Why Inline 6 Cylinders Are Better Than V6 Engines - A Comeback Story

hello everyone and welcome to this video we are talking about six

cylinders

specifically

inline

six and a mercedes m256 engine which is awesome this is actually a feel good

story

about engine downsizing and by all means Generally we are all very sad about the downsizing of the engine because the v8 is disappearing and in its place we have a lot of little four

cylinders

and that makes people sad because the four cylinders are smaller and you know they don't make as cool sounds and They're not that big and those are bad things and that's why people are sad about the downsizing, which I think is fair in some ways, but there's actually some beauty to it and it's the straight sixes that are coming back, so what Mercedes throughout its hi

story

has had a lot of

inline

sixes, but they kind of faded out of favor. of the v6 uh, which they paired with their v8, so on their big powerful honking

engines

, for example, we're on the gle 450, which I believe there's a v8 option, but regardless, we're driving the six version cylinders, so in this gla 450, which is a hundred thousand dollars, an incredible amount of money and honestly, the car itself, meh, whatever it is, the engine is great and that's what I'm excited about, for what in the history of Mercedes they take the V8 engine that they cut. the cylinders now have a v6 that fits in the same package they can make those

engines

in a similar format it's easy to do from a production standpoint it makes a lot of sense to do it right but now we're in the world where inline four cylinders actually they are taking over Mercedes does it very well so they have an inline four where, here is a problem I have with this car, every time you say mercedes it says how can I help you so now I have to say I turn off and then I lose my train of thought simply because this thing always reacts every time I say Mercedes, how can I help you?

I hate you okay voice activation is terribly annoying but mercedes makes really good inline four cylinder engines in fact in the gla45 they have a two liter inline four making 375 horsepower. If we go back just 10 years, you know, the 4 liter v6 mustang engine makes 210 horsepower and Mercedes is making almost twice the power with literally half the displacement. Turbochargers are great and there are some interesting things about four-cylinder engines. I've had quite a few and love them anyway. You know, downsizing is becoming more popular, so these engines, these smaller engines are becoming more popular, so what makes sense? to do it right if you have a very popular inline four segment why not just add two extra cylinders for vehicles you want to have more power like this gle 450 and that's what mercedes did.

They added the inline six back into the rotation they can make the i4 and i6 on the same production line which saves manufacturing costs and that's the real reason they brought it back, it's not necessarily the inherent advantages of an inline six, which there are a lot of, it really is that they could do it from a cost perspective where the v6 and the v8 were separating and you know it didn't make sense to continue making these two different engines when there was something in common between the i4 and there could be with an i6, so the i6 is coming well, what's the challenge with a straight six?

They are very long, so how do you fit a straight six into an engine bay that was previously designed for a v6 engine? Well Mercedes did two smart things here so the first thing they did was just reduce the bore size so they went from 88 millimeters to 83 millimeters, you know with six different cylinders those cylinders get closer together and overall the engine length will be shorter, they shaved off a few inches by simply reducing the bore and increasing the stroke compared to their v6 engine, the second thing they did and this is very smart is they electrified the engine and now, instead of where you would traditionally see a torque converter right at the end of that crankshaft, having an integrated starter alternator what Mercedes calls isg now why does isg mean integrated starter alternator and not generator?

I don't know, maybe the alternator in German starts with a jeep or maybe their naming convention doesn't make sense, just like the gle 450. It doesn't make any sense because 450 doesn't mean anything, so you know, I don't know the naming convention and why it's indicated for letters that are isa, regardless of the fact that they electrified the engine, they put in this little pancake engine, which is cool. And what this little engine allows them to do because it also acts as a generator is they can get rid of the accessory belt on the front of the engine so you don't have an alternator that you have to spin. an electric water pump that this generator can power and it also has an electric air compressor for your air conditioning system so you don't need that accessory belt in the front, it eliminates that accessory belt and that gives you more space in front of the engine, etc.

If you really look, it's got a straight-six and there's not much to see because it's a pretty tight engine bay when you open the hood, but there's actually room in front of the engine and that's what impressed me quite a bit. to see because it's a long straight-six engine and because they've reduced the block length through that bore design and because they've gotten rid of that accessory belt, the front of the engine still has room in front, why? that? otherwise this integrated starter alternator is great the good thing about this is how much torque it has so it's only about 22 horsepower ok no big deal but it makes over 160 lbs -ft of torque, so this little pancake engine is launched last. from a crankshaft from an engine that already makes quite a bit of power it has 160 foot-pounds of torque which is more than what my subaru crosstrek has and that is the complete engine this is just a small addition to the engine it is a 48 volt system it is a a small motor placed on the end, but that means you can fill the gap where the turbocharger hasn't kicked in yet, you can use electric torque for instant start and you have extra torque when you step up from there. engine, in addition to waiting, you know, until the turbo kicks up and then once the turbo is up to speed, you'll get a lot of torque from the engine itself, so it's really a pretty clever integration and, in fact, with the amg version of this engine, is the same inline six cylinder has that little engine in the integrated starter alternator and then they also include an electric air compressor, so it's basically an electric supercharger that works with the 48 system volts, so it can provide boost in 0.3 seconds to the motor.

And so you know boost from the fact that you have electric boost from the engine, you have boost from this electric air compressor and then you have boost from the turbo charger, so it's just boost, boost, boost, I mean, three times the boost that is. It's a lot of fun, it's amazing, it's a very smart, uh, little engine, especially with that amg version where you add the electric supercharger, very cool stuff, so the system includes a 0.9 kilowatt hour battery and that battery is used to power that 48 volt system. and you can also get regen when you're braking to get into the battery pack as well as just charging it using the engine to spin the alternator isg system.

So what else is it about straight-sixes that are so special, and honestly, I think they're one? one of the best styles of engines out there and part of that is the balance that they have, so assuming your manufacturing tolerances are very good, your primary and secondary forces will all be balanced, as well as your primary and secondary moments, so which is smooth as butter. engine running and that's great on its own, plus compared to a v6 it's much simpler, you only have one cylinder head instead of two, you only have two camshafts instead of four, you only have one exhaust manifold instead of two you only have one turbocharger instead of two, you only have one catalytic converter right next to the exhaust instead of two, so all the simplification can save you costs and from a maintenance point of view, I mean , an inline six is ​​much easier to work with, assuming it has the space, than a v6 simply because it doesn't have all these duplicate parts and you don't have to worry about knowing the angle of the engine and how it's packed inside, it's all in the part. higher, it has easier access, another advantage it has is that by having the exhaust on one side and the intake on the other side, you can bring the catalytic converter much closer to the engine, which helps warm it up more quickly when you are just starting , aside from the fact that Mercedes is obviously benefiting from a cost standpoint by producing this because they can do it by using the four-cylinder and adding two cylinders to it.

There are actually very real benefits to an inline six-cylinder. I think it's a great engine, that being said. the car itself, the gle 450, i think the engine is amazing, i think it's a little masked about how amazing it is, uh, because of this vehicle, i mean, this thing is a tank, it's pretty heavy, unfortunately no you can feel the 362 horsepower and 369 lbs. feet of torque the low end grunt that it has because of that electric motor the thing is too heavy to really take advantage of all that power and torque and then you know obviously it needs it because it's heavy but it doesn't feel particularly that fast I think the Another thing this has problems with is the transmission, so there is a nine speed automatic and I don't think it's that wonderful.

I mean there are two things I really like in transmissions when they shift very quickly and when they shift very smoothly and this thing is capable of doing both sometimes but most of the time I feel like it doesn't do either , it's a little bit difficult and when you ask for it you put your foot down and you wait and wait and wait and then it finally changes for you and even if you put it in and you know I'm in comfort mode so of course it's going to take a little bit longer than if I were in sport plus, but even when I'm in sport plus, and I put my foot to the floor, there is a healthy delay between the moment I ask for power and the moment it shifts into the correct gear and then starts giving me power and I think that's a little disappointing.

There's a kind of disconnect as to what the driver is. asking and what this transmission offers, so the transmission, the response time it has when you ask it to change gears and that kind of thing, even using these paddle shifters, I don't feel like it's there and that's a bit of a shame For me I think the ride quality is very good for what it's worth, it's a fantastic ride, the steering is basically completely numb and unfortunately if you turn the cruise control on and you have the power steering you're constantly making these little corrections. and it feels horrible to drive with that power steering instead of, you know, like you think a computer could say this is the perfect angle.

I'll keep it there, it's the German way, but instead it's like oh no, I'm not. sure of the road, what you're doing ahead and that's why you move the steering wheel on the spot or if you hold it steady enough you just have that feeling in your hand as it's going left, right, left, right and you're just trying to hold on to it . It's in the center and it says no, go this way, don't go that way, so the steering moves a little bit. I'm not excited about the transmission, but we're excited about the downsizing simply because it's brought this m256 engine back, I mean, brought back.

We're bringing a straight-six engine back to the Mercedes family and I think it's great. I think the straight six is ​​great, so I'm excited about the engine and maybe I'll try it in another vehicle and appreciate it a little. Furthermore, thank you all so much for watching and if you have any questions or comments, of course, feel free to leave them below.