At first glance, the concept of engine compression is simple enough:It's the ratio of the volume of the combustion chamber and bore when thepiston is at bottom dead center (BDC) versus when it is at ...

You might have heard about high compression ratios, but what exactly are they, and what kind of effect do they have on an engine's fuel efficiency?

As we begin the last article in this series on the basics of the internal combustion engine, let's stop to review what we've covered during the last five articles. We began last May by detailIing the ...

Engineers have a lot to think about when designing new engines, and one of the biggest considerations is the shape of the pistons in the cylinders.