12/29/24, 1:11 PM Crossplane - Wikipedia 12/29/24, 1:11 PM Crossplane - Wikipedia

bank of the crossplane engine has four distinct piston phases that cancel the second-order free forces
entirely, leaving only minor vibrations due to variation in masses of components during manufacture.

However, the 180° disposition of the end and middle crank throws does result in a primary (crank
speed) rocking couple, which in the 90° V case can be countered by weighting the crankshaft

Crossplane appropriately, much like a V-Twin.[2] Other V-angles generally require a balancer shaft to keep things
as smooth.
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in
Because of the heavy counterweights on each crank throw, most crossplane V8s have very heavy
crank rotation) between the crank throws.[1] The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular
crankshafts, meaning they are not as free revving in general as their flatplane counterparts. Early
configuration used in V8 road cars.
Chrysler Hemi V8 had heavy counterweights, but the middle two positions on both sides of the center
Aside from the V8 already mentioned, other examples of configurations using such 90° piston phases main bearing (the third of 5 mains) did not have any counterweight. Because these positions are
include straight-2, straight-4, V2, and V4 engines. located close to the center of engine, they contribute less to countering any rocking motions - hence
the use of external balance weights (e.g. in the crank nose pulley), which requires less extra mass for
Crossplane crankshafts could feasibly be used with a great many other cylinder configurations, but the the same balancing effect.
advantages and disadvantages described below may not apply to any or all of them and must be
considered on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, the uneven firing in each bank (see below), as well as the 90° piston phases
themselves, do contribute to torsion in the crankshaft which can be noticeable - it is for this reason
that crossplane V8s have tuned mass dampers fitted to them, again usually on the free end of the
Crossplane V8 crankshaft crankshaft. In later years, first Indee and later F1 engine developers took notice in the high revving
potential of flat plane crank V8s. The first hi-RPM flat plane crank engine was developed in Novi,
Michigan by Bud Winfield, and raced at Indy in 1941 as the Winfield Special. This engine, later known
Design as the Novi Engine, was raced at Indy up until 1962. In F1, in 1962 Coventry Climax adopted the high
3d model of a cross-plane revving flat plane engine with their Mk.III FWMV in 1963. BRM made the same switch at about the
The most common crossplane crankshaft for a 90° V8 engine has crankshaft demonstrating the 90 same time, and this carried over into their 1964 P261 F1 car.
four crankpins, each serving two cylinders on opposing banks, degree angle between the crank
offset at 90° from the adjacent crankpins. The first and last of the throws.
four crank pins are at 180° with respect to each other as are the Firing intervals
second and third, with each pair at 90° to the other, so that viewed Four stroke crossplane V8 engines have even 90 degree ignition intervals, but unevenly spaced firing
from the end the crankshaft forms a cross. patterns within each cylinder bank.

The crankpins are therefore in two planes crossed at 90°, hence The firing order on the Left and Right banks are generally LRLLRLRR or RLRRLRLL, with each 'L'
the name crossplane. A crossplane V8 crankshaft may have up to or 'R' ignition being separated by 90° crank rotation for a total of 720° for eight ignitions. As can be
nine main bearings in the case of an eight throw design, and seen by counting four characters to the right of each 'L' or 'R' (4 x 90° = 360°), the cylinders that fire
usually has five bearings supporting four throws each with a (and thus exhaust) at 360° phase difference reside in opposite banks in a crossplane V8.
shared crank pin.
The actual intervals in each bank are 180-90-180-270 crankshaft degrees, in various orders depending
Ford V8 crankshaft
The crossplane design was first proposed in 1915, and developed on the engine, and not usually in the same order in each bank. The exact combinations depends on the
by Cadillac and Peerless, both of whom produced flatplane V8s crankshaft "handedness", the direction of rotation and which of the 360° pairs is ignited first in the
before introducing the crossplane design. Cadillac introduced the first crossplane in 1923, with order.
Peerless following in 1924.

Sound
Balance and Smoothness The characteristic "burble" of a crossplane V8 comes from the exhaust manifold design, which
The crossplane V8 was developed to produce a smoother engine than possible with a flatplane design. typically merges all four exhaust ports on each bank of four cylinders into one exit for convenience.
Because four pistons stop and start together in the same plane in both banks, the second-order forces This accentuates the pattern outlined above, sometimes described as "potato-potato", mimicking the
inherent to the flatplane design stack up and become noticeable in large displacement engines. Each alternating sequential interval and longer gap.

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The specific firing order of the design, not having pistons disposed at 90° to each other in
engine and the exhaust separate banks, requires a balance shaft to counter the rocking
configuration can lead to vibration disadvantages arising from plane imbalances on
subtle variations which may or reciprocating mass and rotating mass. Please see engine balance
may not be noticeable to article for details.
enthusiasts.

Other sounds are possible by 2009+ Yamaha YZF-R1

careful grouping of the exhaust 1963 BRM P578 with individual
The 2009 Yamaha YZF-R1 motorcycle uses a crossplane
This is a modern, less serpentine exhaust stacks.
pulses, but the packaging crankshaft, employing a crank-speed balance shaft to counter the
street version of the crossover
(space) requirements generally Crank throw orientation is up-left-
exhaust on a Ford GT40. inherent rocking vibration (primary rocking couple) described
make this unfeasible in road-going machines. right-down in this drawing in
above.
contrast to flatplane's up-down-
down-up
This was inspired by Yamaha's M1 MotoGP racing models, which
Tuning
continue to use crossplane cranks to this date because of their
Recall that even firing pairs are disposed in opposite banks, so significant inertial torque advantage at the extreme high rpm operation these engines see. Yamaha
long equal-length exhaust pipes are needed to merge these pairs claims advances in metal forging technologies made this a practical production sportbike.[7]
and achieve uniform scavenging.[3]

One of the earliest examples of such a tuned exhaust for a URS engine
crossplane V8 was as fitted to the 1.5 Litre Coventry Climax
The so-called Fath-Kuhn straight-four engine, as used to relative success in motorcycle and side-car
A NASCAR V8 engine with Tri-Y FWMV Mk.I and Mk.II engines in the early 1960s - these were
exhaust racing from 1968 by the private URS racing team, was also a crossplane type. It was a different
known to get in the way of servicing the engine itself, however.
configuration to that normally used in a V8 or indeed in the Yamaha above, with two of the throws
Many racing crossplane V8 engines (like Ford 4.2L DOHC V8 for being swapped around - i.e. the throws may be described as being at absolute angles of 0, 90, 180, and
Indy racing) had exhaust ports on the inside of the V angle to make these exhaust pipe lengths shorter 270 degrees, versus the more usual 0, 90, 270, 180. This results in a slightly reduced primary rocking
and the merges easier to achieve without causing packaging issues.[4] The Ford GT40 made the couple, but introduces higher order couples of much lower magnitude.
concept on production-based V8s famous with an elaborate arrangement of long exhaust pipes
The different layout was primarily chosen to reduce the impact of the inertial torsion inherent with
nicknamed "Bundle of Snakes". Such systems are also sometimes called "180-degree headers",
crank throws spaced 90° apart due to the pistons being accelerated (start-stop motion), given this
referencing the 180° intervals collected in each branch, similar to a flatplane V8.
engine was meant to be high revving and inertial forces scale as to the square of engine speed. The
reduction in torsion was achieved by splitting the crank into two separate parts, geared together, from
Prior to this, straight individual "stack pipes", or "zoomies", were sometimes used (e.g. BRM[5]) to
their respective midpoints, via a counter-shaft, from which power was delivered to the gearbox.[8]
avoid the negative impact of uneven exhaust pulse interference on scavenging, at the cost of not
benefiting from the positive extraction effects of merging, as above. Even afterwards on many
It is likely this inertial torsion within the crank is the reason for Yamaha citing crank forging
occasions the performance deficit was accepted and ordinary 4-into-1 systems per bank were
improvements as a reason for the cross-plane crank being viable in a road bike. It is less of an issue in
employed for convenience. Some of the gap can be made up with performance-oriented 4-into-2-into-
the V8 because each throw is shared by two pistons already offset by 90°.
1, or "Tri-Y", exhausts, e.g. those used in NASCAR and V8 Supercars.[6]

Firing intervals
Inline-four crossplane crankshaft Crossplane crankshafts used in a four-stroke, four-cylinder engine result in uneven firing, since the
natural separation of ignition events is (720°/4 =) 180° in such an engine (hence the popularity of
Unlike in a V8, crossplane arrangement in inline-four engines results in unevenly distributed firing 180° flat-plane crank). The firing intervals (the space between ignition events) for the crossplane R1
pattern, so the use tends to be limited to extremely high-revving engines. In such engines, the and URS engines are 90-180-270-180 (crank degrees), but other intervals are possible including those
advantage of less secondary imbalance outweighs the irregular firing interval disadvantage. This due to so-called big-bang firing orders. The uneven firing is the cause of the distinctive sound of this
configuration, which is superficially a combination of the 270-450 (90° V-Twin), 180-540 (180°
straight twin) and 90-630 ("twingled" V-Twin) intervals, the dominant interval perceptually being the
270° one.
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The 90° throw separation would make the cross-plane crank a natural choice for a two-stroke straight
four, providing the advantages of both evenly spaced firing and less secondary vibration when the
increased rocking vibrations are countered with a crank-speed balance shaft.

Straight-twin cranks
Straight-twin motorcycle engines (a.k.a. "parallel-twin" and "vertical twin") historically came in two
types, neither of which were "cross plane": 360° cranks with their pistons moving in tandem, or 180°
cranks with their pistons moving in opposite phase.

Beginning with Edward Turner's Triumph Speed Twin, most classic English 4-stroke roadsters
(Triumph, BSA, Norton, Royal Enfield, etc) used the 360° cranks; but in the 1960s, Honda adopted
the 180° cranks for its OHC 4-stroke parallel twins, such as the 450cc "Black Bomber" and CB500T.
On a small displacement bike, the rocking couple was acceptable without a balance shaft, particularly
when compared to a similar sized 360° twin similarly lacking a balance shaft. The 400cc
Dream/Hawk CB250/400T replaced the 4 cylinder CB400F, and to obtain smoother running closer, it
had a 360° twin with a balance shaft - the even firing of the 360° crank noticeably smoother than the
uneven 180° crank.

In 1995, Yamaha fitted 270° crankshaft to its TRX850 and in 1996 to the TDM850 MK2, plus a
balance shaft to counter the resulting combination of free forces and rocking couples. The 270° crank
has smaller free forces than the 360° crank (but much larger than the 180° crank) and smaller rocking
couples than the 180° crank (the 360° crank has no such couple). Whilst firing was as uneven as a 90°
V-Twin, the 270° crank was not as uneven as the 180°. The 270° configuration represents a successful
compromise and has been adopted for Honda's NC700 and 2016 Africa Twin, Hinckley Triumph's
Scrambler and Thunderbird cruiser, Yamaha's MT-07 / FZ-07 and a number of others.

Some customising engineers have modified British and Yamaha XS 650 parallel-twin motorcycles to
become 277° engines, close to cross-plane crankshafts (aka offset crankshaft or rephased crankshaft)
with success in reducing the vibration from stock 360° vertical-twins.[9] Such modified engines have
not been given additional balancing systems, but they can have lighter flywheels since the pistons are
never simultaneously stationary, so rotational momentum does not need to be stored up as much to
compensate, it is simply transferred between the pistons directly (through the crankshaft). This is
seemingly inspired by the earlier work of Phil Irving.

This is a similar principle to that in Yamaha's crossplane four cylinder engines, where the extra two
cylinders account for the non-symmetry of piston motion in the upper and lower halves of their
strokes,[10] resulting in greater minimisation of the inertial torque caused by changes in rotational
momentum.

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