What is a 4-stroke engine?

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A four-stroke engine is an Internal combustion engine, where four successive strokes (i.e.
Suction-Compression-Power-Exhaust) completes in two revolutions of the crankshaft.
Therefore, the engine is called a Four-stroke engine.

In recent days the majority of automobile runs on a four-stroke cycle.

Basic some terms used in this article:

Top dead center (TDC):

It is the extreme position of the piston at the head end of the cylinder.

At TDC the crank angle is 0*

Bottom dead center (BDC):

The extreme position of the piston at the crank end side.

At BDC, the crank angle is a 180*

Cylinder bore:

It is the internal diameter of the cylinder.

Stroke:

It is the distance through which the piston moves in the cylinder during 1 stroke.

NOTE: * = Degree

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4-STROKE ENGINE

Four-Stroke engine's parts:

A Four-stroke engine consist of the following parts:

1. Cylinder: It is the heart of the engine. The piston reciprocates in the cylinder.
2. Cylinder head: It is the top cover of the cylinder, towards TDC, which is called the
cylinder head.
3. Piston: It is the reciprocating member of the engine. It reciprocates in the cylinder.
4. Piston rings: Two or three piston rings are provided on the piston. It seals the gap
between the cylinder liner and piston.
5. Crank: It is a rotating member. It makes a circular motion inside the crankcase.
6. Crankcase: It is the housing of crank and other engine parts. It is also used as the
sump of lubricating oil.
7. Connecting rod: It is used to convert the reciprocating motion of the piston to
rotary motion of the crankshaft.
8. Crankshaft: It is the rotating member, which connects the crank.
9. Cooling fins or Water jackets: It is used for cooling purposes.
10. Cam and Camshaft: It is provided to operate the opening and closing of the Inlet
and Exhaust valve and also operate the fuel injection pump in the Diesel engine.
11. Inlet valve: This valve controlled the admission of charge or air inside the engine
cylinder.
12. Exhaust valve: This valve controls the removal of burnt gas after combustion.
13. Intake manifold: This is a passage that carries the fresh charge or air.

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 14. Exhaust manifold: This a passage through which the exhaust gas goes out of the
engine cylinder.
15. Spark plug: It is used in a Petrol engine or SI engine to ignite the fuel.
16. Fuel injector: It is used in a Diesel engine or CI engine to sprayed the fuel inside
the engine cylinder.
17. Carburetor: It is used in a Petrol engine to mix the air-fuel properly.
18. Flywheel: It is mounted on the crankshaft and is made of cast iron. It stores energy
in the form of inertia.

Classification of 4-stroke engine:

The four-stroke engine generally classified in 2 types:

1. The four-stroke cycle petrol engine

2. Four-stroke cycle diesel engine

Four-stroke Petrol engine:

This type of engine based on the Otto cycle. The various strokes in the operation of a
four-stroke cycle petrol engine are described below.

Construction:
A four-stroke petrol engine consists of:

1. A cylinder
2. Cylinder head attaches with spark plug
3. Piston attach with piston ring
4. Connecting rod
5. Crank
6. Crankshaft
7. Valves ETC.

In four-stroke engines, Valves are used instead of Ports.

There are two valves:

1. Suction valve
2. Exhaust valve

And these valves are operated by means of Camshaft. It is rotated at half the speed of a
crankshaft.

The working principle of the Four-stroke petrol engine:

The travel of the piston from one dead center to another is called piston stroke and a four-
stroke cycle consists of four strokes:

1. Suction Stroke

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 2. Compression Stroke
3. Power or Expansion Stroke
4. Exhaust Stroke

Let me introduce these:

Suction stroke:

In this stroke the suction valve opens, exhaust valves remain in close condition. The
piston moves from the top dead center to the bottom dead center and the charge
(Air+Fuel) enters the engine cylinder due to the partial vacuum developed inside the
cylinder.

When the piston reaches the BDC, the inlet valve closes and the flywheel makes a half
revolution.

Compression Stroke:

In this stroke, the piston moves from the bottom dead center (BDC) to the top dead center
(TDC), and both the suction and exhaust valves are in closed condition. The mixture,
which was sucked into the cylinder during the suction stroke, is compressed into the
combustion chamber. The heat produced during the compression stroke and vaporize the
mixture. As the piston approaches the top dead center, the compression stroke
completes, and then the spark plug gives the spark.

Power Stroke or Expansion stroke:

Again both the inlet and exhaust valves are closed in this stroke. The compressed charge
ignited by the high intensity of the spark and expands adiabatically, therefore, it pushes
the piston downward i.e. towards BDC then the stroke is completed.

Exhaust Stroke:

During the exhaust stroke, the inlet valve is in a closed condition and the exhaust valve is
opened. The piston rises up from BDC to TDC. The stroke is completed when the piston
reaches the Top Dead Center. And then again stokes are recycled.

In the exhaust stroke in one situation both the valves are in an open condition for some
seconds so that fresh charge entered to engine cylinder and pushes the burnt gases out
of the cylinder. This process is called Scavenging.

This is how a Four-stroke Petrol engine works.

Four-stroke Petrol engine diagram:

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 4-STROKE PETROL ENGINE DIAGRAM

Valve-timing diagram for four-stroke Petrol engine:

Theoretical:

The Inlet valve opens when the piston at TDC

The Inlet valve closes when the piston reaches BDC
Spark produces when the piston reaches TDC
The exhaust valve opens when the piston at BDC
Exhaust valve close when the piston at TDC

Actual valve-timing diagram:

The Inlet valve opens about 10*-20* before TDC

Inlet valve close 30*-40* after BDC to take advantage of rapidly moving gas
The spark occurs 20*-35* before TDC
The exhaust valve opens about 30*-50* before BDC
Exhaust valve close about 10*-15* after TDC

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 PETROL ENGINE VALVE TIMING
DIAGRAM

Applications of Four-stroke Petrol engine:

It has various types of usages like:

1. In automobiles
2. Motorcycles
3. Cars
4. Buses
5. Trucks
6. Airplanes
7. Small pumping sets
8. Mobile electric generator

Four-stroke Diesel engine:

Construction:
A four-stroke Diesel engine consists of:

1. A fuel injector
2. Fuel pump
3. Cylinder
4. Cylinder head
5. Inlet and exhaust valves
6. Piston
7. Piston ring
8. Connecting rod
9. Camshaft
10. Crankshaft

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 11. Cam ETC.

Working principle of Four-stroke Diesel engine:

The cycles of the Four-stroke diesel engine are the same as the Petrol engine.

1. Suction Stroke
2. Compression Stroke
3. Power or Expansion Stroke
4. Exhaust Stroke

Suction Stroke:

In a suction stroke, the inlet valve is in the opened condition and the exhaust valve
remains closed. The atmospheric air is drawn into the cylinder as the piston moves from
TDC to the BDC due to the partial vacuum air is sucked inside the cylinder.

Compression Stroke:

In this stroke Piston moves from BDC to TDC, as a result, the air inside the cylinder is
compressed and heated.

In this stroke both the valves are in closed condition.

The air temperature is around 800*C

At the end of the compression stroke, the fuel injector inject the fuel at high pressure into
the compressed hot air, thus the ignition takes place inside the cylinder.

Power or Expansion Stroke:

During this stroke, both the valves are in closed condition. The piston at the TDC is
pushed downward by the expansion of burned gas.

Therefore a Power stroke is produced.

Exhaust stroke:

In this stroke, the exhaust valve is opened and the inlet valve is in the closed condition.
The piston travels from BDC to TDC and pushed the burned gas out of the cylinder.

And here is also the scavenging process that happened to remove the burnt gas
completely.

Valve-timing diagram for four-stroke Diesel engine:

Actual valve-timing diagram:

Inlet valve open at 10*-30* before TDC

The Inlet valve closes at 20*-50* after BDC

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 The exhaust valve opens approximately 40* before BDC
Exhaust valve close 15* after TDC
Fuel injection starts 5*-15* before TDC
Fuel injection stops 15*-25* after TDC

DIESEL ENGINE VALVE TIMING

DIAGRAM

Applications of Four-stroke Diesel engine:

The four-stroke Diesel engine is one of the most popular prime overs. It has various types
of applications like:

1. Small pumping sets

2. In the automobile industry
3. Air compressor
4. Drilling jigs
5. Boats and Ships
6. Power saw
7. Bulldozers
8. Tanks
9. Diesel-electric locomotives ETC.

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4-Stroke Petrol engine animation (SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA)

2-Stroke engine vs 4-Stroke engine

Petrol Engine (SI) vs Diesel Engine (CI)

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Four-Stroke engine:
Advantages of 4-Stroke engine:

1. More torque
2. More fuel economy than a 2-stroke engine
3. Less consumption of lubrication oil
4. Less pollution because of proper burning of fuel
5. More durability
6. Well managed cooling system, so that longer engine life
7. Less noisy
8. Scavenging happens really well, therefore Thermal efficiency and HP of the engine
is high

Let's talk about some disadvantages:

1. There are many moving parts and hence there is more friction, therefore the engine
has less mechanical efficiency.
2. The design is complicated
3. The weight of the engine is more because of heavier flywheel construction.
4. Due to more parts, the maintenance required quite often.

Fuel supply system in Four-stroke engine:

The petrol engine fuel supply system consists of:

Fuel feed system

1. Gravity system
2. Vacuum system

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 3. Pressure system
4. Pump system
5. Fuel injection system

Fuel tank
Fuel lines
Fuel filter
Fuel pump
Carburetor

At first, an electrical petrol pump or mechanical petrol pump sucked the fuel from the fuel
tank via a fuel filter as shown in figure then the fuel through the fuel lines goes to the
carburetor where air+fuel mixed with proper ratio and enters into the engine cylinder for
combustion.

To know more, checkout the Fuel supply system in petrol engines

The layout of the Fuel supply system in Petrol engine

Diesel engines fuel supply system consists of:

1. A Diesel tank
2. A feed pump
3. A filter
4. An injection pump
5. An injector
6. Connecting lines

There are two types of the fuel injection system in a Diesel engine:

1. Air injection system or Indirect injection

2. Solid injection system or Direct injection

And there are two types of solid injection system:

1. Common rail fuel injection system

2. Individual pump fuel injection system.

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The lubrication system in Four-stroke engine:
The supply of lubricating oil between two moving parts of the vehicle is called
lubrication.

Why we need a lubrication system?

The primary objectives of lubrication are:

1. To reduce friction between moving parts to its minimum so that power loss is less
2. To reduce wearing out of moving parts
3. To provide a cooling effect
4. To provide the cleaning action

4-stroke engine lubrication system consists of:

1. Oil pump
2. Oil cooler
3. Oil strainer
4. Oil filter
5. Oil pressure gauge
6. Crankcase dilution

Parts to be lubricated:

The following parts in the engine require lubrication.

1. Crankshaft bearings
2. Crankpins
3. The big end of connecting rod bearing
4. The small end of the connecting rod bearing
5. Bushes of gudgeon pin or Wrist pin
6. The inner wall of the cylinder
7. Valve operating mechanism
8. Timing gears
9. Camshaft bearing

The lubrication system in engines:

1. Petrol system
2. Splash system
3. Pressure system
4. Dry-sump system
5. Combined splash and pressure-feed system

More on the Lubrication System.

The cooling system in the Four-Stroke engine:

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All the heat produced by the combustion of fuel is not totally converted into power at the
crankshaft.

Only about 20 percent of the heat is used as power at the crankshaft. And 35 percent of
the heat is transferred to the cylinder wall which cause pre-ignition of the charge and also
lubricant burned away due to the heat, therefore the engine maybe seized.

Keeping above factor in mind we need to install a proper cooling system.

In a Four-stroke engine their are two types cooling method.

1. Cooling by air
2. Cooling by water

More on Engine Cooling System.

Some FAQ:
What is Scavenging?
In the exhaust stroke in one situation both the valves are in opened condition for some
seconds so that fresh charge entered to engine cylinder and pushes the burnt gases out
of the cylinder. This process is called Scavenging.

What is the Four-Stroke Engine?

A four-stroke engine is an Internal combustion engine, where four successive strokes (i.e.
Suction-Compression-Power-Exhaust) completes in two revolutions of the crankshaft.
Therefore, the engine is called a Four-stroke engine.

What are the Parts of Four-stroke Engine?

A four-stroke petrol engine consists of:
1. A cylinder
2. Cylinder head attaches with spark plug
3. Piston attach with piston ring
4. Connecting rod
5. Crank
6. Crankshaft
7. Valves ETC.

So this is the complete overview on Four Stroke Engine, I hope I am able to explain it
well, for further more doubts do let me know in the comment section. And below is your
PDF downloadable link.

P.S.: I reply every comment posted here!

You may have interest to read about 2-Stroke Engine also.

RESOURCES:

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