How Does a Small Engine Work? Small engines are a type of combustion engine, which runs on an explosion between fuel and a spark. The explosion creates heat energy that the mechanical parts in the engine use to power the equipment. Power from 2-stroke and 4-stroke models is generated in much the same way.

The simplest two-stroke engine has only three moving parts:[ensp ]the piston, the connecting rod, and the crankshaft. Two-stroke engines don't use the same type of mechanical valves in the combustion chamber that a four-stroke engine does. Instead, the two-stroke engine has holes in the cylinder wall called ports.

The motionless Cylinders are in place to act as the meeting grounds as Piston movement draws in air into the Combustion Chamber, compresses that air as it is mixed with fuel, makes contact with the Spark Plug causing a small combustion, and finally pushes the force of that combustion out of the Cylinder in the form of ...