Petrol engines
Petrol engines, next to diesel engines, are the most popular drives. What characterize them? And whether they are good idea at the time of rapid and continuous growth in oil prices?
Gasoline motors (or carburetors or spark-ignition) is a heat combustion engine with internal combustion and spark ignition. In the gasoline units combustion process is initiated by an electrical spark (between the electrodes of spark plug) causing the explosion of the mixture and start the engine. The engine ignition occurs in the two-stroke or four-stroke engine system.
Petrol engines are unfortunately less durable than diesels and have lower energy efficiency, so consume more fuel. Their pros are: easy starting of the drive unit regardless to the temperature outside the engine and fairly high power. Additionally those engines are high-speed so they response quickly to "speeding up".
Fuel burned in the spark ignition engine is characterized by intense evaporation in the engine power system or in the cylinder. Gasoline is the most common. It is obtained from the rectification of crude oil. In connection with the exaggerated prices of gasoline the cheaper E95 (95-octane) is the most popular. Although, it should be remembered that fuels with a higher octane number (e.g. E98) prevent violent detonation in highly strained combustion units. More expensive, high octane fuels do not increase the performance of vehicles (except for "Premium" fuel with a lot of cleaning additives, which can create more power). They can help to prolong engine life with less detonation combustion processes.
There is also a lead-free petrol, which is a kind of environment friendly fuel used in two-stroke and four-stroke engines. It is a substitute for previously used ethylene. It has no environment harmful tetraethyl lead. Tert-butyl ether is here an antiknock agent.
Should we select more expensive, but fuel frugal diesel or significantly cheaper petrol unit, which, however, consumes a large amount of expensive fuel?
If one has secondhand car it is safer for engine to use petrol. It is suitable for short distances around the town. Compared with diesel, it burns more fuel, although the cost of repairs and servicing are smaller than in the case of gasoline. Gasoline-fueled cars start up more easily in winter and the refrigeration liquid heats up quickly. Diesels are becoming more popular, mainly due to the fact that they underwent metamorphosis and now they do not smoke so much, are quieter, more flexible and economical. Petrol engines have little torque (low flexibility), low maintenance costs and are not noisy. Therefore it is important to make a reasonable decision what is best for our car. The more that next year excise duty on diesel oil is to be raised and the price will go up again.