Cylinder Offset Changes Everything

Let’s imagine two engines made from the same parts. They have the same crankshaft, the same piston, the same wrist pin and the same connecting rod. The only difference between them is that this engine has the cylinder center offset from the crankshaft center whereas in this engine they are perfectly aligned. If you observe these two engines in rotation you can see that they do the same thing. The crankshaft rotates, the piston reciprocates, the rod does it’s own thing. However this is nothing other than a superficial illusion, because this little offset actually changes everything. Despite being made from the same parts these two engines are fundamentally different. The cylinder offset impacts power and efficiency as well as engine size, it dramatically influences engine balance and it disrupts the length and duration of the piston strokes. And in this video we will explain how and why all of this happens and why many recent engines employ an offset cylinder configuration. We will start simple and