6 cyl vs. V6

Maintenance/Repairs
61

Reminds me of an article I saved (from online) about “why are the Space Shuttle SRBs long and skinny, rather than short and fat like the engineers wanted?” The answer is that they’re the diameter they are based on the width of a horse’s ass.

Booster segments are built in Utah (political pork reasons) and have to be shipped out by rail, through some RR tunnels.
RR tunnels are a given diameter to fit the tallest and widest trains, which in turn are based on the standard gauge track width.
Trains use the same gauge as old horse-drawn carts, because the first train carriage builders (in England) got their start with carts.
Carts had a given wheel track because that fit the ruts in old European roads – no one wanted to be a different size cart that would shake the riders near to death by not riding smoothly in the ruts.
The original ruts were worn by Roman war chariots.
These chariots had horses two-abreast, which set their size and wheel track.

Therefore, one of the most sophisticated transportation systems ever built is influenced by the width of a horse…

62

That is a Honda CBX six. Displacement was 1047 cc. They were sold from 1978 to 1982 and were kind of Honda’s Edsel, a marketing flop. With 24 valves that had to be adjusted by pulling the cams and replacing shims and six Keihin constant velocity carbs to keep synchronized, it was a high maintenance machine. It had no performance advantages over the Honda V-4 liquid cooled Interceptor except for the novelty of a six.

Today, they draw crowds at vintage bike shows and people spend more than a new one cost to restore them.

63

I believe that Jeep went to a V6 (finally)

64

I believe the engine that jt and MG refer to are 5 (five) cylinder engines, or they were for a while.

65

I am just a “shade tree” mechanic but have studied cars for 65 years, and I know that if a cylinder fired 150 degrees atc it just as well not fire at all.