VW W Engines

[dicer]

Are these still in production? I know W8 was discontinued about 2005. Seems like a great way to increase displacement without using too large a package. Anyone know what if any plans are for these engines in the future? I know they had a pretty steep price.

 

[mattsooty]

The W engine, as a species is still very much alive and well within VAG. I can think of several applications: -

8 litre W16 Quad Turbo Bugatti Veyron
6 litre W12 Audi Q7
6 litre W12 Bi Turbo Bentley Continental GT

These engines are rather impressive pieces of engineering and, for both the Bentley & Bugatti applications I cant see them being retired in the near future.

MS

 

[franzh]

Youtube has some fascinating videos of these engines being machined and assembled.

Franz

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[dicer]

I am curious about the cylinder life, since they are aluminum. Any scoring problems? At least I know the W8 and W12 are aluminum not sure about the W16.
The W8's seemed to have cam adjuster problems, suppose to be a screen for oil supply that gets plugged then blows through and gets into the adjuster and I'm guessing scores it. Have they improved this with the W12 and W16's?
It was dissapointing seeing that the W8 was only 275 bhp, yet the W16 is something like 1000 bhp or so. It is a nice engine design.

 

[BrianPetersen]

The W16 gets helped out by its turbochargers (which the W8 didn't have).

Aluminum cylinder bores with modern coatings are extremely durable. Forget comparison to the Chevrolet Vega, because there isn't any. Production motorcycle engines have been using them widely for the last 10 years or so, and they're fine.

 

[TDIMeister]

The W8 is noteworthy because like Ferrari and F1 8-cylinder engines, it uses a 180-degree (a.k.a. flat-) crankshaft, with offset crankpins for an even firing order. This would give a very distinctive exhaust note. Second-order horizontal shake is dealt with using balance shafts.

I'm really sorry about the death of the W8, to be quite honest. I guess only an engine geek like me can fully appreciate it in spite (or because) of its elegant complexity... However, with already a comparatively very compact conventional V8 as used in the Audis, there was no justification to keep the W8 in the program. Several years ago, I predicted -- and still believe -- that VAG will come out with a flat-crank V8 for top Audis and maybe even some Porsches. It might come in the form of a smaller displacement than the current 4.2 litres (3.6 would make sense) and be forced-aspirated. It would seem to be a logical replacement for the 5.2 V10 used in the RS6 and V8s to be used in the Porsche Panamera.

 

[dicer]

TDI, I'm with you on that. I think the cylinder arrangement is a wonderful deal for compactness. I think the thing that killed it was the problems with the oil feed to tensioners and the cam adjusters. I thought the cylinders were untreated silicon aluminum like the rest of the cylinder block? Something else that may have helped its demise is the ridiculus cost too, which I see no reason for. I wish we could see more vehicles powered with the W-12 engine design, turbo's would be nice, then HP's should be up in the 800 or so range.