4-cylinder, 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder, 10-cylinder, 12-cylinder engine mechanical dynamic diagram demonstration

How do 4-cylinder, 6-cylinder, 8-cylinder, 10-cylinder, and 12-cylinder engines work? Let's use intuitive mechanical animations to demonstrate their working process.

▲Inline four-cylinder engine

Inline four-cylinder is one of the cylinder arrangement types of internal combustion engines. It is the most common in four-cylinder internal combustion engines with a displacement of less than 2.0 liters. Because the four cylinders of the inline four-cylinder are arranged in a straight line, it is also called a coaxial four-cylinder.

▲Inline four-cylinder engine

The inline four-cylinder engine is not a balanced structure. Although the imbalance is small in low-displacement, low-power structures, the vibration will increase as the engine size increases and the power increases.

Most inline four-cylinder engines with a displacement of less than 2 liters rely on the damping effect of their own equipment to reduce vibration. Today, most engines with a displacement of more than 2 liters use balance shafts. A four-cylinder engine needs two balance shafts to reduce its own vibration, which runs at twice the frequency of the crankshaft.

▲Horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine

The horizontally opposed four-cylinder engine is a type of internal combustion engine. It is a reciprocating engine composed of four pistons divided into two cylinders on the left and two cylinders on the right, arranged in a horizontally opposed manner.

Inline six-cylinder engine refers to an engine structure with 6 cylinders arranged in a row. Inline six-cylinder engine has only a single crankshaft, and the output is relatively balanced in design, but the engine is longer. After the popularization of V6 engine, it has been abandoned by most car manufacturers. BMW is one of the few car manufacturers that still produces inline six-cylinder engines, which are installed in its high-performance front-engine rear-wheel drive sports cars.

A V-type six-cylinder engine is an engine that divides all cylinders into two groups and arranges adjacent cylinders at a certain angle so that the two groups of cylinders form a plane with an angle, and the cylinders are V-shaped when viewed from the side.

The length of a V6 engine is comparable to that of an I-4, so it can be placed horizontally in a front-wheel drive car. V6 engines are now widely used in mid- to high-end cars. The cylinder angle of a V6 engine is generally 60 degrees or 90 degrees. The 60-degree angle is better for the balance of the V6.

The V8 engine should be the "standard configuration" of high-end cars. Although the performance of the V8 engine is extremely excellent, its manufacturing cost is too high, its weight is too large, and its fuel consumption is extremely high. Manufacturers generally dare not use it easily. Only in cars with an engine capacity of more than 4 liters can we see the shadow of V8. Among domestic cars, only the Grand Cherokee has a V8 engine, and the Jinbei GM Haofang is also powered by a V8 engine.

Whether the V8 engine is placed in a front-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive car, due to its heavy weight, it is easy to cause the center of gravity of the car to move forward, that is, the top is heavy. Therefore, many car manufacturers prefer to use V8 in four-wheel drive cars. Using a 90-degree angle can make the V8 engine have a better balance.

Theoretically, the balance of V10 engine is not very good, so V10 engine is rarely used in general commercial cars, and it is used in high-performance sports cars. Now the Dodge Viper in the United States has always used V10 engine as its power source, and later Porsche Carrera GT sports car, Volkswagen Phaeton 5-liter V10 diesel car, Lamborghini Gallardo also use V10 engine. The most common place to see V10 engine should be F1 racing field, where every car is equipped with V10 engine.

The V12 engine has a symbolic significance that is greater than its practical significance. Cars that use 12-cylinder engines are mainly concentrated in Europe, and are mainly top luxury cars from Germany and the UK and top sports cars from Italy. The V12 engine is complex, expensive, heavy, and has a fuel consumption so high that you can't even find official data provided by the manufacturer.

The luxury cars currently equipped with V12 engines include: Mercedes-Benz flagship S600, BMW flagship 760Li, Maybach, and Rolls-Royce New Phantom; sports cars using V12 engines include Ferrari's 456GT and ENZO; Lamborghini's "Devil", Murcielago and Aventador; Aston Martin's V12 Vantage, Edonis's BEX38, etc.