Automobile Engines 101

Ok guys (sorry girls). Today we'll delve deeper into the automobile topic. This time we'll go to the heart of the car itself - the engines.

I spend most of my time reading through wikipedia regarding car engine and have learn quite a bit. Well in today's topic we'll try to differentiate what's a V6, V10, V12 engine. After that we'll go in much deeper, to the pistons, cylinders of the engines.

I apologize to my lady audiences as this may be a bit boring to you.

Ok straight onwards. What's a V6? Why V6?

A V6 engine is an engine with 6 cylinders, in the shaped of a V. That simple!

Notice the 3 cylinders circled at the front side and another 3 at the back. Both sides have an inclination degree, which form the V shape, hence giving its name the V6 engine.

The same applies to V10, 12 and so on so forth.

Ok great! So smart assumption: the more number of cylinders, the much more power right? 

YES! Exactly. From a smart deduction, a higher number certainly means a higher horsepower and a more powerful engine! (But it is not always correct to make that assumption).

But if that's the case, has it got you wondering why cars aren't classified by the engines they have for power? Rather, they are classified under cc or L? 

"My Toyota Vios is a 1.5L car"

"My Toyota Camry is a 2.4L car"

Now remember your smart assumption from above? A high number of cylinders can only help make assumptions. Cause to look at the overall performance of an engine, we'll have to gauge the displacement of the engine.

An engine displacement defined by the volume swept by all the cylinders in a single movement from top dead center (TDC) to bottom dead center (BDC). Quite simply, it measures how much petrol your engine combusted in a SINGLE turn. 

One complete cycle of a four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. The volume displaced is marked in red.

So does it all makes sense now? If you engine consumes much more gas per turn, it generates more emission per turn. What influences the displacement is the cylinder diameter and the length (TDC-BDC), as different values will impact the volume of gas emission. This is also why regulation tax cars on their emission and not on the number of cylinders in an engine. 

So let's see how a single piston in a cylinder operate shall we?

 

Now all great cars have great engines. Let's take a brief glance on some of the super cars and their engines shall we?

Lamborghini Aventador - V12

 

Audi R8 - V8 or V10 depending on specs

Pagani Zonda - V12

 

Bugatti Veyron - W18

Wait... W18? Yes no typo... Here's how a W18 engine looks like...

Pen Size 3D Printer

Innovation. Take an existing technology. Repackage it into a brand new thing. Sell the idea. Wham big win.

It makes sense: Create a small size 3D printer that prints or draw 3D stuffs. And what more than to have the ink using highly rigid plastic?

Link to side: Lix 3D Printer

Character Titles

Protagonists. Antagonists. I believe that these two words are the most commonly used when it comes to describe a character role in stories or movies.

Ever heard of deuteragonists? Tritagonists?

A Deuteragonist is the second most important character (aka sidekick). And as for the Tritagonist, it's referring to the third most important character (example: Hermione Granger).

Well most stories are often straight forward. There is only one Protagonist. Rarely the story takes so much a twist and turn that it has more than 1 Protagonist.

Oh but there is one...

Cocktails

From a coffee addict to an amateur alcohol study, I've taken up interests into exploring alcohol beverages.

The last post I've written about on alcohol was the functionality of each glass for each specific to the drink itself. Well today we'll go a bit deeper, taking on a party must have - cocktails.

Cocktails have their differences from beer and wine. While beer and wine are mostly taken as it is, cocktails are often a mixture of distilled beverage, juice, fruits and many other ingredients.

Cocktails can be also be taken in different methods. Some are shaken, some stirred (Martini, Mr. 007?). Some are taken layer by layer without mixing them together.

 

Classic example of a margarita glass function

What makes cocktails unique, is that the flavors and tastes comes from the ingredients used to prepare. And the alcoholic punch is usually derived from distilled beverage (alcoholic beverage which have a higher content of alcohol, namely above 30% of alcohol).

And yes, apart from growing your own grapes and processing your own wine, you can make up your own cocktail and give it a fancy name. 

Taking cocktails may not be as classy as taking wine or sniffing brandy, but you gotta admit one thing: the various color and decorations it adorn, blends perfectly in harmony when the occasion calls for a party.

 

 

The Diet Coke + Mentos Explosion

Yet another Diet Coke + Mentos related post appeared on my lives feed. This time, it got me thinking. Why does it happen?

Well apparently Mythbusters had it all wrapped up. Apologize for the low resolution but that is the best on Youtube I can find.

Water Irony

Just noticed that the famous Songkran Festival is now in full swing mode in Thailand. Songkran is a New Year festival celebrated in Thailand and it can be described as a "Water Festival" as the main attraction of it is having fun with water.

 

Just struck me how ironic that now in Malaysia we're having a water crisis yet in some parts of the world, water is of abundace.

No don't get me wrong. I'm not condemning or criticizing. It's just that we may be side by side each other, yet we share the different reality and fate.

It also got me thinking that in other parts of the world there are people who are struggling to find clean potable water just to stay alive. Water crisis to Malaysians is just an annual scare or practice. It triggers a momentarily awareness to save water. But then again after we've survived through the crisis, we tend to get back to our old habits.

It's just the same as Earth hour. What was an initiative to create awareness is slowly become a social gimmick.

Cause the way I see it, Earth hour hasn't reduce the carbon emission, even after 7 years since it's induction. Nor do we see an improvement on the ever deteriorating climate change.

Where does our future lie? Pondering...

Car Catergorization

Forgot if I have mentioned this before or not. I'm kinda into cars lately.

Sometimes it is good for a guy to be able to appreciate the beauty and the aesthetics of a car in the absence of a female (LOL!).

Depends on the level of appreciation and interests, cars can be studied to a very deep and technical extend.

Well today let's just make things easier. I'm also learning so hey I've decided to look up the different categories we can divide the cars into.

Usually we always categorize cars by their brands and manufacturers. Which is kinda kindergarten stuff since its almost the same as classifying humans against their race and skin color. So I've looked up on some basic classifications that could come in handy.

And dear how wrong I was when it comes to classifications! There are so many ways that you can group and classify them.

You have specs defined by vernacular and everyday term usage. You have groupings defined by the law and regulation. So yeah it depends. It's too complicated to summarize everything in this one humble post of mine.

But let's start with some basics I've learnt ok?

From top to bottom: Sedan, Station Wagon, Hatchback

1. Sedan - The most common cars we see are sedans. 3 well defined areas i.e: the front, body and back

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: Toyota Vios, Proton Saga, Volkswagen Polo Sedan, Honda City


2. Station Wagon - Something similar to the hatchback but a very long but not well defined end

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: I don't think we have a good example of this over here. Please be noted that SUVs and four wheel drives are omitted from this category.


2. Hatchback - Cars with a two box configuration (just green and red). Basically a car without a well defined boot space like the top picture.

Examples of cars available in Malaysia: MyVi, Ford Fiesta, Volkswagen Polo.

So yeah here is a starter for cars 101. I'm into a deeper study so yeah I'll just stop here. VROOM!



p.s. Ever wanted to know the name of the three wheel light blue car that always gets gotcha by Mr Bean? It's called the Reliant Regal.