How do cars run?

Answer 1

Most vehicles use an internal combustion engine powered by gasoline, ethanol, diesel, or propane. Some vehicles are electric driven by an electric motor powered by batteries. And there are hybrids that rely on both internal combustion and electricity. In the early days of automobiles there were vehicles powered by steam which burned wood or coal.
Internal Combustion Engine.
a car needs 3 main things to run (petrol engine only); compression, fuel and air. with out these the car will not run properly. depending on the car engines size will determine how many pistons you have. if your car is 4 cyl then you will have 4 pistons. The piston will start up in position when the key is turned over the piston is pushed down opening the air inlet valve bringing in air from outside, when the piston goes down it will fill with air. then the piston will come back up, (building compression) when the piston gets to a certain point the compression will push the piston back down when it hits the bottom it will ignite the spark plug. with the force behind that the exhaust valve will open and push the air and fuels out the exhaust pipe. if you have any more enquiries email- rhys_purkis@hotmail.com for more information.
The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an engine. Therefore, a car engine is an internal combustion engine -- combustion takes place internally.

Two things to note:

• There are different kinds of internal combustion engines. Diesel engines are one form and gas turbine engines are another. See also the articles on HEMI engines, rotary engines and two-stroke engines. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
• There is such a thing as an external combustion engine. A steam engine in old-fashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine. The fuel (coal, wood, oil, whatever) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine. Internal combustion is a lot more efficient (takes less fuel per mile) than external combustion, plus an internal combustion engine is a lot smaller than an equivalent external combustion engine. This explains why we don't see any cars from Ford and GM using steam engines.

A car runs by gas powering a motor. There are also cars that run from electricity and even vegetable oil.