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Seems weird. The I6 has a few packaging issues that made them unpopular in the 1980s when front drive vehicles became the standard. Australia was awash in I6
by smackeyacky 8mo ago
Seems weird. The I6 has a few packaging issues that made them unpopular in the 1980s when front drive vehicles became the standard.
Australia was awash in I6 motors, from the GM Holden motors, the Ford Falcon engine and the Chrysler slant 6 that got replaced by a locally developed version of a Chrysler 6 that was never finished by the US corp. they were all boring, mostly durable, mostly reliable engines for a family car.
Even BMC/Leyland had one. Uniquely they fitted it across the chassis of a land crab derived vehicle which showed why the I6 was ill suited to being packaged as anything other than in line with a rear drive drivetrain.
The V6 fits better in front drive cars for obvious reasons.
Hybrid cars change the equation somewhat, the skateboard chassis doesn’t seem all that suited to an I6 but here we are.
Chrysler have unfortunately found out that no matter how good you make one, customers still want a V8 and I concur.
- MindSpunk 8mo agoToyota with the G family and JZ family + Nissan with the RB family too. They were prolific in RWD cars. Daewoo put one in a FWD car in the mid 2000s for some reason too.
- thinkling 8mo agoI don't think hybrids use skateboard designs the way EVs do? The battery for a hybrid is so much smaller, they usually steal space under the rear seat and/or in the trunk afaik.
- Scramblejams 8mo agoUpsides are that they're both first- and second-order naturally balanced, requiring no balance shafts, which reduces weight and makes them very low vibration. I keep waiting for someone to come up with a lightweight, turbonormalized straight six that runs on Jet A to replace old turboprop engines on aircraft, but I digress...
- GenerWork 8mo agoQuestion about that, wouldn't packaging be an issue unless you really shrunk the engine size? I thought that's what makes LS swaps into planes so interesting because you get a fair amount of power in a small package.
- Scramblejams 8mo agoYou're right, packaging would definitely be a challenge. The cylinder head would need to be low profile, conformal exhaust headers, dry sumped, and put all the plumbing you can (including the turbo and wastegate) behind the block. Maybe it’s not feasible, but it sure would be an interesting puzzle to try! The peeps I've talked to who've done LS swaps seemed more interested in the economic, technological, and fuel economy leaps made versus the certified air-cooled default choices rather than the power, but YMMV...
- rasz 8mo agoNothing boring about Ford Barra, its Aussie 2JZ.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 8mo agoAh, the old Chrysler slant 6. I had friends who would buy used beater cars as long as they had these engines. They never seemed to die. Everything would be broken, but that engine always started.