ENGINE

Cylinder head design has a significant effect on the efficiency of combustion, and hence the

power output of the engine. The head may be flat, in which case the combustion chamber resides

within the cylinder and/or a depression in the piston crown, but usually a "dome" within the

cylinder head provides most of the combustion volume. In motorcycles, valve gear tends to

be side valve, overhead valve (ohv) with pushrod operation, (single)overhead cam, (s)ohc,

and double overhead cam, dohc. A cylinder with desmodromic valves may have three or even

four camshafts. An ohc (or dohc) cylinder head will have at least two valves per cylinder (1 inlet

and 1 exhaust), but multi-valve engines may have three (2 inlet and 1 exhaust), or four (2 inlet

and 2 exhaust), or even five (3 inlet and 2 exhaust). Cylinder heads are the hottest part of the

engine and require adequate cooling, typically air cooling, oil cooling or liquid cooling.
Some motorcycles such as Harley-Davidsons, Moto Guzzis and BMWs become identifiable by

their cylinder-head types, namely airhead, panhead, oilhead, and even knucklehead.[4][6] The

Ducati desmos head enables higher rpm to be achieved without detrimental valve float.

PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

In the spark ignition engine an Air/Fuel mixture is formed outside the combustion chamber. This

mixture is generated in a Carburetor or by means of Fuel Injection, but in either case the final

Air/Fuel mixture is fed into the Cylinder, through the Intake, past the Inlet Valve. The mixture is

then Compressed and subsequently Ignited by the Spark Plug. The combustion of ignitable

Air/Fuel mixture is initiated (Ignited) by an Electric Spark and burnt inside a working Cylinder.

The combustion Heat given off increases the pressure of the pre-compressed gasses. This

after-combustion pressure is typically 400 to 700 PSI, which is much higher than the pre-

combustion pressure of 95 to 155 PSI. (PSI = Pounds per Square Inch)

This high pressure produces mechanical work by forcing the Piston down and

via Pin and Con Rod causes the Crankshaft to turn. After each Power Stroke the burnt gases are
expelled by the Piston's upward motion and discharged into the atmosphere past the Outlet

Valve through Exhaust tract.

SI ENGINES

The term spark-ignition engine refers to internal combustion engines, generally petrol engines,

where the combustion process of the air-fuel mixture is ignited by a spark from a spark plug.

This is in contrast to compression-ignition engines, typically diesel engines, where the heat

generated from compression together with the injection of fuel is enough to initiate the

combustion process, without needing any external spark.

WORKING CYCLE

A four-stroke spark-ignition engine is an Otto cycle engine. It consists of following four

strokes: suction or intake stroke, compression stroke, expansion or power stroke, exhaust stroke.
Each stroke consists of 180 degree rotation of crankshaft rotation and hence a four-stroke cycle is

completed through 720 degree of crank rotation. Thus for one complete cycle there is only one

power stroke while the crankshaft turns by two revolutions.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE SI AND CI ENGINES:

1) Type of cycle used:

In the case of SI engines, the Otto cycle is used. In this cycle, addition of hea