherwise
improve the ignition and combustion process.

Some diesel engines contain a glow plug. When a diesel engine is cold,
the compression process may not raise the air to a high enough
temperature to ignite the fuel. The glow plug is an electrically heated wire
(think of the hot wires you see in a toaster) that heats the combustion
chambers and raises the air temperature when the engine is cold so that
the engine can start. According to Cley Brotherton, a Journeyman heavy
equipment technician:

All functions in a modern engine are controlled by the ECM

communicating with an elaborate set of sensors measuring
everything from R.P.M. to engine coolant and oil temperatures and
even engine position (i.e. T.D.C.). Glow plugs are rarely used
today on larger engines. The ECM senses ambient air temperature
and retards the timing of the engine in cold weather so the injector
sprays the fuel at a later time. The air in the cylinder is compressed
more, creating more heat, which aids in starting.

Smaller engines and engines that do not have such advanced computer
control use glow plugs to solve the cold-starting problem.

Of course, mechanics aren't the only difference between diesel engines

and gasoline engines. There's also the issue of the fuel itself.

Understanding the power train

Manual transmissions

Cars need transmissions because of the physics of the gasoline engine.

First, any engine has a redline -- a maximum rpm value above which the
engine cannot go without exploding. Second, if you have read How
Horsepower Works, then you know that engines have narrow rpm ranges
where horsepower and torque are at their maximum. For example, an
engine might produce its maximum horsepower at 5,500 rpm. The
transmission allows the gear ratio between the engine and the drive
wheels to change as the car speeds up and slows down. You shift gears so
the engine can stay below the redline and near the rpm band of its best
performance.

Ideally, the transmission would be so flexible in its ratios that the engine
could always run at its single, best-performance rpm value. That is the
idea behind the continuously variable transmission (CVT).
CVT’S
CVT has a nearly infinite range of gear ratios. In the past, CVTs could
not compete with four-speed and five-speed transmissions in terms of
cost, size and reliability, so you didn't see them in production
automobiles. These days, improvements in design have made CVTs more
common. The Toyota Prius is a hybrid car that uses a CVT.

The transmission is connected to the engine through the clutch. The input
shaft of the transmission therefore turns at the same rpm as the engine.

A five-speed transmission applies one of five different gear ratios to the

input shaft to produce a different rpm value at the output shaft. Here are
some typical gear ratios:

differences between an automatic transmission and a manual

transmission:

• There is no clutch pedal in an automatic transmission car.

• There is no gear shift in an automatic transmission car. Once you
put the transmission into drive, everything else is automatic