Project Proposal
Air-Cooled Engine - Mark Meden
| The mechanical
object that I chose to model and animate is an air-cooled engine. More specifically
the engine is designed and manufactured by Volkswagen. The size of the engine
is 1700cc. It has four cylinders that are mounted horizontally. The engine
is from a 1972 Volkswagen Transporter, commonly called a Type II. The main
moving parts are the camshaft and crankshaft. The crankshaft is what drives
the camshaft by a spur gear as shown in the picture below. |
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| The crankshaft has 4 bearings that are attached to it. The connecting rods are then attached to the crankshaft. There are four connecting rods, since the engine has four cylinders. The Pistons are attached to the connecting rods by means of a pin. As the crankshaft rotates it will move the piston back and forth inside the cylinders. Below is a picture of them. (There actually are four of them, since there are four cylinders). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The camshaft while being driven by the crankshaft actually pushes a follower through its bore. The part of the camshaft that actually does the pushing is the lobes. The picture below is of the camshaft: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The followers will then move the push rod through the push rod tube. The push rod rocks the rocker back and forth. The rocker compresses the valve springs, which in turn pushes the intake and exhaust valves through the bore in the cylinder head. The picture below shows these components. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The final component in the assembly is the engine case. The engine case is actually in two halves. The engine holds the bearings, camshaft, and crankshaft and engine oil. The pictures below show one half of the case inside and outside.: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The operation of this air-cooled engine is quite simple. The compression of the engine occurs between the valves and the piston. Combustion will occur when there is fuel and a spark to ignite the fuel. The movement of these parts needs to be timed correctly in order for compression to occur at the right time. This is timed by the lobes on the camshaft and by the journals on the crankshaft. Each cylinder has two valves, one for intake and one for exhaust. The rocker has two pivots that will push each of these valves. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The nuts and bolts that hold most of the parts together were not added to the parts list for simplicity reasons. |
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