r/F1Technical • u/Randomusername_101 Hannah Schmitz • Dec 19 '20

Historic F1/Analysis Honda F1 V10 Engine

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619 Upvotes

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14

u/swimminguy121 Dec 19 '20

Why are the cylinders offset? Wouldn't it be better for balance to have them side by side?

30

u/Blue_Shore Dec 19 '20

Look at a crankshaft and see how the connecting rods attach to it.

5

u/swimminguy121 Dec 19 '20

Makes sense. Why wouldnt they invent a crankshaft configuration that enables parallel placement of cylinders?

22

u/Blue_Shore Dec 19 '20

Because if you had the cylinders with 0 offset, the crank would never be able to complete a revolution. Watch a gif/video of a flat engine’s cylinders moving. If they weren’t offset, the connecting rods would need to be able to go through each other at bottom dead center

12

u/brukfu Dec 19 '20 edited Dec 19 '20

There is a geometrical way of doing so. They couldve gone for one connecting rod going to the left cylinder which connects to the crankshaft before and after the connecting rod that goes to the right cylinder.

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Edit: quite complicated but should work like this https://imgur.com/bryF39K

11

u/yellowfire23 Dec 19 '20

Well yeah this could technically work but wouldn't be useful, in normal Road cars the cost and complexity doesn't outweigh the benefits of a slightly better balance on an engine that is quite balanced. And in F1 the extra weight negates the benefits this gives.

1

u/Wyattr55123 Dec 19 '20

What about the next 3-5 pairs of pistons which are all npairs/360 degrees out of phase from one another.

10

u/Randomfactoid42 Dec 19 '20

Why would you want the cylinders parallel? They’re staggered because of the crank, and because they fit closer together. The space in the middle of the “V” is only so big, so if you didn’t stagger the cylinder, the outside edges of opposite cylinders would overlap.

4

u/scoutstang Dec 19 '20

It has been invented. Check out the articulated connecting rods in a radial engine or the blade and fork style rods in a Harley Davidson V twin.

3

u/Wyattr55123 Dec 19 '20

Something tells me a built up crankshaft is not going to be very happy at 20,000 rpm and 800 hp. Or going from 20,000 rpm to 15 and back to 20 in about half a second.