Displacement Range
In automobiles, the straight-six design is used for engine displacements ranging from approximately 2 to 5 litres (120 to 310 cu in). It is also sometimes used for smaller engines but these, although very smooth running, tend to be rather expensive to manufacture in terms of cost-to-power ratio. Since the length of an engine is roughly proportional to the number of cylinders in one bank (plus the width of one connecting rod in a "V" engine), the straight-six is necessarily longer than alternative layouts such as L4, V6, or V8.
The smallest production straight-six was found in the Benelli 750 Sei motorcycle, displacing 747.7 cc (45.63 cu in) (0.7477 L). Honda and Mike Hailwood raced in the 1960s with the RC166 250 cc (15 cu in) (0.25 L) six-cylinder, 24-valve motorcycle engine. Pre-World War II engines could be quite large by modern standards — such as the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost's 7.4 L engine and the 824 cuin (13.5 L) of the 1910s Peerless, Pierce, and Fageol. The largest modern passenger-car straight-sixes are the 4.2 L powerplants found in several Jaguars and AMCs, the 4.3 L Hemi Six, the 4.0 TVR Speed Six, the 4.0 Ford Barra, the 4.1 Chevrolet 250, the 4.2 Chevrolet Vortec 4200, 4.2 L Toyota Land Cruiser (Diesel), 4.9 Ford, 4.5 and 4.8 Nissan, 4.8 Chevrolet, and the 5.0 L of Hudson H-145 (produced until 1957). As of 2009, the Cummins B Series engine used in Dodge Ram pickup trucks displaced up to 6.7 L
The Gipsy Six and Gipsy Queen, made by the de Havilland Engine Company from 1935 until 1950, were inverted straight-six engines displacing 560.6 cubic inches (9.187 L). They were used in a variety of aircraft including the de Havilland Dragon Rapide and the Cierva W.9 experimental helicopter.
Because it is a fully balanced configuration, the straight-six can be scaled up to very large sizes for heavy truck, industrial and marine use, such as the 16 L (980 cu in) Volvo diesel engine and the 15 L Cummins ISX used in heavy vehicles. The largest are used to power ships, and use fuel oil. The straight-six can also be viewed as a scalable modular component of larger motors which stack several straight-sixes together, e.g. flat- or V-12s, W-18s, etc.
Read more about this topic: Straight-six Engine
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