The ignition coil is a high-voltage transformer made up of two coils of wire. The primary coil winding is the low-voltage winding and has relatively few turns of heavy wire. The secondary coil winding is the high-voltage winding that surrounds the primary and is made up of thousands of turns of fine wire. Current flows from the battery through the primary coil winding which creates a changing magnetic field inside the secondary coil. This induces a very high-voltage current in the secondary coil which it feeds to the distributor.

An automobile's electrical system runs on DC power and the bulk of that power is supplied by the battery. The alternator converts the motion of the rotor into AC power which is then fed through the rectifier to convert it to DC power that both the car and the battery can use.

Spark plugs receive current from the distributor and use it to spark combustion in the combustion chamber of a cylinder.

The combustion chamber is located in the cylinder head and contains the combustion of the air-fuel mixture. This mixture is delivered by an intake valve and the waste gases from combustion are removed from the combustion chamber by the exhaust valve.

The catalytic converter converts pollutants in exhaust gas into less pollutant substances like carbon dioxide and water.