We have talked about how engines work in the past couple of installments of this series, and now need to bring together some important engineering factors. We have talked about intake strokes, compression strokes, and others, but only very superficially touched on how everything comes together.
For an engine to work properly, everything has to be coordinated. For simplicity, we will consider a conventional four stroke, gasoline powered automobile engine. Diesel engines are in some aspects simpler, and will be covered concomitantly.
Remember, an engine has to do all of the things about which we have discussed, completely synchronized, and EVERY time. For an engine rotating at, say, 4000 times per minute, this can be a daunting task.