Way back in the muscle car days, the easiest way to get more power out your engine was to put in a big, lumpy cam and some high-compression pistons. Without the bigger cams, higher compression pistons ...

High-output engines live in a world of brutal cylinder pressures, extreme temperatures and razor-thin safety margins, and the humble piston sits at the center of that storm. When power levels climb, ...

It goes up, compresses a violent explosion, and goes down. A piston's job is easy enough to understand, but if you examine what it's required to do, you may be amazed it works at all. Think about ...

Piston rings are the seals in your cylinders, giving you better compression and power, but what happens if they wear or break? And how can you spot the signs?