the block and crank might be the costly part heads and exhaust you can take from any inline 4
inline 4 crank geometry has a second order vibration that is normally avoided by keeping the engine below that speed or in other cases above that speed
longer stroke makes the crank arms longer and puts the connecting rod closer to the piston bore there more sideways thrust on the piston wall and something not often talked about is how the crank will take longer to re set its moment of inertia
or put another way a larger movement of the piston is being translated into a smaller moment of the crank like the point of effort being moved further away from the fulcrum and the point of load
at large in the public rotational force seems to be poorly understood even tho it can be explained in much the same way as a normal lever given that both involve rotation its just normal levers have less centripetal force
Daniel Sanders
Block and crank are in fact not that different when it comes to cost. Material cost is a minor part of total cost and the work and machine time to make a V8 as opposed to an I4 doesn't scale linearly, but in favor of the V8 (it's more expensive, but not nearly twice, maybe 1.2-1.5x at most). The fact you need 2 heads where you once needed only 1, and 8 pistons where you needed 4 is what adds up, although economy of scale helps a little bit here. In the end, 1x V8 is cheaper than 2x I4, not to mention easier to package.
Sebastian Harris
Not enough compression.
Nolan Reed
Bore = Torque
Stroke = Speed
Eli Wood
>The fact you need 2 heads where you once needed only 1, and 8 pistons where you needed 4 is what adds up, I was thinking more in terms of tooling like how some brands are keeping the inline six about just because the heads can share development and tooling costs with the v12 rather than having to make a v6 that would share less parts and processes
on top of being able to fit in almost the same length as an inline engine (ford model a style) the v has kind of neat packaging with symmetry that allows the crab to nest in the valley and gives the exhausts a place to sit also the valve train can just be powered from a single hub just by taking and inline and rotating it 90 degrees and flipping it
>now on to the lesser types Subaru DOHC boxer with its two heads and four cams late bmw with over head cams operating an ohv type rocker system or the Ariel square four square four/twin parallel twin any number of multi bank x or h types
