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
Mmmmmmmbacon basically told you what the valves do, so I’ll answer the other part of your question.
When someone says “the 12 valve is better than the 24 valve” or whatever, it’s not necessarily the number of valves that is what makes the engine “better” or “worse.” It’s just a reference to the specific engine, followed by an opinion on it. The reasoning behind the opinion may or may not actually have anything to do with the valves themselves. Often the higher valve number engines have other added complexity for performance, which could impact reliability. Or a lower number simply isn’t as powerful an engine, if that’s what you are looking for.
For example, Cummins diesel engines, like those in Dodge Ram pickups used to be twelve valve, then went to twenty four. Some people swear by the old twelve valve ones due to less complexity of both the engine and the fuel system.
Edit: not awake yet.
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