Do-It-Yourself High Performance Car Mods

CHAPTER 5Engine—Internal Work

Getting Inside the Motor for Bigger Power Gains

In the previous chapter, we looked at how to get fuel and air into and out of the engine. Now, we’ll look at how the engine uses these ingredients to make power. Nearly all gasoline-burning cars today are powered by four-stroke piston engines. “Four stroke” means that the engine makes power by carrying out four different processes, known as strokes. Piston engines use pistons that move up and down in cylinders to carry them out, similar to the mechanism inside an old-fashioned bicycle pump. The pistons are attached by a set of connecting rods to a crankshaft at the bottom of the cylinder that controls their motion and transmits power from the pistons to where it can ...