engine width-wise

[Skyline86]

In was looking at my friends Saturn LS1 the other day and it looked like the engine was situated in a way that the inline cylinders were running the width of the car (wheel to wheel), instead of the first cylinder towards the front of the car and the last cylinder near the firewall. And the intake manifold was like this too. I feel so dumb asking this, but do they make engine arrangments like this or am I just asking a stupid question? And if they do, how is it possible to transfer power to the drive wheels like this.

[2strokebloke]

You must not have looked under many hoods during the last decade. That's a transverseley mounted engine, except for Subaru (I think) all front wheels drive cars being sold in the U.S. have the engine mounted this way. (And transversley mounted engines for front wheel drive cars have been around since before WWII)

[buymeabmwm3]

On RWD and most AWD cars, the driveshaft from the engine runs from front to back, so it goes to the rear wheels. On FWD cars, the driveshaft is oriented from left to right, because it drives the front wheels.

FWD
[]------[]



[] []


RWD
[] I []
I
I
I
[]---o----[]

[buymeabmwm3]

Yeah, my attempt at graphics failed miserably. Use your creative imagination.

[davewin]

Engines can be mounted any number of ways within a vehicle. The direction of the power coming out from the crankshaft or the transmission can be turned in any direction with bevel gears (gears cut at a 45 degree angle. Every differential has these.

But the easiest and most cost effective way to mount an engine in a front wheel drive car is transversely.

Anyway, I remember 2 recent cars besides Subarus that were front wheel drive with their engines mounted front to back. They were the Acura Legend ('91 to '95-ish) and the early '90s Chrysler LH cars. I think Eagle had a sedan in the late '80s with that sort of arrangment too.

This is the end of my rambling post.

[Hudson]

Front-wheel drive cars (and most AWD cars) have transversely mounted engines. The exceptions (in the US) include Subarus (except for Justys), Audis (except for TTs), Volkswagen Passat (current generation) and Fox, second generation Acura Legend, first generation Acura TL, Acura RL and Vigor, Chrysler's LH, Eagle Premier/Dodge Monaco, and a hand full of others.

Since many AWD cars are based on FWD cars, their setups are very similar.

Transverse packaging of the engine took off in 1959 when the original Austin Mini was introduced. Since then, transversely-mounted engines are the typical design for front-wheel drive vehicles.

It's quite common.