another n00b question - engine size, what does it mean?

Xiney

I'm not completely dim, I know 1.0 is just about the smallest you can get and the bigger the number the bigger the engine and the more powerful the car. (in general, that is)

I'm just wondering, what does the whole "litre" thing mean? It doesn't mean the actual physical size of the engine because I've seen a 1.0 L engine and it's bigger than a 1.0 L carton of milk. So is it the space inside the cylinders? Or what?

I know it doesn't really matter if I understand this but I want to know

Lord Nikon

Displacement, Bore & Stroke.

Or engine capacity, as some would prefer. This is the total volume of that’s being swept by the pistons as they move from their top dead centre position to bottom dead centre. To obtain this figure, one needs to calculate the volume swept by the piston of one cylinder, and then multiply that figure by the number of cylinders.

colm_mcm

Xiney wrote: »

is it the space inside the cylinders? Or what?

That's pretty much it.

Del2005

Xiney wrote: »

I'm not completely dim, I know 1.0 is just about the smallest you can get and the bigger the number the bigger the engine and the more powerful the car. (in general, that is)

Not necessarily true. It depends on a lot of things, some car manufactures are making 1.4l cars with more power the 2l cars. It all depends on the state of tune the manufactures give the engine. The more highly tuned the more maintenance is required and also the engines tend to die sooner then an engine in a lower state of tune.

The Real B-man

Del2005 wrote: »

Not necessarily true. It depends on a lot of things, some car manufactures are making 1.4l cars with more power the 2l cars. It all depends on the state of tune the manufactures give the engine. The more highly tuned the more maintenance is required and also the engines tend to die sooner then an engine in a lower state of tune.

You Really should be looking for BHP "Generally" the more you have the more poke you have.

anon11

Its all about torque not bhp:)

SV

anon11 wrote: »

Its all about torque not bhp:)

lol. Yeah, if your regular drive involves steep hills at low speeds whilst towing trailers then it's all about the torque

Or if you drive a diesel and want the illusion that it's fast..

anon11

bhp is for drink talk torque wins races:)

mickdw

SV wrote: »

Or if you drive a diesel and want the illusion that it's fast..

So true

SV

anon11 wrote: »

bhp is for drink talk torque wins races:)

Oh lol.
Pull that one straight out of some fast and the furious film yeah?
Torque will win a race on a track(i.e lots of corners and slowing down and speeding up) if the bhp is similar between that and the car with less torque.
For your regular road going car bhp is far more important than torque.

peasant

Xiney wrote: »

So is it the space inside the cylinders? Or what?

neuromancer wrote: »

Displacement, Bore & Stroke.

Or engine capacity, as some would prefer. This is the total volume of that’s being swept by the pistons as they move from their top dead centre position to bottom dead centre. To obtain this figure, one needs to calculate the volume swept by the piston of one cylinder, and then multiply that figure by the number of cylinders.

He meant to say yes, yes it is

anon11

be hard to work out a bhp figure without torque!

Johnny Storm

There's no replacement for displacement. :pac:

Plug

This thread is going off topic with the awl' BHP vs torque.
Torque is power, bhp is a calculation between engine speed and torque.

E.G. A 40 ton truck with 500bhp can move its load no problem. Now some eejit that drives a skyline with 800bhp comes up an says his car is more powerful than the truck so he trys to prove he's right and with all his money he drops his skyline engine and a specially created gearbox for the task into the truck.
Starts it up and nothing! It will not budge the 40 ton truck because theres not enough torque(power)

Plug

Johnny Storm wrote: »

There's no replacement for displacement. :pac:

if in doubt, bore it out or fcuk it out:p

Anan1

Plug wrote: »

This thread is going off topic with the awl' BHP vs torque.
Torque is power, bhp is a calculation between engine speed and torque.

E.G. A 40 ton truck with 500bhp can move its load no problem. Now some eejit that drives a skyline with 800bhp comes up an says his car is more powerful than the truck so he trys to prove he's right and with all his money he drops his skyline engine and a specially created gearbox for the task into the truck.
Starts it up and nothing! It will not budge the 40 ton truck because theres not enough torque(power)

Again OT, but if he had a specially created gearbox and 800bhp then he could have as much torque as he wanted. That's the great thing about power, if you have it then torque is only a downshift away.

Plug

Anan1 wrote: »

Again OT, but if he had a specially created gearbox and 800bhp then he could have as much torque as he wanted. That's the great thing about power, if you have it then torque is only a downshift away.

I suppose but it would be slow. The engine speed would be high but with the high gear ratio it would be slow moving.