Firing order of engine

The sequence in which the power impulses occur in an engine is called the firing order. The firing order,or order in which the cylinders deliver
their power strokes, is selected as a part of the engine design to obtain the best engine performance.

When the cylinders are in line, the cylinder nearest to the radiator is designated as No.1 the one directly behind it is No.2, and so on. The
firing order is shown by the sequence of the number of cylinders in which the cyinders deliver the power strokes. For example, the firing order
of a four cylinder engine will be written as

1---2---4---3

This means that the firing will take place in the sequence of first , second, fourth and third cylinder respectively in a four cylinder engine.

number of

firing order

cylinders

example

1-2-3

Saab two-stroke, Perodua Kancil engine

1-3-2

BMW K75 engine, Subaru Justy engine

1-3-4-2

Most straight-4s, Ford Taunus V4 engine

1-2-4-3

Some British Ford and Riley engines, Ford Kent engine, Riley Nine

1-3-2-4

Subaru 4-cylinder engines, Yamaha R1 crossplane

1-4-3-2

Volkswagen air-cooled engine

1-2-3-4

Proton Wira VDO engine

1-2-4-5-3

Straight-five engine, Volvo 850, Audi 100

Straight-6, Volkswagen VR6 engine, Opel Omega A, Nissan L Engine

1-5-3-6-2-4
Mercedes-Benz M272 engine, Volkswagen V6's (both engines are 901-4-3-6-2-5

degree V6's)

1-6-5-4-3-2

GM 3800 engine, Rover KV6 engine

1-2-3-4-5-6

General Motors 60 V6 engine, Mazda JE 3.0 litre 60-degree V6 engine

1-4-2-5-3-6

Mercedes-Benz M104 engine, Ford Cologne V6 engine

1-4-5-2-3-6

Chevrolet Corvair

1-6-3-2-5-4

Subaru Alcyone/XT-6/Vortex ER-27 Flat-6

1-6-2-4-3-5

Porsche Boxster Flat-6

1-6-2-5-3-4

Maserati Quattroporte IV V6-4AC-24

1-3-5-7-2-4-6

7-cylinder single row radial engine

1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2

Chrysler Fifth Avenue, Chevrolet Small-Block engine, Pontiac, Rover V8

1-8-7-2-6-5-4-3

GM LS engine, Toyota UZ engine

1-3-7-2-6-5-4-8

Porsche 928, Ford Modular engine, 5.0 HO

1-5-4-8-7-2-6-3

BMW S65

1-6-2-5-8-3-7-4

Straight-8

1-8-7-3-6-5-4-2

Nissan VK engine

1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8

Ford Windsor engine

10

12

14
16

1-5-6-3-4-2-7-8

Cadillac V8 engine 368, 425, 472, 500 only

1-5-3-7-4-8-2-6

Ferrari V8's, (all are flat-plane crank)

1-2-7-8-4-5-6-3

Holden V8

1-2-7-3-4-5-6-8

Cadillac Northstar Engine

1-10-9-4-3-6-5-8-7-2

Dodge Viper V10

1-6-5-10-2-7-3-8-4-9

BMW S85, Ford V10

1-8-7-6-5-4-3-10-9-2

Isuzu 10PE1

1-7-5-11-3-9-6-12-2-8-4-10

2001 Ferrari 456M GT V12

1-7-4-10-2-8-6-12-3-9-5-11

1997 Lamborghini Diablo VT

1-4-9-8-5-2-11-10-3-6-7-12

Caterpillar Inc. 3412E

1-12-5-8-3-10-6-7-2-11-4-9

Audi VW Bentley W12 engine

1L-1R-2L-2R-4L-4R-6L-6R-7L-7R-5L-5R3L-3R
1-12-8-11-7-14-5-16-4-15-3-10-6-9-2-13

(Wrtsil)-Sulzer 14ZV40/48 V14 marine diesel

2003 Cadillac V16 engine

Boxer engines tend to be better balanced than other four-cylinder configurations. The more common inline-four configuration suffers from
a secondary balance problem caused by the fact that the pistons travel faster on the top half of the crank rotation than the bottom half, which
causes the engine to vibrate up and down twice per crank rotation for a total of four times per crankshaft revolution for ordinary up-downdown-up crank throws. This problem becomes worse with increased piston speed and weight, so inline-fours larger than 2.0 L usually
have balance shafts and ones over 3.0 L are seldom used in passenger cars. In contrast, the flat-four has much less secondary imbalance at
the expense of larger rocking vibrations, that cause it to rotate back and forth around a vertical axis. This is because the cylinders cannot be
directly opposed, but must be offset so the connecting rods can be on separate crank pins, which results in the forces being slightly offcentre. The rocking vibration is usually not serious enough to require balance shafts. As the firing order on an ordinary flat-four boxer
engine [2] on 'L'eft and 'R'ight banks are LLRR or RRLL with each ignition (and thus exhaust) being 180 degrees apart. By counting two
characters (2 x 180 =360) to the right of each 'L' or 'R', the cylinders that fire with 360 degree crankshaft rotational angle offset are shown to
be located on opposite banks. If the exhaust manifold is designed to merge two exhaust ports on a bank into one exit as was common in the
designs in the past, the pulse spacing becomes irregular, which causes uneven filling of intake into cylinders and the characteristic 'burble' of
exhaust note on older flat-four engines. Subaru developed an "equal lengths, even pulse spacing" exhaust system with exhaust pipes
connecting the left and the right banks for WRC competition in the 1990s, and incorporated this design into production Legacys in
2003, Foresters in 2005 and Imprezas in 2007. As a result, most Subaru flat-four engines no longer have the "flat-four burble". The Impreza
WRX and WRX STI still have unequal length exhaust pipes to feed the turbo sitting in the corner of the engine bay, and still have the
characteristic burble. This was changed for the 2015 WRX which feeds a centrally mounted turbo, but the STI retained unequal length
headers.[3][4][5] They are, however, a somewhat popular aftermarket modification. In addition, four-stroke cycle flat-fours have a problem
common to all four-cylinder engines: the power strokes do not overlap. With a piston starting its power stroke every 180 degrees
of crankshaft rotation, and the crank throws 180 degrees apart, all the pistons finish their power stroke before the next piston starts its power
stroke. This results in gaps between power strokes and a pulsating delivery of torque to the flywheel, causing a rotational vibration on the
entire engine along the crankshaft axis. By contrast, in engines with more cylinders the power strokes overlap; the next piston starts its
power stroke before the previous one has finished, and the delivery of power is much smoother.
As a result of the relatively high manufacturing costs of the flat-four compared to the inline-four, most manufacturers now choose the inlinefour engine for economy models and have moved to inline-five or V6 engines for models requiring more power. These engines are not
without balancing imperfections, but with modern computer-aided designtechniques, the problems can be overcome with a variety of
complex crankshaft, balance shaft, and engine mounting designs. Luxury performance car manufacturers prefer to use the inline-six, flat-six,
or V8 configurations because these designs are much smoother than the flat-four, particularly at larger displacements.