Engines
General
Engine Tech 101: How Displacement Per Cylinder Affects Torque and Horsepower Paul N
V8 Engine Crankshafts and Firing Orders: Good Vibrations VinceC
Thinwall Iron Castings For Engines – Why Detroit Turned Away From Aluminum Aaron Severson
GM Engines
1949 Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 And The Ultra-High-Compression Economy Version That Never Made It Aaron Severson
The Legendary Buick Nailhead V8 And The Possible Source Of Its Unusual Valve Arrangement Paul N
1957 Chevrolet Fuel-Injected 283 V8: Ahead Of Its Time and the Competition Paul N
1957–1958 Oldsmobile J-2 Engine: Similar To Pontiac Tri-Power, It Was Developed First Aaron Severson
The “W” 348 Engine: First Of A Long Line Of Big-Block Chevy V8s Paul N
The Tortured Tale of the GMC Toro-Flow Diesel Engine: Truck-Stop Triumph or Deadly Sin? Robert Bray
The Quickest And Slowest Chevy Turbo-Thrift Sixes Paul N
The OHC V12 Engine That Cadillac Almost Built In The Sixties Paul N
The Stillborn Corvair Gen2 Modular Engine: From Two to Twelve Cylinders Paul N
The 20 mpg 400 Cubic Inch 1967 Olds Cutlass Turnpike Cruiser Paul N
The Birth of the GM/EMD two-stroke Diesel Engine Paul N
1975-1979 Cadillac Electronic Fuel Injection: GM’s (Gladly) Forgotten Fuelie: A GM Deadly Sin? VinceC
Oldsmobile Diesel V8 – GM’s Deadly Sin #34: Premature Injeculation Paul N
The Chevrolet 5.7L LT5 DOHC V8: A British Heart For An American Icon VinceC
1966 220 HP 283 Chevrolet V8 – A One Year Oddity That Proves The Power Of Dual Exhausts Paul N
Why Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, And Cadillac (Mostly) Had Their Own Engines Aaron Severson
1981 Cadillac V8-6-4: The Real Reason Cadillac Dropped Its “Modulated Displacement” Engine After Only A Year Aaron Severson
Ford Engines
The Small Ford Flathead V8 (V8-60) Part 1: The Pre-War Years Part2: The Post-War European Fords Part 3: The Simca Years Tatra87
Lincoln’s Two-Barrel Carb MEL 430 Engine: Taming The Thirsty Beast Paul N
The Ford FE Series V8 Engine Jason Shafer
The Ford 335 Series V8 Engines: It Could Have Been A Contender, Part 1 Part 2 VinceC
The Ford 3.0 Liter “Vulcan” V6 Edward Snitkoff
The Ford 4.6 Liter V8 Jason Shafer
Ford’s Famous 289 V-8: Four Production Changes That Could Ruin Your Day Aaron65
Chrysler Engines
Diesel Chrysler Slant-Sixes, In-House And Otherwise Daniel Stern
Other American Engines
1903 Premier: The First OHC Hemi Head Engine And The Search For the Hemi’s True Father Paul N
1959-1963 Checker Continental OHV 226 Six: The Only Extinct Post-War Engine? Paul N
The Curious F-Head Engine Paul N
Big Cummins Diesels Come To The Indianapolis 500 Paul N
The Studebaker V8 Engine: Punching Below Its Weight Paul N
The Atkinson (And Miller Cycle) Engines: Not Exactly What They Started Out To Be Paul N
The Little Engines That Could (series)
The Little Engines That Could, Part 1: 1941-42 Ford 30 HP Four Cylinder Truck Engine Jason Shafer
The Little Engines That Could, Part 2: How 170 Cu. In. Of Dodge Rammed A Challenge By VW Jason Shafer
The Little Engines That Could, Part 3: A Fuselage Dodge Rated For Thirty Degree Performance Jason Shafer
The Little Engines That Could, Part 4: Six Minus Two Equals Roughly Unpopular (Chevrolet) Jason Shafer
The Little Engines That Could, Part 5: Mercury Died By A Thousand Cuts; Here Are Six Of Them Jason Shafer
European/Asian Engines
Alfa Romeo Twin Cam Four: A Pioneer, And As Beautiful As The Cars It Powered Paul N
Audi’s EA827 Engine: The Inline Four That Could! MNC
Honda Civic: The CVCC In The Words Of Honda Engineers Rich Baron
Soichiro Honda Spanks GM CEO Daniel Stern
The Last Two New Air-Cooled Car Engines (Honda 1300/Citroen GS) Allan Lacki
Three Pot Stew: America’s Brief Fling With The Three-Cylinder Supermini Jeff Nelson
The World’s Largest IC Engine: A Walk Through The Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C Marine Engine Paul N
Transmissions
The World’s First Automatic Transmission – The 1904-1907 Sturtevant Automatic Automobile Aaron Severson
1929 Synchro-Mesh Transmission: How An Engineer From Oregon Took The Clash Out of Shifting Gears Aaron Severson
Planetary (Not Interstellar) Overdrive (1934-72) Paul N
Almost Automatic: SIA Drives A 1938 Buick With The Weird Semi-Automatic Ancestor of Hydra-Matic Aaron Severson
Lincoln’s Liquamatic Drive: Failure To Upshift JP Cavanaugh
Studebaker’s Automatic Drive: Advanced, Efficient, But Too Expensive In The End Paul N
Two-Speed Automatics vs. Three-Speed Manuals: When 2 = 3, More Or Less Paul N
Powerglide: A GM’s Greatest Hit Or Deadly Sin? Paul N
1953–1954 Plymouth Hy-Drive Transmission – What Plymouth Buyers Got Instead Of A Real Automatic Aaron Severson
From Powerglide To 4-Speed – The History Of Transmissions On Early Corvettes VinceC
Early Hydra-Matic Users: Many Non-GM Automakers Bought This Pioneering Automatic Transmission Aaron Severson
GM’s 8-Speed Hydra-Matic and 21-Speed Twin Hydra-Matic For Big Trucks: Complex Dead End Paul N
Inside Buick’s Turbine Drive (Twin Turbine) Automatic Transmission Aaron Severson
1959-63 Two-Speed Ford-O-Matic: Ford Builds A Powerglide Paul N
1961–1963 Buick Dual-Path Turbine Drive Transmission – Forward Thinking About Going Backwards Aaron Severson
More on the Buick Dual-Path Turbine Drive Transmission – Asking “Why” As Well As “How” Aaron Severson
The Mysterious Appearance Of Floor Shift For 1961-1964 Chrysler 3-Speed Manual Transmissions Paul N
1961 Mercedes-Benz K4A Automatic Transmission – “Mercedes Builds A Brain Box” Aaron Severson
1964 Cadillac Series 62 – Last Year Of A Very Unusual GM Hydra-Matic Transmission With TWO Fluid Couplings Aaron Severson
The Buick Super Turbine 300 Automatic Transmission — Not a Powerglide Aaron Severson
The Mysterious Disappearance Of The Chrysler Pushbutton Automatic: A Government Conspiracy? JP Cavanaugh
Factory Four Speed Transmission Behind A Slant Six? Yup, For A Couple Of Years, Anyway Paul N
Chevrolet’s Torque Drive: A Dumber Powerglide Paul N
Ford’s Torque-Drive Copy-Cat 1970 Maverick Semi-Automatic Transmission Paul N
The Toyota 5 Speed Transmission Takes Over the World Dave Skinner
Ford AOD: An In-Depth Look At Its Design & Function – Lugging Its Way to Higher Fuel Efficiency VinceC
Air Conditioning & Heating
Cold Comfort: History of Automotive Air Conditioning, Part 1 – Pre-World War II Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: History of Automotive Air Conditioning, Part 2 – The Aftermarket Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: History of Automotive Air Conditioning, Part 3 – Post-World War II Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: The History of Automatic Climate Control Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: The History of Dual-Zone Automatic Climate Control Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1953 Chrysler Airtemp Air Conditioning Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1955 Cadillac Series Sixty Fleetwood – The Cadillac Of Early Air Conditioning Systems Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: World’s Most Optioned 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1956 Lincoln Premiere Factory Air Conditioning Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1957 Mercury Turnpike Cruiser Factory Air Conditioning Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1958-60 Lincoln Continental – Craziest Factory Air Conditioning Ever? Tom Halter
Cold Comfort: 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Factory Air Conditioning Tom Halter
Corvair Cold Comfort – Heating Optional (1960-61): Your Choice Of Gasoline Or Engine Heat Paul N
Firestone Thermador Car Cooler (“Swamp Cooler”) Paul N
Other Technical Subjects
The Origins Of The Modern Car Paul N
The Origins Of The MacPherson Strut Suspension Aaron Severson
1949–1950 Crosley Hydradisc Brakes: The First Disc Brakes On An American Car Aaron Severson
Chrysler’s Unusual 1949–1955 Four-Wheel Disc Brakes: A Very Different Kind of Disc Aaron Severson
An X-Ray Look At GM’s X-Frame (1957-70) Paul N
How Aerodynamic Were Old Cars? Here’s Actual Wind Tunnel Data On Some 1960 Models. Aaron Severson
The Carter AFB Carburetor: A Closer Look Into A 64-Year Veteran Aaron65
Two Carter WCDs: Why Kids Are Exactly The Way They Used To Be Aaron65
1973-77 GM Colonnade Chassis Design: Corner Carving through the Brougham Era VinceC
Chrysler’s CAP, The First Effective Exhaust Emission Control (With ’63 Dodge and Dart Road Tests) Daniel Stern
The Dawn Of The Catalytic Converter: Who Put The Cat Out? Daniel Stern
Volvo Lambda Sond – How Volvo And Bosch Solved The Emissions Problem And Revolutionized Engine Technology Aaron Severson
Delco-GM/Bose Sound System: GM’s Greatest Hit Of The 1980s Eric703
Electronic Ignition: Losing The Points, Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 VinceC
Ford’s “Falcon Platform”: From Falcon To Versailles In 18 Different Variations Paul N
CC Tech: Ford Falcon, Comet, and Fairlane – How These Unit-Body Fords Were Alike (And Different) Aaron Severson
How the Mustang, Cougar, And Maverick Differed From The Original Ford Falcon Platform Aaron Severson
Hold My Drink! The Story Of When Cupholders Became Good Eric703
The Operation and Tuning of a Holley Carburetor: a Modern Twist on Old Tech VinceC
Mechanical Power Brake Servo: Invented In 1919, Rolls-Royce Was Still Using It In The Sixties Paul N
GM Autronic-Eye And Twilight Sentinel: “Truly A Gentleman Of The Night Highways, Dimming Always On Time” Aaron Severson
The Mystery Of GM’s Two Wiper Systems Paul N
An Incompleat History of the Rear Window Wiper Barry Koch
Why Gasoline Has Detergent Additives, And Why More Detergent ISN’T Necessarily Better Aaron Severson
The Peculiar Front Suspension Of The 1963–1977 Rover P6: “I Say, What If We Turned The Springs Sideways?” Aaron Severson
GM Air Cushion Restraint System: The Whole Story Of GM’s Very Rare 1974–1976 Dual Airbag Option Aaron Severson
How The Nimble 1975 Volkswagen Golf, Rabbit, And Scirocco Raised The Standards Of FWD Chassis Design Aaron Severson
Volkswagen Automatic Seatbelt System: VW First Offered These Door-Mounted Passive Restraints Back In 1975 Aaron Severson
Michelin’s TRX Tire: Reinventing The Radial Tire Didn’t Work Quite As Well As Inventing It Paul N
The Perimeter Frame: Body-And-Frame, Not Body-On-Frame Paul N
Ultrasonic Fuel Systems We Could’ve Had Daniel Stern
Why Fords Were The Worst Rusters In The Mid-Late ’60s and the ’70s Paul N
Electrocoating: How Ford Revolutionized Auto Painting, Why It Took Detroit 20 Years To Get Onboard, And Why It Didn’t Stop ’70s Rust Aaron Severson
