Does anyone here build engines?
 

Just seems like a cool field. Something that I've always been interested in but never could find anyone that was actually serious about it... I looked into the engineering program here at the university but they don't even build anything these days -- it's all book work... They have the students working on top-secret military weapons, and they have a race car program, but they get the engines ready-made from Honda... I've also looked into learning to do milling/CNC stuff it seems like a very obscure thing to do now... I'd just be curious to know what the latest advancements are now with engine designs...

I was watching 60-minutes I think and they had some talk about a heat-transfer engine that would also purify water -- that was pretty cool but didn't impress me very much... I heard that there wasn't much money spend on new engine types because to automotive industry has too much money already invested into the upkeep of these existing engines... re-training all the mechanics, etc... it's almost as if we are stuck in the past because people are happy to keep spending money maintaining old, shitty designs...

They can design engines that never break down and hardly use any gasoline. But look at all the jobs and money that would be lost.