Comments by "mpetersen6" (@mpetersen6) on "ENGINE BALANCE: Inline 6 vs. V6 vs. VR6 vs. Flat / Boxer 6" video.

  1. One advantage the inline has is that the same machining lines can be used to build four or five cylinder inlines.
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  2. An inline 8 is even smoother than an inline six. But it suffers from being even longer unless it is designed to be very undersquare. Plus they tend to be RPM limited unless certain things are done such as having a gear cut into the center of the crankshaft so that the power is taken off at the center of the engine. Mercedes did this with their race cars in the 50s. This is also why you tend not to see V-16s. One of the only V-16s I can think of was the Chrysler V-2250 aircraft engine they were developing during WWII. It took the power of the engine from a central reduction gear.
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  3.  @wanyelewis9667  There are a couple of other factors why the inline 8 is dead. One is the are "out-of-fashion". Another compared to let's say an inline 6 of the same displacement or even a V-8 of equal displacement is their is more machining operations involved to a certain extent. Granted any OHC V-has more operations than an inline would. Depending on design the OHC can also require two seperate sets of head and cam machining equipment. As far as inline 6s today to the best of my knowledge only BMW has stuck with the layout. Partly I think because it is part of their corporate indentity. As far as a modern inline 8 for a sporting application the best place two start might be one of the inline four motorcycle engines with the power takeoff at the center
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