Crossflow Car

Why didn't the 3 major American car makers use a crossflow head design in their straight 6 engines?

Isn't a crossflow head design inherently better then a reverse flow head design?

Cross-flow heads in straight engines come with a space penalty - instead of needing space on one side for manifolds there has to be room on both sides. V blocks have to put up with that penalty for the most part - there simply is not enough room for proper intake and exhaust manifolds inside the V.

But really, American automakers weren't all that concerned about performance in their mainstream models. Consider the old Dodge slant six, which came in a 170 CID model, a 198 cid model and a 225 CID model. Those were marginally capable of moving around the "compact" models of the day with the 225 producing 145 hp from its 3.7L displacement. The cast iron head and pushrod design were not performance enhancements either. They were legendary for ruggedness - you could literally place a cinder block on the accelerator when the transmission was in park and it would just run out of gas eventually. A cross-flow head would be out of place on such a beast.

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