Automotive power unit

Abstract

A power unit for a front drive or a four-wheel drive automotive vehicle comprises a counterflow, intake-exhaust type engine with straight-lined cylinders, a clutch, a transmission assembly, a final gear kit and a differential gear unit compactly arranged to one another. The engine is mounted approximately at the center of the width of the vehicle with a crank shaft of the engine extending in a longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and the final gear kit and the differential gear unit are disposed below the engine. The transmission assembly has an output shaft connected coaxially to a final drive pinion shaft which is disposed at the center of the width of the vehicle and extends below the clutch. The engine is slanted with respect to a vertical plane toward one lateral side of the vehicle so as to make the connecting rod locus remote from a final ring gear of the final gear kit to the largest possible extent, and an intake and exhaust manifolds are disposed on one lateral side of the engine near to the final ring gear. The power unit of this structure contributes to a compact design of the engine compartment.