Pistons are housed within metal tubes, or cylinders, in most combustion engines. Their main purpose is to be pressed inward to compress down on both air and a gas-form of the vehicle's fuel that is injected into the cylinder. The gas is compressed quickly which causes it to 'explode', which turns the gas into power, hence the name combustion engine.
A piston is a relatively simple but impactful piece of an engine. To get a better understanding of what exactly it does, this video illustrates it very clearly.
The stroke refers to the total amount of space in the cylinder that it has to be moved within.
A common sign of a piston that has gone bad is white or gray smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe. You may also experience loss of power in terms of acceleration and top speed since there is less compression and less power being generated by one or more of the pistons.
A V8 will have 8 pistons, each cylinder has a single piston. So a V6 will have 6 pistons and a V4 will have 4 pistons.
Create Date: October 2, 2024
Last Modified Date: October 14, 2024
