Inline 6-cylinder engines

As shown in the picture, straight-6 engine is simply two 3-cylinder engines mated symmetrically together, thus
piston 1 is always in the same position as piston 6, piston 2 the same as piston 5 .... in other words, the engine is
balanced end-to-end and requires no balancer shaft, unlike 3-cylinder engines.
What about vertical / transverse forces? like 3-cylinder engines, the vertical and transverse forces generated by
individual cylinders, no matter first order or second order, are completely balanced by one another. The resultant
vibration is nearly zero, thus inline-6 is virtually a perfect configuration.
Inline-6 is not the only configuration can deliver near perfect refinement, but it is the most compact one among
them. All boxer engines are perfectly balanced, but they are two wide and require duplicate of blocks, heads and
valve gears. V12 engines also achieve perfect balance, but obviously out of the reach of most mass production
cars. Automotive engineers knew that long ago, thats why you can see most of the best classic engines were
inline-6, such as Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, Bentley Speed Six, Mercedes SSK, many Bugattis, Jaguar XK-series
and BMWs various models.
V6 engines
V6 engines, excluding Volkswagens 15VR6 (to be discussed later), are not just made from splitting inline-6 into
two banks arranged in V-shape. A V6 has a very different crankshaft - only 4 main bearings instead of 7. In other
words, between two adjacent bearings there are crank throws for 2 cylinders, one from bank A and another from
bank B. While V8 engines have those 2 cylinders shared the same crank pin, V6 engine has to split the crank pin
into two pieces, with a splay angle between those pins (30splay angle for 90V6; 60splay angle for 60V6).
These are shown in below.
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60V6 with 60splay angle
90V6 with 30splay angle
Split crank pins with
a 30splay angle

For better balance, most V6s are arranged such that the banks are placed at either 60or 90to each other. In
this way, the movement of cylinders in bank A matches those in bank B, thus there is no vibration generated
between banks. Besides, like 3-cylinder engines, there is no vertical and transverse vibration.
However, both 60or 90V6s have somewhat end-to-end vibration like 3-cylinder engines, especially is for 90
V6. (sorry, I dont have the theory) It needs a counter-rotating single balancer shaft, at crank speed, to suppress
the vibration. The balancer shaft is located inside the V-valley, so it is not space engaging. On the other hand, 90
V6 has a decisive advantage in production point of view - it can be machined in V8s production line because both
of them are 90. (unlike V6, V8 can only be optimised at 90) This save a lot of production cost. An example is
Mercedes supersmooth 2.4 to 3.2-litre V6s, which share the same architecture with V8s but added with a
balancer shaft.

End-to-end vibration
Single balancer shaft inside the V-valley

60V6 is smoother to the extent that, with adequate design engine mount, most of them could be made nearly as
smooth as inline-6 engines without the need of balancer shaft. It is also narrower, so easier to be packaged into a
FWD cars, mounted transversely.
60 V6 versus Inline-6
As space efficiency becomes more and more important, most car makers favour V6. The most influential V6 was
perhaps Alfa Romeos 2.5-litre 60V6 used in the GTV6. It established a reputation for V6 that it can be
compact, powerful and smooth. An equivalent inline-6 would have never fit the small and sloping engine
compartment of that car. Compare the shape of BMW with the Alfa and youll know the packaging advantage of
V6s.
Straight-six engines are nearly impossible to be used in front-wheel drive cars as well. Even a car as wide as
Volvo S80 has to introduce the worlds shortest gearbox in order to make space for the 2.9-litre straight-six
mounted transversely in the engine compartment.
Longitudinal mounted inline-6 doesnt have such problems, but it engages too much space in north-south direction,
thus engage some space which would have contributed to cockpit room.
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However, BMW is still loyal to inline-6 engines. Ultimately, inline-6 engine is more efficient yet smoother. V6 has
more energy loss because it duplicates valve gears and camshafts (which increase frictional loss), while the use
of 2 cylinder banks leads to more heat loss. In terms of production cost, although V6 has 3 fewer main bearings,
it has more valve gears - which is getting more and more costly these days, with the introduction of twin-cam,
hydraulic tappets / finger follower and variable valve timing. Inline-6 is going to be cheaper than equivalent V6.
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