How do the numbers of cylinders, valves, and cam shafts affect an engine?
February 23rd, 2010 | 
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How do the numbers of cylinders, Valves, and cam shafts affect an engine? Also, what effect does the volume have?
The more cylinders, the better the smoothness, torque, less vibration, but worse mpg and cost.
More valves add more high-rev power to an engine due to the more efficient mixture filling.
No. of camshafts depends on engine layout (in-line, V, flat) and on no. of valves. More camshafts doesn’t necessarily mean better valve control, but it makes the engine more expensive.
The volume (ie, engine displacement) is more important than sheer power. The greater the displacement, the better the power progression, the torque and worse mpg. Current trend is to squeeze ever more power from the low-displacement engines.
Posted in Valves
lol an exploded diagram of an engine would help explain alot. Cylinders are a chamber where the ignition occurs, inside each chamber, a piston is forced down by ignited fuel, under the piston is a rod, connected to a crank which drives the gearbox, then out to the wheels. There are many different sizes of cylinders. Most cars tend to be 4 cylinder, all in line generally cheap cars anyway. Of course there are more, straight 6’s are usually rear wheel drive as the engine is mounted length ways. v8’s etc with 2 banks of 4 in a ‘v’ shape and so on but the principle is the same. Valves open and close above each chamber or cylinder… there are intake and exhaust valves. Some cars use 1 of each, some use 2 and other variations. These are designed specifically to control how much air gets in and when. The cam shaft is mounted in the head, it physically opens and closes the valves. It does this by being connected to the crank via a timing belt or chain, thus keeping them perfectly in time with each other, for example the valves will be shut for the ignition to force the piston down, and the exhaust valve open for the piston’s return to allow the air to displace. A broken timing belt will stop the cam shaft and therefore stop the valves from operating… This will stop the car dead. it is common, usually destroying the valves.
More cylinders = more displacement = more power. more cam shafts and valves = more air flow, engine needs air to run. more air means it can run faster.
References :
Like I say, a diagram would make it all very clear rather than my jibbering
More cylinders equals smoother power, more valves equals more power potential, more camshafts equals more precise control over valve timing, thus more power potential, more volume equals more power potential and worse economy.
References :
http://www.runningstrongllc.com
The more cylinders, the better the smoothness, torque, less vibration, but worse mpg and cost.
More valves add more high-rev power to an engine due to the more efficient mixture filling.
No. of camshafts depends on engine layout (in-line, V, flat) and on no. of valves. More camshafts doesn’t necessarily mean better valve control, but it makes the engine more expensive.
The volume (ie, engine displacement) is more important than sheer power. The greater the displacement, the better the power progression, the torque and worse mpg. Current trend is to squeeze ever more power from the low-displacement engines.
References :