The engine cowls on large American-made 4-engine piston transports were of the NACA pressure design, thereby increasing engine cooling airflow....greatly.
Cylinder row offset was very necessary with the R4360 engine, as if it had not been done, the last cylinder row would get
very hot indeed.
Even with cylinder row offset (with attached baffling), the last cylinder row was much hotter than the others, at least on the Boeing Stratocruiser...which I operated for a short while.
NB.
Very nice airplane to fly...the engines were very smooth, almost turbine-like.
The B377 was also a pilots dream...the Flight Engineer did all the hard work.
In addition, the R4360 design was driven to a large extent by the specific requirements for the B-36 very long range bomber, as the engines on that type were buried in the wing.