The Pistons
- What are they?
- What are they made up of?
What are they?
The pistons of the engine are the components that help make the magic happen. While the block and the cylinder head house the components and keep them well lubricated the pistons and their components move up and down swiftly through channelled cylinders within to create an internal combustion, this is what makes your vehicle move.
What are they made up of?
The pistons are made up of a piston rod and a piston head. The rod is connected to the crankshaft of the engine, attached to the top of the piston rod is the piston head. The crankshaft pushes the now complete piston in an up an down stroke through the cylinder.
The piston head a fractionally smaller than the radius of the cylinder however piston rings that sit in channels in the piston head allow the full overall radius to fit the cylinder. The piston rings have the duty of keeping as much of the complete piston lubricated with oil without allowing any oil to pass into the cylinder or worse still the combustion chamber
Why? What happens then?
Well basically oil doesn't burn the way air and fuel does so if it were to spill into the combustion chamber you would have series running problems. Don't worry though, this is very rare.