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compression ratio......discuss please

4.3K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  SPIIRIT  
#1 ·
so last night we were in the garage, over a beer or two, discussing the relative merits of ford vs chevrolet, long rod / short rod and stroker motors when the following ensued.....if you increase the stroke of the motor, all other things being equal, does the compression ratio change ?
Theory a......increased stroke takes in more air, chamber & piston configuration remain the same, more air, higher compression
Theory b.......even though you increase the amount of air to be compressed, if the chamber & piston are identical, the ratio does not change

discuss...........................

BTW, there is beer wagered on this :D
 
#4 ·
i agree. if you leave all things equal, but make a stroke increase, you increase displacement. more displacement compressed into the same space as the previous lesser displacement (again, keeping piston dome volume, combustion chamber volume, and cylinder bore size the same, only changing the stroke) will result in increased compression. here's a simple way to look at it: let's say you have a cylinder with a 1" bore, and a 3" stroke. total cylinder length is 4". let's also say there is 1" above the piston at tdc. when the piston travels from bdc to tdc, it will compress the volume above it to 1/3rd of it's original volume. this would mean that the compression ratio would be 3:1. ( i think i got that example right. it's early in the morn for me, i can't think right...heheheh)
 
#6 ·
Um... if you increase the stroke a significant amount ( a stroker engine) and leave the rod and the piston the same. You will end up with a bent rod from the piston smashing into the chamber. Otherwise it will raise the compression ratio. that's why high compression on short stroke engines is harder to achieve than on long stroke engines.
 
#7 ·
ap72 said:
Um... if you increase the stroke a significant amount ( a stroker engine) and leave the rod and the piston the same. You will end up with a bent rod from the piston smashing into the chamber. Otherwise it will raise the compression ratio. that's why high compression on short stroke engines is harder to achieve than on long stroke engines.
Yes the piston pin height must be changed if you stroke or de-stroke an engine. :thumbup: The theoretical question posed was what is the effect on compression if you used pistons that were the same with of course the exception of necessary pin height changes to accommodate the change in stroke. :spank:

Thanks for pointing that fact out though for our less informed readers :confused:
 
#8 ·
Short answer: compression ratio doesn't change with the amount of air brought in. That is dynamic compression, or just cylinder pressure that is affected. Static compression ratio is the total volume of the cylinder at BDC divided by the total volume at TDC. So, increasing the stroke but keeping the same compressed volume will increase the compression ratio.

Long answer: If you have an engine cylinder which displaces 1000 cc (one liter) at BDC and 100 cc at TDC, you have a 10:1 compression ratio. If you increase that BDC volume to 1200 cc with stroke but keep the same compressed volume of 100 cc, you have increased its static compression ratio to 12:1 In order to retain the same compression ratio, you need to increase the combustion space at TDC by 20 cc in this example.

The amount of air that the engine actually ingests depends on RPM, cam event timing, intake design, throttle position, and dozens of other factors. Which means the actual pressure inside that cylinder varies widely based on those factors. Now we're talking about VE or volumetric efficiency, which is basically a percentage of mass. If an engine is operating at 100% efficiency, that means at BDC of the intake stroke, the mass of air inside the cylinder would weigh the same as the mass of an equal volume in ambient air. That is to say, the cylinder has completely filled based on surrounding conditions. When the intake valve closes, there is neither negative nor positive pressure in the cylinder. In truth, most street engines operate between 75-90% VE and naturally aspirated race engines usually operate at a peak VE of 80-100%. Forced induction engines actually operate sometimes well over 100% VE since they are receiving pressurized air. Its also important to point out that when I speak of those VE numbers, I'm speaking of their peaks at WOT. On a dyno at WOT, those peak VEs occur at an RPM where airflow is maximized by the wonderful selection of matching parts you've chosen for your application. This is why mismatching parts hurts engine performance so much. Using an intake that tunes peak VE for 3500 rpms, but a cam that tunes it for 2500 rpms means they will never work together to make power at the same time... but I digress.

So what I'm saying is basically, increasing the static compression ratio makes a general, across-the-board shift upward in peak cylinder pressures (all other things equal). In your example, the stroked engine would ingest more air and compress it into the same size combustion space. This is the exact premise behind why hotter cams require more static compression ratio; Hotter cams allow bleeding of cylinder pressure at lower RPMs. Increasing the static compression raises the actual cylinder pressures back up to recover that lost pressure. Without that cylinder pressure, large cams make wimpy torque down low in the RPMs.
 
#9 · (Edited)
curtis73 said:
Short answer:

So, increasing the stroke but keeping the same compressed volume will increase the compression ratio.

Long answer: If you have an engine cylinder which displaces 1000 cc (one liter) at BDC and 100 cc at TDC, you have a 10:1 compression ratio.

.

If I may intergect something, please. :welcome: Using this illustration given.

In the illustration given the displacement/ swept volume (bore x stroke) would be only 900 cc. Yes it would be 10/1. But the engine is only a 7.2 litre not an 8.0 litre.

There might be a mixing of terms here concerning "displacement".

A cylinder displacement of 1000 cc (swept volume) and a compressed "chamber" volume of 100 cc when the piston is at TDC = 1100 cc total....

when the piston gets to TDC, the total 1100 is compressed into 100. Therefore you have an 11/1 static compression.

This is a commonly made error. Hey, I have done it myself...... ping ping :thumbup:
 
#10 ·
The swept volume/displacement of a cylinder, which is calculated as (3.1417 / 4) x Bore x Bore x Stroke is not added to the volume at TDC. The swept volume is the displacement, period. That's what makes it a "ratio" equation. If that were true then displacement would grow as compression ratio dropped.

Curtis, your definition is correct.
 
#13 · (Edited)
What that says and you you are saying are not the same thing at all.

Think of it this way X. The swept volume is the displacement of the cylinder. That is a fixed value based on the bore diameter and the stroke. The volume, or space within the cylinder when the piston is at TDC is composed of the gasket thickness, piston cc valve reliefs or dish, combustion chamber size, valve selection and deck height clearance. That volume does nothing to contribute to displacement. All those variables comprise the 100cc's of area that were used in curtis's example, or as the article explains and defines as clearance volume. So......clearance volume has no affect on displacement whatsoever. Therefore if a cylinder displaces 45ci (based on bore and stroke and the clearance volume at TDC is 4.5CI the compression ratio is 10:1. Since clearance volumes are measured in CC's when blueprinting a motor we will typically convert all the units, including displacement to CC's.

Does that make sense?
 
#14 ·
Rick WI said:
Therefore if a cylinder displaces 45ci (based on bore and stroke and the clearance volume at TDC is 4.5CI the compression ratio is 10:1. Since clearance volumes are measured in CC's when blueprinting a motor we will typically convert all the units, including displacement to CC's.

The article says the same thing. I'm missing where your getting something else out of it.

Does that make sense?


Please click here for picture:
http://e30m3performance.com/myths/more_myths1/comp_ratio/comp_ratio.htm

Hot Rod paragraph 2 says: "If the volume of the cylinder with the piston at BDC is 10 times greater than the volume of the combustion area with the piston at TDC, then 10 units of volume get squeezed into 1 unit of space, and the compression ratio is 10.0:1"

Your illustration indicates that 45 (bore x stroke swept volume) + 4.5 (TDC volume) = 49.5
49.5 divided by 4.5 = 11/1


Thanks for your input,
x
 
#17 ·
Here's an interesting problem that I think was unknowingly proposed. Is the chamber accounted for in tthe total displacement? The problem is that it depends on the incoming charge. The better your incoming air flow the more it may factor into it- if you're force feeding an engine then it definitely would. The problem is that a piston can only pull into the cylinder the swept volume at cranking speeds, however as you get air forced in the entire cylinder nad the chamber are filled. You no longer need to rely on vacuum to pull in the air charge but are instead cramming it into the engine. Personally I stick with the old standard of determinding compression ratio (swept volume/combustion volume) however when you throw on a tunnel ram instead of a factory dual plane and port out the intake runners on the heads, expect to see higher cylinder pressures as the rpm's increase.

This also how you can get over 100% VE on a naturally aspirated engine.
 
#18 ·
Compression ratio = volume above piston at bottom dead center/ volume above piston at top dead center. So if the stroke grows, there is less volume above the piston at TDC, but more volume above the piston at BDC. Consequently your compression ration changes.
 
#19 ·
350c10 said:
Compression ratio = volume above piston at bottom dead center/ volume above piston at top dead center. So if the stroke grows, there is less volume above the piston at TDC, but more volume above the piston at BDC. Consequently your compression ration changes.
You have either confused what you have learned in the past or have not read and understood some of the excellent replies to the original question.

The link Xntrik provided in his post below explains this topic very well:
xntrik said:
Please click here for picture:
http://e30m3performance.com/myths/more_myths1/comp_ratio/comp_ratio.htm

Hot Rod paragraph 2 says: "If the volume of the cylinder with the piston at BDC is 10 times greater than the volume of the combustion area with the piston at TDC, then 10 units of volume get squeezed into 1 unit of space, and the compression ratio is 10.0:1"

Your illustration indicates that 45 (bore x stroke swept volume) + 4.5 (TDC volume) = 49.5
49.5 divided by 4.5 = 11/1


Thanks for your input,
x
 
#20 ·
Compression ratio is strictly a measurement of space,10 areas,compressed to 1 area is 10 to 1.
Doesnt matter how you feed it,if you force more air in , the compression will be greater but the compression ratio is still 10 to 1.
Strictly a measure of space.
 
#21 · (Edited)
mpression -vCos Stroke

So... increasing the swept volume while the combustion chamber remains the same will increase the copression???... Let's run for pinks!...LOL!

Ans.: Longer stroke = shorter rod (to retain "Compression Height". More power is basicly in torque gained from from more leverage (torque) at the crank

Tom