Glossary

I8 – Inline 8 cylinder engine: An engine with 8 cylinders, arranged in a single row.  No automaker currently uses this design due to packaging issues.  To fit an I-8 under the hood, a car needs a simply massive hood, and the V8 is a much more compact, smarter choice.  I8’s haven’t been seen in [...]

I4 – Inline 4 cylinder engine: An engine with 4 cylinders, arranged in a single row.  The I4 is one of the most popular engine configurations today, with nearly every compact and midsize car offering one as standard fare.  It’s combination of small size, light weight, fuel economy and decent power make it a great [...]

OHV- Overhead Valve: The OHV engine is often called a pushrod. The name stems from the design, of course. An OHV engine has the camshaft located on the cylinder block itself, instead of on the cylinder head like a SOHC or DOHC design. The camshaft is attached to pushrods ( hence the [...]

SOHC – Single overhead Cam: One camshaft per bank of cylinders, located on the cylinder head. Example: A DOHC I4 would have 1 cams, while a DOHC V8 would have 2 cams. Many people forget that it’s one cam per bank of cylinders – that’s very important. The majority of SOHC engines [...]