Im confused on Camshafts

[LynxMS]

On this picture i see 2 camshafts but the link below it doesnt show the same thing as the as the pic i posted. I have read howstuffworks.com and i look at it over and over again but i just dont get. Can some easily explain it to me? :help:

Thanks









http://www.howstuffworks.com/engine2.htm

[G-Forces]

Nope, that's ONE cam shaft and TWO cam lobes (in the red circle)! Maybe that's what's causing your confusion?

[LynxMS]

Thanks, now i understand that a inline has 1 camshaft and a v has 2 camshaft. And another thing when they say "A double overhead cam engine has two cams per head" Is it meaning that dohc has 2 camshaft on an inline instead of 1?

[Chris]

Cams:
OHV engine: 1 cam
Inline engine, SOHC: 1 cam
Inline engine, DOHC: 2 cams
V-engine, SOHC: 2 cams (one per head)
V-engine, DOHC: 4 cams (2 per head)
H or Flat engien, SOHC: 2 cams
H or Flat engine, DOHC: 4 cams
W engine, SOHC: 3 cams
W engine, DOHC: 6 cams

hope that helps!

[Moppie]

Sorry Chris but I need to make a few corections there

OHV -Over Head Valve, any engine with the Valves in the top of the head. Inlcudes the following:

Push rod - One cam, in the block working pushrods that reach up into the head.

SOHC - Single Over Head Cam. One cam in the top of the Head. If the engine has two cylinder heads it has two cams.

DOHC - Double Over Head Cam. Two cams in the top of the head, one works the inlet valves, the other works the exhasut valves. Agian if there are two heads there are two cams.

So a SOHC Inline engine only has one cam, A SOHC V6 actualy has 2 cams, while a DOHC Inline has two cams, and DOHC V6 has 4 cams.
Flat or H engines are the same as a V engine.

If its a W engine it depends how its been layed out. VolksWagon's new W engines all use either 1 or 2 comon heads, so they have either 2 or 4 cams.
However if it has 3 or more heads then there are the propriate number of cams.

Then are some really wild variations that you dont need to worry about, but in theory you can use a single cam for each clyinder, or even 2 cams for each clyinder etc..

[Chris]

Nowadays, people use OHV and pushrod interchangeably, though. And my was was putting it very simply, so it is easy to understand at a glance.

[Moppie]

You were mostly right, but there is often alot of cunfusion in the Auto motive world around differnt word useages.
I was talking to guys today while one of them striped down a frount sub frame of an old Triumph, between us we spanned 3 generations, and two Hemispheres.
All 3 of us could point to the same parts and use a differnt name to describe them, caused some deal of confusion as to what we each talking about.

The easyist way to avoid confusion is to avoid giving a vague deffinition of terms, for example OHV does not mean pushrod.

[Chris]

Very true. But that thingamabob that hits the whatchyamacallit and causes the whizzer-dinger to activate the humdinger and make the whole thing go good, thats a pretty good description, isn't it?

[enginerd]

My favorite is when you see a new car advertised with OHV. Kinda makes me wonder, when I last saw a flathead on a new car lot.

[TheMan5952]

yea, that's pretty funny. They stopped mass flat head production in the 50's.