Gasoline was originally considered dangerous and was discarded and destroyed at early refineries, which were manufacturing kerosene for lamps. As the gasoline engine developed, gasoline and the engine were harmonized to attain the best possible matching of characteristics. The most important properties of gasoline are its volatility and antiknock quality. Volatility is a measure of the ease of vaporization of gasoline, which is adjusted in the production process to account for seasonal and altitude variations in the local market. Properly formulated gasoline helps engines to start in cold weather and to avoid vapour lock in hot weather.
To suit the needs of a modern engine, a gasoline must have the volatility for which the fuel system of the engine was designed and an antiknock quality sufficient to avoid knock under normal operation. Although other specifications must also be met, volatility and knock rating are the most important. The size and structural arrangement of the molecules principally determine the knocking tendency of a gasoline as well as its volatility.
Tetraethyl lead, added to gasolines for many years to improve antiknock fueling, has been found to contaminate the exhaust gases with poisonous lead oxides, and so the practice has ended. Lower compression ratios and improved combustion-chamber designs have eliminated the need for extremely high-antiknock gasolines.
Lubricating oil is added to gasoline used in crankcase-compression two-stroke-cycle engines.
Performance
The performance of an engine is expressed in terms of power, speed, and fuel economy. The three quantities are evaluated with a dynamometer, a laboratory device that applies a controllable load in the form of resistance to the turning of the crankshaft and also measures the torque exerted at the shaft coupling. The resistance imposed by a dynamometer may be adjusted so that the desired engine speed is established at any throttle position. It is thus possible to run the engine at various speeds throughout its operating range, to continuously maintain these operating conditions, and to measure the precise load and speed at which each run is made. Additional test equipment permits measurement of the exact quantity of fuel consumed, as well as the duration of the runs. From these data the power-speed-economy relationships can be calculated and performance plotted.
The power produced by an engine is expressed in horsepower. When the power developed is measured by means of a dynamometer or similar braking device, it is called brake horsepower. This is the power actually delivered by the engine and is therefore the capacity of the engine. The power developed in the combustion chambers of the engine is greater than the delivered power because of friction and other mechanical losses. This power loss, called the friction horsepower, can be evaluated by “motoring” the engine (driving it in a forward direction) with a suitable dynamometer when no fuel is being burned. The power developed in the cylinder can then be found by adding the friction horsepower to the brake horsepower. This quantity is the indicated horsepower of the engine, so called from an instrument known as the engine indicator, which is used to measure the pressure on the piston and thus calculate the power developed in the cylinder.
Mechanical efficiency is defined as brake horsepower in percent of indicated horsepower and is usually between 70 and 90 percent for normal operating speeds.
A quantity called brake mean effective pressure is obtained by multiplying the mean effective pressure of an engine by its mechanical efficiency. This is a commonly used index expressing the ability of the engine, per unit of cylinder bore, to develop both useful pressure in the cylinders and delivery power. If the power delivered is increased by any change other than an increase in speed or cylinder dimensions, its brake mean effective pressure increases proportionately.
Comparison with other engines
When the gasoline engine is compared with other types of internal-combustion engines, certain similarities and differences, as well as some advantages and disadvantages, become apparent. The diesel engine and the gas engine (an engine utilizing a gas such as compressed natural gas or propane as the fuel) have a good deal in common with the gasoline engine, since they are all cylinder-and-piston engines that burn air-fuel mixtures in contact with moving components. The important difference that distinguishes the diesel engine is that it has no spark-ignition system. Compared with a gasoline engine of the same horsepower, the diesel engine is heavier and more expensive, but it has a longer life and operates at less cost per horsepower-hour because it burns less fuel.
The gas engine has much in common with the gasoline engine; in fact, in some instances their differences are very slight at best. Structurally, the difference lies primarily in the substitution of a gas-mixing valve for a carburetor. The cylinder and piston configurations are the same. In general, gases have better antiknock qualities than gasoline, permitting slightly higher compression ratios without knock or other combustion difficulties.
From the standpoint of application, the gas engine burning natural gas, manufactured gas, or industrial by-product gas is limited primarily to stationary power plant use because it must remain connected to the gas pipeline. If, however, the fuel is liquefied petroleum gas, sometimes called bottled gas, the containers of gas can be carried in a vehicle, leading to much flexibility in applications. The present obstacle is that facilities are not readily available for replenishing the gas supply.