Car Engine Image Gallery


Corvette ZR1 car engine
Photo courtesy General Motors
The Corvette ZR1's supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine produces 620 horsepower standard. See more pictures of car engines. See more pictures of car engines.

­Have you ever opened the hood of your car and wondered what was going on in there? A car engine can look like a big confusing jumble of metal, tubes and wires to the uninitiated.

You might want to know what's going on simply out of curiosity. Or perhaps you are buying a new car, and you hear things like "3.0 liter V-6" and "dual overhead cams" and "tuned port fuel injection." What does all ­of that mean?

­­In this article, we'll discuss the basic idea behind an engine a­nd then go into detail about how all the pieces fit together, what can go wrong and how to increase performance.