An overcooled engine is less efficient. During the power stroke, combustion heat pushes down the piston. If too much of this heat is lost to the cooling system, the fuel might not combust completely and contaminate the engine's lubricating oil diminishing its lubricating ability. Incomplete combustion of fuel also negatively affects the engine's fuel efficiency and power output.

The ignition coil is a high-voltage transformer made up of two coils of wire. The primary coil winding is the low-voltage winding and has relatively few turns of heavy wire. The secondary coil winding is the high-voltage winding that surrounds the primary and is made up of thousands of turns of fine wire. Current flows from the battery through the primary coil winding which creates a changing magnetic field inside the secondary coil. This induces a very high-voltage current in the secondary coil which it feeds to the distributor.

Suspension springs are made with wide gap coils of rigid steel cable and both hold the vehicle chassis up off the ground and absorb energy from wheel movement making for a smoother ride.

The catalytic converter converts pollutants in exhaust gas into less pollutant substances like carbon dioxide and water.

A radial arrangement places cylinders in a circle around the crankshaft and is used almost exclusively in aircraft engines.