What types of automobile engines are there?

In-line engine: In-line engine is the oldest and most widely used cylinder arrangement at present. All its cylinders are arranged side by side on a plane. Its cylinder block and crankshaft are simple in structure, and the cylinder head is adopted, which has the advantages of low manufacturing cost, high stability, good low-speed torque characteristics, low oil consumption, small volume and wide application. Its disadvantage is low power consumption. At present, the number of cylinders of mainstream inline engines varies from horizontal bar to 6 cylinders.

V-type engine: A V-type engine is an engine that divides all cylinders into two groups and arranges adjacent cylinders together at a certain included angle, so that the two groups of cylinders form a plane with an included angle, and the cylinders are V-shaped when viewed from the side. V-type engine is small in height and length, which is convenient to be arranged on the car. Increasing the cylinder diameter is convenient to improve the displacement and power, and is suitable for higher cylinder numbers. At present, many domestic mid-to high-end vehicles are V-type six-cylinder engines, such as Regal, Passat and Audi A6.

W-type engine: W-type engine is a unique engine technology of German Volkswagen. Its main body consists of two VR6 engines with a small included angle, and the cylinders on both sides of the two engines are staggered at a small angle. We can understand that Volkswagen combined two small-angle V-engines into a large-angle V-engine, and it did not completely break away from the design concept of V-engine. There is nothing wrong with calling it "big v"

Horizontally opposed engine (H type): horizontally opposed engine can also be called "horizontally opposed engine". As the name implies, its cylinders are arranged like "lying down", with horizontal branches at both ends of the crankshaft. This arrangement has inherent advantages such as low center, small vibration, low noise and good balance, which is also the reason why only two automobile brands Porsche and Subaru that produce this engine have been insisting. However, the shortcomings of this engine are also obvious, such as insufficient cylinder lubrication and eccentric cylinder wear, which have not been well solved so far.

VR engine: VR (small included angle) engine must be known to many fans, especially for mass fans, it is even more rare to mention this "sentimental" model. However, many people may not know that it was not Volkswagen but the Italian brand Lancia that first adopted this engine. Technically, VR engine is not a good product, it is more like a compromise between V-engine and inline engine, which is why it is silent.

Gas turbine (turbine engine): Compared with the traditional piston reciprocating engine, gas turbine has the inherent advantages of small volume, high power density, fast start-up speed and high thermal efficiency. However, due to cost reasons and technical problems, this "high-end" gadget generally only appears in the aerospace field, but this does not mean that it has never been used in cars. In the middle of last century, car manufacturers such as Rover and Chrysler all produced cars equipped with gas turbines, and Renault, the "technical house" of that year, even won the championship with gas turbine racing cars.

Rotor engine: The rotor engine was invented by a German named Figas Wankel. On the basis of summarizing the previous research results, he solved some key technical problems and successfully developed the first rotary-wing engine. Rotary engine uses the rotary motion of triangular rotor to control compression and emission, which is very different from the traditional linear motion of reciprocating piston engine. Mazda is the only one who is still developing it, so cherish it!