Engineering Explained dissects Mazda’s revolutionary powerplant
Last week's big news in the auto industry came from Mazda. As some of you know by now, the Japanese carmaker intends to build a new engine that ditches spark plugs in favor of compression ignition.
HCCI stands for homogeneous charge compression ignition which sees the fuel-air mixture compressed to the point of self-ignition.
Basically, the new engine concept provides the best of both worlds when it comes to comparing diesel and gasoline mills, as Engineering Explained points out.
More precisely, this type of engine possesses a diesel's efficiency but retains the low emissions of a gasoline unit.
Of course, Mazda engineers face a couple of challenges. One of them is controlling cylinder internal temperature and timing. Lower temperatures will cause ignition problems while higher one can cause engine knock.
There's more than meets the eye when it comes to such an engine, but we won't spoil the fun of watching the explicit and straightforward video below.