You might have heard about high compression ratios, but what exactly are they, and what kind of effect do they have on an engine's fuel efficiency?

We might be covering ground that's well trampled for many, but the static compression ratio of an engine is simple to understand: it's all the volume of a cylinder above the compression ring at Bottom ...

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 ...

You'd think that the pistons listed for a 10.5:1 compression ratio would actually give you 10.5:1. But it's usually not that simple. Perhaps that's why so many four-wheelers have a foggy or incomplete ...