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 ...

Last month's "How It Works" story gave you the basics of the four-stroke cycle, describing the motion of the intake and exhaust valves in relation to the piston moving up and down in the cylinder.

The introduction of several advanced, efficient, and more robust power options over the years has largely overshadowed steam engine technology. However, it was a revolutionary technology that, upon ...

How A Turbocharged Engine Works: A turbocharged engine is designed to generate more power from a smaller engine. It does this ...

Modern internal combustion engines — including those that run on diesel fuel — require a lot of special parts and systems to prevent dumping excess emissions into the atmosphere. Not only are those ...

The original concept of combustion engines as we understand them dates as far back as the late 1800s. And while they are more or less a solved science today, they definitely didn't start that way.

Internal combustion might as well be wizardry to me. I have a basic idea of how engines work and I’ve been wrenching on them since I was a teenager, so I get the gist of it, but my feeble brain still ...

How Does an Engine Work? Before digging into this significant expense, it’s important to outline how an engine works. The engine is the heart of the car, truck, or SUV. The vehicle’s full function is ...

Any certified gearhead knows that diesel engines do not use spark plugs. But why not? If power in an engine is created by combustion or explosion of flammable liquids, won't a spark plug in a diesel ...