RE: Bentley: big engines to stay

[stain]

XitUp said:

No, not capacity, that's irrelevant, and obvious.

Actual physical size.

Without going out to the garage with a tape measure the W12 is about 1/2 to 2/3 the size of the old pushrod V8

[XitUp]

Wow, that's quite a lot smaller. Is it taller?

[Balmoral]

The W12 is like two VR6's bolted together, so quite compact. Mounted deep in the nose (as is the new V8) ahead of the front axle in true Audi fashion. You can see where the NSU Bentley bloodline/DNA is

[Boosted LS1]

The chief development engineer showed me around one day. He showed me the W12 engine 'in pieces' and commented that the rod bearings were the thinnest, width wise compared to other engines with that journal width. Basically they're flippin skinny yet still handle the loadings. Impressive.

[stain]

XitUp said:

Wow, that's quite a lot smaller. Is it taller?

No. I think the V8 is taller

[Cobalt Blue]

Can someone please explain the firing sequence of a W12 engine? It looks like a 60' V6 inside a 90' V6 (15' between cylinders of each bank).

A 12-cylinder engine fires once every 60' of crank rotation, so a 60' V6/12 should have equal spacing between TDC of the firing strokes, but superimpose another 6 cylinders at 90' then what? Does it have a flat-plane crank?

I have read that the big-end bearings are 13mm wide; quite astonishing that the oil film can keep bearing and journal apart with 600+BHP and 6,000 revs, but it seems to work!

[will261058]

Saw the new V8 on last nights Top Gear in the snow, sounds lovely!