W engine

W12 aircraft engine (circa 1930) A W engine is a type of piston engine where three or four cylinder banks share the same crankshaft, resembling the letter "W" when viewed from the front. W engines with three banks of cylinders are also called "broad arrow" engines, due to their shape resembling the British government broad arrow property mark. The most common W-type engine is the 2-bank type, with the Volkswagen Group experimenting with the Passat W8 and its 4.0 liter, 2-bank W8 engine and later implementing the concept with the group's Bentley division, creating a 6.0 liter W12 in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged variants. Due to the pre-existing VR-type engine only needing one cylinder head with one bank of cylinders, a Volkswagen 2-bank W-type engine is structured more similarly to a conventional 2-bank V engine as opposed to a "true" W engine. W engines are significantly less common than V engines. Compared with a V engine, a W engine is typically shorter but wider. In Volkswagen’s case, this allows for superior packaging in engine compartments intended for 6 and 8 cylinder engines, the Passat W8 being one such example.

W12 aircraft engine (circa 1930) A W engine is a type of piston engine where three or four cylinder banks share the same crankshaft, resembling the letter "W" when viewed from the front. W engines with three banks of cylinders are also called "broad arrow" engines, due to their shape resembling the British government broad arrow property mark. The most common W-type engine is the 2-bank type, with the Volkswagen Group experimenting with the Passat W8 and its 4.0 liter, 2-bank W8 engine and later implementing the concept with the group's Bentley division, creating a 6.0 liter W12 in both naturally aspirated and turbocharged variants. Due to the pre-existing VR-type engine only needing one cylinder head with one bank of cylinders, a Volkswagen 2-bank W-type engine is structured more similarly to a conventional 2-bank V engine as opposed to a "true" W engine. W engines are significantly less common than V engines. Compared with a V engine, a W engine is typically shorter but wider. In Volkswagen’s case, this allows for superior packaging in engine compartments intended for 6 and 8 cylinder engines, the Passat W8 being one such example. The W18 layout is rarely used, with the only production examples being several aircraft during the 1920s and 1930s, and CRM Motori SpA marine engines. In 2025 Porsche patented a new three-bank W18 engine with 3 turbochargers. ==References==

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375708486 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.