flat engine vs V type engine vs inline

[sportiyo]

i realy wanna know as i cant find any info about it, whats the diference between a flat engine such as subey's flat fours/six and V type such as V6/8/10... and inline such as our corolas inline four, whats the benefits of them? and why no one make v4 enigines or inline 8 engines?

[shaohaok]

mainly

packaging

IL engines are looooong. with an IL8, u either have to have a car long enough or wide enough.

refinement

different configurations have different balancing issues

USUALLY, most 4 cylinders larger than a 2L wil have counter-rotating balance shafts, the perfectly balanced is an IL6.

and to a certain extent durability

a hi-revving 2L V6 and a hi-revving 2L IL4, obviously the piston velocities and reciprocation are fart greater in the IL4.

actually, wat u need to do is get a big cup of tea, sit down and read this.

http://www.autozine.org/technical_school/engine/smooth1.htm

very interesting :)

[sportiyo]

thx man very interesting to read, never know the boxer engine is that good

[SILVABULLIT]

One word....................VOLKSWAGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MR22ZZ]

I had a really great link from Wiki, I'll see if I can dig it up...

EDIT: here it is... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V12 it says V12 but at the bottom is a box which has all the piston engine configurations you can imagine with pros and cons of each, ie why straight 6 is better balanced then V6...