Diesel engines are amazing machines that are best known for their reliability and longevity. However, many people may not understand the basics of a diesel engine or how they differ from a gasoline engine. Here’s a short guide to how diesel engines operate and power your vehicle or equipment.
Air Intake
When you turn on your engine, the pistons move down. As they slide down, they create a vacuum that pulls air into the chamber through the air intake valve. Diesel and gasoline engines need this air to produce any sort of power.
Compressing the Air
The next major step in the process is the pistons slowly rising up, compressing the air in the piston chamber. A small amount of fuel is mixed with the air thanks to the fuel injection system. Both gasoline and diesel engine systems utilize this compressed mixture of air and fuel.
Creating Power
When understanding the basics of a diesel engine, it’s vital to know the most significant difference between diesel and gasoline engines. Pistons are among the most important parts of a diesel engine, and both engine types use them to draw in air and compress it with a mixture of fuel.
The main difference is how that process creates power. When the air and fuel mixture come into contact with the tip of the sparkplug in a gasoline engine, it uses a small burst of electricity to ignite the mixture. Because of the composition of diesel, the compressed mixture is hot enough to ignite without an external spark.
Exhaust
An engine collects the exhausted gases in the cylinder head and sends them out through the exhaust system. Diesel engine systems are better for heavy-duty machines and focus more on reliability and torque over the speed and accuracy you may expect from a sports car. Because of the strong and long-lasting engines, diesel remains the better option for trucking and other heavy equipment.