Flat Plane vs Normal V engine vs Inline vs rotary

I was wondering what kind of engine you all prefer over ther others.

Flat Plane-As in Flat plane crank Ferrari,Lambo a crank that changes the typical firing order giving it that exotic sound.

Normale V engine- Your typical V6,V8,V10,V12,SOHC,DOHC

Inline-Your normal Inline 4,6, and a few 8. Once agian SOCH,DOCH,normal cam

Rotary-Your RX7/RX8 eninge i'm including bothe the wankel and renasis version in here.

Personally i can't pick one over the others all have somthing to offer.

Inline 6 from the Supra is a pretty capable engine.

inline 6's are smooth on every application. A few that come to mind: bmw I-6, R32-R34 skyline I-6, Supra I-6. I forget where i heard this, but some source said that the inline 6 is the most balanced engine configuration out there. I may be wrong, but just my :2cents:

the 'better' engine depends on the car, where the engine is, what costs are involved, what are the weight issues etc etc etc.....

of course, taking the engine as a stand alone object, i have a thing for boxer engines, especially the ferrari flat 12s.
it can offer more, in terms of it's space-architecture, to the car designers.

for the same reasons, a true w12 engine (if you can get the intakes/exhausts geometry nice and tidy can give you a very short (if quite tall) engine which would help in keeping the masses within the wheelbase.
as it stands the current vw w12 engine does pretty much the same thing but isn't strictly a real w12 engine......
dissecting that engine a bit, i'm quite fond of the vw vr6 engine because of it's slim profile, again because it is a very simple solution to a design problem.

I am also VERY fond of the VR6...this is the reason why i drive a VR6 GTI. Good point, didn't even consider it, and i own one!

car+engine:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/gti_1689/States2005061.jpg

well for exotic cars there is nothing like a flat crank


for regular day to day car inline 6 would be probably best since they are naturally ballanced. They do have the disadvantage of being very long though.


Rotary, i realy don't care that much for them, even though they are very compact for the power they make since they act like a 2 stroke engine even if they are really 4 stroke. They are very inefficient thermodynamically speaking though.


As far as cam design i prefer DOHC since it offers the best flow and tuning since both exaust and intake have they own dedicated cam. As a disadvatage they are top heavy and expensive.




of course, taking the engine as a stand alone object, i have a thing for boxer engines, especially the ferrari flat 12s.
it can offer more, in terms of it's space-architecture, to the car designers.
.


are you sure that ferrari ever made a boxter engine, i know they made and still make Vs with flat plane crank to which the thread starter pointed but i never heard of a boxter engined ferrari.

But yes i do fully agree boxters engines are quite good since they do have a very low center or gravity even if you use a DOHC heads since they would not be up top.

Dang I forgot the Boxer engines and the W engins i knew i was missingsomthing. As for the comparo its just the engine. No car specific thing just if u could pick one and say i like that one the most.
If i mod woulnd't care could they add the boxer and w engine to the poll as it says moderates only

Beyond the fact that Ferrari won three World Manufacturer's Championships in formula one with flat 12's (Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter), Ferrari put flat twelves into their road cars (with transmissions/transaxles mounted beneath the engine block) as far back as 1971 with the 365GT4BB.

i just wish more of us could experince a ferrari 12. we can talk about it for pages, but real life is a whole different story. so out of reach, but so beautiful.

ferrari :bananasmi

Beyond the fact that Ferrari won three World Manufacturer's Championships in formula one with flat 12's (Niki Lauda and Jody Scheckter), Ferrari put flat twelves into their road cars (with transmissions/transaxles mounted beneath the engine block) as far back as 1971 with the 365GT4BB.


when you say flat 12's do you mean boxter or flat crank?

Is it possible to take a normal v engine and put a flat plane crank in it. What all kind of modifcations would be needed.

I mean boxer (not Boxter, god that insipid little Porsche has corrupted today's motoring public) when I say flat twelve. Ferrari had quite a few great cars powered by flat twelve engines.

Most notably were the 512 Berlinetta Boxer (or BB for short), the Testarossa (one word, as Testa Rossa was the name of the V12 front engine roadster of the 50's), the aforementioned 365GT/4BB, and the 312PB sports prototype.

the ferrari flat 12 came about after pininfarina kept wanting ferrari to make a mid-engined 12 cylinder car.
ferrari however was always a bit reluctant to make a mid-engined road car citing the dangers of it to unskilled drivers.
the success of the 246 dino and the miura made him change his mind but instead of the 'traditional' V12 seen in his road cars, he opted for a flat 12 design.

here's a pic without the car.....
http://files.automotiveforums.com/gallery/watermark.php?file=/503/158486boxer_engine_02.JPG

Well i stand corrected on those ferrari flat 12s, thanks for the info guys.


Is it possible to take a normal v engine and put a flat plane crank in it. What all kind of modifcations would be needed.

well it certainly is posible. The flat plane crank V8 in the new F430 is based on the maserati V8 with a normal crank design.

incidentally, the engine in my above post is ffrom the 365 GT4BB (apparently BB was an in-joke refering to both berlinetta boxer and bridgette bardot...).
the engine, if you look closely, uses triple webbers, the car has triple lights on each bank of the rear lights and it also has triple pipes on both banks of exhausts.
everything comes in threes!

as i said, ferrari gave in to making a 12 cylinder mid-engine car after the miura came out.
if you remove the body work, you'll see that the 365 boxer and the miura actually share very similar body constructions (semi-monocoque cockpit).
if i was a betting man, i'd say that ferrari opted for a flat engine to draw a bigger differentiation between the miura and the soon-to-be boxer.
after all, the question of car length/wheelbase had to be addressed and lamborghini had already done the transverse method.
of course, ferrari would say that it was to draw influence from his race cars that used flat 12s.....

y'know, i've never really understood what exactly a flat plane crank is......
what benefits does it offer over what i'm going to call 'standard' crank?
guess it's time for more reading....

i voted for the pancakes, because of their low center of gravity, beat only by the rotaries, which have absolutly gutless bottom ends.

A cross-plain V8 (typical american style V8) has crank pins every 90degrees of the crankshaft.

A flat-plain V8 has crank pins every 180degrees of the crankshaft.

Counterweights are added to a cross-plane V8 to counter the end-to-end vibration due to the last cylinder not being in the same position as the first one. This allows for the cross-plane V8's to run smooth, but the increased weight reduces their ability to rev.

Flat-plane V8s crank pins are arranged to that of a 4 cylinder engine which causes them to have stronger vibrations as compared to the cross-plane. The vibrations are reduced by using expensive lightweight materials such as pistons, etc. They are however; usually only used in sports cars due to their nature of being more responsive to throttle and their ability to rev vs. their rough idle and poor ride quality.

So another words to take you average v engine and make it a flat plane it would cost a pretty penney. Unless u decided no to change to lighter parts which would make a very rough idle.