**The Charm of Boxer Engines: A Match Made in Heaven**

As we delve into the world of mid-engine cars, a common concern arises: the potential problem of length. A large mass hanging over the rear axle can be detrimental to performance and handling. However, when combined with a boxer engine, the result is a match made in heaven.

A boxer engine's characteristics make it an ideal choice for mid-engine cars. The banks of cylinders are easily cooled, thanks to their wider spacing from each other, making the shorter but wider boxer engine a perfect pairing.

**The Flaws of Boxer Engines**

Like all engines, boxers have their flaws, which can be frustrating to deal with. One such issue is their complex design, requiring more parts and a better understanding to repair. Inline engines, on the other hand, can often get away with one set of overhead cams, whereas boxers need two distinct sets due to their separated cylinder banks.

This complexity leads to additional components, including:

* Two cylinder heads with associated head gaskets

* Intake and exhaust manifolds

* Double the number of camshafts

* More complex camshaft chains or belts

**Working on a Boxer Engine**

When it comes to working on a boxer engine, things can get tricky. Due to their unique design, it's often necessary to pull out the entire engine, jack it up, and access the various components. This can be a daunting task for even the most experienced mechanics.

**The Unique Firing Order of Boxer Engines**

The way boxer pistons fire is also noteworthy. Unlike inline engines, which typically fire in a sequence of 1-3-4-2, boxers have a unique firing order that "bounces" in its own way, with one cylinder firing after three and four.

**Loudness and Boxer Engines**

Boxer engines are often associated with a distinctive valve clatter, making them sound louder than other engines. This characteristic is not uncommon among enthusiasts who appreciate the unique sound of boxers.

**Commercial Production and Notable Models**

Today, boxer engines are primarily manufactured in Japan and Germany by a handful of companies, including those that produce high-performance sports cars, such as Porsche.

In conclusion, while boxer engines have their flaws, they also offer unique benefits that make them an attractive choice for mid-engine cars. Whether you're a seasoned mechanic or simply an enthusiast, understanding the intricacies of boxer engines can be rewarding and fascinating.

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**Join the Conversation**

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WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enit's the little engine that powered Porsches and won rallies it's the boxer engine like Muhammad Ali boxer engines are powerful efficient and loud they can go real around with the best but what makes them so unique let's find out why these engines float like a butterfly and sting like a bee boxer engines are so named because of their horizontally opposed Pistons they're also called flat engines or contra engines inline engines pistons and a straight run the engines have Pistons univision there's actually a difference between real boxers and flat or 180 degrees V engines but for the sake of my mental health we're just gonna refer to all of them as boxers for now don't add me in a boxer engines the Pistons are horizontal and positioned opposite from each other and when the Pistons fire they move in and out together much like a boxers gloves to be honest my boxing style looks a lot like the Wankel engine Karl Benz famed founder of mercedes-benz and Carl's jr. patented the engine in 1896 and gave it the name contra engine he named it that because he was a huge fan of the Nintendo game contra which hadn't come out yet and the engines Pistons move side to side like the side-scrolling shooter that's just a joke I don't want to see any of you Benz heads turns fight you don't want to catch these hands in a typical v-shaped engine alternating Pistons moved at a mirrored angle slightly less than 90 degrees the cylinders are slightly off from each other during the four-stroke cycle we're talking nanometers the force becomes unbalanced and that's a big problem like an apathetic teenager an unbalanced engine is not operating at its full potential no one lopsided weight distribution has a ripple effect on the car and can cause problems down the line and that's remedied by the use of a balance shaft an eccentric weighted shaft that offsets vibrations or by using the counterweights on the crankshaft boxers are lean mean balanced machines and they don't need balance shafts or crankshaft counter weights like other engines the configuration ensures typical movement and weight distribution from all pistols at any given time during its combustion cycle there's two Pistons going up two Pistons going down and if it's a six-cylinder - in the middle completely balanced and an inline four the Pistons still counteract force by firing opposite each other the Pistons reached the very top the very bottom at the cylinder at the same time cancelling out the primary forces when a piston passes through top dead center bottom dead center the change of direction produces an inertia force due to which the piston tends to move in the direction it was moving before the change and this is called primary force and it's mostly canceled out with balancing the problem with inline engines is secondary forces secondary forces are caused by the piston moving faster at the top half of the cylinder than the bottom half and they occur twice every half rotation causing force way up from the piston this leads to more vibration and imbalances in the engine boxers don't have this problem because the Pistons are pointed away from each other counteracting the primary and secondary forces this means a smoother ride in you're screaming down the dirt your STI however unbalanced movements caused by a reciprocating torque are unavoidable in boxer engines with less than six cylinders these unbalanced moments are also called a rocking couple my wife and I are also a rocking couple my lab because we like to have fun well because my life has no balance anywho what are we talking about Jar Jar Binks no boxer engines what we refer to as a boxer engine nowadays most often could technically be called a flat V they look almost identical so what sets them apart I'm getting to it lay off crank pins ever heard of them also called crank Journal's their rods that connect the Pistons to the counter chef and they're what differentiates boxer engines from flat V's boxer engines have one crank pin for every piston where flat V engines have one crank pin for every two Pistons opposing pistons on the flat feet share a crank pin and move in reciprocating harmony an advantage that boxer engines have over flat Vee is that their crank pins are cheaper to make crank pin that has to support two Pistons is inherently going to be more expensive it's got more force to support other than cost boxer engines tend to have less engine vibration than flat V's as well you feel in my vibrations first good job boxer engines have both advantages and disadvantage when compared to the more traditional v-shaped or inline engines one advantage is that flat engines are more stable and have a lower center of gravity just like butter bees this translates to better handling and reduce body roll if you want to try and experiment at home try laying on a skateboard and then go down a steep hill and put on some Stilson ride down that hill again you know hearing myself say that now don't alright don't do that what another positive side effect of having such a low lying engine is there's more room above the engine and that allows a cold air intake to be placed on top and in front of the engine while that best cold air is like the Alaska of engine space it's also why Subaru puts their inner coolers up there because there's room as far as physics are concerned flat engines possess an advantage over others and front-engine rear-wheel-drive cars but where they really shine is mid-engine cars boxer engines because they're flatter are much wider than other engines they're also much shorter often times as much as half the length of a v-shaped engine or an inline engine with the same amount of cylinders width of an engine is less of a concern with mid-engine cars but length can pose a problem you don't want a large mass hanging over the rear axle plus the banks of cylinders on a boxer engine are easy to cool what's our more widely spaced from each other so the shorter but wider boxer engine in a mid-engine car is a match made in heaven ah what a cute couple they better invite me to their wedding I already know what I'm gonna we're for every year there's a yang and boxers have no exception they got some flaws than other engines don't but hey everybody's got flaws right I mean not me but that's something that humans say first off boxer engines can be pain in the astronaut to fix the wide profile engine sits low on the chassis crammed in tighter than a metaphor in this sentence boxer engines are often more complex than other engines and that requires more parts and a better understating to fix inline engines can get away with one set of overhead cams where his boxers need two distinct sets because they got separated cylinder banks they've got not one but two cylinder heads with associated head gaskets intake and exhaust manifolds double the number of camshafts more complex camshaft chains or belts and more complex cooling so to work on it you almost always got to pull it out Jack it up but again slider so if you don't have to take it out that could be a bit easier than if you had to get out a V style or inline engine the way that boxer Pistons fire is unique as well in a typical inline four Pistons firing a sequence of 1 3 4 2 still balancing the two outside up Pistons with the inside down Pistons and vice versa a boxer engine fires one three to four bouncing in its own boxer II way and both of these are way different than the coolio engine which goes 1 2 3 or it doesn't have lasting power but it's a great way to get down but it's got to get up first boxers also tend to be louder the more common engines because of that valve clatter from the engine compartments not dance by air filters or other components but that's another reason people who love them love them I personally like loud things firecrackers wine shirts Sam Kinison man don't get me started on loud things loud things nowadays boxer engines are manufactured commercially in very few places mostly Japan and Germany and only a handful of companies still put out cars that use them flat boys you already know who they are vape masters if you don't know what makes them special by now well and I'm a complete failure my life is a sham yeah was I talking about Jar Jar is a Sith Lord but boxer engines anybody who knows me know that I care about protecting my ongoing data from snoops and hackers because I'm doing science stuff and it's secret but so how the heck can I protect it let me help you with this one Bart you need expressvpn VPN is a virtual private network so without that your internet browsing data can be tracked by your ISP add companies and hacker if you want to keep this top secret science data safe you should get expressvpn alright I'm gonna return some videotapes good thinking part ok so smart why didn't I think of that Express VPNs got the fastest speed consistently faster than other providers there are locations in 94 countries and thankfully 24/7 customer support you get help whenever you need it they're the only VPN provider to release a suite of open source leak testing tool less than $7 a month the 30-day money-back guarantee o takes one click take back you're gonna have privacy today and find out how you can get three months free by clicking the link in the description box press VPN comm slash science garage that's exp ress VPN dot-com slash science garage for three months free with a one-year package protect your privacy today hit this little yellow doughnut button to subscribe we're trying to bring you the best stuff we can the more people who subscribe the more cool stuff we get to bring to you we got new shows coming out almost every day check out this wheelhouse on a cool thing check out this up-to-speed like you haven't already follow us on twitter and instagram at donut media follow me at bids Bardot don't tell my wife I joined a Fight Clubit's the little engine that powered Porsches and won rallies it's the boxer engine like Muhammad Ali boxer engines are powerful efficient and loud they can go real around with the best but what makes them so unique let's find out why these engines float like a butterfly and sting like a bee boxer engines are so named because of their horizontally opposed Pistons they're also called flat engines or contra engines inline engines pistons and a straight run the engines have Pistons univision there's actually a difference between real boxers and flat or 180 degrees V engines but for the sake of my mental health we're just gonna refer to all of them as boxers for now don't add me in a boxer engines the Pistons are horizontal and positioned opposite from each other and when the Pistons fire they move in and out together much like a boxers gloves to be honest my boxing style looks a lot like the Wankel engine Karl Benz famed founder of mercedes-benz and Carl's jr. patented the engine in 1896 and gave it the name contra engine he named it that because he was a huge fan of the Nintendo game contra which hadn't come out yet and the engines Pistons move side to side like the side-scrolling shooter that's just a joke I don't want to see any of you Benz heads turns fight you don't want to catch these hands in a typical v-shaped engine alternating Pistons moved at a mirrored angle slightly less than 90 degrees the cylinders are slightly off from each other during the four-stroke cycle we're talking nanometers the force becomes unbalanced and that's a big problem like an apathetic teenager an unbalanced engine is not operating at its full potential no one lopsided weight distribution has a ripple effect on the car and can cause problems down the line and that's remedied by the use of a balance shaft an eccentric weighted shaft that offsets vibrations or by using the counterweights on the crankshaft boxers are lean mean balanced machines and they don't need balance shafts or crankshaft counter weights like other engines the configuration ensures typical movement and weight distribution from all pistols at any given time during its combustion cycle there's two Pistons going up two Pistons going down and if it's a six-cylinder - in the middle completely balanced and an inline four the Pistons still counteract force by firing opposite each other the Pistons reached the very top the very bottom at the cylinder at the same time cancelling out the primary forces when a piston passes through top dead center bottom dead center the change of direction produces an inertia force due to which the piston tends to move in the direction it was moving before the change and this is called primary force and it's mostly canceled out with balancing the problem with inline engines is secondary forces secondary forces are caused by the piston moving faster at the top half of the cylinder than the bottom half and they occur twice every half rotation causing force way up from the piston this leads to more vibration and imbalances in the engine boxers don't have this problem because the Pistons are pointed away from each other counteracting the primary and secondary forces this means a smoother ride in you're screaming down the dirt your STI however unbalanced movements caused by a reciprocating torque are unavoidable in boxer engines with less than six cylinders these unbalanced moments are also called a rocking couple my wife and I are also a rocking couple my lab because we like to have fun well because my life has no balance anywho what are we talking about Jar Jar Binks no boxer engines what we refer to as a boxer engine nowadays most often could technically be called a flat V they look almost identical so what sets them apart I'm getting to it lay off crank pins ever heard of them also called crank Journal's their rods that connect the Pistons to the counter chef and they're what differentiates boxer engines from flat V's boxer engines have one crank pin for every piston where flat V engines have one crank pin for every two Pistons opposing pistons on the flat feet share a crank pin and move in reciprocating harmony an advantage that boxer engines have over flat Vee is that their crank pins are cheaper to make crank pin that has to support two Pistons is inherently going to be more expensive it's got more force to support other than cost boxer engines tend to have less engine vibration than flat V's as well you feel in my vibrations first good job boxer engines have both advantages and disadvantage when compared to the more traditional v-shaped or inline engines one advantage is that flat engines are more stable and have a lower center of gravity just like butter bees this translates to better handling and reduce body roll if you want to try and experiment at home try laying on a skateboard and then go down a steep hill and put on some Stilson ride down that hill again you know hearing myself say that now don't alright don't do that what another positive side effect of having such a low lying engine is there's more room above the engine and that allows a cold air intake to be placed on top and in front of the engine while that best cold air is like the Alaska of engine space it's also why Subaru puts their inner coolers up there because there's room as far as physics are concerned flat engines possess an advantage over others and front-engine rear-wheel-drive cars but where they really shine is mid-engine cars boxer engines because they're flatter are much wider than other engines they're also much shorter often times as much as half the length of a v-shaped engine or an inline engine with the same amount of cylinders width of an engine is less of a concern with mid-engine cars but length can pose a problem you don't want a large mass hanging over the rear axle plus the banks of cylinders on a boxer engine are easy to cool what's our more widely spaced from each other so the shorter but wider boxer engine in a mid-engine car is a match made in heaven ah what a cute couple they better invite me to their wedding I already know what I'm gonna we're for every year there's a yang and boxers have no exception they got some flaws than other engines don't but hey everybody's got flaws right I mean not me but that's something that humans say first off boxer engines can be pain in the astronaut to fix the wide profile engine sits low on the chassis crammed in tighter than a metaphor in this sentence boxer engines are often more complex than other engines and that requires more parts and a better understating to fix inline engines can get away with one set of overhead cams where his boxers need two distinct sets because they got separated cylinder banks they've got not one but two cylinder heads with associated head gaskets intake and exhaust manifolds double the number of camshafts more complex camshaft chains or belts and more complex cooling so to work on it you almost always got to pull it out Jack it up but again slider so if you don't have to take it out that could be a bit easier than if you had to get out a V style or inline engine the way that boxer Pistons fire is unique as well in a typical inline four Pistons firing a sequence of 1 3 4 2 still balancing the two outside up Pistons with the inside down Pistons and vice versa a boxer engine fires one three to four bouncing in its own boxer II way and both of these are way different than the coolio engine which goes 1 2 3 or it doesn't have lasting power but it's a great way to get down but it's got to get up first boxers also tend to be louder the more common engines because of that valve clatter from the engine compartments not dance by air filters or other components but that's another reason people who love them love them I personally like loud things firecrackers wine shirts Sam Kinison man don't get me started on loud things loud things nowadays boxer engines are manufactured commercially in very few places mostly Japan and Germany and only a handful of companies still put out cars that use them flat boys you already know who they are vape masters if you don't know what makes them special by now well and I'm a complete failure my life is a sham yeah was I talking about Jar Jar is a Sith Lord but boxer engines anybody who knows me know that I care about protecting my ongoing data from snoops and hackers because I'm doing science stuff and it's secret but so how the heck can I protect it let me help you with this one Bart you need expressvpn VPN is a virtual private network so without that your internet browsing data can be tracked by your ISP add companies and hacker if you want to keep this top secret science data safe you should get expressvpn alright I'm gonna return some videotapes good thinking part ok so smart why didn't I think of that Express VPNs got the fastest speed consistently faster than other providers there are locations in 94 countries and thankfully 24/7 customer support you get help whenever you need it they're the only VPN provider to release a suite of open source leak testing tool less than $7 a month the 30-day money-back guarantee o takes one click take back you're gonna have privacy today and find out how you can get three months free by clicking the link in the description box press VPN comm slash science garage that's exp ress VPN dot-com slash science garage for three months free with a one-year package protect your privacy today hit this little yellow doughnut button to subscribe we're trying to bring you the best stuff we can the more people who subscribe the more cool stuff we get to bring to you we got new shows coming out almost every day check out this wheelhouse on a cool thing check out this up-to-speed like you haven't already follow us on twitter and instagram at donut media follow me at bids Bardot don't tell my wife I joined a Fight Club