Flat-six engine

The flat-6 engine of the Honda Valkyrie motorcycle

A flat-6 or horizontally opposed-6 is a flat engine with six cylinders arranged horizontally in two banks of three cylinders on each side of a central crankcase. This should not be confused with the Opposed-piston engine. The pistons are mounted to the crankshaft such that opposing pistons move back and forth in opposite directions at the same time, somewhat like a boxing competitor punching their gloves together before a fight, which has led to it being referred to as a boxer engine.

The configuration results in inherently good balance of the reciprocating parts, a low center of gravity, and a very short engine length. The layout also lends itself to effective air cooling. The shape of the engine suits it better for rear engine and mid-engine designs, where the low center of gravity is an advantage; in front engine designs the width interferes with the ability of the front wheels to steer. However, it is an intrinsically expensive design to manufacture, and somewhat too wide for compact automobile engine compartments, which makes it more suitable for luxury sports cars, cruising motorcycles, and aircraft.[1]

Only a few auto makers, including Porsche and Subaru, currently use horizontally opposed engines. Porsche continues to be the most prominent manufacturer of flat-6 engine luxury sports cars, while Subaru uses it in its all-wheel drive cars, where the difficulties of fitting the engine between the front wheels are offset by the efficiency of adding four-wheel drive to the layout. In the past a number of other manufacturers have used them, notably Preston Tucker in the 1948 Tucker Sedan and Chevrolet in the 1960s Corvair with flat-6 air-cooled engines. The Citroen DS was originally intended to be fitted with an air-cooled flat-6, but this never materialised.

Balance and smoothness

The movement of the pistons in a horizontal engine is all in the same plane, so it creates less vibration than in a V-configuration engine; particularly one, like a V6, with an odd number of cylinders on each side of the engine. Unlike the V6 but like the inline-6, the flat-6 is a fully balanced configuration which is in perfect primary and secondary balance. The three cylinders on each side of the crankcase tend to have an end-to-end rocking motion, like a pair of inline-triple engines, but in the usual boxer engine configuration, the imbalances on each side cancel each other, resulting in a perfectly smooth engine.

The flat-6 is also smoother than the flat-4 or inline-4 because the power strokes of the cylinders overlap in a four-stroke cycle engine. In these four-cylinder configurations, pistons are 180 degrees apart in crankshaft rotation and start their power strokes every 180 degrees, so each piston must come to a complete stop before the next one commences its power stroke. In the flat-6, each power stroke begins 120 degrees after the previous one starts, resulting in 60 degrees of overlap between power strokes and a much smoother delivery of power to the flywheel.

Aircraft engines

Franklin O-335 335 cu in (5.49 l) flat six aircraft engine introduced in 1945

Lycoming is a major US manufacturer of civilian aircraft engines that power over one half of General aviation aircraft. They have developed and currently produce a series of flat-4 and flat-6 aircraft engines, and one flat-8 engine. The configuration is expressed in the engine's model numbers as the letter "O", standing for "opposed" in reference to the cylinder arrangement. Franklin produced horizontally opposed flat aircraft engines beginning in the 1930s. The Franklin O-335 was used in Bell 47. Continental Motors produces flat-4 and flat-6 aircraft engines which began in 1931 with the Continental A-40. Flat engines largely replaced the historically more popular radial engines in small aircraft after World War II because they were less expensive to manufacture. Radial engines have inherently good cooling, but their large frontal area increases drag. It is not difficult to design flat-6 and flat-8 engines from flat-4 designs by adding more cylinder pairs with a new crankshaft. In an air-cooled engine there can be cooling problems with the middle cylinder pairs. The flat-6 is smoother running than a flat-4 design. Porsche adapted their 911 6 cylinder horizontally opposed air-cooled engines to become the Porsche PFM 3200 aero engine in late 1985 but, after low sales and a 75 million investment, production ceased in 1991.

Automotive use

1904 Wilson-Pilcher Flat-6

Possibly the earliest flat-six engined car was the Wilson-Pilcher car in 1900 (a flat-four version was also available). The engine was conventionally placed with the crankshaft in-line with the chassis and the cylinders between the chassis rails. Reports on this car[2] quote it as being "remarkably silent and smooth running" and "almost total absence of vibration". The car was produced by Wilson-Pilcher in London until 1904, then by Armstrong Whitworth & Co in Newcastle until c1907. The engine had equal bore and stroke of 95mm, and the cylinders were slightly offset so that each cylinder had its own crank-pin, with intermediate crankshaft bearings between each pair of cylinders. The engine was directly mounted to a 4-speed epicyclic gearbox employing helical gears in an oil bath, which was another reason for its quiet running.

Engine of a 1966 Porsche 911

Flat-six engines are wide, and could restrict steering lock if placed in the conventional position for front-engine drivetrain layout in a modern car. As a result, most flat-six automobile designs have been rear-engine or rear mid-engine designs, and have been subject to the limitations and drawbacks of these designs. The longest surviving flat-six-engined model, the Porsche 911, is a rear-engined sports car with acceptably compromised interior room and a long history of suspension development to utilize the characteristics of the drivetrain layout.

Subaru, an automobile manufacturer with a history of making aircraft engines, has adapted a front-engine configuration for use with its flat engines. The engine is mounted longitudinally ahead of the front axle and the transmission is mounted longitudinally behind the front axle. Although this layout is intrinsically more expensive to manufacture, less compact, and less space efficient for front-wheel drive than a transverse V6, it allows the addition of four-wheel drive by taking power off both the front and back ends of the transmission, since the transmission is located between the front and rear axles. Commensurate with these properties of this layout, Subaru now specializes in all-wheel-drive vehicles.

Subaru's 2003-2009 EZ series EZ30 engine featured a Porsche designed and German manufactured Variable Valve Lift (VVL) system, that further enhances high range power and smoothness at idle. It was discontinued on the successor of the EZ30 engine, the EZ36 engine. Instead, it has dual AVCS, VVT on both inlet and exhaust cams.

The Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant 6H 358 is a 16.95 L flat-6 multi-fuel engine.[3]

List of automobiles with flat-six engines
1967 Porsche 911R
Porsche 911R at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009. 2-litre flat-6 engine producing 210PS
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Porsche Cayman S
Modern 3.4-litre flat-6
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Honda Gold Wing and Valkyrie motorcycles

Main article: Honda Gold Wing
See also: Honda Valkyrie
Honda GL1800 Gold Wings

In 1988, after thirteen years of manufacturing the Honda Gold Wing with a flat-four engine, Honda introduced the GL1500 with a flat-6 engine.[5] This larger model lasted for 13 years before being replaced by the even-larger GL1800 in 2001.[6]

The Honda Valkyrie F6C (1997–2003) was a cruiser based on the GL1500 Gold Wing.[7] The limited edition 2004 Valkyrie Rune was based on the GL1800.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Nunney, M J (2007). Light and Heavy Vehicle Technology. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 13. ISBN 0-7506-8037-7.
  2. ↑ "The Wilson-Pilcher Petrol Cars", The Automotor Journal, April 16th, 1904, pp463-468
  3. ↑ "6H 358". Chtz-uraltrac.ru. Retrieved 2011-12-06.
  4. ↑ http://www.subaru.com/index.html
  5. ↑ Mitchell, Doug (2005). Honda Motorcycles: Everything You Need to Know About Every Honda Motorcycle Ever Built. Iola, WI US: KP Books. p. 170. ISBN 0-87349-966-2. LCCN 2005922949. Retrieved 2014-09-13.
  6. ↑ Mitchell 2005, p. 208.
  7. ↑ Mitchell 2005, pp. 198, 218.
  8. ↑ Mitchell 2005, pp. 218, 220.

External links

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