Why are the pistons in an engine always circular, anyway?

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@Rosemary They're Not, Honda made some oval pistoned engines so they could fit three intake and three exhaust valves in there for motorcycle GP racing.

It, uh... Didn't work great. Mostly because it's kinda a toughie to get a boring bar to embiggen a hole that's any shape but Round.

@Motodrachen I was wondering if it was just manufacturing or if there was some performance reason for it, so I suppose that answered that!

Why did they want more than one valve?

re: CW for length, Mechanical stuff! 

@Motodrachen On the topic of circles in circles, you've reminded me that this website exists: packomania.com/

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