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.

In the first two installments of this series on engine fundamentals, we've covered the subject from its absolute beginning. An internal combustion engine is a machine that converts the energy of a ...

The jargon goes well beyond just names. Car specs are full of abbreviations that may or may not have any meaning at first glance. And sometimes we get so used to seeing those abbreviations that we may ...