Hot rod builds a mouse trap and tries to catch a rat. Originally published in the August 1998 issue of Hot Rod magazine. To celebrate HOT ROD's 75th anniversary, we teamed up with CASTROL GTX to bring ...

Big-block engines are awesome because they make it easy to put together some crazy big-inch builds. If you are in the "no replacement for displacement" camp—never a bad idea—a big-block is your golden ...

You want your engine to shine when you pop the hood, don't you? For most hot-rodders, the engine is the whole point of building, driving, racing, or otherwise owning a kick-ass machine. But it's not ...

Hot rodders played with blocks as kids, and still play with them as adults. This vast level of experience notwithstanding, enthusiasts often insist on monkeying around with production blocks. They ...

Chevrolet's Vortec series of engines is hugely popular. Designed with trucks in mind, Vortec engines prioritize low-end torque and durability over high compression ratios and high horsepower, unlike ...

The Pontiac division was established by General Motors in 1926 and thrived during the muscle car era, producing memorable models like the era-defining 1964 GTO. Pontiac's market share steadily ...

In automotive nomenclature, small-block V8 engines are typically physically smaller than their big-block counterparts, hence the nickname. With some exceptions, the piston bores, stroke, cylinder head ...

All vehicles become less efficient in cold weather. In a recent study, researchers in freezing Finland focused on whether engine block heaters could help increase efficiency in internal-combustion ...