Car engines are confusing?

Question

Is a piston the same thing as a cylinder?
What is a poppet valve?
Is a cylinder head just the end part of a poppet valve or is it the underside of the intake manifold?
What is a cylinder head?
Is the intake manifold just a housing for all these components?

I would like answers to these questions, not just articles on WIkipedia... because that is what has me all confused. I know it's a lot of questions, but I'm all goofed up now.

Answer 1

No worries, you'll get it figured out in no time :)

The cylinder doesn't move. The piston moves inside it.

A cylinder head is a large metal piece that covers the top of the cylinders. It contains several things. Valves are two of them.

The intake manifold has no moving parts, it's just pipes. It's made as a metal casting to save money. The same is true of the exhaust manifold, in fact you can get it as "just pipes", in which case it's called "headers". On V6 V8 V10 engines, the intake manifold also serves as a dust cover for part of the engine, and a place to mount other parts.

One place to start is get a simple wrench set and take apart an old lawnmower engine. All the basic things are there.

Answer 2

first thing,a piston goes in the cylinder,2nd,theres 2 valves for every spark plug,there intake valves and theres exhaust valves,3rd,the valves are in the cylinder head,4th,a cylinder head is where the valves,valve springs,valve guides,and rockers goes,5th,a intake sits in the middle of the heads and its bolted down to the heads.i think its best that you buy a book on this stuff.i think i could show you better then trying to explain it to you.

Answer 3

first, you need to slow down, yes that is a lot of questions, probably to long for anyone to answer intelligently. Just slow down and read the articles you find, trying looking for some pictured and diagrams that show a cut-away of an engine, and has labels. Good Luck!

Answer 4

I know you dont want to read about it, but you have a lot of good question. The best teacher is learning with your own 2 hands and then ask. Take a few vocational tech classes. They are inexpensive and dont take much time if you go PT.
You can go to this site, i find this helpful for a lot of people to learn.

http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine.htm

good luck.......

Answer 5

first of all a piston is in a cylinder

Answer 6

Try this
http://www.familycar.com/Engine.htm