Janus Engine Concept

In response to a recent idea involving mating together two four cylinder motorcycle engines it occurred to me that many of the problems posed by this idea could be resolved if we abandoned some of the traditional notions about engine design and instead looked to minimize the redesign factors. An F1 engine program on the cheap, so to speak. In concept I recommend that the engines to be mated be left essentially alone thus minimizing the need for non-stock extra capacity oil and water pumps, custom cranks, new camshafts, etc. Instead the two engines should be mounted facing apart with water and oil pumps on the front and the rear, a good sort of redundancy. To accommodate this a custom Janus bell housing would bolt the two engines together. Between them a special damping flywheel with herringbone gear drive around the outer edge. This flywheel/gear would be where the engines would mate to the transmission. This obviates the need for stronger cranks and reduced engine speeds as the motors are exposed to the same stresses that they were in stock configuration.

Benefits:

1) Very cheap, now 80% off the shelf parts

2) Engineering, testing and development at a bare minimum

3) Increased flexibility as to engine position, crankshaft can be offset from drive shaft to a limited extent

4) Engine can be positioned beside or above transmission allowing for simpler mid engine AWD layouts

5) Redundancy is a good thing.

6) Utilizes the development program for the unmodified engine

Problems:

1) Needs a novel transmission linkage

2) Extra gear linkage is going to eat some power

3) Unconventional engine placement requires a re-think

4) Overall package will be slightly heavier.

I would love to see more unconventional teams hit the tracks and compete. It would be far more appealing to me than watching the current Formula racing events which come across as, well, formulaic.