The Koenigsegg Jesko Sounds Utterly Insane With Its Flat-Plane Crank. See all 20 … 2308 Lumpkin Rd, Augusta, GA 30906, United States (706) 793-4249; Search The engine in the 458 Italia, for instance, is a flat-plane crank engine. BY ... the Agera’s and features a flat-plane 180-degree crankshaft. That’s not too bad for a V8, and not far from your 8000 RPM goal, and no rebuilding required. As it was, even with its longer stroke and more conservative aspirations for revs, the V10 experienced cam torsional problems that taxed the team early in the engine’s life, resulting in, amongst other things, the need for additional ‘de-coupling’ devices for the camshafts to reduce the vibration amplitude. To keep it in balance at 20,000rpm the crank has balance weights made from Densamet, a tungsten alloy that is normally found on the end of missiles. However, in 2006, the new rules mandated a minimum centre of gravity height and minimum weight, plus carbon cam covers were banned, all of which drove head design in a different direction. Exclusive: Cosworth opens up its Grand Prix motor. Six speed… Read more Cookie Policy | Despite the extra metal the designers had to work with, the duty cycle is so arduous that last season both the cylinder heads and block were discarded at each rebuild. Another challenge faced when chasing such high revs were the connecting rod and big end bearings, which displayed their weaknesses very publicly when Nico Rosberg’s failed spectacularly in Malaysia. if you laid the crank on a desk it would be flat. 2015 Shelby GT350 Mustang: This Is It. Then, with ever-increasing engine life mandated in the rules, further demands were placed on life critical components. "What Is A Flat-Plane Crank And Why Is It So Loud? The V8 engine with a cross-plane crankshaft is a common configuration for large automobile engines. Inline fours sound good. Developing well over 300bhp per litre and boasting a volumetric efficiency of 125 per cent at 20,000rpm they produce more power for their capacity than any other normally aspirated, four-stroke engines anywhere. How to design an engine around a pre-determined centre of gravity height was a new challenge. [3] Being in this in-line configuration allows for the engine to rev much faster, making it more suitable for racing engines. AUDI R8 V10 QUATTRO - 2009 27,000 miles, £56,000: an early V10 with a manual gearbox is probably the most charming, readily available version of … © 2021 Chelsea Magazine Company | However, today’s F1 engines are the result of a sweeping rule change by the FIA for the start of last season. Throughout the season, a large number of engine specifications had to be handled and extreme care was needed to ensure it was tackled efficiently. Most are done at 6500 RPM. A V8 flat plane crankshaft is special and the concept changes the way one must think about engine performance. I tried to get FCA Powertrain to develop a big (480-565 CID) flat-plane-crank V8 as a Viper V10/Hellcat V8S replacement when I was there but was unsuccessful. We have also built the entire fuel system into the body of the manifold as both fuel rails tie into a distribution plate which splits into internally boost referenced fuel regulators. For this reason, it remains useful in sports and racing cars. We had a lot of trouble with it and we managed to develop a suitable power curve without. The logic was that builders could take their current engine architecture and lop two cylinders off the end, saving money on re-designing crucial components of the engine. Engineers could choose to go with a flat-plane crank for more power or cross-plane crank for additional torque. If that’s true at 8000 rpm, it will make 53 more horsepower. The problem is ensuring the big end adopts the correct shape under load to achieve an even surface pressure across the bearing face with an uninterrupted film of oil. It looks very similar to an Inline-4 crankshaft, albeit with longer crank pins to accommodate two big ends. You then get into sectioning the piston or looking under the microscope for evidence.’. Flat plane crankshafts have been around for a long time, and they have both advantages and disadvantages over their cross plane counterparts. [1], Flat-plane cranks are used in V-configuration engines, generally with eight cylinders.[1]. With this knowledge, the design team felt confident going to the maximum allowable 98mm bore on the V8, and of being able to take maximum advantage of it with increased revs. A flat-plane crank is one of the great mysteries of the world, or so it would seem. With this in mind, special attention was given to stiffness throughout the engine and nowhere did it have a bigger influence on design than the cylinder heads. Figure 2 shows a typical Flat Plane V8 crankshaft. Jilbert again: ‘The engine is pretty progressive, and the drivability is excellent and has been praised by the drivers. At no point in the season did the pistons give any cause for concern. Because it didn’t use them. A crucial change between the TJ and the CA was the adoption of compound valve angles – valves positioned at an angle to each other, both longitudinally and laterally – giving a better combustion chamber shape. In the three years since the TJ was penned, Cosworth had done a great deal of work developing its simulation capacity. Achieving these figures was not without its challenges though, and the change to a V8 brought its own set of unique problems. Overall, it uses a 5.5L DOHC FPC V8 that produces 500 horsepower! Going to the largest permissible bore meant a shorter stroke, which would help achieve these revs, but it would also mean a larger and logically heavier piston. 5.2 liters. In an effort to reduce the power of cars in F1, the governing body decided to reduce the size of the engines. The crossplane crankshaft is used in most every production V8 sold in America today.On a crossplane crank, the four crank journals are arranged at 90-degree intervals (see image at left). Every issue provides unrivalled technical analysis of everything from World Championship series including Formula 1, to grass roots racing. Only toward the end of the year was sufficient knowledge being collected on the rate of deterioration for the rebuilds to start to re-use the heads. From what info I could find the Mustang guys running this motor have taken it to 7500 repeatedly and they are still running strong. Predictably, the most powerful engines in the world are the ones with the biggest budgets and, equally predictably, they are in Formula 1. The way in which a flat-plane works within a V8 engine is more like two in-line 4-cylinder engines mated together,[1] with the firing order of each order being in a Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left-Right-Left pattern. As its name suggests, a Flat plane V8 crankshaft has all its crank pins in a single plane. Traditional V8 cross planes can build large torque quickly due to the load distribution in two planes at the rod journals. Racers couldn't care less about this, provided it doesn't damage anything, but it would tend to mitigate against you buying the car, so road cars tend to be cross-plane, leading to a smoother ride. Privacy Settings. Racecar Engineering is the world’s leading motorsport technology magazine. Racecar Engineering is the world’s leading publication for motorsport technology and engineering. ‘In its first year, we really struggled to get an endurance test out of the TJ,’ recalls Jilbert. Hence, the name crossplane.Using the traditional V8 firing order of GM, AMC, Mopar, and most Ford OHV V8s (1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2), a cross plane crankshaft will p… But this was an area where Cosworth had developed its understanding greatly in previous years. Inline-four cylinder engines almost all use flat-plane cranks, and thus are not usually identified as such. In the world of V8 engines there’s two types of cranks; flat and cross style. NRE Billet Intake Manifold. However, with this in mind, Cosworth took a typically creative route, as Jilbert points out: ‘One of the things that did change when we went to the CA is that we only have a very small section of the port in the cylinder head. In order to keep weight as low as possible, Cosworth F1 engines have long since dropped steel liners and now rely on an iron-based coating on the aluminium bores. Crank Facts. (4 cylinders also apply but in far rarer situations) This is because the angles made by the crank can be either 180 degrees or 90 degrees. Without accurate tracking of parts and assembly procedures, reliability quickly deteriorates. Inside the Ford GT350’s Flat Plane Crank 5.2L V8 We Finally Get To See What Ford’s Putting In The GT350 and GT350R Mustang. When you look at this type of crankshaft along its axis from either end, it resembles a +. There are some exceptions such as the Ferrari-designed crossplane crank V8 of the Lancia Thema 8.32 and the flat-plane crank Ford Mustang GT350. The drivers will use that full spread of the power at various times.’ ‘Like all these things, it’s the detail in the design that matters.’ We take a look at how they’re different and what their benefits are. Space for coolant in an F1 block is at a premium, as Jilbert explains: ‘We have thermal analysis tools that allow us to design our water passageways efficiently. This design dictated much of the rest of the cylinder head, the camshafts being bolted each side of the beam and enclosed with carbon fibre cam covers. The benefits were clear at the end of 2005 when Cosworth was the first F1 engine builder to publicly demonstrate a current V8 revving to 20,000rpm. The crankshaft turns in a chambered crankcase running at 300-500millibars depression to reduce windage losses. However, there is a second, more traditional flat-crank design with the journals arranged up-down-down-up (UDDU) like a familiar inline four. Initially, the rev limit was reduced to ensure the life of the engines while the problem was tackled at the factory. The all-new C8.R uses a flat plane crankshaft! Without the same need to get weight low down in the engine, the efficiencies of the beam head were no longer an advantage and, with the harsher vibrations, stiffness across all bearings became a priority. ‘The heads are sealed with a very thin steel head gasket,’ explains Jilbert. RossD … Instead of 90-degree angle rod journal throws as you see in conventional American V-8s, the 5.2L flat-plane crank positions throws at 180 degrees, which makes the most of each power stroke. At £135,000 just for the bits, you need to be looking for a worthwhile power gain and not just trying to stretch component life a little further. Have you heard the news? Why? At a particular hairpin you might be down to 7-8000rpm, but when you are shifting down the main straight you might be using just 2-3000rpm [between ratios]. The location of the rod is entirely determined by the little end and the piston. Running higher revs called for a higher pressure in the pneumatic valve return system, producing high cam follower contact loads at low speeds, and it took several iterations in pre-season testing to overcome this problem. ‘On the CA we went in with much more confidence that the valve train was going to be successful from the outset because we had learnt so much from our simulations, rig testing, and from the TJ experience of course,’ says Jilbert. The latter specification TJ V10 engines produced around 915bhp (or 305bhp per litre) for Red Bull Racing during the 2005 season, reducing to 735bhp in restricted guise for Toro Rosso during the 2006 season. The bigger challenge was wear on the faces of the finger followers. This is indeed an impressive feat, when you consider that the piston has an equivalent mass of about 2.5 tonnes at 20,000rpm. Without the budgets available to the big manufacturer teams, Cosworth had not adopted aluminium beryllium alloy as a piston material and has always instead used 2618A, which is basically the same as RR58, the aluminium alloy used in the Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine pistons. ‘It was a new engine, it had bearing issues and torsional problems.’ To tackle these faults, alongside the obvious engineering activities, Cosworth improved its process and specification control across the site, including the machine shop, engine build and engine test stages. The flat-plane crankshaft is a design that is no longer used in most mass production road cars as it is more prone to vibration and is inherently much louder than a crossplane crankshaft. This concentrates metal in a tall, slim beam projecting up from the head along its entire length. Before “flat-plane crank” became a sexy new catchphrase, no one cared if an engine’s crank was flat, quasi-flat, semi-flat, kinda flat, or not flat at all. ‘It is critical to look at all the components in tremendous detail,’ explains Jilbert. In V8 engines, flat-plane cranks are less commonly used, but unlike the cross-plane crank, flat-plane cranks can be used, and are used almost always, in 4 cylinder engines. All the injectors are placed within the runner for out of sight injector placement. The result is impressive, with an exquisitely detailed area beneath the piston crown leaving metal only where it can contribute most efficiently to the strength of the component. It was an effective way of retaining stiffness, while lowering the overall weight and the centre of gravity of the engine. Extensive work on the rod design, bearing specification and choice of engine oil allowed the full 20,000rpm to be built up to again as the season progressed and confidence grew. ‘We had to develop our own technique which allows you to carefully balance the engine in various planes, just like your school physics experiments, but with a slightly more expensive product!’ explains Jilbert. Normal dye penetrant detection methods cannot always detect such cracks, especially if they are microscopically small or, for example, if material has been smoothed over the opening – say by the gudgeon pin moving in its bore. However, due to its simpler construction requiring less counterweight, it is inherently lighter with a higher rev limit. All F1 V8s use a flat-plane crank, which produces its own vibration signature, known to be more severe on components than a V10. + The flat-plane crank depicted in the excellent animation has its throws arrayed in an up-down-up-down (UDUD) configuration, the same type used in Ford’s recent Shelby Mustang GT350 V8. With these, and other more advanced developments, under its belt Cosworth set 20,000rpm as the number one target for its new V8 engine – the CA. ‘If you attempt to move the connecting rod along the crank pin there is a surprising amount of movement,’ notes Jilbert. Since 1999, Cosworth has used a ‘beam head’ design on its F1 engines. You have the steel gasket, which is basically only trying to keep the combustion gases in, then you have o-ring seals for the water and oil passageways.’ I believe the esthetics of the V8 sound have much to do with the harmonics of the explosions eminating from four cylinder four stroke engines. While the C7.R also had a displacement of 5.5-liters, the new model has a flat-plane crank V8 which is naturally aspirated and produces 500 hp (373 kW / 507 PS) and 480 lb-ft (650 Nm) of torque. How to keep the heads and block together with a gas-tight seal under the huge cylinder pressures the engine experiences is always a challenge. A big change between the TJ and CA engine projects was the knowledge the company had of the newer motor before it ran. While problems were anticipated with making this additional level of complexity work, in reality it turned out to be pretty straightforward. And, in an attempt to avoid saddling the teams with huge design budgets for all-new engines, dictated that engines should have the same, 90-degree V angle as most of the engines already in use but two less cylinders. What happens next is amazing. Receive the latest news, in-depth features, interviews and analysis in a monthly email put together by the magazine’s editorial team. They have a raspy voice and are naturally harmonious to the ear. The power developed by the CA was more than respectable from the outset and was the envy of the competition, climbing to in excess of 755bhp in the latest 6 Series engines, or 315bhp per litre. [2]. The Coyote Boss 302 motor goes to 7500 for 450hp. Usage in automobiles. At least 500 horsepower and 400 pound feet of torque. Privacy Policy | With this aim in mind, the company turned to a more conventional head design with plenty of metal around the cam bearings and bosses to make best use of the extra material now mandated higher up in the engine. Thus, the firing order on a flat-plane crank alternates between banks -- on a cross-plane crank it usually doesn't so you periodically get sequential exhaust pulses into the same exhaust side giving the "muscle car" rumble in a dual exhaust. The displacement of modern V8 engines is typically between 3.5 to 6.0 L (214 to 366 cu in), though larger and smaller examples have been produced, such as the 8.2 L (500 cu in) V8 engine used in the 1971–1978 Cadillac Eldorado. The crankshafts have an odd firing order (less efficient) and are heavier. I’d expect titanium rods. Written predominantly by engineers and professionals, it helps readers keep pace with news, products, technological developments and testing, providing informed analysis of results for the keen observer, industry expert or racer looking to expand their knowledge. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flat-plane_crank&oldid=895236776, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 May 2019, at 21:57. On the LT5 a flat plane crank was quoted as being good for 35ft lbs of torque. The M838T is a 90-degree, flat-plane thing with a redline of 8,000 rpm. A new engine project always brings its own set of unknowns as everything is being pushed so close to its limit. Chris Jilbert certainly believes so, and it is a tribute to the skills and ingenuity of the team at Cosworth’s Northampton base. Lingenfelter Performance Engineering put its LSx racing engines with a custom flat-plane crank on the dyno and shut the lights off. It is not unusual for the piston to be cracked when it comes out of the engine, it’s just a question of how big that crack is as to whether it is going to be a problem or not. The flat-plane crank (sometimes flatplane) is a type of crankshaft for use in internal combustion engines that has a 180 degree angle between crank throws. Terms & Conditions | Was it the most powerful engine in F1 last season? A system had been tried in 2000, but the idea was dropped and has not been used since, for the following reasons: ‘It’s the complexity, there’s more to go wrong. Because the stiffness varies along the head and within the block, you have to develop a method to tighten the cylinder head studs down to ensure that you get even clamping across the very small gasket area. However, there are a few exceptions with crossplane cranks. These responses are missing the main issue, and there's no such thing as a flat-plane V10. The flat-plane crank (sometimes flatplane) is a type of crankshaft for use in internal combustion engines that has a 180 degree angle between crank throws. Even the compression ring thickness is down to less than 0.7mm. To find out, we looked in detail at one of the best engines on the grid in 2006 season – the Cosworth CA. FC-Pilot wrote: ↑ Thu Mar 28, 2019 5:16 am Seeing first hand how bad Ford struggled with theirs you could not pay me enough to put a flat plane crank in a v8 I would own. Fortunately, modern computer aided design packages programmed with all the relevant densities can keep a running tally on its location at every stage in the design process, though measuring it on the finished engine has proved more difficult. Of course, the smaller volume we get away with the less weight we carry around and the better the packaging.’ Currently the V8 runs with around four litres of water in the entire cooling system, including the radiator. The rods are titanium and, unlike some other manufacturers, still have separate shell bearings. This is to avoid balancing issues with that config, and the V10 … Flat plane crank. The nvh characteristics have to be tamed with lightweight rods and pistons. The advantage is it gives the engine the maximum structural strength as a chassis component in the car with the minimum amount of material. Despite the higher return pressures, clearances are so tight that the valves will often mark the pistons during normal use, calling for a quarter degree or so adjustment in the timing to keep things safe. ‘Having the ability to accurately model the system in its entirety to predict the torsional vibration signatures, then correlating these with rig measurements to further refine the design process is critical when running an engine to 20,000rpm.’ How well the engine copes is shown by the output at the crank. A point to note about the engine is that it was not affected by the FIA’s ban on variable length inlet trumpets. That it was achieved with a fraction of the resources and cost to the customer of the manufacturer engines in F1 is remarkable. This is circulated at about 270 litres per minute by a small, high-revving impeller, which pumps the water out of the engine at 125degC. When introduced, Cosworth was able to boast having shaved 30kg off the weight of the whole engine, making it probably the lightest in F1 at the time. Using the expertise of industry professionals, we look in detail at racecar design and innovation, whilst also keeping you up to date with news and developments from all the major race series across the globe. With this in mind, special attention was given to stiffness throughout the engine and nowhere did it have a bigger influence on design than the cylinder heads. There is a slight loss in the torque curve but we have no issues with fixed inlets.’ Flat-plane cranks are used in V-configuration engines, generally with eight cylinders. Since titanium aluminide was banned, Cosworth has resorted to a more common titanium alloy for the valves, with solid-stemmed inlets and hollow, sodium-filled exhausts for extra cooling. In contrast to the TJ, the CA passed its endurance test on its first outing, which pleased but did not altogether surprise the staff at Northampton because of the tools they had used to design it. ‘It’s the only way you learn how the engine is behaving.’ Trying to keep on top of development with reliability testing is an expensive option that Cosworth has always had to use sparingly. the premise of a flat or crossplane crank only really applies to engines with 8 cylinders. [1] Flat-plane crankshafts are generally associated with European sports cars such as Ferrari and Lotus V8 engines, and cross-plane cranks with American manufacturers. Developing a Disadvantage: MV Agusta Moto2, ARA and DirtFish partner to support the growth of US rallying, Engineering in Formula E: Envision Virgin Racing. This allows us to do quite a lot of development work on the port, especially for this engine freeze, so you have got a short length in the head, but the barrel housings are free and the trumpets are free, so you can change all that legitimately.’ It has an odd-firing order and common pin crank, because it was essentially derived from a 90 degree V8 with two cylinders tacked on. All F1 V8s use a flat-plane crank, which produces its own vibration signature, known to be more severe on components than a V10. Even so, the TJ improved from 280 to 305bhp per litre during its three-year life, while engine life increased from 350km to 1550km. That’s the real term as it describes the construction of the crankshaft of the engine. With peak gas loads greater than 65kN, and peak inertia loads verging on 60kN, there is little wonder the connecting rods can stretch as much as 0.6mm during a single cycle. Flat-Plane V8s are commonly only used in high-performance engines, such as the likes of Ferrari. So moving other components within the head or changing the shape of the casting is not allowed. Paul They didn't struggle because of durability, they struggled because of NVH. All the pisons on one bank reach TDC or BDC at the same time. Using a flat-plane crank and a 90-degree V configuration, the British bruiser was apparently capable of being tuned to around 500bhp, but due … Water is still believed to be the best cooling medium and the engines run it with nothing more than the addition of a corrosion inhibitor. The F1 pistons are forged, before 95 per cent of the surface is machined. "Flat-plane" means that the crank throws are all in a single plane - i.e. Chris Jilbert, project manager at Cosworth, explains: ‘It was a continual evolution using FE [finite element analysis] experience, understanding the duty cycle on the piston and, of course, the evaluation of the components when they come back. Flat-plane crank: The crank pins are on opposite sides of the crank centerline - 180º apart. First found in the McLaren MP4-12C, McLaren went on to use it in the 650S, … ‘The deck on the block is accurately machined and the fire face of the cylinder head face is precision ground. The vibration is typically not an issue, as flat-plane-crank V8s are used almost exclusively in race applications or in exotic sports cars. Making sure you capture all of the information is critical. This is an area Cosworth has invested in heavily, developing bespoke software to help manage specification control and produce extensive build manuals for the engines. Flat plane crank v-8's are mildly out of balance, and will vibrate. The engine effectively becomes 2x 4 cylinders rather than one 8 cylinder engine (the firing order is that of a 4 cylinder engine), so it … The heads and block are cast using the famed Cosworth Casting Process in a dedicated bay at Grainger and Worrell using a Cosworth-developed aluminium alloy. The flat plane crank won’t make less torque at any engine speed assuming everything else equal. The flat-plane crank is a first for an American automaker because it employs an approach more common with Ferraris and other exotic European engines. How did it translate into reality, though? The inner surfaces of the ports are accurately machined and, despite the engine freeze, builders are allowed to modify them freely, but only outside the confines of the homologated casting.