But it also means that mixing the fuel and air can be tricky, which is why diesel engines have specially-shaped pistons. A ...

Some are promising, one is not. The Napier is a complicated extrapolation of a basic opposed-piston engine. Your average “engine” has cylinders and pistons lined up with a cylinder head on top ...

In the video after the break, [Brick Technology] uses LEGO to gain some practical insight into the world of piston engine design, from single-cylinder all the way up to radial twelve-cylinder engines.