What Is The Engine Size?

Question

Can someone please clearly explain the way the engine sizes work.

Eg: 1.6 litre, 1.8, 2.0 etc.

What do they mean and what is better?

Answer 1

the size of the engine is based on the amount of space in which the pistons move.

1.6 litre = 1600 cubic centimetres, in most engines there are normally 4 pistons which equals 400 cubic cent. per piston.

2.0 litre = 2000 cubic cent. = 500 cub.cent per piston..

the piston moves up and down in a cylinder the space it displaces is measured in cubic cent..

Answer 2

1.6 means a 1600cc or 1.6 litre engine which is the amount of volume displaced by the cylinders.  In general the bigger the engine the more power it will produce, obviously a 1.6 litre turbo engine will be more powerful than a 1.8 litre, and even a two litre   or 2.0.

On the flip side a bigger more powerful engine will generally more heavier of fuel ie it uses more fuel, the difference is with diesel that produce less power than the equivalent petrol but more torque and uses less fuel(2.0d 100bhp and 135lb ft of torque) and (2.0 petrol 140 bhp and 115lb ft of torque)

a 2.0 petrol, will however have a similar power out put to a 2.0 TD or Turbo Diesel engine with modern diesel engine from Ford, Renault, Vauxhall etc easily producing 140bhp+ and nearly 200lb ft of torque.

Answer 3

The figures relate to the total swept volume of the cylinders in litres.

The pistons draw in fuel air mixture on the down stroke (induction). Then squeeze it on the upward (compression) stroke. Ignition by spark or heat of compression (diesel) forces the piston down. The next stroke pushes out the products of combustion (exhaust). Four strokes in all. Or suck, squeeze, bang, puff to remember it easily.

Which is better depends on your needs. Large capacity engines produce high power but use more fuel. Small engines less power - less fuel.

Very efficient small engines, often with the aid of a turbocharger can turn out relatively high power with good fuel consumption. Hope I haven't bored you to tears!

Answer 4

ITS VERY SIMPLE .. USE YOUR EXMAPLE 1.6 LITRE MEANS ITS 1600 CC SO TAKE AWAY THE DOT AND ADD 2 ZEROS .

1.8= 1800CC

2.0= 2000CC

THE BIGGER THE NUMBER THE BIGGER THE ENGINE .. AND EVERY1 WANTS A BIG ENGINE ;) !

Answer 5

If I'm not mistaken, I believe the displacement ("size") of the engine if calulated my multiplying the volume of one of the engine's cylinders by how my cylinders the engine has.

500cc x 4= 2.0L     4 cyl at 500cc per cyl

Sometimes, more cylinder volume translates to more power. More volume allows for more fuel and air in each stroke of the piston allowing for a greater explosion.

Answer 6

Hello,

A while ago I didn't understand completely how it works.

Engine sizes are measured by the cubic capicity (cc)

1.4 - 1400cc

1.6 - 1600cc

1.7 - 1700cc

1.8 - 1800

*** Note : These are only APPROXIMATE ***

The actual size is probably 1789cc, and it will say 1800cc on the car, It is rounded up to the nearest whole figure.

Petrol and diesel engines work totally differently, Petrol engines are usually more powerful, require more accelleration, and are less enviromentally friendly.

TDI - Turbo Diesel injection (diesel engine, with turbo)

FSI

CDI

There are many names. But the basic principal is that 'Turbo' charged engines are faster due to this function. a 1.8 turbo is actually faster than a standard 2.0 litre.

1.2 Petrol, similar to a 1.5 Diesel

1.2 Petrol - Learner drivers, instructor's cars

1.4 Diesel - Eco savers, possibly driving schools

1.5 Diesel - Eco savers, driving schools

1.2 to 1.5 engines are small, for small cars

(Volkswagen Fox, Polo, Ford Fiesta)

An example of an engine for a large Estate car would be

a 2.0 litre (2000cc) as standard, but this is extremely large.

Any more advice, feel free to email me

link on profile

Gemini_DJ.

Answer 7

The size of an engine is calculated by the "swept volume" of the pistons in the cylinders. The pistons in a car are quite small - perhaps the diameter of an ordinary tea cup - and the piston moves up and down by about the same amount as the height of the cup.

The most common engine is the 4 cylinder engine so the swept volume of each cylinder will be a quarter of the engine size given and will equal perhaps the volume of a standard cup - around 3 to 400 millilitres.( note that 1 millilitre = 1 cubic centimetre, so that 1000 c.c. = 1 litre)

Generally speaking, increasing the size of the engine increases the power output and also increases the amount of fuel used- but this is not always so as small engines can be "tuned" by increasing the efficiency of the flow of the fuel vapour and the exhaust gases  and by adding a turbo charger to increase the flow of fuel/air into the engine.

Answer 8

The larger, the bigger the engine is.

Answer 9

Engine 'size' is really the engine's displacement, which  is defined as the total volume of air/fuel mixture an engine can draw in during one complete engine cycle; it is normally stated in cubic centimetres, litres or cubic inches. In a piston engine, this is the volume that is swept as the pistons are moved from top dead centre to bottom dead centre.

Larger doesn't always mean more powerful......when comparing engines across cars you would probably be better off comparing horsepower and torque ratings (which are available online) rather than engine size.

Answer 10

That is the engine displacement size.

Smaller engines typicaly use less gas, but have less power. (its harder to pass people on the highway, ect)

Bigger engines like 3.0 V6 have more power, but use more gas.

4 cylder cars usualy have between 1.8L - 2.4L

6 cylinder cars have around 3.0 - 3.5

and 8 cylnder cars have 4.0+

this is just to give you a general idea, but for the most part, bigger engine more power, less gas milage.