Engines come in all different shapes and sizes, but when referring to them, you often only hear about the capacity and the cylinder layout. While anybody who works on engines understands the differences, most normal car owners are completely unaware of the differences and why they exist.

The Layouts
There is a shockingly large amount of engine layouts around, with some being a lot rarer than others. Radial engines, W engines, narrow banked V and a lot of other styles have fallen into relative obscurity, for the most part in today’s auto market, the styles are limited to straight, v and flat.
- Straight – The straight layout is the most common layout of engines on the market today. The word “straight” refers to all the cylinders being in a straight line with each other.
- V – V engines are still relatively common in the higher capacity engines, V6 and V8 being the most notable of the lot. The V indicates that there are two banks of cylinders in a V pattern. A v8 would have two banks of four cylinders each. While the angle of the v can change, most v engines subscribe to a 72° or a 90° arch. Whenever there is a space which is less than 180° between the banks, we refer to the motor as a V
- Flat – Flat engines are on the less common side, today only being produced by Subaru and Porsche, they are still very relevant motors. The “flat” refers to the