Mechanical Engineers

BASICS OF POWERTRAIN The powertrain of a vehicle provides the means of generating power (the engine) and the means of transmitting that power to the wheels (the driveline). The most basic powertrain consists of an engine plus various driveline components as required for the particular powertrain configuration. These include components for torque multiplication (Transmission/Transaxle/Differential), power transmission (Shafts, chains, belts), and power distribution (Rear End/Differential). Engine Configurations The engine configuration of the car has a big impact on weight distribution. It also dictates the driveline requirements, which in turn affect weight distribution as well. Weight distribution tends to be front-biased in production-based vehicles, so achieving a balance requires moving components to the rear of the car. In scratch-built  cars, the engine tends to be moved further rearward, cancelling the front weight bias. The front engine configuration, as ...

The process by which a car works is a lot simpler than you may think. When a driver turns a key in the ignition: The car battery powers up sending Power to the starter motor, which Turns the crankshaft, which Gets the pistons moving With the pistons moving the engine fires up and ticks over A fan draws air into the engine via an air filter The air filter removes dirt and grit from the air The cleaned air is drawn into a chamber where fuel (petrol or diesel) is added This fuel-air mix (a vaporised gas) is stored in the chamber The driver presses the accelerator pedal The throttle valve is opened The gas-air mix passes through an intake manifold and is distributed, through intake valves, into the cylinders. The camshaft controls the opening and closing of the valves. The distributor makes the spark plugs spark, which ignites the fuel-air mix. The resulting explosion forces a piston to move down which in turn causes the crankshaft to rotate. What happens in the cyl...