V5 balancing......

Right so, just been speaking to my bro-in-law about V5. How is it balanced? Surely it will be out of balance if it has three cylinders on one side and two on the other???

Discuss......

Define out of balance..
I think I can see what your getting at uneven power delivery ?
I think the bottom line is that you get a power stroke for more engine turning degrees with a multi cyclinder car than you do with a 4pot.

I seem to remember reading that for some reason 5pots have quite a smooth running characteristic for some reason.
Wikipedia probably.

When I say out of balance, I mean the that one bank has 3 cylinders firing, and the other has two. 720deg / 5 = 144deg per cylinder fire. I would have expected there to be an uneven stress on the two sides of the cylinder head.

5 pot in line are supposed to be smooth (as are 6 inline), but I can understand that, as you decrease the angular time between firing.

You're forgetting one important thing Stu. The VR5 is not a true V engine. It is a staggered inline, therefore doesn't have the same imbalance issues 2 seperate banks would have.

The main engines which suffer imbalance problems are crossplane V8s, large capacity 4 pots and boxer engines. I.e. A 3 cylinder boxer wouldn't work, but a 3 cylinder inline or VR3, would.

Just discovered that a woman from work has a V5 toledo. Apparently she drives like a granny, but slower. I laughed hard when I realised it was her car...

V5 engines are dynamically balanced using a balance factor. Much like the V6, V8 and I5 engines.

It basically means you need to make up bobweights to go on the crank journals and balance the crank with them attached. Unlike a 4pot which can be zero balanced as it is a true symmetrical crank being two up two down.

Depending on the geometry of the crank journal/counterweight configuration the percentage balance factor will alter.