Explore how boxer engines really work, why they’re not just “flat” engines, and how Porsche and Subaru kept a 120-year-old design alive in some of today’s quickest cars.

High-output engines live in a world of brutal cylinder pressures, extreme temperatures and razor-thin safety margins, and the humble piston sits at the center of that storm. When power levels climb, ...

The combustion engine has been around since the 19th century, thought up by the brilliant minds of engineers like Nikolaus Otto and Rudolf Diesel. Over the years, advancements in automotive technology ...

In a conventional application, there are three rings per piston. The top ring is called the compression ring. Its purpose is to seal the combustion gas pressure, transfer heat from the piston to the ...

The story of how Honda developed an oval-piston race engine that ultimately failed but still made history along the way.

Science isn’t fun if we don’t try to break or bend its limits, but sometimes this rebellion doesn’t work. For instance, we don’t make triangular wheels, perforated windshields, or lead pistons for ...

Rotary engines (also known as Wankel engines and Wankel rotary engines) are quite different from piston or "reciprocating" engines. One of the distinguishing features is that they don't need valves to ...

No experienced engine builder would intentionally bolt a cylinder head to an engine block without installing a gasket between the block and cylinder head. The gasket seals the block-deck surface to ...