A V engine, sometimes called a Vee engine, is a common configuration for

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

s. It consists of two

cylinder bank The engine configuration describes the fundamental operating principles by which internal combustion engines are categorized. Piston engines are often categorized by their cylinder layout, valves and camshafts. Wankel engines are often categorize ...

s—usually with the same number of cylinders in each bank—connected to a common

crankshaft A crankshaft is a mechanical component used in a piston engine to convert the reciprocating motion into rotational motion. The crankshaft is a rotating shaft containing one or more crankpins, that are driven by the pistons via the connecting ...

. These cylinder banks are arranged at an angle to each other, so that the banks form a "V" shape when viewed from the front of the engine. V engines typically have a shorter length than equivalent inline engines, however the trade-off is a larger width. V6, V8 and

V12 V12 or V-12 may refer to: Aircraft * Mil V-12, a Soviet heavy lift helicopter * Pilatus OV-12, a planned American military utility aircraft * Rockwell XFV-12, an American experimental aircraft project * Škoda-Kauba V12, a Czechoslovak experim ...

engines are the most common layout for automobile engines with 6, 8 or 12 cylinders respectively.

History

The first V engine, a two-cylinder V-twin, was designed by

Wilhelm Maybach Wilhelm Maybach (; 9 February 1846 – 29 December 1929) was an early German engine designer and industrialist. During the 1890s he was hailed in France, then the world centre for car production, as the "King of Designers". From the late 19th ce ...

and used in the 1889

Daimler Stahlradwagen The ''Stahlradwagen'' (or "steel-wheeled car") was Gottlieb Daimler's second motor car. After seeing Panhard's Daimler-designed V-twin engine demonstrated at the Paris Exposition of 1889 and inquiring into the engine's weight and power, Arman ...

automobile. The first V8 engine was produced in 1903, in the form of the

Antoinette Antoinette is a given name, that is a diminutive feminine form of Antoine and Antonia (from Latin ''Antonius''). People with the name include: Nobles * Antoinette de Maignelais, Baroness of Villequier by marriage (1434–1474), mistress of C ...

engine designed by Léon Levavasseur for racing boats and

airplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spe ...

s. The first

engine was produced the following year by Putney Motor Works in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, again for use in racing boats. The first

V6 engine A V6 engine is a six-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V6 engines were designed and produced independently by Marmon Motor Car Company, Deutz Gasmotoren Fabr ...

to reach production appeared soon after in 1908, by the

Deutz Gasmotoren Fabrik Deutz AG is a German internal combustion engine manufacturer, based in Porz, Cologne, Germany. History The company was founded by Nicolaus Otto, the inventor of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, and his partner Eugen Langen on 31 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for use as a generator for gasoline-electric railway engines. However, it was not until 1950 that the V6 engine was used in series production automobiles, with the first example being the

Lancia V6 engine In 1950, Lancia introduced one of the world's first production V6 engines in the Lancia Aurelia. The engine was the work of Francesco De Virgilio and was developed to solve the vibration problems Lancia had experienced with its V4 engines. This ...

. This V6 engine used a 60-degree V angle and separate crankpins for each cylinder, to reduce the vibration issues experienced by earlier attempts at production V6 engines.

Characteristics

Compared with an equivalent inline engine (the most common configuration for engines with less than six cylinders), a V engine has a shorter length but is wider. This effect increases with the number of cylinders in the engine; the length difference between a V-twin and straight-twin engines might be insignificant, however V8 engines have a significantly smaller length than straight engines. Compared with the less common

flat engine A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, ...

, a V engine is narrower, taller and has a higher

center of mass In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

The "V-angle" (or "included angle") between the

s varies significantly between engines. Some engines have used a V-angle of 180 degrees (the same angle as a

), such as several Ferrari V12 engines. At the other end of the scale, the 1922-1976

Lancia V4 engine Italian automobile company Lancia was the first to manufacture cars with V4 and V6 engines in series-production. This started with a number of V4-engine families, that were produced from the 1920s through 1970s. The Lancia V4 pioneered the narr ...

and the 1991–present Volkswagen VR6 engine use V-angles as small as 10 degrees, along with a single cylinder head used by both banks of cylinders. The

engine balance Engine balance refers to how the forces (resulting from combustion or rotating/reciprocating components) are balanced within an internal combustion engine or steam engine. The most commonly used terms are ''primary balance'' and ''secondary bala ...

of a V12 engines is that of perfect primary and secondary balance. For V engines with fewer cylinders, the engine balance will depend on factors such as the firing interval, crankshaft counterweights and whether balancer shafts are present. The

crankpin A crankpin or crank pin, also known as a rod bearing journal, is a mechanical device in an engine which connects the crankshaft to the connecting rod for each cylinder. It has a cylindrical surface, to allow the crankpin to rotate relative to the ...

s on a V engine are usually shared by two cylinders from opposing banks, with an offset between the two cylinders. Alternative configurations are separate crankpins per cylinder (such as several V-twin engines) or articulated

connecting rod A connecting rod, also called a 'con rod', is the part of a piston engine which connects the piston to the crankshaft. Together with the crank, the connecting rod converts the reciprocating motion of the piston into the rotation of the cranksh ...

s (for example, the such as the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine).

Inverted engines

Some airplanes of the 1920s and 1930s used inverted engines, whereby the crankshaft is located at the top of the engine and the cylinder heads are at the bottom. Advantages include better visibility in a single-engined airplane, a higher thrust line, and resultant increased ground clearance for the propeller. Examples include the 1928

Argus As 10 The Argus As 10 was a German-designed and built, air-cooled 90° cylinder bank-angle inverted V8 "low power" aircraft engine, used mainly in training aircraft such as the Arado Ar 66 and Focke-Wulf Fw 56 Stösser and other small short-range r ...

V8 engine and the 1935

Daimler-Benz DB 601 The Daimler-Benz DB 601 was a German aircraft engine built during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled inverted V12 engine, V12, and powered the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Bf 110, and many others. Approximately 19,000 601's were pr ...

V12 engines.

Specific configurations

It is common practice for V engines to be described with "V''#''" notation, where ''#'' represents the number of cylinders. Configurations of V engines which have reached production are as follows: *

V-twin A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or longi ...

(also known as "V2") * V3 * V4 * V5 * V6 * V8 *

V10 A V10 engine is a ten-cylinder piston engine where two banks of five cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V10 engines are much less common than V8 and V12 engines. Several V10 diesel engines have been pr ...

* V14 * V16 * V18 * V20 * V24 *V32

References

{{Authority control V

History

Characteristics

Inverted engines

Specific configurations

See also

References