V for the shape of the engine, not for the number of valve.. a W12 have 48 valve :-) it's called W because cylinders are not inline like Standard's V-block.. Both have 6 cylinders each side, but on the Wblock, cylinders are alternatively up and down... it make a shorter block too because they can reduce unused space betweed cylinders,
Ooh Didn't know there was a W12 block (And i'm supose to be working with this later :doh And i looked at my posts agian and i realise that for it to be the number of valves it should be 12V That's for a standard inline 6 wwth One camshaft and a inline 6 with two camshafts would ofc have 24 valves