Defining the automotive experience for a digital world
An engine control unit is essentially the “electronic brain” that makes sure your engine is always working properly. To that end, these electronic control units can be responsible for everything from setting the air/fuel mixture to adjusting variable valve timing.
Internal combustion engines are at the heart of most modern automobiles. These complex machines essentially turn the chemical energy stored in fuels like gasoline and diesel into the kinetic energy your car or truck needs to move down the road.
While the history of the internal combustion engine lacks any single flashpoint, the first successful designs were commercialized in the 1860s after the widespread development of petroleum resources. By the turn of the century, many of the designs and technologies we use today had already appeared.
Heater cores are like tiny radiators that use the hot coolant from your engine’s cooling system to warm up the interior of your car.
Water pumps have been around a lot longer than the internal combustion engines that they help keep cool.
Mass air flow sensors come in a handful of different flavors, but they’re all designed to help your ECU determine the mass of the air that’s entering your engine. Although they are relatively simple, these innocuous little components are instrumental in the proper operation of your engine.
Catalytic converters are major components in both exhaust and emission control systems. Through oxidation and reduction, they turn harmful pollutants into less dangerous compounds. They are also prime targets for theft due to the precious metals that they contain.
The DC generator has a long history in the automotive world. Falling out of use in the 1960s, generators have found surprising new life in hybrids.
Chances are that your car uses water cooling to keep the engine from overheating and to keep you warm in the winter, but how does it all come together?
Air cooling may have fallen out of favor in recent years, but it has a worthy place in automotive history.
Automotive News
