Gasoline Engine Vs Diesel Engine

Both diesel engines and gasoline engines are internal combustion engines, which means they are designed to make mechanical energy by converting chemical energy available in fuel. Rotary motion is required to turn the wheels of a car forward. So to make this rotary motion, pistons connected to a crankshaft move in an up and down motion to create the rotary motion. Through a series of small combustions or explosions, diesel engines and gasoline engines convert fuel into energy. Diesel and gasoline are similar, but the biggest difference between the two are the way these combustions happen. Combustion happens in a gasoline engine when fuel is mixed with air, compressed by pistons and ignited by sparks from spark plugs. Diesel engines are …show more content…
This makes a diesel engine simpler than a gasoline engine(“Not Just for Trucks Anymore: Why Modern Diesels Are More Popular than Ever”). Gasoline engines are considered to be like a racehorse because they are high strung, fiery, and fast while a diesel engine is considered to be like a workhorse because they are slower, stronger, and more enduring(“The Pros and Cons of Diesel Engines”). The amount of fuel entering the engine will reduce as the amount of air entering the engine reduces. Engine speed will not increase past the point where all of the available oxygen is burned by the fuel by increasing fuel intake. However, in diesel engines, there is no restriction on the amount of air going into the engine. There is enough oxygen available to be burned at all times. To control the amount of fuel injected into the engine to limit speed, diesel engines require a governor(“Difference between Diesel and Gasoline Engines”). Diesel engines have to be made very durable because they use compression ignition. If a gasoline engine was to use a compression ignition, it could be quickly ruined. Diesel engines tend to be very reliable and only need a minimum of care(“Not Just for Trucks Anymore: Why Modern Diesels Are More Popular than Ever”). The amount of air going into the engine is controlled by the butterfly valve in the carburetor on a gasoline engine. The rate of airflow determines the amount of fuel that can be mixed with air in the carburetor. A diesel engine is often difficult to start during the winter when temperatures are lower and take just a little longer than a gasoline engine to warm up. The only restriction on engine speed in a diesel is the amount of fuel injected into the engine cylinder. A diesel engine will attempt to attain a faster speed to keep up with the increased fuel injection rate as more