Alot of people call an engine a motor because the either
1. They dont give a **** about the techincality,
or
2. They are to ignorant to the learn the difference and instead memorize alot of brand names of parts.......

 

Motor mounts???

 

It has come to the point where they can be used interchangeably, and it is even in the dictionary that way. I still maintain the old school train of thought that most of you have expressed, a motor will always be an electrically driver device, and anything that used combustion to make power is an engine. Then you get into steam and hydraulic power etc though.

 

The definition of a motor is to cause or produce motion. So in essence, an engine is a motor by definition.

 

i call it the thingy

 

Just with society and the ease of conversation, you can use both ways, but I usually say Engine because of the reasons mentioned previously.

 

It all comes from the mountains.

 

Well as many peeps have expressed so far, based on definition, a motor is technically an engine.. furthermore, i don't know anyone who would correct someone for either A. calling a motor an engine or B. calling an engine a motor...

has anyone really ever "debated" this? it is generally accepted that the words themselves can be used interchangeably.. let's use them in a sentence: I'm taking my car in tomorrow to get my engine/motor tuned - pick the one you like better

 

I'd just say "car" instead of engine/motor... or in that specific sentence, I would use "it" in reference to the engine

 

i say the thing that makes my car sound like this!
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=669v9zc

 

Missing?

 

I read a lot and I can remember things I read but not always where. I've seen it explained in Hot Rod Mag, and several engineering type books, papers, etc.

Engine: a component that has the means to produce it's own energy to do work, a gasoline engine, a wood burning steam engine, rocket engine, what ever. They just have to be supplied with a fuel to produce power.

Motor: a component that can do work but needs energy from an outside source to function. An electric motor will not produce work without electric current wired in from a source of generated electric power. A hydraulic motor can only do work if you supply pre-pressurized fluid to it etc. Without the power produced somewhere else they can't do any work. They don't consume a fuel but transfer one form of power into another .

No true motor can produce work without a separate power source but an engine can. It basically comes down to whether the fuel for a component is used in or at that component, or it is used at a separate location and then it's power transferred by appropritate means to the component doing the work.

This is what I understand it as, and it makes sence. You can't logically interchange them in any other instance than car engines that I know of as I pointed out earlier. And this is just because it's so commonly done that people understand you. You don't say "My headlamp door engine is burned up." You say "motor", because that's what it is. Same difference, an internal combustion engine isn't a motor. Dictionarys are a lot looser with definitions than The Dictionary was 20 years ago. If so many people weren't in the habit of identifying automobile engines incorrectly it wouldn't be in a dictionary as so. If you look up "Blow" in a dictionary from 1968 and one from 2008 the newer version will have a lot more definitions. Are the new definitions really what the word meant or just things we've started using the word to decribe. Yes and no. Now that you know the difference you can always start using the correct term. Now I have to go put some motor oil into my engine.

Vernon

 

its a MOE-DA...





























not really i would say its an engine

 

My car puts down 450rwhp...all engine...

 

Lack of LS1=?