The term Atkinson cycle goes around a lot when talking about automotive engines. What does it mean? When did cars start using these engines?

We love ourselves a good oddball engine, and tiny, scrappy Mazda certainly must be responsible for more such engine concept patents per market-capitalization dollar than any other. We just discovered ...

A fundamental difference between gasoline and diesel engines is that a gasoline engine uses spark ignition while a diesel engine uses compression ignition. Before we delve deeper, let's understand how ...

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 ...

BDC(Bottom Dead Center): The position of the piston at the very bottom of its travel down the cylinder. ABDC means "After Bottom Dead Center," and BBDC means "Before Bottom Dead Center." Companion ...

Increasing an engine’s compression ratio is a proven way of unlocking extra horsepower, but there’s a point of diminishing returns. The team at Garage 54, the Russian mechanics who built a V16 using ...

Apart from the very curious, not many people ask why diesel engines, compared to gasoline, run higher compression ratios. The argument is reasonably straightforward and starts with fuel ...