1. ENGINE CONSTRUCTION

2. Engine Block Assembly Very sophisticated casting.
Made of cast iron or aluminum with cast iron cylinder liners.
A great deal of machining involved in the process of manufacturing.
Becomes the frame of the engine.

3. Engine Bottom End

4. Bottom End Parts Block Crankshaft Connecting Rod
Pistons, Rings, & Wrist Pin
Bearings (Main and Connecting rod)
Caps (main and Connecting Rod)
Fly Wheel and nuts and bolts

5. Cylinder Block Common cylinder configurations: Vee, inline, opposed
And slant.
Number from farthest front backwards

6. Crankshaft Converts reciprocating motion into rotary motion.
Made of either nodular iron, forged steel, or billet steel.

7. Crankshaft Terminology
Crankpins or throws
Main bearing journals
Rod bearing journals
Thrust bearing
Main caps
Oil passages
Flywheel flange
Vibration damper end
Keyway
Rear main seal
Front crankshaft seal
Counter weights
Firing order

8. Crankshaft Bearings Known as friction or precision insert bearings.
Uses a steel backing with soft metal on crankshaft side.(lead,tin, copper, silver, cadmium)
Oil clearance between crankpin and bearing very critical. (.001”)
Oil Clearance measured with plastigauge.

9. Crankshaft Service
Grinding Cranks
Undersize bearings

10. Flywheel
The flywheel (known as the flex plate when used with an automatic transmission) carries the engines inertia in between power strokes.
It is the power take off for the engine. The clutch or torque converter bolts to it.
Lastly it has the starter motor’s ring gear.

11. Vibration Damper
The vibration damper smoothes the vibrations caused by the power strokes.
It has a pulley on it the run auxiliary systems.
It may contain timing marks or crankshaft timing sensors.

12. Balancer Shafts
Used to counteract the normal vibrations inherent to piston engines.
Found on 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engines mostly.

13. Covers & Pans Made of steel metal, aluminum, or plastic materials.
Usually use gaskets or seals.

14. Gaskets, Seals and Sealers
Gaskets seal two stationary surfaces.
Seals do it when one surface moves.
Many types of materials: rubber, paper, aluminum, steel, cork and more.
Sealers adhere gaskets to one of the surfaces.

15. Pistons Pistons harness the energy of the power stroke
and transfers the
force toward
the crankshaft.

16. Piston Terminology Head or crown Ring grooves Ring lands
Oil return holes
Skirt
Pin hole
Pin boss
Pin offset

18. Piston Rings
Rings seal the compression in the combustion chamber and the motor oil in the crankcase.
Automotive engines use 3 rings: 2 compression and 1 multi-piece oil ring.

19. Piston Ring Wear Causes a loss of compression.
Causes excessive oil consumption. May cause blue smoke out the tail pipe.

20. Types of Piston Rings Rings are usually made of cast iron
can be plated with chrome or molybdenum.
Help seal the ring to the cylinder wall.
Shapes of the ring vary to also help the ring seal better.

21. Piston Pin (Wrist Pin) Hollow polished steel pin.
Attached in a variety of ways.
Pinned to piston.
Clamped to rod small end.
Snap ring free floating.
Press fit.

22. Connecting Rods
I-beam style rod use to transfer the pistons force to the crankshaft.
Small end contains the piston pin and the big end has a removable cap to install it to the Crank.
Nuts and bolts are usually of a very high quality.

23. Installation of Pistons
Cylinder number
Piston number
Notch to the front
Position ring gaps
Remove rod cap check bearing inserts
Cover bolts with fuel line if needed
Crankshaft at TDC or BDC
Install ring compressor
Oil piston, cylinder wall, & crank journal
Carefully tap in piston with hammer handle.
Properly replace rod cap

24. Rods MUST match caps

25. Weird Science of Engines
Free running and Non-free running
Crankshaft rotation versus piston travel
Piston side thrust
Piston pin offset
Cylinder bore wear
Crankshaft journal wear

26. Free and Non-Free running Engines
Free running engines can have their piston at TDC and their valves wide open and the valve won’t touch the piston.
Non-free running engines will crash the valves into the piston if the piston is at TDC and the valves are wide open. This will wreck the engine.

27. Piston Travel Verses Crankshaft Rotation
When the piston move ½ way down the bore the crankshaft does not turn a ½ a turn. This will always create vibration.

28. Piston Side Thrust There are two sides to the piston.
The thrust side and the relief side.
Wear occurs mainly on the thrust sides.
Skirt area is not even needed on the relief side.
Piston pin offset counteracts side thrust.

29. Cylinder Bore Wear Wears oval shaped. Cylinder wall tapers.
Pocket forms near the top.
A ridge forms at the top.

30. Cylinder Boring
Cylinders can be bored to restore them however they will be larger requiring bigger pistons.
Usually bored to .010”, .020”, .030”, or .050”

31. Crankshaft Wear Wears out of round due to the power strokes.
Grinding can restore the journals, however they are smaller requiring under sized bearings.