Significance of valves in an engine?

Question

I’m a noob car guy, learning more every day.

I’ve had I think 14 cars in my 7 years of being licensed, and in that time I’ve heard a lot of people mention something like “oh the 12v is better than the 16v” when talking about two models of the same car.

What’s the significance, what does it do?

I have a basic understanding of how a combustion engine works, if that helps.

In: 1

Answer 1

Adding to the others. Valves perform the function of letting air and fuel in and exhaust out. This function can be done WITHOUT valves by using a process called scavenging. Detroit Diesel produced a small engine with a “flocked” blower for this decades ago. There have also been valveless lawn mower engines I believe.