I realize, as an automotive journalist, I don’t have the largest audience, and I think that’s because people have no idea what I’m talking about. Hopefully. Well, to clear the air, my next articles will be about how cars work, to help out my readers. The Internal Combustion Engine is a strange phenomenon. I barely understand how we somehow invented it. I won’t give you a history lesson. Not my area. I will however guide you along the workings of an engine. This article requires a basic understanding of theoretical mechanical engineering. Only kidding. The engine is in everything from cars like the Fiat 500 and the Bugatti Veyron, to massive cargo ships with engines the size of most trucks. It relies on a few things, pressure, combustion, and thermodynamics. The engine you’ll find in a car has four strokes.

There is really no ‘first’ stroke, but we’ll start with the intake stroke. On the intake stroke, the piston moves down. The piston is the doodad that moves up and down. The intake valve at the top of each combustion chamber lets in clean air mixed with gasoline. Nothing too earth-shattering happens in the intake stroke.

Next, all that fuel and air is pushed against the top of the combustion chamber in the compression stroke. The particles get all angry and start to run around more (essentially). This builds pressure. Again, nothing huge here, either.

In the power stroke, the spark plug ignites the fuel-air mix, which explodes. I realize I may have lost some of you. If you didn’t know, each engine is powered by small explosions. Each chamber is sort of like a gun, but the bullet is attached to a crankshaft, which is connected to the wheels, and yada yada yada. The explosion pushes the piston back down, giving the engine needed kinetic energy.

Now this is the part of the engine that causes such a big stink. Burning things creates carbon dioxide, a waste substance, and greenhouse gas. The engine makes explosions, which are just quick fires. This makes CO2. This gas is driven out by the upward-moving piston into the exhaust system. I’ll cover that next time. The gas is released into the environment. And that’s bad, because these gasses trap heat, making the planet hotter.

Hopefully, this cleared up how engines work. If it didn’t, you can reach me at my email with any questions; [email protected]. Thanks for reading, see you next time.