Sorta OT -- Inline Engines

And what are peoples thoughts on high-revving engines over lower-running? Like "european" engines are meant to run around 3-4K normally, where "ours" like 1.5-2ish. If I'm not mistaken, the reason the high-revs last longer is the crank is spinning faster, so each explosion is less forceful on the bearings.

I have a 73' ducatti that was my fathers. When I brought it to the renowned duck dealer of NH he was amazed at the shape of some spacers in the engine (apparently a very good indica of the overall condition) Long story short, he drove it at 3K+ when all his friends had hogs and said he over revved his engine, and there all long dead on the bottom. Just valve guides for mine.

~KJ~

"duc" damn spell check

an I6 engine has 7 main bearing caps for 6 cylinders... a v6 has 4 main bearing caps for 6 cylinders. that in and by itself greatly strengthens the bottom ends of an inline motor over a V. car manufacturors moved away from carb'd I-6's for the most part because you had a hard time getting enough fuel to cyl's 1 and 6 and they required a long, tall front end. some of the best japanese motors to ever come out were FI I-6's, like toyota's 3l supra motor or nissan's numerous I6's in the Z's (280ZX,300ZX).

if you look at the old carb'd american I6's... GM's 250 and 292, Ford's 300 and the Chrysler slant six.... non of them were particularly powerful HP wise but had good torque and were very hard to kill.

I think GM's going back to the inlines as an inline motor requires something like 30% less parts than a comparable V motor and with fuel injection, the 1 and 6 fuel problem is gone. inline engines are also inherently smoother as the pistons only travel in one vertical plane, not 2 planes 90 degrees apart.

HTH, Bret

"CJBrown" wrote

It really has nothing to do with whether the engine is inline or a vee engine. If you have ever had the privilege of looking at the internal components of the Cummins engines in the Dodge trucks....you will automatically know why it is such a durable engine.

GM is going to the inline engines more for simplicity...and the ability to control camshaft timing with fewer components. The 4 and

Ian

"shiden_kai" wrote

Just an added note. Both the 2.8 and 3.5 engines use balance shafts, which of course the inline 6 doesn't use. Which means that the inline 5 must be extraordinarily smooth as the Audi 5 cyl that I owned for years was quite smooth without balance shafts.

Ian