What Is Diesel Engine?

To be honest, I have never been interested in anything related to automotive, even though I was able to ride a motorcycle when I was 13 years old. From my POV, a vehicle is just a tool to help me get from point A to point B, which only needs to be maintained to keep it running.

Until few years ago my car got lot of issues, from part A, B, C that scream my wallet, the issue is looks random from layman perspective, but after learn little bit about how car ICE works changes my mind, the more I dig information the more I addicted about ICE works.

So, this series of notes is not to teach anyone about what a diesel engine is. These are just collections of notes specially for me to gather knowledge about diesel engines for my personal opportunities and to build a solid knowledge base for myself.

Before diving deep into diesel engines, let's look a little bit at what an engine is. Simply put, an engine is a machine that converts energy into mechanical motion by using source of power like heat, chemicals or electricity to create physical movement.

There are few kinds of engines

• Internal Combustion engine it Burn fuel (like gasoline or diesel) inside a chamber to push pistons and create movement.

• Electric Motors it use magnetic fields powered by electricity to spin a rotor without burning any fuel.

• External Combustion Engine it burn fuel outside the engine (like a steam engine) to heat water and create pressure

So then what is Diesel engine?. Diesel Engine is named after the German mechanical engineer and inventor Rudolf diesel In the late 1890s, he built a new type of internal combustion engine designed to be far more efficient than the steam and gasoline engines of his time.

what is makes this revolutionary is the following stuff:

• No Spark Plugs: Instead of using a spark to light the fuel, his design squeezed air until it became hot enough to ignite the fuel automatically.

• Double the Efficiency: Early steam engines only converted about 10% of their fuel into actual power. Rudolf Diesel's first working prototype crushed that, reaching over 25% efficiency right away.

To be clear, a diesel engine does not use gasoline; it uses diesel fuel. I don't know why it's named like that, but in Indonesia, we call it 'solar'. Diesel fuel also has a higher boiling point and ignition temperature compared to gasoline

I think these notes are enough as an opening article. I will probably write later about how diesel and gasoline engines work when I have enough time."