I understand engines and have rebuilt several, but don’t get this. It seems that for a given displacement, the engine sucks in the same amount of gas/air mix which would have a fixed BTU amount of energy. So why would higher compression create more power? And why isn’t this
“extra” negated by the extra effort it requires to create the higher compression?
In: Physics
It’s not that higher compression ratios create more energy from the same fuel/air charge, it’s that they allow more of that energy to be converted into mechanical work by the engine.
By crushing the fuel/air charge to a higher compression, you can release more heat energy from the charge per cycle, which equates to more mechanical energy into the piston, which equates to more power from the engine.
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