Heard a radio commercial today about a Volvo with a turbo charged, 5 cylinder engine. Now, I'm not real big into car engines, but that just sounds wrong. Anyone else hear something about it, or know more than I do about it?

 

Volvo has had a 5 cylinder for a long time. In fact, our own mferguson has a V70 T5 in addition to the MINI.

Volkswagon also makes a 5 cylinder gas engine (european market only)

 

Just sounds wrong. :smile: Like when my MINI test drive person said, "This is BMW's specially designed inline 4 cylinder." Wanted to respond, "Hmm, never seen a V4 before. Have you?"

 

Before the MINI, I had a '93 VW Eurovan MV. It had a 5 banger too.

 

GM has an inline 5 cylinder Vortec engine as an option in some of it's small pickup truck line.

As far as inline engines are concerned, it's practical to have an odd number of cylinders, as the spacing of the firing order is determined soley by the crankshaft ordering. Any common V-type engine needs to obviously have an even number of cylinders for firing order and balancing reasons, plus in most cases, the included angle of the cylinders needs to be an even division of a 360 degree rotation for optimum balancing, in addition to the crankshaft construction. Examples are 60 degrees for most V6s, 90 degrees for most V8s, etc.

There are V-4 engines, but these are found mostly in motorcycles and industrial applications.

 

Audi used a five banger for many years.

Some S models even had turbo versions of the straight 5. Like the 1995 1/2 model year S-6.

 

Actually, there have been lots of 5-bangers for cars,
Audi had one, VW had both a 5 inline and a narrow angle VR5 (not many people know about this one, it could almost be called a W-5, since the 5th cylinder was sort of arranged at the end between the two V-banks), Mercedes had a 5-cylinder diesel that even made it to the US, and is still used in all sorts of commerical vehicles (the UNIMOG, the swedish Hagglund tracked vehicle). Volvo of course has a 5-banger.
One way to look at it, is that it's just 1/2 of a 10-pot engine, and there are lots of high class 10-pots, e.g. the Lambo Gallardo and the Viper - these two are actually related in that the Viper 10 cylinder engine was developed by Lamborghini for Dodge (before Dodge went to Daimler and Lambo to Audi).

 

Learn something new everyday! Interesting stuff.

 

I LOVE 5-cylinder engines

 

>>....... Wanted to respond, "Hmm, never seen a V4 before. Have you?"

European Fords had a V4 for awhile - It was most famous as the motor Saab used to replace their two-strokes in the 96's and Sonnetts. It was actually pretty good and fun to work on - also a nice compact packaging job.

 

>>European Fords had a V4 for awhile - It was most famous as the motor Saab used to replace their two-strokes in the 96's and Sonnetts. It was actually pretty good and fun to work on - also a nice compact packaging job.

Figures that someone did it!

 

actually VW uses VR4 and VR5's in european models!

 

I am surprised that no one seems to know or remember the fact that early versions of the 1992-95 Acura Vigor sedan and 1996-98 Acura TL used to offer a 2.5L 20-valve SOHC 5 Cyl inline engine rated at 176HP. The engine in those cars was mounted longitudinally (North-South) but they still were FWD.


I used to have a 1997 Acura 2.5TL with the 5 Cyl 176HP engine. It was a very refined engine but the 4-speed Honda automatic "Grade Logic" transmission sucked and really hampered the performance of the engine. In '97, you could not get a 5-speed TL, only automatics (But the earlier Vigor did offer a 5-speed mated to this 5-cyl engine).


The 2.5L 5-cyl engine was discontinued in 1999 when the new "made in America" 3.2L V6TL debuted.

 

>>>>European Fords had a V4 for awhile - It was most famous as the motor Saab used to replace their two-strokes in the 96's and Sonnetts. It was actually pretty good and fun to work on - also a nice compact packaging job.
>>
>>Figures that someone did it!


And that V4 is probably the best ever engine. It was actually designed for industrial applications (as in run forever, 24/7). I LOOOOOOVE Sonnetts, both of them.....I swear I'll buy one if I ever run into one again.....(as long as it ain't baby **** green) :smile:

 

>....... Wanted to respond, "Hmm, never seen a V4 before. Have you?"

While its not a V (unless you can call it a 180 degree V), VW, Porsche, and Subaru all have horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engines commonly known as "boxers".


--
Cheese

 

>>Just sounds wrong. :smile: Like when my MINI test drive person said, "This is BMW's specially designed inline 4 cylinder." Wanted to respond, "Hmm, never seen a V4 before. Have you?"

Yep. They used to call 'em "V"s, instead of "V-4"s. It's a great idea, short little engine, but it's a bit choppy running. The only one I've actually SEEN was an industrial application, not an automobile.

 

I had a 3 cylinder engine in my old Geo Metro. People thought that sounded impossible, too.

 

>>I had a 3 cylinder engine in my old Geo Metro. People thought that sounded impossible, too.

That is a Suzuki job that also comes in a four cylinder version. So... you know what people that race the 3 cylinder cars do in South America? They bolt on the four cylinder head as it has bigger valves......talk about a weird deal, seeing an engine that is either short a piston/cylinder or has an extra set of valves and lifters......