---
title: 'Engines 101: The Basics of How Engines Work | Toyota'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=gqK3dCpwzxE'
video_id: 'gqK3dCpwzxE'
date: 2026-06-30
duration_sec: 342
---

# Engines 101: The Basics of How Engines Work | Toyota

> Source: [Engines 101: The Basics of How Engines Work | Toyota](https://youtube.com/watch?v=gqK3dCpwzxE)

## Summary



## Transcript

just about everyone knows that a typical
automobile gets its power from an engine
under the hood
but how many people can say they
actually know how that engine works
while a modern internal combustion
engine is obviously an extremely complex
piece of machinery
the basic principle behind it is pretty
simple let's take a closer look
at a high level a gasoline engine can be
thought of somewhat like an air pump
except that the exhaust coming out is
more of a side effect
this pump's real purpose is to rotate an
internal shaft which in turn rotates the
vehicle's wheels
it does this by connecting that shaft
called a crankshaft
to pistons that move due to a mixture of
air and gasoline combusting inside their
cylinders
which creates a sort of chain reaction
that keeps the engine turning
before getting deeper into this process
let's first touch on the two main parts
of an engine
on the bottom a lower block is home to
the pistons
cylinders and crankshaft the latter of
which sends the engine's power out to
the transmission and wheels
and above the head contains the top of
the cylinders
and manages their airflow and combustion
through valve train fuel injection
and ignition systems so let's explain
that part a little more
you may have heard the term force drunk
to describe a vehicle engine
this refers to its four stages of
operation
first the piston moves down creating a
vacuum in the cylinder chamber that
pulls air in through precisely
controlled intake valves
next the valves close and the piston
raises back up
compressing all that air along with some
gasoline that was mixed in from the fuel
injection system
now the fun part the ignition system
creates a spark at the end of the spark
plug
creating a controlled explosion of
compressed air and fuel that sends the
piston back down
then finally the piston moves back up
pushing that spent air fuel mixture
through the exhaust valves and out to
the
you guessed it exhaust pipes
and since we're dealing with multiple
cylinders with pistons all working from
the same crankshaft
each one essentially creates the
four-stroke process for the next one
pretty ingenious right now
speaking of multiple cylinders let's
talk about the various
engine configurations four-cylinder
engines are probably the most common
design these days
but who doesn't love a v6 or even a v8
these terms simply refer to the number
of cylinders in the engine
and their layout nearly all
four-cylinder engines have their
cylinders arranged in a row
called inline or straight but it's also
pretty typical to see
engines group their cylinders into two
banks connected at an angle
a v doing it this way effectively cuts
the engine length in half
enabling it to fit more easily under the
hood so a v6
three cylinders on either side creating
a v-shape
and what if that v-shape was opened up
all the way
a 180 degree angle well then you'd have
what's called a boxer or flat
engine design all right so what about
those other numbers you always see
2.0 3.5 well that refers to the engine's
displacement
often simply thought of as its size
that number is literally the volume in
liters that the pistons displace with
every engine cycle so essentially if you
were to fill up the cylinders of a
2-liter engine with liquid
it would take well 2 liters and if it's
a 4-cylinder engine
each one displaces half a liter
so what's the end result of all this
power
the measurable output of an engine is
called its torque
basically the strength with which it
turns its crankshaft
torque is measured in pound-feet which
as the name implies
is the force created by one pound of
weight at a distance of one foot
imagine a one pound weight sitting at
the end of a one foot wrench
that nut is being turned with one pound
foot of torque
so now going back to the displacement
concept bigger cylinders pull in more
air and fuel typically resulting in more
muscle
they turn the crankshaft with more force
which is perfect for large vehicles
towing or even just spirited driving so
now you're probably thinking isn't that
horsepower
well yes and no in fact horsepower
doesn't technically exist okay
yes that requires a bit of explanation
horsepower is obviously a real thing but
it's actually a calculation
not a physical measurement like torque
is it's basically torque over time
so this means the faster that engine
turns its revolutions per minute or rpm
the more work it can do and the more
horsepower it has
put in extremely simplified terms torque
times rpm
equals horsepower but that doesn't mean
making big horsepower is as simple as
spinning the engine faster
since that takes more and more energy as
the engine speed increases
and as that torque decreases the
horsepower calculation eventually can't
keep up either
this is also why transmissions are so
critical in keeping everything in the
appropriate
sweet spot but that's a topic for
another video
so that's the general idea behind
internal combustion engines
but this was just a high level look at
the basics engines 101 if you will
there's obviously a whole lot more to
say about engine tech
so be sure to check out the other videos
in this series to learn more