No this isn't a rocket ship or a spy plane we're talking about, but a "normal" gasoline powered reciprocating engine configured in an "X", or some might say 2 Vee motors on top of each other, sharing a crankshaft. Others might say it's 2 180 degree opposed motors joined at a 90 degree angle.
I was reading the Bosch Gasoline-Engine Management book today and ran across the pic below of this DB 604, a 24 cylinder engine that Daimler Benz developed for a Junkers bomber in WWII. Pretty impressive, and it even had direct injection! Not bad for a nearly 70 year old design, eh? Unfortunately I can't find any evidence that it ever made it into production.....
Anyway, this got me thinking (a very dangerous thing)...... What if someone were to take 4 sets of Suzuki GS 1000 cylinders and heads and build a custom block and crankshaft for them. Shoot, you could have a 4.0 litre X16 motor that would turn 10,500 RPM and make 650 BHP naturally aspirated! And it would only require about the same amount of space as a normal V8. You could line up the cylinders so you'd have the induction on top & bottom, and the exhausts on the sides. Slick, eh?
But I'm not the first one since WWII to think of this..... Honda supposedly investigated it for their F1 engines in the 60's, and decided it was too complicated.
Why too complicated? Perhaps oil control would be one of the major issues? It goes without saying that it would have to be dry sumped, and there would have to be some way to keep the oil from pooling in the lower banks. Cooling would probably be an issue too. Balance? No, an X16 would have nearly perfect balance. Crankshaft stiffness and/or torsional problems? Wouldn't think so, it's a short crank, comparatively speaking.
There must be something pretty complicated to overcome, to keep Germany's and Japan's finest minds from building this thing.
Why have 4 cams when you can have 8!
Photo credits to Daimler Corporate Archives
I was reading the Bosch Gasoline-Engine Management book today and ran across the pic below of this DB 604, a 24 cylinder engine that Daimler Benz developed for a Junkers bomber in WWII. Pretty impressive, and it even had direct injection! Not bad for a nearly 70 year old design, eh? Unfortunately I can't find any evidence that it ever made it into production.....
Anyway, this got me thinking (a very dangerous thing)...... What if someone were to take 4 sets of Suzuki GS 1000 cylinders and heads and build a custom block and crankshaft for them. Shoot, you could have a 4.0 litre X16 motor that would turn 10,500 RPM and make 650 BHP naturally aspirated! And it would only require about the same amount of space as a normal V8. You could line up the cylinders so you'd have the induction on top & bottom, and the exhausts on the sides. Slick, eh?
But I'm not the first one since WWII to think of this..... Honda supposedly investigated it for their F1 engines in the 60's, and decided it was too complicated.
Why too complicated? Perhaps oil control would be one of the major issues? It goes without saying that it would have to be dry sumped, and there would have to be some way to keep the oil from pooling in the lower banks. Cooling would probably be an issue too. Balance? No, an X16 would have nearly perfect balance. Crankshaft stiffness and/or torsional problems? Wouldn't think so, it's a short crank, comparatively speaking.
There must be something pretty complicated to overcome, to keep Germany's and Japan's finest minds from building this thing.
Why have 4 cams when you can have 8!
Photo credits to Daimler Corporate Archives
