From the perspective of the combustion chamber... awesome:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2007/10/micro_camera_shows_the_working.html

ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS WOW !!!! but look how the ignition is still going and then the exhaust valve opens up ... thats just like wasteing power i would think??

Not really, cuz by the time the exaughst valve opens that piston is almost at BDC

thats wild stuff!...amazing how it burns almost clear...I expected it to be much more firey.

do you guys notice that little meter running off to the left? is that telling temperature or what? it says a number then degrees

are the two cylinders on the right the intake and the one on the left the exhaust? can some one explain what is going on...

The valve on the right is intake valve (where gas/air comes in) the next stroke is your compression stroke, and then the spark plug ignites it, then the exaughst stroke on the left valve where it goes out your tailpipe.

the valve on the right is the intake, and the one on the left is the exhaust. The thing going up and down is the piston, with the spark plug at TDC. The other shapes you see are the quench areas of the combustion chamber. The video starts with intake opening and injecting the air/fuel mixture into the cylinder, the piston moving up to full compression, then the plug igniting the mixture, thus forcing the piston down. As the piston moves back to TDC, you see the exhaust valve opening to allow the spent vapors to escape. Once the cylinder achieves TDC again, the intake opens again to suck in more air and fuel.

ok i finally c it and it seems to make sense but how is commpression messaured

what is bdc and tdc??

TDC Top Dead Center, the absolute highest point the piston can be at before starting to go downward.

BDC Bottom Dead Center, the opposite of TDC

compression is measured by how much is squeezed into what. Like MOST GM V8s have a 8.5:1 compression ratio. They take 8.5 (cant remember the units) of air and squeeze it into the size of 1 unit of air. I think our compression ratio is, what?, 12.5:1? something like that.

HOW do they measure it? Well, they stick a vacuum or compression checker into the spark plug port and rotate the engine. If you dont get the right value, you either have insufficient pressure to hold a good explosion or too much compression and are about to throw your heads out the hood.

Richard... PLEASE tell me you were joking...

OUR cars run either an 8.5:1 (GTP) or 9.5:1 (GT) compression ratio. MOST GM V8s run around a 12.6:1 or at least the LS7 does.

and by milling it you lower the height of the head or make the combustion chamber larger?

ya i was thinking it would be better to have a higher compression ratio, i think he just flipped them

oops, I dun made a mistake. Thanks for the catch.