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 ...

The opposed-piston engine has been around for over 100 years and is more efficient in almost every way. The engine has no traditional valves, cams, or camshafts, and no head, so it’s simpler and ...

The 1960s are littered with a plethora of high-performance powerplants, often with overlapping names and terms. The 426 is a victim of such naming conventions, with two prominent engines boasting the ...

While there have been many unusual engine designs over the years, there haven't been many advancements involving the inner workings of the piston engine, except for higher-quality components, since ...

Achates Power of San Diego has developed a two-stroke truck diesel that has two crankshafts linked to two opposed pistons facing each other in a common cylinder. The biggest advantage of this design ...

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, ...

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 ...