Horsepower VS. Torque

aurther unknown

Engines don’t make horsepower; they convert fuel into torque. Torque is the twisting force imparted to the crank flange and transmitted to the transmission and the rest of the drive train. To some degree torque is the grunt that gets things moving and horsepower is the force that keeps things moving. An engine is most efficient at its torque peak wherever that happens to occur. Below the torque peak engines generally have more than enough time to fill the cylinders while above the torque peak they don’t have enough time to completely fill the cylinders. This is generally beneficial in that it lets engines produce most of the desirable grunt work (torque) at lower engine speeds which means reduced wear and tear and better fuel economy. The ability to extend an engine’s speed range allows it to stretch that torque curve out farther provided the high speed efficiency is there to make horsepower.
Power is torque multiplied by engine speed to produce a measurement of the engine’s ability to do work over a given period of time. The story of its origin is well known, but worth repeating briefly. In the 17th century, steam engine inventor James Watt sought a way to equate the work his steam engine could perform to the number of horses required to perform the same task. Watt performed simple tests with a horse as it operated a gear driven mine pump by pulling a lever connected to the pump. He determined that the horse was capable of traveling 181 feet per minute with 180 pounds of pulling force. This multiplied to out to 32,580 pounds-feet per minute which Watt rounded off to 33,000 pounds-feet per minute. Divided by 60 seconds, this yields 550 pounds-feet per second which became the standard for one horsepower. Thus horsepower is a measure of force in pounds against a distance in feet for a time period of one minute.

By substituting an arbitrary lever length for the crankshaft stroke you can calculate the distance traveled about the crank axis in one minute times engine speed (rpm) and known torque to arrive at the formula for horsepower:

Horsepower = distance x rpm x torque
33,000

OR

Horsepower = rpm x torque
5252

 

Wow Wit you know to much man.

 

Looks to me like he spent to much time in the bathroom readin while he was at the cabin.

 

Wit I have only been on the forums for about a year but I think I have honestly seen you post more stuff than I ever could in my life. You must have fingers of steel programmed from hell (it took me 2 minutes to type this and my head hurts) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

click click done................I have alot of info stored like this......some I wrote and some I didnt

 

Oh I see, still more than I could imagine. Thanks for all the good info though.