The Ultimate Car Engine Quiz

Nitrous oxide when heated will split. One of the products of this is oxygen, which when fed into the engine provides more power. Nitrous oxide is commonly known as NOS in the racing world.

The valve cover is bolted onto the cylinder head. It acts as a protective lid and prevents dirt from entering the engine, for example.

The valves within an engine open and close in sequence. They do this to let the air and fuel mixture in. Then they seal to allow combustion to take place. Finally, they open to let the gas produced, out.

The spark produced by the spark plug is the catalyst that ignites the fuel/air mixture in the cylinder after the compression stroke. This results in the next stroke, the power stroke. Note that a four-cylinder car will have four spark plugs each firing at the right time.

The moving parts of an engine are lubricated by oil. An oil filter helps to remove impurities in the oil that might damage the engine.

The movement of the piston within the cylinder helps to compress the fuel/air mixture and then produces the power to turn the crankshaft once that is combusted.

The compression stroke in an engine sees the piston move within the cylinder to compress the fuel/air mixture let in by the intake stroke. This allows more energy to release on ignition.

Part of the ignition system, the distributor fires the spark plugs in the correct order. It is connected to them by high tension leads.

The engine block is also known as the cylinder block. Cast from metal, it houses all the major engine components including valves, cylinders and pistons, for example.

If your car's alternator is not working properly, you soon will have battery problems. And thanks to the alternator, you can listen to all your favorite hits on the radio, turn on lights and power your electric windows up and down!

Oil is needed right through the internals of an engine to lubricate. Without it, metal will grind on metal. An engine that has no oil in it will quickly seize.

Found at the bottom of the cylinder block, the oil pan serves as the oil reservoir. A hole in this will soon leave you with a seized engine, a big mess and an even bigger repair bill.

The exhaust emissions on all modern vehicles are controlled by the catalytic converter. This should always be replaced when the sensors indicate on your dashboard.

Incredibly, Ford waited until 1932 to introduce their first V8 engine. This was called the Flathead V8 and was produced by the company until 1953.

The intake stroke is the first one an engine takes when started. It allows the fuel/air mixture into the cylinder where it is compressed, combusted and the gases produced are removed.

That is in fact true! But why? Well, properly inflated tires mean less friction on the road. And that simple fact means a car will use less fuel.

The radiator holds the coolant which is pushed through the engine by the water pump to cool it down when needed. Another part of the cooling system on your engine is the thermostat.

The car's tailpipe is the final piece of the exhaust system. All gases produced by the combustion process within the engine leave the car through here.

A thermostat ensures that coolant is only pumped from the radiator once the engine has warmed up sufficiently. If it malfunctions, you'll soon find yourself with steam coming out from under the hood!

The balance shaft is a counterweighted engine shaft. It offsets unwanted crankshaft vibrations.

It was the job of the carburetor to meter the flow of air and gas into the engine. Carburetors were activated as soon as the throttle was pushed.

Although electric and even steam engines were around driving cars at the turn of the 20th century, the internal combustion engine held out to win the race. Of course, hybrid and electric engines are now starting to give it a real run for its money, and in the next 100 years it's possible that it might be phased out completely.

In 1905 Alfred Buchi, a Swiss engineer, invented the turbocharger. He did this because believing that gasoline engines were not powerful enough, he wanted a way to deliver more power. And performance freaks have been happy ever since!

The crankshaft changes the linear motion of the piston stroke into a rotational one which turns the driveshaft and makes a vehicle move.

The V8-engined Cadillac model was an instant hit in 1914 when introduced. In fact, 13,000 units were sold in the first year of production, which is a pretty significant amount!

During the exhaust stroke of the engine, it can lose power due to something called back pressure. Here, power is lost as the exhaust stroke meets the pressure produced in the stroke process.

The piston pin clip keeps the piston pin in place within the cylinder. To make sure it remains secure, it is connected on both sides.

The air intake manifold allows the fuel/air mixture into the cylinder of the engine where it will combust, prompting the engine to run. It does this by evenly distributing the air/fuel mixture to the intake ports.

Nikolaus Otto is the man credited with the invention of the internal combustion engine as we know it, in other words an engine that ran on gasoline. His version, called the Otto engine, was invented in 1867.

A car engine running at peak efficiency needs a ratio of 14.7 parts gasoline to 1 part air. Any more gasoline and it will be running rich; any less and it will be running lean.

One of the ways car lovers improve their engine performance is by adding a supercharger. This will give a 50% increase in power, certainly not to be sniffed at!

Although V8 engines had been installed in cars before, the first American company to use a V8 engine was Cadillac in 1914. Others soon followed including Oldsmobile in 1916 and Chevrolet in 1917.

A supercharger spins at an impressive 50,000 revs per minute. No wonder it adds 50% more power to an engine! Bet you want one for you car now as well ...

Karl Benz introduced the Benz Patent Autowagen to the world in 1895. It was effectively a carriage with an engine and no horse and even steered using a tiller. But historians credit Benz's creation as the first modern car.

Henry Ford's first car was the Quadricycle, which he first built in 1896. Over the next four years, Ford produced another three. Running on ethanol, it produced 4 horsepower.