The internal combustion engine gets a bad rap these days. With
electric vehicle technology finally coming to market in
meaningful ways, oil prices spiking, global warming looming, and
“green” sentiments pervading American culture, motors driven by
exploding carbon chains have become something of a pariah. But
the truth is that we’re stuck with the internal combustion
engine, and the petroleum-derived fuels that power it, for the
next couple of decades, at least. But that doesn’t mean we can’t
still trim fuel consumption and reduce emissions across the
board. Designers large and small are building wholly new engines
and components that slash fuel requirements, waste less heat
energy, and squeeze the most out of every BTU, every engine
stroke, and every iota of chemical energy that physics will
allow. Indeed, the internal combustion engine is far from dead.
In automotive design shops and university labs across the world
the gasoline engine is experiencing something of a technological
renaissance. The green thin