[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

a tie rod, you know, it ties the piston to the crankshaft :^)

good catch - I meant the connecting rod bearings (this is why Im not a M.E.)

LOL, I was trying to figure that out for the longest time. I'm studying to become and ME and I'm like "there is no way 10 tons of force is exerted on the tie rods." For the connecting rods (and bearings) it makes perfect sense because the pistons have a respectable amount of mass to them and at the top and bottom of each stroke, it goes through an extremely massive acceleration because it is a very large change of velocity that happens in the blink of an eye and because F=ma the force will be very large.