Performance Test of an SI Engine

Michael Adrian Vallecera Ygnacio1

Abstract: The term spark-ignition engine refers to internal combustion engines, generally petrol engines, where the
combustion process of the air-fuel mixture is ignited by a spark from a spark plug. A spark plug is a device for
delivering electric current from an ignition system to the combustion chamber of a spark-ignition engine to ignite the
compressed fuel/air mixture by an electric spark, while containing combustion pressure within the engine. This
experiment will investigate the effect of cutting off the spark plug of a 4-cylinder SI engine set-up in the Mechanical
Engineering Laboratory of the University of San Carlos. The objective of the experiment is to determine the efficiency
of the said SI engine using the Morse test.

Author keywords: Morse test, Spark ignition, SI engine; Thermal efficiency, Ignition timing

Introduction By nature, petrol is a highly volatile liquid, but its

In spark ignition (SI) engines, petrol or gasoline is
used as fuel, while in compression ignition (CI) engines,
diesel is used as fuel. Petrol engines are lightweight and
achieve higher speed. Diesel engines, on the other hand,
are heavy engines and achieve lesser speeds. Other
differences below:
The most prominent difference between Spark
Ignition (SI) and Compression Ignition (CI) engines is
the type of fuel used in each. In SI engines petrol or
gasoline is used as fuel, hence these engines are also
called petrol engines. In CI engines diesel is used as fuel,
hence they are also called diesel engines.
In SI engines, the Otto cycle is used. In this cycle,
addition of heat or fuel combustion occurs at a constant
volume. The basis of working of CI engines is the Diesel
cycle. In this cycle the addition of heat or fuel
combustion occurs at a constant pressure.
self-ignition temperature is high. Hence for the
combustion of this fuel a spark is necessary to initiate its
burning process. To generate this spark in SI engines, the
spark plug is placed in the cylinder head of the engine.
The voltage is provided to the spark plug either from the
battery or from the magneto. With diesel, the self-
ignition temperature is comparatively lower. When
diesel fuel is compressed to high pressures, its
temperature also increases beyond the self-ignition
temperature of the fuel. Hence in the case of CI engines,
the ignition of fuel occurs due to compression of the air-
fuel mixture and there is no need for spark plugs.
Compression ratio for the fuel: In the case of SI
engines, the compression ratio of the fuel is in the range
of 6 to 10 depending on the size of the engine and the
power to be produced. In CI engines, the compression
ratio for air is 16 to 20. The high compression ratio of air
creates high temperatures, which ensures the diesel fuel
can self-ignite.

During the piston's suction stroke, a mixture of air and
fuel is injected from cylinder head portion of the
cylinder. The air-fuel mixture is injected via the
carburetor that controls the quantity and the quality of
the injected mixture. In the case of CI engines, fuel is
injected into the combustion chamber towards the end of
the compression stroke. The fuel starts burning instantly
due to the high pressure. To inject diesel in SI engines, a
fuel pump and injector are required. In CI engines, the
quantity of fuel to be injected is controlled but the
quantity of air to be injected is not controlled.
1
Student, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering, University of San Carlos, Cebu City 6000,
Philippines. E-mail: michaeladrianygnacio@gmail.com
Weight of the engines: In CI engines, the compression
ratio is higher, which produces high pressures inside the
engine. Hence CI engines are heavier than SI engines.
Speed achieved by the engine: Petrol or SI engines are
lightweight, and the fuel is homogeneously burned,
hence achieving very high speeds. CI engines are heavier
and the fuel is burned heterogeneously, hence producing
lower speeds.
An SI engine starts the combustion process in each
cycle by use of a spark plug. The spark plug gives a high-
voltage electrical discharge between two electrodes
which ignites the air-fuel mixture in the combustion
chamber surrounding the plug. In early engine
development, before the invention of the electric spark
plug, many forms of torch holes were used to initiate
combustion from an external flame. (Pulkrabek, 1982)

Experimental Methods

Apparatus
Figure 1 shows the experimental set-up at the
Mechanical Engineering Laboratory of the University of
San Carlos for the performance test of the SI engine. The
engine is placed on top of the test bed along with the
brake dynamometer.

Fig. 3. Engine control

Other components on the set up of the SI engine test

involves the Engine control board with the transparent
glass that serves as the fuel tank of the engine. The
control board has the throttle control and the key for
starting the engine. An rpm gauge is also fixed on the
control board.

Fig.1. Experimental Set-up for the Performance Test

of the SI Engine

The brake dynamometer coupled to the SI engine is a

water brake or also called as hydraulic dynamometer. The
hydraulic dynamometer is used to measure the torque
applied by the shaft as indicated by the scale on the test bed.
Figure 2 shows the water tank that would supply water into
the dynamometer. A sight glass is provided to determine the
water level of the water tank.

Fig. 4. Force Meter

Along with the other components placed on the test

bed is the Force or load meter. The force/load meter is a
scale that measures the amount of force being
Fig. 2. Water Tank experienced by the SI engine when subjected with load
or without load.

Starting the Engine
Before turning the key and starting the engine, friction
must first by relieved. This is done by cranking the shaft
of the SI engine several times as seen on figure 5. This
process is done in order for the engine to overcome the
starting friction. After relieving friction, the inserted key
is turned and the SI engine started.
where = fuel consumption
= base mass set by the performers
= time
Torque is defined as the tendency of an object to
rotate about an axis. The torque produced by the SI
engine is obtained using the equation:

= (2)

where = torque
= weight of load
= length of lever arm

The Mechanical power produced by the engine

output shaft this is also called the Brake Power. The
brake power is calculated using the equation:

= 2 (3)

where = engine brake power

= torque
Fig. 5. Cranking the SI Engine = shaft speed

Data Gathering
The specific fuel consumption is the ratio between
the rate of fuel consumption and the power produced.
The Morse test method was used in this This is calculated using the equation:
experiment. In a Morse test method, cylinders were
individually cut-off from the SI engine one at a time. The
SI engine used in the experiment has four cylinders = (4)

properly labelled on its position. The experiment is done
by detaching the 4 cylinders one at a time each trial. The Where = specific fuel consumption
initial condition of the SI engine wherein no cylinder is = fuel consumption
being cut off yet. The fuel consumption, torque produced = engine brake power
and the speed of the shaft were recorded. A constant fuel
volume of 10 mL gasoline consumption was used as the
base reference for this experiment. After taking all the The brake thermal efficiency of the SI engine is the
necessary parameters, one cylinder is cut-out. Then the ratio of the output work by the input work. Since the
same parameters are taken for each time a cylinder is cut- engine uses the combustion to drive the shaft, therefore
out. The procedure is repeated until all four cylinders the specific fuel consumption will be regarded as the
have been individually cut-out. input power of the SI engine. This is calculated using the
equation:
Calculations
= 100 % (5)

The fuel consumption of the SI engine is
obtained by measuring the amount of time it takes for the where = thermal efficiency
SI engine to consume 10 mL of gasoline when the engine = brake power
is stable at a given condition. Fuel consumption is SFC = specific fuel consumption
calculated using the equation:

m
= (1)

 Indicated Power is the brake power when no cylinder 70
is cut off subtracted to the brake power when one GROUP 6 GROUP 4

BRAKE THERMAL EFFICIENCY (%)

cylinder is cut off. 60
IP = A B (6)
50
where IP = indicated power 40
A = brake power at all cylinders working
B = brake power when one cylinder is cutoff 30

20

The friction power was calculated by subtracting the 10

indicated power of each individual cylinder by the
corresponding brake power at that particular cut-off. 0
This is given by the equation 0 2 4 6
CYLINDER CUT-OFF (NUMBER)
= (7) Fig. 6. Cylinder Cut-off vs Brake thermal Efficiency

where = friction power

= indicated power Figure 6 shows the plotted data for the thermal
= engine brake power efficiency of the SI engine at corresponding cylinder cut-
off in the experiments done by our group and together
with Group 4. Our experiment shows a higher thermal
Results and Discussion efficiency compared to group 4. However, the trend of
the data that group 4 has obtained shows a gradual
decrease while ours were abrupt.
Table 1 shows the parameters needed to obtain the
thermal efficiency of the SI engine. The speed of the By cutting off cylinder from the engine, the
shaft when no cylinder was cut-out was at 2149 rpm. amount of total power that the engine could produce was
When the spark plug of cylinder 1 was cut-out, the speed reduced. This is because the cylinder with the cut-off
increased a bit going up to 2173 rpm. As the cut-off was cannot combust without the spark plug. This part will
done, popping sounds were observed. Though an become a parasitic load.
increase of speed was recorded, the stability of
combustion was changed. The same thing happened Cutting off cylinder can also contribute to
during the cut-off of cylinder 2. However, during the ignition timing. With spark timing set either too early or
cut-off of cylinders 3 and 4, the engines speed too late, combustion efficiency and average temperatures
decreased. The sound of the engine, as observed, can tell will be lower. These lower temperatures will give less
that the engines speed decreased. peak heat loss, but the heat losses will last over a longer
length of time and the overall energy loss will be greater.
Table 1. Computed Data Higher power output is thus gained with correct ignition
Cylinder RPM Torque Brake TFC BSFC timing. Late ignition timing extends the combustion
Cut-out Power process longer into the expansion stroke, resulting in
none 2149 57.68 12.9811 3.0602 0.24 34.4 higher exhaust temperature and hotter exhaust valves
1 2173 58.03 13.2032 3.375 0.28 29.32 and ports. (Pulkrabek 1982)
2 3940 57.68 23.7997 3 0.13 64.32

3 1603 56.31 9.4524 2.2306 0.24 36.36

4 1863 56.65 11.0526 2.1763 0.2 41.18

Conclusions References

The engine was expected to lose some of its power
during the cut-off of cylinders however, that was not the
case in the experiment. Instead of the speed to decrease,
it increase during cylinder 1 and 2 cut-off. From our
experiment, it could be concluded that misfire within the
working cylinders are present. By meaning of misfire,
the ignition timing is not in its optimum. The ignition
could be earlier or later based on the popping sound like
firecracker during the cut-off. As stated from Pulkrabek,
a higher power output can be gained at correct ignition
timing. The maximum efficiency of the SI engine during
the experiment reached 64 % which is quite odd for an
old engine and the engine has huge fuel consumption
compared to the modern engine nowadays.
Notation
The following symbols are used in this paper:
Bettes, H. (2008). Dyno testing and tuning. CarTech
Inc., Denver.
Epe, D., Lagumbay, P., and Pasquil, Y. (2016),
Performance test of an SI engine. BSME, DMME,
USC-TC.
Heywood, J. (1988), Internal combustion engine
fundamentals. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Khemani, Haresh. (2008). A comparison of Spark
Ignition and Compression Ignition Engines.
Pulkrabek, W. (1982), Engineering fundamentals of the
internal combustion engine 2nd edition. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.
Salazar, F., (1998). Internal Combustion Engines.
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical
Engineering. University of Notre Dame.
Stone, R. (1985), Introduction to internal combustion
engines. Palgrave Macmillan, Oxford.

= fuel consumption;
m = base mass of fuel;
= time taken to consume the base
mass of fuel;
= torque;
= weight of load;
= length of lever arm
= engine brake power;
= value of pi;
= shaft speed;
= specific fuel consumption;
= break thermal efficiency;
= friction power;
= indicated power;
= engine brake power;