What is engine stroke?
Most newer cars, trucks and SUVs have engines that are very fuel efficient. In
order for any engine to work correctly, it must complete the combustion process,
which includes four individual strokes of the connecting rod and piston inside the
combustion chamber in a four-stroke engine, or two for the two-stroke engine.
The primary difference between a two-stroke engine and a four-stroke engine is
the timing of firing. How often they fire tells you how they convert energy and
how quickly it occurs.
To understand the difference between the two engines, you must know what a
stroke is. It takes four processes to burn fuel with each process comprising one
stroke. Listed below are the four individual strokes that are involved in the four-
stroke process.
The first stroke is intake stroke. The process of operating an engine begins
with the intake stroke, where the piston is pulled in a downward direction.
This allows a mixture of fuel and air to enter the combustion chamber
through the intake valve. During the starting process, power to complete
the intake stroke is supplied by the starter motor, which is and electric
motor attached to the flywheel, which spins the crankshaft and moves each
individual cylinder.
The second stroke is compression. A they say, what goes down, must
come up. This is what happens during the compression stroke, which occurs
when the piston moves back up the cylinder. During this stroke, the intake
valve is closed, which compresses the stored fuel and air gases as the
piston moves towards the top of the combustion chamber.
The third stroke is combustion. This is where power is created. Once the
piston reaches the top of the cylinder, the compressed gases are ignited by
the spark plug. This creates a small explosion inside the combustion
chamber which forces the piston back downward.
The fourth stroke is exhaust. This completes the four-stroke combustion
process, as the piston is pushed back upward by the connecting rod, while
the exhaust valve opens up and releases burnt exhaust gases out of the
combustion chamber.
The stroke is considered one revolution – so when you hear the term Revolutions
Per Minute, this means that it’s one complete engine cycle – or four individual
strokes per revolution. So, when an engine is idling at 1,000 RPM, it means that
your engine completes the four-stroke process 1,000 times per minute, or about
16-times per second.
The differences between two-stroke and
four-stroke engines
The first difference is the fact that the spark plugs fire once every revolution in a
two-stroke engine, and fire once every other revolution in a four-stroke engine. A
revolution is one set of four strokes. Four-stroke engines allow each stroke to
happen independently. A two-stroke engine requires the four processes to occur
in a downward and upward stroke, which gives the two-stroke its name.
Another difference is that two-stroke engines don’t need valves because intake
and exhaust are part of the compression and combustion of the piston. Instead,
there is an exhaust port in the combustion chamber.
Two-stroke engines don’t have a separate chamber for the oil, so it must be
mixed with the fuel in proper amounts. The specific ratio depends on the vehicle
and is found in the owner’s manual. Two of the most common ratios is 50:1 and
32:1 with the 50 and 32 referring to the amount of gasoline to one part of oil. A
four-stroke engine has a separate compartment for the oil and doesn’t require
mixing. This is one of the easiest ways to tell the difference between the two
types of engines.
Another method of identifying the two is by the sound. Two-stroke engines are
often loud with a high-pitched buzz, while a four-stroke engine emits more of a
soft humming noise. Two-stroke engines are often seen in lawnmowers and
performance off-road vehicles (like motorcycles and snow mobiles), while four-
stroke engines are what you’ll find powering on-road vehicles and high
performance large displacement engines.