Inside the Engine: A Deep Dive into Cylinders and Valves

The engine is a complex machine, with many intricate parts working together to convert fuel into motion. One of the most fascinating aspects of an engine is the inner workings of its cylinders, where the magic happens. In this article, we'll take a closer look at what's happening inside one of these cylinders.

We're starting with cylinder number three from the 2008 Mercury Milan. The engine has only 20,000 miles on it and is used mostly for short trips. You might expect some carbon buildup to be present, but as we examine this cylinder, you can see that the piston looks really clean. There's a little pattern of fuel spray on the Piston where the injector hit, but overall, the area is clear. This gives us an idea of how well-maintained this engine has been.

Next, we're moving on to cylinder number one from the same Mercury Milan. As before, we expect to see some carbon buildup due to the low mileage and short trips. However, as we examine this Piston, it looks like there's very little dirt or grime present. The valve area is also spotless, with no signs of wear or tear. This suggests that this engine has been properly maintained and cared for over its relatively short lifespan.

The 1996 Corvette engine is our next subject for examination. With a whopping 990,000 miles on it, this engine has seen its fair share of use. We're starting with cylinder number two on the passenger side at the top. As we look inside, we can see the valves in their orange-ish color, and one exhaust valve is slightly open due to being at the top of the stroke. The Piston looks good overall, but there's a small amount of carbon buildup on its surface. This might not seem like a big deal, but it could potentially cause problems down the line if not addressed.

We're also taking a look at cylinder number four from the same Corvette engine. As we examine this Piston, we can see that it looks slightly melted or damaged in some way. There's also scuffing on the cylinder wall, which is not good news for an engine's longevity. However, despite these issues, the Piston still looks relatively clean compared to what we saw in cylinder number three.

Now, let's move on to cylinder number one from a lawn mower engine. As we examine this Piston, we can see that it looks really clean and well-maintained. The valve area is spotless, with no signs of wear or tear. This suggests that the owner of this lawn mower has been taking good care of their machine.

For our final example, let's take a look at an engine with a head gasket leak. As we examine cylinder number three from this engine, we can see that the Piston is actually melted or damaged in some way. There's also scuffing on the cylinder wall, which is not good news for an engine's longevity. The Piston and cylinder appear to be severely damaged.

Moving on to the inside of a Corvette engine, let's take a look at cylinder number two from this 1996 model. As we examine this Piston, we can see that it looks really clean overall. However, there is some carbon buildup present on its surface. The valve area is spotless, with no signs of wear or tear.

As we make our way around the cylinder wall, we can see a small amount of scuffing present. This might be due to wear and tear over time, but it's nothing too concerning. We're also taking a look at the Piston ring, which appears to be melted or damaged in some way. The Piston itself looks clean overall, despite this issue.

Next, we're going to check out cylinder number four from this Corvette engine. As we examine this Piston, we can see that it looks slightly melted or damaged in some way. There's also scuffing on the cylinder wall, which is not good news for an engine's longevity. However, despite these issues, the Piston still looks relatively clean compared to what we saw in cylinder number three.

As we move around the cylinder, we can see a head gasket leak present. This means that the engine has been experiencing overheating issues due to coolant leakage. The Piston appears to be severely damaged, and there's scuffing on the cylinder wall as well.

For our final example, let's take a look at the inside of an engine with 20,000 miles on it - a straight 4 used mostly for short trips. As we examine cylinder number one from this engine, we can see that the Piston looks really clean overall. The valve area is spotless, with no signs of wear or tear.

The final cylinder we're examining is number four from the same straight 4 engine. As we look inside, we can see that the Piston looks good overall, but there's a small amount of scuffing on the cylinder wall. This might be due to normal wear and tear over time, but it's nothing too concerning.

In conclusion, the inner workings of an engine are fascinating and complex. By examining different cylinders from various engines, we can gain insight into what's happening inside the machine. Whether it's carbon buildup, scuffing, or head gasket leaks, each cylinder presents its own unique challenges and opportunities for improvement.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys Chris fix here today I'm going to show you what the inside of an engine looks like when it has a head gasket leak I have my 2002 PT Cruiser the head gasket had a leak and then the engine overheated and the engine blew up so we're going to look inside each of these spark plug holes with a special bore scope camera where a normal camera can't fit and you'll really get an in-depth view of what a normal cylinder should look like and then what a cylinder with a head gasket leak looks like and also a cylinder that is melted so let's get to it this is a straight four engine you can see cylinder 1 2 3 and four we're going to go to cylinder 1 first so I'm going to switch over from this camera to my endoscope camera we'll go in through the spark plug hole you can see this cylinder is at the top of its stroke so we want to get a good glimpse of this I'm going to turn the engine now that the Piston's down we can take a look here and there's a good amount of carbon build up and some of that actually looks like it might be metal filings this engine did overheat as we take a look around there's carbon on the piston rings and the sidewalls are smooth I don't see any of the factory cross-hatching this doesn't really give you a good idea what a good running engine looks like so we'll take a look at my truck my truck will be a good example of what a normal cylinder looks like we're going to be going into the number one cylinder on the passenger side the spark plug on this is not up and down like in a straight four since this is a V6 the spark plug goes in at an angle so we're going to get a half cylinder wall half top of the Piston look you can see the cylinder wall has cross-hatching from the factory which is pretty awesome for a truck that has 120,000 Mi you can see that line at the top it's kind of a dark line that's the top of the stroke for this cylinder and just to give you an idea this cylinder is about halfway up at stroke that line all the way at the top there is where the head meets the block that's where you would have a head gasket leak if you had one but this engine's in tiptop shape and then you could see here the carbon deposits on the cylinder this is typical there's not an oil leak there's no head gasket leak this would not be considered a dirty engine it'd be considered a relatively clean engine so I just wanted to show you that so you have a comparison now we're back at the PT Cruiser and we're going to have to turn the engine to get the number two piston to go down so we'll turn the engine with the number two piston at the bottom of its stroke we'll go in right away you could see this cylinder is a lot cleaner compared to cylinder number one this is because there's a head gasket leak the leaking coolant into the cylinder steam cleans the engine makes it really clean as you could tell just for reference cuz it's easier to see now those two bottom grooves in the Piston are indents in the Piston surface for the valves so there's clearance for when the valves open up it won't hit the piston and that line right across the top that's just like a a hill or a mound in the Piston it's designed for a certain airflow in the cylinder and a certain compression ratio so I'm going to show you the Piston Ring which slides along the cylinder wall and we'll look for any damage the cylinder wall looks good and smooth but we don't see any cross-hatch markings from when they bore the engine out in the factory which indicates the engine is wearing it has 880,000 miles you saw my truck that had cross-hatching in the cylinder and I had 120,000 Mi but remember this engine did overheat so who knows what that did to the cylinder there's a mark right here looks like a bent or nicked piston ring the piston ring should be tied against the cylinder wall all the way around this little nickel affect your compression and something you don't want to see as we continue to go around the rest of the cylinder looks pretty typical nothing stands out here's the Tall part of the Piston that I was talking about kind of like a hill and we're coming back around to where we started now let's take a look at cylinder 3 cylinder 3 should be in the down position as well cuz cylinder 1 and four will be up when cylinder 2 and three will be down and vice versa here's cylinder 3 and right away you could see this looks different than the other cylinders on the right side you see this lighter color area this is because the Piston melted this piston should be interesting to look at let's start looking at the valve indents and then move our way over to that melted area right there you can see the piston ring is melted or it's come apart it's hard to tell on camera but something happened that isn't good and then right next to that spot you can see this piston is completely melted you can actually see more of the Piston Ring here because that piston is melted away you could also see besides the melting there are scuffs along the cylinder wall which is not good we'll just quickly make our way around this cylinder see if there's any other anomalies it all looks relatively normal especially for a melted piston and now we're back where we started and in this cylinder we saw there's a head gasket leak the Piston actually melted so I don't know if any of you have ever seen a melted piston before but that's really neat to see and there was definitely some scuffing on the cylinder walls so let's get out of cylinder number three and check out this last cylinder cylinder number four see what's going on in here because cylinders 2 and three are down we have cylinders 1 and four up so we're going to have to turn the engine with this piston at the bottom of it stroke we have a good glimpse of the cylinder and the cylinder walls and you can see this cylinder also had a head gasket leak there's some debris to the left might be metal shavings might be broken up carbon who knows we'll take a quick look at the cylinder wall here and you can see there's scuffing as we make our way around it looks pretty normal that's the rise in the Piston right here it looks like the piston and actually might have melted slightly it's not as bad as cylinder number three and uh that's really all that's going on in this cylinder and there you go now you got to see the inside of an engine that has a head gasket leak not something you get to see every day hopefully you learn something new and if you like the video remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing for this video there's not really a top tip I could give you so what we're going to do instead is I'm going to show you the inside of different engines first engine is going to be my Corvette engine here this is a 1996 Corvette it's a 350 cubic in 5.7 L engine the vet has about 990,000 Mi on it here's the first cylinder cylinder number two on the passenger side at the top we can see the valves of the orange-ish color the exhaust valve is slightly open on the left because we're at the top of the stroke and this is an exhaust stroke the valves look nice and clean if we look around you could see the cylinder looks pretty clean there is some carbon buildup on the outside of the Piston a little fuel cleaner will probably help that out but it's nothing bad the middle of the Piston seems pretty good you could see that orange on the Piston that's actually a reflection from the valves cuz it's pretty clean over there and that's the inside of a Corvette engine now we're going to take a look at a 2008 Mercury Milan let's quickly check out cylinder 1 this engine has 20,000 Mi it's a straight 4 used mostly for short trips so you would think carbon buildup might be a little bit higher and we look you could see the Piston actually looks really clean I don't see any carbon buildup that little pattern that you see there where it's shiny that's probably from the spray pattern of the fuel engine injector it's clean there because some of the fuel gets hit there and then it burns up constantly cleaning that area but again looks pretty good just to give you a quick idea of another engine so this will be an interesting one a little bit of contrast we got a lawn mower engine we'll go inside here and check it out so I'll just pull the pull string a little bit to move the piston back so you can see what this lawn mower piston looks like you can see at the bottom here where the two valve cutouts are nice and clean that's because it's a carburetor engine so the fuel clean that area and the top of the Piston is kind of dirty if you have any ideas of how else I could use my Bor scope just comment below something you might want to see maybe you want to see me do a fuel treatment and a before and after or maybe you want to see me do decarbonizing an engine with water and a before and after to see if this stuff actually works I'm sure you guys have plenty of cool ideas definitely comment below let me know and I'll uh I'll make some more videos using this camera it's pretty cool get to see things you don't normally seehey guys Chris fix here today I'm going to show you what the inside of an engine looks like when it has a head gasket leak I have my 2002 PT Cruiser the head gasket had a leak and then the engine overheated and the engine blew up so we're going to look inside each of these spark plug holes with a special bore scope camera where a normal camera can't fit and you'll really get an in-depth view of what a normal cylinder should look like and then what a cylinder with a head gasket leak looks like and also a cylinder that is melted so let's get to it this is a straight four engine you can see cylinder 1 2 3 and four we're going to go to cylinder 1 first so I'm going to switch over from this camera to my endoscope camera we'll go in through the spark plug hole you can see this cylinder is at the top of its stroke so we want to get a good glimpse of this I'm going to turn the engine now that the Piston's down we can take a look here and there's a good amount of carbon build up and some of that actually looks like it might be metal filings this engine did overheat as we take a look around there's carbon on the piston rings and the sidewalls are smooth I don't see any of the factory cross-hatching this doesn't really give you a good idea what a good running engine looks like so we'll take a look at my truck my truck will be a good example of what a normal cylinder looks like we're going to be going into the number one cylinder on the passenger side the spark plug on this is not up and down like in a straight four since this is a V6 the spark plug goes in at an angle so we're going to get a half cylinder wall half top of the Piston look you can see the cylinder wall has cross-hatching from the factory which is pretty awesome for a truck that has 120,000 Mi you can see that line at the top it's kind of a dark line that's the top of the stroke for this cylinder and just to give you an idea this cylinder is about halfway up at stroke that line all the way at the top there is where the head meets the block that's where you would have a head gasket leak if you had one but this engine's in tiptop shape and then you could see here the carbon deposits on the cylinder this is typical there's not an oil leak there's no head gasket leak this would not be considered a dirty engine it'd be considered a relatively clean engine so I just wanted to show you that so you have a comparison now we're back at the PT Cruiser and we're going to have to turn the engine to get the number two piston to go down so we'll turn the engine with the number two piston at the bottom of its stroke we'll go in right away you could see this cylinder is a lot cleaner compared to cylinder number one this is because there's a head gasket leak the leaking coolant into the cylinder steam cleans the engine makes it really clean as you could tell just for reference cuz it's easier to see now those two bottom grooves in the Piston are indents in the Piston surface for the valves so there's clearance for when the valves open up it won't hit the piston and that line right across the top that's just like a a hill or a mound in the Piston it's designed for a certain airflow in the cylinder and a certain compression ratio so I'm going to show you the Piston Ring which slides along the cylinder wall and we'll look for any damage the cylinder wall looks good and smooth but we don't see any cross-hatch markings from when they bore the engine out in the factory which indicates the engine is wearing it has 880,000 miles you saw my truck that had cross-hatching in the cylinder and I had 120,000 Mi but remember this engine did overheat so who knows what that did to the cylinder there's a mark right here looks like a bent or nicked piston ring the piston ring should be tied against the cylinder wall all the way around this little nickel affect your compression and something you don't want to see as we continue to go around the rest of the cylinder looks pretty typical nothing stands out here's the Tall part of the Piston that I was talking about kind of like a hill and we're coming back around to where we started now let's take a look at cylinder 3 cylinder 3 should be in the down position as well cuz cylinder 1 and four will be up when cylinder 2 and three will be down and vice versa here's cylinder 3 and right away you could see this looks different than the other cylinders on the right side you see this lighter color area this is because the Piston melted this piston should be interesting to look at let's start looking at the valve indents and then move our way over to that melted area right there you can see the piston ring is melted or it's come apart it's hard to tell on camera but something happened that isn't good and then right next to that spot you can see this piston is completely melted you can actually see more of the Piston Ring here because that piston is melted away you could also see besides the melting there are scuffs along the cylinder wall which is not good we'll just quickly make our way around this cylinder see if there's any other anomalies it all looks relatively normal especially for a melted piston and now we're back where we started and in this cylinder we saw there's a head gasket leak the Piston actually melted so I don't know if any of you have ever seen a melted piston before but that's really neat to see and there was definitely some scuffing on the cylinder walls so let's get out of cylinder number three and check out this last cylinder cylinder number four see what's going on in here because cylinders 2 and three are down we have cylinders 1 and four up so we're going to have to turn the engine with this piston at the bottom of it stroke we have a good glimpse of the cylinder and the cylinder walls and you can see this cylinder also had a head gasket leak there's some debris to the left might be metal shavings might be broken up carbon who knows we'll take a quick look at the cylinder wall here and you can see there's scuffing as we make our way around it looks pretty normal that's the rise in the Piston right here it looks like the piston and actually might have melted slightly it's not as bad as cylinder number three and uh that's really all that's going on in this cylinder and there you go now you got to see the inside of an engine that has a head gasket leak not something you get to see every day hopefully you learn something new and if you like the video remember to give it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing for this video there's not really a top tip I could give you so what we're going to do instead is I'm going to show you the inside of different engines first engine is going to be my Corvette engine here this is a 1996 Corvette it's a 350 cubic in 5.7 L engine the vet has about 990,000 Mi on it here's the first cylinder cylinder number two on the passenger side at the top we can see the valves of the orange-ish color the exhaust valve is slightly open on the left because we're at the top of the stroke and this is an exhaust stroke the valves look nice and clean if we look around you could see the cylinder looks pretty clean there is some carbon buildup on the outside of the Piston a little fuel cleaner will probably help that out but it's nothing bad the middle of the Piston seems pretty good you could see that orange on the Piston that's actually a reflection from the valves cuz it's pretty clean over there and that's the inside of a Corvette engine now we're going to take a look at a 2008 Mercury Milan let's quickly check out cylinder 1 this engine has 20,000 Mi it's a straight 4 used mostly for short trips so you would think carbon buildup might be a little bit higher and we look you could see the Piston actually looks really clean I don't see any carbon buildup that little pattern that you see there where it's shiny that's probably from the spray pattern of the fuel engine injector it's clean there because some of the fuel gets hit there and then it burns up constantly cleaning that area but again looks pretty good just to give you a quick idea of another engine so this will be an interesting one a little bit of contrast we got a lawn mower engine we'll go inside here and check it out so I'll just pull the pull string a little bit to move the piston back so you can see what this lawn mower piston looks like you can see at the bottom here where the two valve cutouts are nice and clean that's because it's a carburetor engine so the fuel clean that area and the top of the Piston is kind of dirty if you have any ideas of how else I could use my Bor scope just comment below something you might want to see maybe you want to see me do a fuel treatment and a before and after or maybe you want to see me do decarbonizing an engine with water and a before and after to see if this stuff actually works I'm sure you guys have plenty of cool ideas definitely comment below let me know and I'll uh I'll make some more videos using this camera it's pretty cool get to see things you don't normally see\n"