Everyone's lovable car lunatics at the Garage 54 YouTube channel are back, but instead of making oval wheels for a car or finding what happens when you shift into reverse while traveling forward, they've invented a new spin on an old party game. Everyone knows about Jenga, right? It's the game where wooden blocks are stacked and everyone takes turns pulling a block out until the stack falls. Whoever makes it fall is crowned the loser, and thus stuck buying pizza for everyone else.YouTube/Garage 54 This, however, is engine Jenga. The concept is the same, but you know, with a car engine. Admittedly, it sounds a bit goofy. However, once you start watching the Garage 54 crew in action, you don't even have to know about engines to get hooked on the game. It's so good, we're now thinking about nabbing a ratty old Ford V8 from the junkyard and giving it a go ourselves. The Art Of Engine Dismantling YouTube/Garage 54 For the game, our favorite Russians use a simple, old Lada engine that can run on an engine stand. Yes, it needs to run – whereas the premise of Jenga is to make the wooden stack fall, the premise in engine Jenga is to make it not run. The engine is stopped, a single piece is removed, then it has to start up again for five seconds to continue the game.Crucially, it's an engine that doesn't use an ECU and all the extra sensors found on modern cars. Most sensors on an engine are there to protect it from damage, whether in the short or long term, but an internal-combustion engine doesn't need a lot of its components to run. At least, in the short term, anyway. For example, an engine will run fine without an air filter and housing, but that's also a great way to shorten the engine's life should something get sucked into the cylinders. But we digress.There are plenty of nuts and bolts on an engine that also won't make a difference in the short term, which is where the three competitors start. Then, someone has the bright idea of removing the radiator drain plug, allowing the coolant to drain out. That's a quick way to kill an engine under load, but it doesn't kill an engine on a stand running for just a few seconds. That move leads to more strategic thinking. Since this engine doesn't need to run but a few seconds at a time, what else could be deemed non-essential?YouTube/Garage 54There oil is drained, and then off comes the filter and the pan, all one bolt at a time. It all takes quite a while, and even a spark plug comes off, but the engine keeps starting – albeit not smoothly. It's truly shocking to see the engine still running with so many components removed. But what's so surprising is how tense it all gets, particularly once the spring in the timing chain tensioner is removed and there's only one bolt left holding the camshaft in place. Everything An Engine Needs To Run YouTube/Garage 54 While car engines have become incredibly sophisticated, most of the advances are in efficiency and durability. Even an engine making big power relies on efficiency, as wasting energy means not using energy effectively. Now, we have computer modules using sensors to control the engine, fuel injection, direct injection, turbos, superchargers, and so on. But, at its core, the modern internal combustion engine is still based around pistons being moved by measured amounts of fuel and air being combusted.And that fundamental function is... not new. The concept of the four-stroke engine, (intake, compression, combustion, and exhaust of an air-fuel mixture) goes back to 1860.The Lada engine used in the video is likely from the 1970s or 1980s, and as simple as it gets, built cheaply in Russia at the time, and with generous tolerances. It would be interesting to see the same game played with a more modern and upmarket engine.Heck, it would be interesting to play the game ourselves. Anyone got a janky four-cylinder that still runs?Source: Garage 54 / YouTube