Cylinder head

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A 302/5.0L Ford Windsor V8 cylinder head

Cylinder head of a Caterpillar engine

In an internal combustion engine, the cylinder head (often informally abbreviated to

just head) sits above the cylinders on top of the cylinder block.[1] It closes in the top of
the cylinder, forming the combustion chamber. This joint is sealed by a head gasket.
In most engines, the head also provides space for the passages that
feed air and fuel to the cylinder, and that allow the exhaust to escape. The head can
also be a place to mount the valves, spark plugs, and fuel injectors.

Contents

 1Sidevalve engines
 2Detail
 3Implementation
 4Gallery
 5See also
 6Notes
 7References
 8External links

Sidevalve engines[edit]
In a flathead or sidevalve engine, the mechanical parts of the valve train are all
contained within the block, and a 'poultice head' may be used that is essentially a
simple metal plate bolted to the top of the block.
Keeping all moving parts within the block has an advantage for physically large
engines in that the camshaft drive gear is small and so suffers less from the effects
of thermal expansion in the cylinder block. With a chain drive to an overhead
camshaft, the extra length of chain needed for an overhead cam design could give
trouble from wear and slop in the chain without frequent maintenance.
Early sidevalve engines were in use at a time of simple fuel chemistry, low octane
ratings and so required low compression ratios. This made their combustion
chamber design less critical and there was less need to design their ports and airflow
carefully.
One difficulty experienced at this time was that the low compression ratio also
implied a low expansion ratio during the power stroke. [a] Exhaust gases were thus still
hot, hotter than a contemporary engine, and this led to frequent trouble with burnt
exhaust valves.
A major improvement to the sidevalve engine was the advent of Ricardo's turbulent
head design. This reduced the space within the combustion chamber and the ports,
but by careful thought about the airflow paths within them it allowed a more efficient
flow in and out of the chamber. Most importantly, it used turbulence within the
chamber to thoroughly mix the fuel and air mixture. This, of itself, allowed the use of
higher compression ratios and more efficient engine operation.
The limit on sidevalve performance is not the gas flow through the valves, but rather
the shape of the combustion chamber. With high speed engines and high
compression, the limiting difficulty becomes that of achieving complete and efficient
combustion, whilst also avoiding the problems of unwanted pre-detonation. The
shape of a sidevalve combustion chamber, being inevitably wider than the cylinder to
reach the valve ports, conflicts with achieving both an ideal shape for
combustion[b] and also the small volume (and low height) needed for high
compression. Modern, efficient engines thus tend towards the pent roof or hemi
designs, where the valves are brought close into the center of the space.
Where fuel quality is low and octane rating is poor, compression ratios will be
restricted. In these cases, the sidevalve engine still has much to offer. Particularly in
the case of the developed IOE engine for a market with poor fuels, engines such
as Rolls-Royce B series or the Land-Rover use a complicated arrangement of
inclined valves, a cylinder head line at an angle to the bore and corresponding
angled pistons to provide a compact combustion chamber approaching the near-
hemispherical ideal. Such engines remained in production into the 1990s, only being
finally replaced when the fuels available 'in the field' became more likely to be diesel
than petrol.

Detail[edit]
Internally, the cylinder head has passages called ports or tracts for the fuel/air
mixture to travel to the inlet valves from the intake manifold, and for exhaust gases to
travel from the exhaust valves to the exhaust manifold. In a water-cooled engine, the
cylinder head also contains integral ducts and passages for the engines' coolant—
usually a mixture of water and antifreeze—to facilitate the transfer of excess heat
away from the head, and therefore the engine in general.
In the overhead valve (OHV) design, the cylinder head contains the poppet
valves and the spark plugs, along with tracts or 'ports' for the inlet and exhaust
gases. The operation of the valves is initiated by the engine's camshaft, which is
sited within the cylinder block, and its moment of operation is transmitted to the
valves' pushrods, and then rocker arms mounted on a rocker shaft—the rocker arms
and shaft also being located within the cylinder head.
In the overhead camshaft (OHC) design, the cylinder head contains the valves,
spark plugs and inlet/exhaust tracts just like the OHV engine, but the camshaft is
now also contained within the cylinder head. The camshaft may be seated centrally
between each offset row of inlet and exhaust valves, and still also utilizing rocker
arms (but without any pushrods), or the camshaft may be seated directly above the
valves eliminating the rocker arms and utilizing 'bucket' tappets.

Implementation[edit]
The number of cylinder heads in an engine is a function of the engine configuration.
Almost all inline (straight) engines today use a single cylinder head that serves all
the cylinders. A V (or Vee) engine has two cylinder heads, one for each cylinder
bank of the 'V'. For a few compact 'narrow-angle' V engines, such as
the Volkswagen VR6, the angle between the cylinder banks is so narrow that it uses
a single head spanning the two banks. A flat engine (basically a V engine, where the
angle between the cylinder banks is now 180°) has two heads. Most radial
engines have one head for each cylinder, although this is usually of
the monobloc form wherein the head is made as an integral part of the cylinder. This
is also common for motorcycles, and such head/cylinder components are referred to
as barrels.
Some engines, particularly medium- and large-capacity diesel engines built for
industrial, marine, power generation, and heavy traction purposes
(large trucks, locomotives, heavy equipment, etc.) have individual cylinder heads for
each cylinder. This reduces repair costs as a single failed head on a single cylinder
can be changed instead of a larger, much more expensive unit fitting all the
cylinders. Such a design also allows engine manufacturers to easily produce a
'family' of engines of different layouts and/or cylinder numbers without requiring new
cylinder head designs.
The design of the cylinder head is key to the performance and efficiency of the
internal combustion engine, as the shape of the combustion chamber, inlet passages
and ports (and to a lesser extent the exhaust) determines a major portion of
the volumetric efficiency and compression ratio of the engine.[2]

Automotive 4-Stroke Engine Head Designs—Valve and Camshaft Configurations

Camshaf Intake Exhaust

Common Names Notes
t Valves Valves
 Allows optimum positioning of the
valves for a crossflow cylinder head
Double Overhead Double camshafts are used to allow direct
Camshaft actuation of well-placed valves, without
Head Head Head
DOHC, Twin-Cam, rockers
Cammer Widespread in modern car design
Generally allows for the highest-RPM
operation of the designs listed

Widely used for cars in recent decades,

Single Overhead but increasingly superseded by DOHC
Camshaft Sometimes utilizes rocker arms to actuate
OHC, SOHC, Single- Head Head Head some valves
Cam, "Single-Jingle", Some designs use one camshaft to
Cammer directly actuate all valves, like DOHC
designs

Still used in some large-displacement V8

engines, usually of American, Australian
Overhead Valve or British origin
OHV, I-Head, Needs pushrods and rocker arms to
Block Head Head
Pushrod, Cam-In- actuate valves via a single camshaft
Block OHV engines are generally physically
smaller for the same displacement
compared to OHC

Once universal, now obsolete

Simplest possible configuration;
Sidevalve
camshafts operate directly on the valves
Flathead, L-Head, T- Block Block Block
Still commonly found in four-stroke
Head
power-equipment (i.e. lawnmower, weed
trimmer, chainsaw) engines

Always uncommon, obsolete for decades

Inlet-Over-Exhaust
More efficient than sidevalve designs, but
IOE, F-Head, Intake- Block Head Block
also more complex, larger and more
Over-Exhaust
expensive to manufacture

Gallery[edit]


A cylinder head sliced in half showing the intake and exhaust valves, intake and exhaust ports,
coolant passages, cams, tappets and valve springs.
 

A single overhead camshaft (SOHC) cylinder head from a Honda D15A3.

 

A double overhead camshaft (DOHC) cylinder head from a Honda K20Z3.

 

The bottom (left) a