we are going to be comparing inline four-cylinder engines with boxer 4-cylinder engines and talking about the individual advantages and

disadvantages of each engine layout. We have a 3D printed EJ20 Subaru boxer engine as

well as a 22RE Toyota inline four-cylinder engine

we'll start fairly basic and work our way through several different topics for each layout

including the four strokes the firing interval and order the

vibrations of each layout the packaging differences the cylinder head differences and finally a bit about the sound of each engine.

Looking at either layout, they're both based on the same four strokes intake, compression, power, and exhaust.

Both engines fire one cylinder for every 180 degrees of crankshaft rotation

but they have slightly different firing orders on each engine. We can see cylinders 1, 2, 3, and 4

for the boxer engine the firing interval is 1, 3, 2, 4 while on the straight four it's 1, 3, 4, 2.

So the order of the last two cylinders firing is switched.

Now these layouts matched with the firing interval make for some interesting differences as far as how the engines are balanced on the

boxer engine you'll notice the pair of pistons move in and out together

this means that the primary forces when the pistons reach the top of the cylinder as

well as when they reach the bottom of the cylinder are canceled out on the inline four-cylinder engine

it's the same story the primary forces cancel out as the pairs of pistons reach the top and bottom at the same time

when we get into secondary forces however the engines begin to differ.

Secondary forces are created due to the piston traveling faster at the top half of the cylinder then at the bottom half something

i'll include a link to in the video description

that breaks it down in great detail what you need to know though is that?

when the piston reaches the very top of the cylinder or the very bottom the secondary forces point up we're out from the piston

now with the boxer engine since the pistons point opposite each other these forces are balanced out

resulting in a very smooth running engine for the inline 4 all of the forces point in the same direction

and thus do not cancel each other out causing the engine to vibrate unless balancing shafts are used the boxer engine isn't perfect however

because the pistons do not perfectly align with each other it creates a rocking moment which makes the engine want to rotate back and forth along the vertical axis.

What's fascinating though,

is that if you add two cylinders to either of these designs whether it's a boxer six or an inline six you can

perfectly eliminate all first and second order forces and moments

you might think the boxer six would have a rocking motion from the cylinder banks of three

but each bank of three cancels out the rocking motion of the other unlike in a V6 configuration

looking at the two engines both of these 3D printed engines are at 35% scales

you can actually compare them size-wise to one another

because of the inherent vibrations of inline four-cylinder engines you won't tend to see engine size as much larger than about three liters

so historically they have existed at much larger sizes one of the largest gasoline four cylinders currently made is in fact a Toyota engine a

2.7 inline 4 used in the Toyota Tacoma only porsche and Subaru currently used flat engines in their vehicles

so the size doesn't tend to be any larger than typical inline 4 cylinders even though it does have better vibration characteristics

the other biggest advantage of the boxer engine is the low profile which keeps the center of gravity low and thus reduces the amount of

load transfer you have in the car during braking cornering or

accelerating which improves grip with a lower center of gravity you can also reduce body roll and choose to use softer springs

additionally in the event of a collision

it's easier to position the engine so that it goes underneath the passenger compartment rather than into the passenger compartment

for improved safety. Now that's not to say that the inline four doesn't have its own size advantages

generally, it's a bit more compact with only one cylinder head

and it's not quite as wide as the boxer engine

this leaves more room for

suspension geometry and can also allow for a better steering angle since the tires won't have as much of an interference at full lock

moving on to the valvetrain although this particular inline 4 has a single overhead cam you'll much more commonly see dual overhead

like the boxer engine on modern vehicles

the big advantage with the inline 4 is that there's only one cylinder head meaning only one intake and one exhaust

camshaft less moving parts

and some weight saved. It's also far far easier to access the cylinder head for service, whether it's adjusting the valves or

replacing spark plugs the I-4 design makes it a much easier task

finally we get to the topic of sound and here's where most people will agree the box rumble is a better sound but it's not

really a true advantage

The boxer rumble is a result of unequal length headers and because Subaru is moving away from this exhaust design

New ones will generally sound pretty similar to other four-cylinder engines it would in fact be possible to design an inline

four-cylinder engine with different length exhaust pipes to create a unique rumble generally associated with Subarus.

But it's not ideal for exhaust scavenging to have unequal pulses

it's not the smartest way to route an exhaust or

four-cylinder engine

however

packaging does not the unequal header length seem appealing when paired with a boxer engine. And a big thank you to Eric Harrell for providing

the 3D printed models you can find links in the video description. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below,

thanks for watching!