Why is it difficult to produce a six-cylinder engine?

Why is it difficult to produce a six-cylinder engine?

Six-cylinder engines are expensive and difficult to produce. In order to meet the current fuel consumption and emission standards, the most advanced design and production technology are needed. For automobile factories that don't produce six-cylinder engines for automobiles, building a six-cylinder engine production line is equivalent to building a twelve-cylinder engine production line, because there is little difference in processing technology between them.

The designer had to redesign the engine. For a car factory with no production experience, the development cost alone is a very large amount! The advantage of in-line six-cylinder is that the power is increased through smarter packaging, and the turbocharged six-cylinder engine is effectively replacing the larger V8 engine in many modern cars.

Therefore, the simpler in-line layout leaves more room for performance enhancement equipment such as turbochargers, superchargers and related pipelines. At the same time, the V6 engine must find space in the valley between each cylinder head (such as turbocharged V6 Audi) or narrow spaces on both sides of the engine (such as Nissan GT-R).

And complicated turbocharger devices, on V6 engines, additional functions such as electric turbochargers and/or mechanical turbochargers may be challenging. If we compare six-cylinder and four-cylinder engines under the same technical conditions, such as their intake and exhaust modes, technical dimensions and materials of parts, heat dissipation modes, oil supply and lubrication modes.

Microcomputer control platform, etc. , all the same. In this case, the performance of the six-cylinder engine is that the torque is small at low speed, but it will increase with the increase of speed, and its maximum torque appears in the high-speed range, so the in-cylinder engine of the six-cylinder engine is more suitable for racing, but the biggest problem is: fuel consumption.

Four-cylinder engine can reach the maximum torque at low speed, and the torque will gradually decrease with the increase of speed, so four-cylinder engine is more suitable for family cars, and its fuel economy is obviously better than four-cylinder and six-cylinder engines. With the development of design and materials, the engine power is getting stronger and stronger.

Four-cylinder engine is enough for most models, but the power advantage of six-cylinder engine is not so obvious. Even BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz G-Class have started to use four cylinders. How many cars can use six cylinders? Now small displacement is the general trend, and the optimal displacement of each cylinder is so large.

If it is small, it will be inefficient. It is estimated that there will be fewer and fewer four cylinders, and the effect is not enough. Before that, the three cylinders will be mixed. As we all know, Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series have started to be equipped with four-cylinder engines. In some people's eyes, it may be as depressing as the long wheelbase version of the BMW 3 Series.

But from a more macro perspective, car companies just follow the more mainstream voices in the market, not a few "emotional actors." When the turbine technology is very mature and the cost is getting cheaper and cheaper, the turbocharging force can be realized. We see more and more three-cylinder engine market.

Of course, some people say that a three-cylinder engine will shake after two years of operation. Presumably this is just an inevitable process of technological development. The greater the engine displacement, the greater the intake air, and the intake air determines the fuel injection quantity; Therefore, the fuel consumption of the 3.0L-V6 engine will be very high at 4000 rpm, which is far less than the fuel injection.

The more 2.0T-L4 engines, the more 4000 revolutions, much higher than 2980 revolutions. So under the same power requirements, 2.0T-L4 can achieve low fuel consumption, so why choose V6? Many people will look for a smooth, linear and smooth sound interface on a six-cylinder engine.

However, the 2.0T engine also has a machine that can linearly increase the boost pressure between 1000 and 3000 rpm, and the feeling of acceleration is not worse than that of naturally aspirated engine. There are fewer and fewer models with six cylinders or higher. The best way to buy a large-displacement car on the market now is to buy a second-hand car, but in the process of buying a second-hand car, you need to pay attention to the condition of the car.