Car Engines

To talk about engines, we had some friends of ours over for dinner—Derek works in airplane design and engineering, but he has also always loved cars too, so he agreed to talk to the kids about how car engines work. It was fascinating to hear him relate it all so simply as he pointed to different parts of the car engine. It almost made me feel like I could learn to fix one, it seemed so straightforward how all the parts worked together!

Some links about engines:

Here is an animation of a traditional four-stroke engine that makes it very clear.

Here are some more resources from when we learned about Diesel engines.

And even more on engines, from when we were learning about airplanes.

Why you might use a flat-plane vs cross-plane V8 engine

Why the engine types sound "so different" (ha ha, though I personally still can't hear that much of a difference!)

And here is a video where you can hear all those different engine sounds. It's long, but if you're a 14-year-old boy who likes cars, it won't seem long to you! :)

Another engine sound comparison

Diesel engines and Diesel-electric Locomotives

Seb's diesel engine diagram

Maybe if I'd ever been interested in cars, I would have known something about the internal combustion engine. But I haven't been, so this was all news to me. And as usual, once I begin to learn about something I start to see how interesting it is! I think the diesel engine is amazing!

It works much like the gasoline engine, but with much more air compression, so the fuel doesn't need a spark plug to make it ignite---it simply ignites when it comes in contact with the compressed (very hot!) air.

Ky's diagram---Abe's writing

Here's a great explanation of how the diesel engine works

Wonderful animations of diesel engines (you can slow them down and speed them up as desired)

Another animation of a diesel engine

A video explaining the diesel engine

Something a bit different---how locomotives are made

This old cartoon about How Diesel Engines Work is so awesome, I can't even describe it. We loved it! You have to watch it. Here's part I and part II.