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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

We all know how a conventional internal combustion engine works, with a piston and a crankshaft. But that’s by no means the only way to make an engine, and one of the slightly more unusual ...

Fleet managers should have a good understanding of engine brakes and how they are properly used. How often do you hear drivers complaining about weak engine brakes? Some drivers will say the engine ...

There have been many reliable diesel engines over the years. Some are easy to work on, while others are a bit more challenging. The Ford 6.4-liter Power Stroke falls into the latter category, while ...

Basic engine education is much like basic sex education: There are hundreds of well-written, informative books on the subject but only a handful of the interested people are willing to expend the time ...