Ask The Experts: How Does a Cylinder Head Work On A Diesel Engine?

Today we're going to go over a little bit about cylinder heads. Before diving head first into the cylinder head market, its important to have an understanding of what you're working with.

Here's what we think you should know!

So, what goes into one of HHP's cylinder heads? In this article, we're taking you through what makes our cylinder heads so great!

What are the Different Components of a Cylinder Head?

First, before we talk about how each part of the cylinder heads works, we should mention what they all are. The cylinder head is going to have your intake valves, your exhaust valves, and it's also going to house your fuel injector down through the center. The head sits on top of your engine and is essentially the control center for your combustion chamber.

We’ve highlighted the parts on our cut-away engine so you can have a look at the different components inside.

Intake Valves:

The highlighted valves in the image below are your intake valves:

Exhaust Valves:

Below are your exhaust valves:

Fuel Injector Bores:

You can see the highlighted yellow bores are going to be your fuel injector bores:

The Cylinder Head Combustion Chamber

The head is essential for controlling the functions of the combustion chamber, with the components working together to allow for combustion. Let's take a look at the individual components a little more closely:

Here’s a look at the intake port of the head. Essentially when your engine is running, it's going to be taking clean fresh air through the intake port and into the combustion chamber. At that point, your combustion process is about ready to happen.

If you suspect issues with your valves, check out our article on valve failure analysis!

The highlighted portion of the screenshot above is the fuel injector. Your injector is going to inject fuel into the cylinder, meanwhile the piston is traveling upward creating pressure. When that explosion happens it's going to create your exhaust.

You can see the highlighted yellow bore is going to be your fuel injector bore. If you’re interested in the function of fuel injectors, we’ve also written a blog post explaining that!

The next step of combustion is getting rid of exhaust. The rocker lever is going to bend open the exhaust valves and that spent air fuel mixture is going to be let out of the exhaust port. This happens at the backside of the head.

If you’re considering purchasing a cylinder head, check out our previous buying guide article!

The Basics of Different Cylinder Heads

We’ve covered some of the functions, now let’s take a look at the basics of how cylinder heads can be different.

The particular cylinder head we looked at today is off of a Cummins N14. The N14 uses 3 cylinder heads on that engine. Some of your engines like the Detroit Series 60 or Caterpillar 3406E/C15 are going to have 1 single long cylinder head.

When working with the N14, one guy should be able to handle it. The Caterpillar or Detroit are a lot to handle, so you'll probably want to use a hoist on those. If you’re curious on whether or not you should replace your head, here’s some useful information detailing the signs it’s time for replacement.

CYLINDER HEAD & COMPONENTS RESOURCES

CYLINDER HEAD FAILURE ANALYSIS: WHY IS MY HEAD CRACKED?

HOW TO INSTALL A DIESEL ENGINE CYLINDER HEAD

WHAT GOES INTO A REMANUFACTURED CYLINDER HEAD FROM HHP?

SIGNS YOU NEED TO REPLACE YOUR CYLINDER HEAD