Garrett Turbo

Simon Byholm asked:




In this article I’m going to discuss the properties of the diesel and gas engines, and compare them to each other. I’m specifically referring to their use in automobiles.

Looking at them from a distance both the gas and the diesel engine work in about the same way. A fuel made from refined crude oil is burned inside a cylinder and the hot expanding gasses forces the piston to move. The movement of the piston is then transferred to the wheels through crankshaft, gearbox and transmission.

It’s when we look at the engines a little closer that we start to notice that there are differences. Differences in gas mileage, smell, vibrations, price and expected age to name a few.

Ignition System

The gas engine has an ignition system with high voltages, wiring and spark plugs. The diesel does not need this, it compresses the fuel/air mixture until it’s so hot it ignites all by itself. In the gas engine it’s the spark plug that ignites the fuel-air mixture through a high voltage spark at the right time.

Another thing that separates the diesel from the gas engine is that gas engines adds the fuel vapor to the air in the intake manifold either through a carburetor or through fuel injection nozzles. The air/fuel mixture is then ****** into the cylinder to be burnt the next time the piston strikes.

The diesel on the other hand ***** clean air into the cylinder and then waits for the piston to compress the air as much as it will go. At this time when the air is compressed and hot enough to ignite the fuel, diesel is injected directly into the cylinder (or a small space connected to the cylinder) through high pressure nozzles. The fuel ignites instantly due to the high temperature in the cylinder.

The differences is fuel injection and ignition results in the diesel burning the fuel more efficiently than the gas engine. That’s why a diesel has a better gas mileage than it’s gas powered counterpart.

This is not to say that a diesel is better. It’s different, it has drawbacks too. Diesel engines usually is harder to start in cold and freezing weather. If you remember it was compressed hot air that ignited the fuel. When it’s too cold outside the air will never become hot enough to ignite the fuel, and the engine won’t run.

Cold Starting a Diesel

To handle this diesels have something called glow plugs for handling cold start situations. Electrical power from the accumulator is used to preheat the glow plugs inside the cylinders before the engine is started. This way the hot glow plugs ignite the fuel when the air is not hot enough to do it. Then when the engine starts it only takes a few seconds for the cylinders to get hot enough to ignite the fuel without help and the glow plugs are not needed again until the next cold start.

This is one of the nuisances of having a diesel in your car. The glowing takes from a couple of second to half a minute and can easily lead to stress when in a hurry. You just have to wait until it’s ready or the car won’t start. On the other hand if the engine is well done the glowing does not take long and you soon get accustomed to it.

Lets for a second look at the practical differences between the diesel and the gas engine. The diesel is large and loud, it emits black smoke when accelerating and is generally regarded as bad smelling by those not owning one. It also has a sturdier construction due to the higher pressures it must handle and thus can often go twice as many miles as a gas engine during it’s lifetime. The sturdier construction also makes it more expensive when first bought.

Features of The Gas Engine

* More quiet that the diesel

* Better acceleration and higher top speed

* Uses an Ignition System with Spark Plugs to Light The Fuel

* Adds fuel to the air before letting it into the cylinder

* Not as sturdy as a diesel. Lower price but breaks down faster

* Gas readily available everywhere

Features of The Diesel Engine

* Loud noise, sounds like a truck or agricultural machine

* Slow acceleration (get one with turbo charger, that helps)

* Lower top speeds but can easily reach the legal speed limit in most places

* Uses glow plugs to help the fuel ignite when the engine is cold

* Lets clean air into the cylinder and injects the fuel later

* Engine is simple and robust. Higher price but runs many miles

* Emits black smoke when loading it (like a quick acceleration)

* Easy to convert to using Eco fuel oils

If I where to give you advice on selecting either a gas or a diesel powered car I would probably tell you this: Get a diesel if you drive long trips and can live with the small nuisances of more noise and poor acceleration, get a gas powered car if you drive less than average or if you just want the comfort at any price.



Caffeinated Content for WordPress

A2V asked:




When there is blue smoke from your exhaust what does it mean? Well, blue smoke means that the engine is burning oil.

Now, there are two causes why a blue smoke comes out the exhaust. The first one is that the engine might have a bad ring this is the most common problem. When the engine had a bad ring the effect is not just a blue smoke but also low power especially when your car is going uphill. When the blue smoke is accompanied with a loss of engine power especially when driving uphill, then there is no other cause but a bad ring. The ring prevents the engine oil from entering the engine cylinder and also maintains engine compression to generate power, if the ring is bad the piston and the cylinder will not be fully sealed and the oil will start entering the combustion chamber, this oil will get burn inside the combustion chamber and a blue smoke will comes out the exhaust. Also, a bad ring causes weak compression, if the engine has weak compression you will notice a weak engine power.

Second is when there is a blue smoke from exhaust when accelerating your car. In this condition the cause is a bad valve stem seals. When the valve stem seals are bad the oil is leaking past the valve stems going into the combustion chamber. The oil inside the chamber will get burn thus a blue smoke will comes out the exhaust.

There is another reason of blue smoke that comes out the exhaust, however this is only applicable when your car has turbo charger. Turbo charger have seals that gone bad, in this case the seals of the turbo charger leak and causes the oil to reach the exhaust system, the oil will then smoke when it get contact with the exhaust system component that is hot. The smoke that produce will comes out the exhaust, this the blue smoke that you see from the tail pipe.



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Leaftech asked:


Automobile racing is one of the most popular sports in the world, and certainly has its place among the most watched sports in North America. Every year, thousands of people watch what is happening on the NASCAR and CART circuits and every year thousands of people seek to emulate the pros.

The history of professional and amateur auto racing probably goes back to the days when the automobile was first invented and the first competitive spirit jumped into his driver’s seat, while his friend jumped into their car. Since that time, the sport has been refined and marketed to become the past time that it is today, and that has meant a lot of change along the way.

The turbocharger

One of the big changes that revolutionized auto racing was the introduction of the turbo charger. The charger itself was actually invented in the very first years of the 20th century, and began showing up in practical applications (specifically ships and locomotives) around the 1920s.

Turbochargers increase the amount of air drawn into the piston of an engine at each stroke, thereby increasing the power boost that the engine supplies to the vehicle in motion (more air equals more fuel). Turbochargers use the rotation of the crankshaft as their power source, using the heat produced to power in the extra air. They are said to be more efficient than superchargers, which draw power from the engine itself.

The turbocharger and auto racing

The first use of a turbocharger in auto racing was in the late 1970s, when auto producer Renault of France introduced the turbo charged engine into their Formula One vehicles. This was a relatively late development given the long history of the turbo charger, but up until this point racecar developers believed the technology was not fuel efficient or reliable enough to power a successful racecar.

Renault proved critics wrong, however, by using a turbocharger that provided a significant boost to the speed of the car with the use of a fairly small engine. By the early 1980s, all Formula One cars were equipped with turbo chargers.

Turbo charging and the driver

Aside from increasing the speed a racecar could hit in a short amount of time, the skill needed to use a turbo charger in an engine also meant a new breed of drivers were needed. This development was not just limited to professional circuits like Formula One; amateurs all over the world found that successfully racing a turbo driven car meant an increase in timing ability, reflexes, and even strength.

The introduction of the turbo charger changed auto racing forever. Today, there are several styles of auto racing that do not allow turbo chargers, but even so, the very fact that there has to be litigation against these innovations is an indication of their far reaching impact and application!



Tim Brewer

Carazoo.com asked:


Engine is the heart of any automotive. Whether it is a passenger car, a two-wheeler, or a commercial vehicle, all automotives need engines to run. It’s the engine that generates power and transforms the fuel energy to kinetic energy of the wheels. Therefore, it is very important to monitor and maintain the performance levels of the engine.

Here are best ways to improve engine performance:

Engine Displacement

Engine displacement is defined as the total volume of air and fuel mixture that the car engine draws during one complete cycle moved by the piston from the top dead center to the bottom dead center. Dead center is the position of the piston when it is farthest or nearest to the crankshaft.

To improve engine performance, it is very important to increase engine displacement. This is because if the engine draws higher volume of air and fuel mixture, it will definitely generate more power. This can simply be done by increasing the size of the cylinder or by adding more number of cylinders to the engine. These cylinders play a significant role in the car engine as both compression and combustion takes place in these cylinders. Therefore, if the size is more, more mixture can be fused it, which in turn will generate higher power output. This improves engine efficiency.

Engine Compression Ratio

Compression ratio is the degree to which air and fuel mixture in the internal combustion engine is compressed before ignition. Increasing this ratio is one of the best ways to increase power and torque, thereby improving engine performance.

Higher compression ratio enables the car engine to extract more energy from the given volume of air and fuel mixture. It also causes better mixing of the power. This in turn, produces enhanced power during ignition and extracts more useful energy from the withdrawn power.

Intercoolers

An intercooler is a device used in car engine to cool the air between successive heating stages. Air outside is comparatively hot and therefore it is very important to cool the air before fueling it into the engine. Later compressed air raises the temperature due to high pressure generated by the movement of the piston in the engine.

Hot air expands less during combustion and reduces the amount of energy generated. The air should always be cool before it enters the engine cylinder and that’s why intercoolers are usually placed in the most of the turbocharged and supercharged cars.



J.Wade

Gen Wright asked:


One way to achieve speed and amazing performance is through the turbocharger. You need not only know the basic concept and technology behind it ? you also have to make a choice between a single turbo and a twin turbo, that is, if you want a taste of power.

A turbocharger is practically a turbine that is fuel-driven. Its basically compresses the air that comes into it in order to increase the power and the torque in the engine. Compressing air and increasing density heed more atoms of air and more atoms of fuel into the engine. All those things equate to more power, more speed. Increasing the air density means harvesting more oxygen for the burn. The energy that results will drive the piston that will bring forth the compressed air.

There are cars that have a twin turbo engine. Twin setup refers to an engine that runs two turbochargers to handle the compression. Let us discuss some of the differences between the two.

Twin Turbo, produce power faster using 4 cylinders each turbocharger for the spooling. There is less lag in this setup. Boosts are achieved at lower RPMs. Ideal for everyday driving on the streets. A twin turbo setup costs more than a single turbo coversion. Twin turbochargers are best for V-type of engines. Smoother operation of the engine. Two smaller turbochargers are cheaper than a large one.

Single Turbo, a single turbo requires all 8 cylinders in order to build some boost, produces good results for drag racing, which needs extremely high power, single turbo engines are easier to set up. There are super large single setups that can support up to 1500BHP, can create real power but there is that unwanted lag. Some problems may occur in the setup but they are easier to fix and less expensive too. Doesn’t take up much space in the car. Better cooling, Higher boost can be achieved, There is considerable lagging and easier to plumb since there is no need for cross-plumbing of the exhaust

Recommendations; Below 900bhp requirements can be handled pretty well by a single turbocharger but if you want to reduce the lag, two smaller turbochargers are the way to go. For an engine with a V-type layout, go for the twin turbo setup. For an engine with an Inline layout, go for the single turbocharger.

There are some cars that came out of the factory with twin turbo systems that are being converted to single turbochargers. There are some who want to change their single petrol turbo with the twins. This really depends on what car and engine are concerned, as well as the preferences of the owner.