Hi Inge,
Sure brings back old memories; some of the ships Diesels I worked on we stood 
on the pistons inside the cylinders. That was at MAN in Augsburg where the 
Diesel engine was invented.
I do not know where that webpage <<www.people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/>> 
comes from—who wrote this is certainly correct that the piston rods are there so 
the sideways forces are taken up by bearings and not he piston and the 
cylinder--much cheaper to replace bearings. But he is quite wrong that "Those sideways 
forces are what makes the cylinders in an auto engine get oval-shaped over 
time." The cylinders in automobile engines as well as compressors are actually 
machined oval--why, differential thermal expansion, the different mass 
distribution from the piston bolt bearings results in round pistons when they are hot 
giving the best seal with the circular cylinders.

Werner

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