Recently became addicted to combustion engines, looking for books to read

[daniellammers]

Anyone that has nice/informative books on the working/tuning of reciprocating combustion engines?
I want to learn things like how manufacturers choose the lay-out, what gives the engine its horsepower, etc.
I have basic knowledge on how engines work.

[Big Tea]

Anyone that has nice/informative books on the working/tuning of reciprocating combustion engines?
I want to learn things like how manufacturers choose the lay-out, what gives the engine its horsepower, etc.
I have basic knowledge on how engines work.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/arch ... et-thunder

[63l8qrrfy6]

Heywood - Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals

[gruntguru]

L.J.K. Setright. "Some unusual Engines"

Pretty rare. See if you can find it in a library nearby.

[Greg Locock]

Heywood is the biz technically, or Charles Lafayette Taylor. If you like pretty pictures it is hard to go past Ludvigsen. Haven't read (and probably wouldn't read) Setright.

[gruntguru]

The OP's interests at this stage of his learning would be very different to Greg's.

[Greg Locock]

It's been 22 years since I worked on engines!

[Tommy Cookers]

Internal Combustion Engines by V Ganesan is good
cheap if delivered slowly by surface mail
though it wrongly says the Wright Turbo-Compound was turbocharged ....
it's up to date and good for context (my 50 year old CF Taylor isn't)

presumably the OP means internal combustion engines
not external combustion engines eg steam

nothing Setright should be read in isolation - don't people know he wrote for a living ?

[godlameroso]

Anyone that has nice/informative books on the working/tuning of reciprocating combustion engines?
I want to learn things like how manufacturers choose the lay-out, what gives the engine its horsepower, etc.
I have basic knowledge on how engines work.

Engines get power from heated air. When air gets hot it expands, that expansion creates a push.

[63l8qrrfy6]

Another good one is Gordon Blair's Design and Simulation of 4 stroke engines. There is a 2 stroke version too (well I think it came first actually) if you are into that sort of thing.

He also has many good articles on the mechanical design of valvetrains and springs.

[63l8qrrfy6]

Anyone that has nice/informative books on the working/tuning of reciprocating combustion engines?
I want to learn things like how manufacturers choose the lay-out, what gives the engine its horsepower, etc.
I have basic knowledge on how engines work.

Engines get power from heated air. When air gets hot it expands, that expansion creates a push.

Just a bunch of hot air innit

[Big Tea]

Another good one is Gordon Blair's Design and Simulation of 4 stroke engines. There is a 2 stroke version too (well I think it came first actually) if you are into that sort of thing.

He also has many good articles on the mechanical design of valvetrains and springs.

When we saw this guy at the track we always knew it was Seeley or the works team would be in the top 10 places.
(Uni of Belfast projects. one of which was hub steering on a motorcycle)

[pgfpro]

Heywood Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals is a great book to read and refer back to.

I also would take a look at EFI University. Its not just about EFI tuning but you will learn the basics of what an engine wants and how it makes HP and Torque. They now have on line classes as well. www.efi101.com

[godlameroso]

Anyone that has nice/informative books on the working/tuning of reciprocating combustion engines?
I want to learn things like how manufacturers choose the lay-out, what gives the engine its horsepower, etc.
I have basic knowledge on how engines work.

Engines get power from heated air. When air gets hot it expands, that expansion creates a push.

Just a bunch of hot air innit

Well how you heat it is its own fantastically deep and mysterious subject. The reactions happen too fast for us to process with our eyes. We have to use detective techniques to learn it's secrets and interpret them in forms that make sense to us.

It's strange isn't it, you have to pump energy into the system to release more of it, but where did that energy come from and so forth. Even the dance of radicals propagating from the spark gap matters. A lot of fuel tuning involves additives to create the "correct" radicals at the right times.

[coaster]

"Smokey yunicks horsepower secrets" its an old book, but the pages describing porting technique were gold for building my V8 25 years ago, the guy was a guru in his time.

There is also one by Phil Irving, but delves into subjects that predate Smokeys research. Very old book.