Engine Angle

[beef_bourito]

Hey, I was just wondering what a difference in engine angle would do, what's the difference in a flat, V, inline, and W engine. and what would increasing the angle vs decreasing the angle do, eg: a 45 degree vs a 50 degree.

My understanding so far is that an inline engine is the cheapest because it has only one camshaft. the difference between a v and a flat i dont know but i know it can be harder to get good cooling between the pistons if they are almost strait up like in Formula 1 cars. and all i know about the W is that it's like 2 V's side-by-side.

[SaabJohan]

The engine angle will seriously affect the balance of the engine, but also the size of the "package". If we take a V10 engine for example perfect balance will only be reached with 0, 72 and 144 degrees bank angle, at other angles ther will be forces that must be balanced with some type of counterweight. The bank angle does also affect cylinderfilling, has to do with the pulses in the intake and the length they need to travel.

A flat engine or boxer engine is basicly a V-engine which has a bank angle of 180 degrees.

Inline engines have one or two camshafts, most modern inline engines have two camshafts.
V engines can have one, two or four camshafts.

Most engines don't have any cooling "between" the cylinders except a the cylinder head, this is due to packaging and mechanical strength. This doesn't give any cooling problems in particular.

A W-engine is just like a V engine but with three banks, look at this bugatti W18:
http://auto-salon-singen.de/bugatti/...llungen_12.jpg
The only advantage is that the engine gets shorter but there will be a lot of downsides, but I don't think we will ever see a racing W engine.

[beef_bourito]

But what would it do to actual performance? Also, what are the downsides to the W engine?