Once you understand the basics, the stop-motion video becomes pretty cool as you can try and label every part that's coming off
Those things sound amazing. And oh so dirty!
This was probably posted on HN at some point, but I haven't managed to find the video again.
Suck, squeeze, bang, blow
Four words, four cycles - covers the majority of engines out there (including jet engines). 2-cycle engines are slightly different, but not by much. Steam engine are fairly simple to understand. Sterling engines can be difficult for some to wrap their heads around. Then there are the really esoteric engines (and I am not talking about a Wankel, which is also a 4-cycle engine)...
IC engines are - at a very basic level - very simple in operation. Where the complexity comes in from the theory is doing that cycle efficiently and quickly; the more efficient the engine needs to be, or the faster it needs to turn, the more complex things get (much of the complexity there is in fuel/air ratio delivery, exhaust handling, and oil distribution to bearings and such).
If you really want to know how a 4-cycle engine works, look into going to a "local" (if you have one nearby) antique engines show, and look around for these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit-and-miss_engine
They can be made to run slow enough that you can see all of their operations fairly clearly, plus they aren't all that complex (you could probably build one from hardware parts and a bit of welding). They are, however, extremely inefficient (and very messy - they sling oil/grease everywhere).
Ultimately, though - engines are simple. If your car ain't going, it's because one of a basic set of elements isn't being done - fuel, air, or spark. Now - what is causing one or more of those to be missing, that's where the "fun" is in auto mechanics...
It has videos on pretty much every aspect of engines, organized in handy playlists.
This is the first time I've seen an engine physically taken apart so I can see roughly what goes where. I'm reminded of 'Danny The Champion of the World' who, at the age of seven, could take a small engine to pieces, and put it back together again. Pistons, crankshaft and all.
If you get the chance, go ahead and do it. There are many resources to guide you, unless it's a very rare engine. Even then, the principles are the same.
It's a lot of fun and fascinating to see how they work.
... but remember to get new gaskets. The older they are, the chances get higher that they'll break on dismantling and you don't want to rebuild the engine and have it go boom the first time you turn it on ;)
Agree. I was ready to upvote it [1] literally based on the title which I didn't do and don't ever do. Then I watched and was let down (contrast principle at work).
[1] And I wonder if that is why it's the top story on HN when I viewed.
What I saw instead was a subset of subprocesses in isolation from each other, presented in an admittedly artistic fashion. It's impressive, and maybe the purpose is more to whet one's appetite for more information rather than be informative in itself, but that's not really what I was expecting or hoping for.