All horizontally opposed engines (boxer engines)

All boxer engines, regardless of no. of cylinders, provide perfect balance because the movement of a piston is
exactly counter by the corresponding piston in another bank.
However, they are too wide for good packaging, and is more expensive due to more parts used, thus the usage is
limited to Porsche and Subaru today.
Volkswagen VR6, W12 and W16 engines
For conventional V6, a narrow 15Vee angle would have required extraordinarily large spray angle between split
crank pins, hence special strengthening. However, in contrast to many believes, VR6s crankshaft is more like an
inline-6. It has 7 main bearings and independent crank throws for each cylinder, (this is possible because VR6 is
longer than a conventional V6), thus avoid the crank pin problem.
Dont think a 15V6 must generate a lot of vibration ! on the contrary, the VR6 is inherently a well-balanced
configuration because it is nearly identical to an inline-6, just differs from the latter by a very narrow angle
separating each pair of 3 cylinders. As a result, it generates no end-to-end vibration like conventional V6s and is
actually nearly as smooth as an inline-6.

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Cut-away VR6. Note the 7-main bearing crankshaft
W12's cylinder block

W12's crankshaft. Note the
slightly split crank pins

If VR6 is a version of inline-6, then W12 must be a version of V12. It is made by mating two VR6 at 72. The
corresponding cylinders in different banks share the same split crank pins. Thanks to the 72V-angle, the splay
angle between split crank pins can be so small that no additional strengthening is required. (see photo) You know,
the short engine with 7 main bearings can hardly find space to add strengthened flying webs between the split
crank pins.
W16 is identical to W12 except that each bank consists of 4 cylinders instead of 3. In other words, it is made
from 2 VR8 engines.
The only mistery left to me is the V5 (formerly called VR5). It's also 15, but how can it manage to balance
between the banks ? one bank has 2 cylinders and another has 3 cylinders. Unfortunately after a lot of time
spending, I still fail to find sufficient information about its detailed configuration. If you have its detailed technical
specifications or even service manual, please kindly inform me :)
Volkswagen W8 engine
For installing to smaller and lower price cars, W8 is a logical development
from the W12. However, W8 does not balance inherently, unlike W12. Like
all W engines, the W8 has 5 main bearings and 4 crank throws like a
conventional V8. It should have balanced as well as any conventional V8s,
but space reason doesnt allow. If you remember, conventional V8s can
have 2 configurations:
1) flat-plane V8: some high performance V8s use this configuration. It works
like a combination of 2 inline-4 engines so that there is quite a lot of second
order vibration generated. However, these engines usually employ short
stroke and lightweight pistons / con-rods to enhance power, thus vibration is
also largely reduced.
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2) Cross-plane V8: most V8s - including all sedans V8s - employ this configuration. It uses large counter balances
incorporated in the crank throws to cancel the force generated by pistons and con-rods, thus all vibration is
eliminated.
Because W8 is far shorter than conventional V8s, its crank throws are machined extremely thin and have no
space for adding large counter balances. As a result, it employs the flat-plane configuration. Therefore W8 does
not generate the "rumble bumble" noise like conventional V8s.
On the other hand, being a mass production sedan engine, W8 would have actually generated more vibration than
the high performance V8s from Ferrari, Lotus and TVR, because:
1) Long stroke: the narrow-angle configuration does not allow bores too large, otherwise combustion chambers in
adjacent banks would have been overlapped. Moreover, a sedan engine requires to generate a health amount of
torque. No wonder Passats 4.0 W8 has a stroke measuring 90.2mm, longer than the bore of 84mm.
2) Heavier pistons: while Ferrari uses lightweight forged pistons and titanium connecting rods, the W8 can only
seek more cost-effective method to cut weight from pistons.
To sports car V8s, a bit vibration means nothing. To the sedan-use W8, the only choice is to add twin-balancer
shaft like many inline-4 engines.
Copyright 1998-2001 by Mark Wan
AutoZine Technical School
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