engine concept

Topic: engine concept (Read 1933 times) previous topic - next topic

engine concept

March 01, 2005, 03:40:27 AM

I was curious if there have ever been and engines that were flat on top?

by this I mean that the cylinders oppose each other, so it is compleatly flat on the top, and the camshaft just sits inbetween and the crank is directally under the cam. It would be intresting to design a car using this set up. It would work prefectally for a mid engine AWD setup, where there are two transmissions set up at the front and back axle.
I was also thinking about makeing two inline 6's (the 300ci) side by side and reverseing a 4wd tranny to use the output shafts and the input, one for each engine, and then makeing it so you only use one engine at a time, unless you were towing, and then just use both engines for towing. and instead of putting it into 4wd mode, you would put it into 2 engine mode.

Re: engine concept

Reply #1 – March 01, 2005, 04:18:31 AM

The two cylinder Onan engine in my Gravely tractor is built like that.
It also has no distributor. The coil has two high voltage wires. one to each plug. The plugs fire simultaneously. One on the compression stroke while the other is on the exhaust stroke.
It would be flat on top if the carb wasn't there.

Re: engine concept

Reply #2 – March 01, 2005, 06:39:39 AM

Old Volkswagens and Corvairs had horizontally opposed air cooled engines(had a bunch of tin work and fan mounted on the top side). I believe some old '70s Subaru's did as well, but they were water cooled .

Re: engine concept

Reply #3 – March 01, 2005, 07:57:15 AM

Subaru still uses flat engines, as does Porsche

Re: engine concept

Reply #4 – March 01, 2005, 08:54:17 AM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken

Subaru still uses flat engines, as does Porsche

Heck yeah, boxer engines are freakin' sweet. Not only can they perform engine wise, they also help those cars handle as well. I wish I had the money for an STI Impreza :( . (i'd still keep my bird btw!)

Re: engine concept

Reply #5 – March 01, 2005, 12:21:16 PM

they are everywhere and easy to man handle. Makes for a decent offroad rail buggy engine. Older subaru RWD station wagons in a bone yard would clear this up for you.

engine bay has so much room even after the engine is in that the spare tire sits between the engine and the firewall.

pretty good engine if you ask me but the vac actuated sensors and stuff blow your mind. Id play hell trying to rape one of those engines down to the basics so it would run.

Re: engine concept

Reply #6 – March 01, 2005, 02:00:48 PM

Yup they said it porche and Subaru are the only two that i know of who still use the horozontally opposed engine, or boxer engine.

Re: engine concept

Reply #7 – March 01, 2005, 02:15:14 PM

I've been looking around. Alfa used to make a 1100cc boxer 4, and also had a race car with a 500hp flat 12. Even Ferrari had the Ferrari GTB/4 Berlinetta Boxer.

Lots of motorbikes have flat engines. The Valkerie flat six, for one. Beemers used to have them back in the 20's, up to now.

Looks like the engine has been around for quite a while.

Re: engine concept

Reply #8 – March 02, 2005, 03:51:35 PM

My Subaru XT6 had a 2.7 Boxer engine.

Re: engine concept

Reply #9 – March 02, 2005, 04:09:54 PM

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but about 70% of prop driven aircraft use Opposed or "boxer" engines.