NOTE: With this issue of HOT ROD, your Shop Series begins a slightly different and more comprehensive approach to the discussion of engine and vehicle basics. In the coming months, you'll find a frank ...

The MAP sensor is an important part of a car's operating system. But lots of things can make it go bad. Here's how you'll ...

The realm of pistons and internal combustion has been on an evolutionary arms race since the very first power stroke of the Big Bang that started the reciprocating piston revolution. Stronger, faster, ...

You may have heard your car has a four-stroke engine, but you're not sure what that means. Why are there four? And what is a stroke, anyway? A modern gas engine most commonly uses pistons and a ...

Mazda has never been afraid of some truly odd engine designs. It keeps trying to make the Wankel work. It has a gas engine with compression ignition. And the company has made 14:1 compression gas ...

"No replacement for displacement" was the motto that produced some large powerplants during the exciting muscle car era. Nevertheless, this motto was taken to another dimension in the case of these ...

Even before the 2026 calendar year has begun, the first controversy under F1's new ruleset has already surfaced. It concerns the engine regulations, and more specifically the compression ratio of the ...

The original concept of combustion engines as we understand them dates as far back as the late 1800s. And while they are more or less a solved science today, they definitely didn't start that way.

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 ...