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Nissan VQ Engine - The Science Explained - YouTube
Channel: Donut Media
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- A portion of today's video
is sponsored by CarGurus.
[3]
Hey you, yeah, you.
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Do you want a cheap,
powerful and reliable engine
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that can pretty much do it all.
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One that rips,
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but doesn't rip into your pocket book.
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No, I'm not talking about GM's LS1,
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I'm talking about Nissan's LS1.
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a B6 with an iconic grout,
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the VQ engine.
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Today, we're gonna talk about what makes
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this engine so balanced,
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so smooth, so q-biquitous.
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And we're gonna do that,
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by focusing on how the
engineers cut vibration,
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bolstered rigidity and
send all that smooth power
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into a smooth close-ratio transmission.
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We bout to get fricking smooth in here.
[48]
(upbeat music)
[53]
Thanks to CarGurus
[54]
for sponsoring this
portion of today's video.
[57]
Now are looking for a car,
[59]
but might be a little nervous
[60]
that you're not getting the best deal.
[61]
Well with CarGurus,
[62]
they give every car a deal rating.
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That way you'll know if
you're getting the best price.
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I bought a truck last summer
[69]
and I overpaid like an idiot,
[72]
and it still keeps me up at night.
[74]
So don't burden yourself
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with having the constant reminder
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that you got screwed.
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Don't be me.
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You see CarGurus is selective,
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only one out of five cars
getting their Good Deal Rating.
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So when they say it's a good deal,
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it actually is one.
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CarGurus also gives you the
complete vehicle history
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and other unique info,
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like how long the car has
been sitting on the lot.
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That way you can negotiate
an even better price,
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when you get to the dealership.
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CarGurus knows that for some people,
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purchasing a car just can't wait.
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So they have partnered
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with dealerships across the country
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to provide contactless shopping options
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so you can safely find, test drive
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and purchase a car during
the COVID-19 outbreak.
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Click the link in the description
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to go find your next car today,
[119]
or visit CarGurus.com.
[122]
And thanks to CarGurus
[123]
for sponsoring this portion of the video,
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just like the Chevy LS1,
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the Nissan VQ is the cheap, reliable way
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to make a bunch of power.
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This engine is also extremely versatile,
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which is why it's found,
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in a bunch of different Nissan models.
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It's one of the reasons,
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we bought two identical 350Zs awhile ago,
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and you know what you guys should do,
[143]
hit that bell and notification
[145]
because we got HiLow season
two coming out this week.
[149]
So you wanna know when that drops,
[151]
hit the little bell
[152]
hit the subscribe that helps us out.
[154]
You can tune them,
[155]
you can hone them
[155]
and you can boon them, boy.
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Now there are various VQ models,
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but we're gonna focus
on one in particular,
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the VQ35HR or High Rev,
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'cause it's the cr猫me de la cr猫me of VQ.
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Now this updated version of the VQ35DE,
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is almost completely redesigned
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with 80% of the internals
being strengthened
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and reconfigured to
handle a higher rev range.
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Now, other iconic engines like
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the 2JZ or the RB26,
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might be able to handle more
power and more compression,
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but the VQ35HR, it holds
a little baby secret.
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Come here, it's lighter than all of them.
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Now all that is thanks
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to an aluminum block in head,
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now compared to its
inline iron block cousins
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the RB and the 2J,
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the 60-Degree V6 saves weight and space
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because it's shorter than an inline stick
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because it has a smaller geometry,
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it can be squeezed into a
smaller engine bay saving space,
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which then saves weight.
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That's good,
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but it's not just weight
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or lack of weight I should say
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that makes this engine great.
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It's the versatility as well.
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The VQ is able to make a bunch of torque
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around 260 pound feet of it,
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which is why they put this
engine in SUVs as well.
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The VQ35HR can be found
in the Infiniti FX35,
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in the EX35
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and stock versions can be anywhere
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from 297 to 360 horsepower,
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when it's paired with an electric motor,
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like in the Hybrid Infinity M35h,
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the h means horse hybrid.
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You didn't know that.
[250]
And if you didn't put it
together from the engine code,
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this thing revs high,
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all the way up to 7,600 RPM,
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but you might be saying,
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"Okay, revs are high,
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but Jer, you can get much
more powerful with 2J.
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You can get much more torque from an LS.
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You can get much more
attention from an RV."
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And all that is true,
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but that's not what makes the
VQ an all time great engine.
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Okay sure, the ability
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to tune this engine is a great feature,
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but it's something else that
makes the VQ35HR, truly great.
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(upbeat music)
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So to understand why
this engine is so good,
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we have to look at all the
forces it's able to handle
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and how the engineer's
balance those forces.
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Now, V12, inline-six's, V6, inline-four's,
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they all have different forces acting
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during their combustion cycle,
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which creates some engines
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being inherently more
balanced than others.
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But what does that even mean?
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What does having a balanced engine mean?
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Well, there's two types of balance.
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There's primary and there's secondary
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and primary engine balance has to do
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with the force exerted
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from the pistons going up
and down in the cylinder
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and perfect primary
balance is the end goal
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for any engine manufacturer.
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That's what you want,
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its Holy Grail.
[323]
And an engine is balanced
in different ways.
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One of them being with reciprocating mass,
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if all the pistons went
up and down together,
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that engine wouldn't be balanced at all
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and there would be a ton of vibration.
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The engine would probably
shake itself apart,
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(babbling) you know, like that.
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So those forces need to be balanced
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in order to cut down on vibration
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and make power delivery more uniform.
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And when the piston is going up,
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another piston is going down
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and one piston is at top dead center.
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And the reciprocating piston
is at bottom dead center.
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That's the top of the cylinder.
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That's at the bottom of the cylinder.
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Now, if you look at it on the graph,
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with the Y axis being piston position,
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and the X axis being time,
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the movement of the piston
makes a sinusoidal curve.
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And that's just a fancy
word that I can barely say
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that describes the way a shape makes.
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It's like this.
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It's like a snake, just think of a snake.
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So you see how that
second piston is opposite
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of that first piston,
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this counterbalance is crucial,
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but it's also not the only thing,
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keeping these forces in line.
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Now another way to fight these
forces is with counterweights
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and counterweights are weighted pieces
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that sit at the base of the
piston at the connecting rod,
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and they counteract the
force of the piston,
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going up and down in the cylinder,
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in the same reciprocating way
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that the pistons do.
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And by adding these weights,
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they can help further
alleviate engine vibration,
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but they also introduced
a bit of lateral force
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to the engine,
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which can be detrimental.
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Any energy that's not going
directly into the crank,
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is lost energy.
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So even if the pistons
are exerting equal forces
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against each other,
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there still might be
unbalanced forces of foot.
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And that's where secondary
engine balance comes into play.
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Now, secondary engine balance
is a little more complicated.
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And in basic terms,
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it's caused by the piston traveling faster
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towards the top of the cylinder
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than it does towards the
bottom of the cylinder.
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Now that might be a little confusing,
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but we're gonna figure it out, watch.
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So to understand this,
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we're gonna have a look at
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the different phases of one rotation
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of the crank shaft.
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Now let's assume bottom dead
center is at zero degrees.
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And top dead center is at 180 degrees.
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So you have 90 degrees
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and 270 degrees in between them.
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Now when the piston is traveling,
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between the 90 degree position
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and the 270 degree position,
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the distance it has to travel is further
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than the distance it travels,
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when the piston is moving
from 270 degrees to zero,
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and then back to 90 degrees again
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Now, because this distance is further,
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the piston has to move faster
in the same amount of time.
[474]
And that's because
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the shape of the crank
isn't perfectly symmetrical.
[477]
Does that make sense?
[478]
Great, if it does, you're
now a certified B2b Engineer.
[483]
We should actually have a school.
[484]
We should have the Donut Institution.
[486]
B2b can be like your engineering course,
[488]
Money Pit that's like shop class.
[490]
Up to speed, that's history.
[492]
Yeah, wheelhouse is like biology.
[494]
You're always learning stuff.
[496]
It's right there in front of your face,
[498]
but you never really knew about it.
[500]
And that's what Nolan does with cars.
[502]
He has the ability to
tell you all this stuff,
[504]
that's right there in your face
[505]
that you didn't know.
[506]
And then when you do know,
[506]
you're like, cool.
[507]
I love my biology teachers.
[509]
Now this slight difference in distance,
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results in a slight arrhythmia,
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which causes more vibration.
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Now, since it's happening twice
per rotation of the crank,
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it's double the frequency
[521]
of the fundamental
frequency of the engine.
[524]
Now, the more harmonious the engine is
[526]
the smoother it will run
[528]
and vibrations will be minimized.
[530]
Now, inline-six's are some of
[532]
the most inherently balanced engines.
[534]
It's V6, bro bro
[536]
They need a little bit of help.
[537]
It's kinda like Tony Stark
and his Iron Man suit, okay.
[541]
He needs a little bit of engineering help
[543]
to be the master that he is.
[546]
So what little bits of
engineering help do V6's need?
[549]
Well, stay with me.
[550]
We're gonna talk about it.
[551]
(upbeat music)
[554]
When I say inherently
balanced, what does that mean?
[556]
Well, it means that it
almost has perfect primary
[559]
and secondary balances.
[561]
It doesn't need some of
that Tony Stark engineering,
[563]
to help with its balance.
[564]
And that's because there are three sets
[566]
of reciprocating masses.
[568]
That's the pistons,
there's three sets of two.
[570]
And if you look at the firing
order of an inline-six,
[573]
the pistons are exactly mirrored.
[576]
The pistons on the end,
[577]
pitsons one and six they
fire at the same time,
[579]
same with pistons two and five.
[581]
And same with pistons three and four.
[583]
Well that's great for
inline engines, Jerry Berry,
[585]
but we're talking about
V-shaped engines here,
[588]
so what's the deal?
[589]
Why are they slightly less balanced?
[591]
Well, in a firing order,
[593]
the pistons have of a V6 are,
[595]
one, two, three, four, five, six,
[596]
pretty simple to remember.
[597]
Additionally, the cylinder
banks are at a different angle
[600]
than an inline.
[601]
So the pistons shoot in
different directions,
[603]
instead of just up and down.
[605]
So the HR needs some
additional components.
[607]
It needs some Tony Stark engineering
[609]
to counteract those unbalanced forces.
[611]
Now a lot of that is taken care of
[613]
with a harmonic balancer
[614]
or damper as some people call it.
[616]
Now the power that is
sent to the crank shaft
[618]
from the pistons,
[620]
can cause something called
torsional vibration,
[623]
which is when the crank shaft
shifts around in its housing.
[626]
So the harmonic balancer is connected to
[628]
the free end of the crank
[630]
and it absorbs some of
those torsional vibrations
[633]
since the crank shaft and
inline engines are longer
[636]
than their V-shaped counterparts,
[637]
torsional vibration is a bigger concern
[640]
with those engines
[641]
because they have much
more of an opportunity
[643]
to flex and contort.
[645]
think about it, you got longer bars,
[645]
you can twist a little bit
easier when it's short,
[648]
it's really hard to do that.
[649]
Now, in order to make
the new VQ more rigid
[652]
and less prone to vibration,
[653]
Nissan engineers devised a ladder frame,
[656]
called a main cap girdle
[658]
to the bottom of their
engine, it's girdle.
[661]
It's just like how grandmas wear a girdle,
[664]
so they remain rigid
when they're standing up,
[666]
you know what a girdle is,
[667]
go into your mom's closet.
[669]
She's gonna be like,
[669]
"What are you doing here?"
[670]
and be like, I'm learning science mom.
[672]
If that grandma line doesn't work for you,
[675]
just go ask your mom what a girdle is
[677]
and she's gonna say, "Zip it Chad,
[679]
just eat your corn pops okay."
[681]
Best case scenario,
[683]
your mom whips out a girdle.
[685]
(laughs)
[685]
Now either way, this new girdle helped
[688]
to stiffen up the engine quite a bit.
[690]
And not only that,
[691]
it prevents crank walk
[693]
and crank walk is when
[693]
the crankshaft ships too
much in the crankcase.
[696]
Now this girdle also prevents
other parts of the engine
[699]
from twisting and moving into forming,
[701]
which is pretty typical in a
high power high torque engine.
[704]
But the block isn't the only thing
[707]
that needed to be beefed up.
[709]
Now with high powered engine,
[711]
all those little bits and bops and bups
[713]
and stuff are under a lot of stress
[716]
and the internal components in the VQDE,
[719]
wouldn't have been able
to handle that stress
[721]
without being bolstered.
[723]
So the connecting rods on the piston
[725]
and the DE are eight millimeters thick
[727]
and nine millimeters thick in the HR.
[729]
Now, one millimeter
might not be that much.
[731]
That's 12 and a half percent thicker.
[734]
Think about if you were 12
and a half percent thicker.
[736]
And although it's only
one millimeter difference,
[738]
the connecting rods in
the HR are 25% stronger
[742]
in the main cap.
[743]
So the pieces that hold
the crank shaft in place,
[745]
now they have four bolts
instead of the normal two,
[748]
which provides a sturdier structure
[750]
in which the crank shaft sits
[752]
and adds to the overall
rigidity of the engine.
[755]
You're just having more and more ways
[756]
to make this engine more rigid
[758]
and prevent a bunch of vibrations.
[760]
Now, the reduce vibrations
[761]
and the increased rigidity in the VQ,
[763]
allow for a smooth power delivery.
[766]
That's only part of the equation.
[768]
And this is where we're gonna
talk about the transmission.
[771]
(upbeat music)
[774]
And yeah, I know, okay.
[776]
Its technically not a VQ engine,
[779]
the transmission is
different than the engine,
[781]
but the right transmission,
[783]
can dictate how your car performs.
[785]
And it's a great transmission
[787]
and we want to talk about it,
[788]
So we're gonna do it.
[789]
So in this section,
[790]
we're gonna focus one of the transmissions
[792]
from the 350Zs,
[793]
specifically the JK41B, 6
speed manual transmission
[798]
Now this gearbox is smooth
for a number of reasons.
[802]
One of them being that it
utilizes close-ratio gears.
[805]
Now somehow we've never explained,
[808]
close-ratio gears here on B2b.
[810]
So this is gonna be fun.
[811]
We're all gonna learn, it's great.
[812]
Now the most basic terms,
[813]
a close-ratio transmission has gears
[816]
that are close in ratios.
[818]
It's the same thing as
having a 10-speed bike
[820]
and a 20-speed bike,
[822]
say you're riding a
10-speed bike and you pedal.
[826]
The workload puts on your legs
becomes less and less, right?
[830]
And when it comes time to
shift to a higher gear,
[832]
there's a bit of a jolt,
[833]
when your legs get used to
having to do the extra work
[836]
of this new gear,
[838]
legs are like, "Hey, what the heck?
[839]
Why you shifted gears on me?"
[840]
And you're like, "Shut up legs.
[841]
I'm trying to go faster."
[842]
They were just moving so fast
[844]
and now they have to adjust.
[846]
They're like, "Oh, this is harder to do.
[848]
I can't go as fast."
[849]
But in a 20-speed bike,
[850]
likes say Flippa, Flippa
is got 20-speed bike.
[853]
You're shifting twice as much.
[855]
And that makes the ride a lot smoother.
[857]
It's not such a jolt to your legs
[859]
as with a 10-speed bike
[861]
because there gears that are
closer together in ratio.
[865]
And the same principle can be
applied to the transmission,
[867]
found in the Z,
[868]
now close-ratio gearing wouldn't be smooth
[871]
without the unique synchronizer
[873]
that Nissan employees in
their 6 speed transmission.
[876]
You don't know what a synchro is?
[879]
Don't worry, you're in good hands.
[881]
You're in my hand.
[882]
Now the synchronizer synchronizes
[884]
the speed of the input
and the output shafts
[887]
and the transmission.
[888]
In this case, the crank shaft
[889]
and the drive shaft,
[891]
and it aligns the gears
while you're shifting.
[893]
It makes the whole process of shifting
[895]
and engaging gears a lot
smoother and quicker.
[898]
And if you didn't have a synchro,
[900]
the gears would grind against each other.
[902]
Fun little fact,
[902]
we did an episode on Peterbilt
a couple of weeks back,
[905]
and they use transmissions
[907]
that don't have synchronizers.
[908]
So if you ever wondered like,
[909]
"Hey, why is that big rig sound
like it's grinding gears?"
[912]
Well, it's because
[913]
the drivers have to manually synchronize
[915]
the engine RPM so they can
shift from one gear to the next.
[919]
Now synchros are shared by adjacent gears,
[922]
for instance, first gear and second gear,
[924]
they share synchro
[925]
and the same with gears
three, four, five and six.
[928]
And that's because they
live between those gears.
[931]
Now reverse gear doesn't need a synchro
[933]
because the car needs
to be at a dead stop,
[936]
for it to engage.
[937]
And that's because the input shaft
[938]
and the output shaft already synchronized,
[940]
'cause they're not moving,
[941]
but what sets smooth transmissions apart
[943]
from really smooth transmission,
[946]
is the amount of friction
rings per synchro.
[949]
Now, in the case of
the JK41B transmission,
[952]
the first, second and third gears,
[954]
all have triple-cone syncros
[957]
and fourth gear has a double cone.
[959]
And I know that's a lot,
[960]
but stick with me.
[961]
Now, if you have one friction ring,
[963]
taking on all that friction
[964]
and slowing down the shafts,
[965]
it's going to be rougher
[967]
and slower than having multiple
rings doing the same job,
[970]
but with multiple rings
during the same job,
[972]
they're working together
to handle that acceleration
[975]
much quicker and smoother,
[977]
which makes it easier on the driver
[979]
and all that helps to make
the driving experience
[982]
that much better when
you're in one of these cars,
[984]
the engineers of this
engine on this transmission,
[987]
when they put it in 350Z,
[989]
they did a great job.
[990]
And you know what we did,
[991]
we bought two, 350Zs
[993]
and we try to engineer them better.
[995]
We recorded the whole series,
[997]
it's called HiLow,
[998]
and actually season two
is dropping this week.
[1001]
So go back, watch season one,
[1003]
if you didn't,
[1004]
we took two cars that were the same,
[1006]
we put expensive parts one,
[1007]
we put cheaper parts on the other.
[1009]
We pitted them against themselves
[1013]
That fireworks still going off.
[1015]
I don't know if you can hear it,
[1017]
but it's fireworks season in LA.
[1020]
Okay now,
[1021]
thanks so much guys for watching.
[1022]
Follow me on Instagram @JeremiahBurton.
[1026]
Got a cool car you wanna see on the show
[1029]
or cool bit of engineering hit me up.
[1030]
Let me know what you wanna see.
[1031]
Follow us on donut @donutmedia.
[1034]
Bye for now.
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