June 08, 2025

Basic Engine Structure

Engines are classified by the type of fuel they use, such as gasoline or diesel but there are also several shapes of engines.

Inline type
The cylinders are arranged in a single row allowing for a simple structure. As the number of cylinders increases, the overall length of the engine increases as well.

V type
In a V type engine, the cylinders are arranged with the crank in between, allowing the engine body to be shorter than an inline engine with the same numbers of cylinders.
Additionally, since the shape of the block is close to cube, rigidity of the engine can be increased. The angle of the V (bank angle) can be 60 deg, 72 deg, 90 deg, etc.
On the other hand, the complexity of the structure increases as the number of parts increases as the number of parts increases.

Horizontally opposed
In addition to having a low center of gravity and a short overall length, the horizontally opposed pistons move in opposite directions to the left and right, cancelling each other force and resulting in smooth operating and low vibration.
Due to this it is having a low center of gravity compared to inline engines and make it stable.

Various equipment other than the engine are required to operate the engine. Now let's take a look at the structure of the engine and the various equipment needed to operate the engine.