It’s helpful to use the internet or a vehicle-specific guide to find it on your particular car. It plugs into the car’s main wiring harness and should be found somewhere in the upper part of the engine. Other examples include Honda’s “VTEC” and Peugeot, Citroen, and BMW’s “VTi.” What Is An Oil Control Valve/VVT Solenoid?Īn oil control valve, also known as an OCV or a VVT solenoid, is part of the variable valve timing system. General Motors, Chrysler, Volkswagen, Toyota, and Suzuki (including their off-shoot companies) are some of the most prominent players in using the specific term “VVT” in their models. There are many ways variable valve timing can be designed, constructed, and implemented. Valve duration – the time the valves stay openĮach of these can optimize an individual stroke, if necessary, for power, fuel economy, or environmental emissions, depending on the road situation.Valve timing – precisely when the valves open.Variable Valve Timing means the following can be adjusted: However, it’s always possible for the cam or valves to break or come loose with time. The tappets on the camshaft make this situation very unlikely. There wouldn’t be anything for the spark plug to ignite, and thus the cylinder would misfire. For example, if the exhaust valve were to open during the compression stroke, the unburned air/fuel mixture would just disappear straight down the exhaust. The valves must both open and close at the right time to correspond with the sequence. The camshaft rotates, and its lobes press against the valves, opening and closing them. These are connected by a timing belt or chain, which you may have come across before. The camshaft pulley is one of the most important things connected to the crankshaft. These convert the reciprocal energy into rotational force, which powers the wheels and drives pulleys for running the engine’s other processes. The pistons are attached to the crankshaft by conrods (short for “connecting rods”). The exhaust valve thus opens, expelling them as the piston rises back up. Now that the piston is back at BDC, the burnt gases must go somewhere. The spark plug then fires, combusting the combined air and fuel and forcefully driving the piston downwards. The valve then closes as the piston rises, compressing the mixture into a tiny space between the piston head and the cylinder top.

The piston is at or near the lowest point in its cycle, known as Bottom Dead Centre – BDC. How Do Internal Combustion Engine Strokes Work?ĭuring the intake stroke, a valve (again, using the simplest engine model available) opens to allow an air/fuel mixture into the cylinder. Colloquially, these are known as suck, squeeze, bang, and blow. The pistons go through four phases or strokes: intake, compression, power (or “combustion”), and exhaust. In an Inline-4 engine, the pistons travel up and down (“reciprocally”) within the cylinders in pairs, although each is doing something different. Specifically, this type is generally called an Inline-4 or I4. See the video above for a straightforward overview.Ī simple engine contains four cylinders and is known as an “inline” or “straight” model. Before exploring variable valve timing and how the oil control valve regulates it, it’s crucial to grasp how an engine works.

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