How do you tell how many cylinders you are working on?

GERMAN ROCKS

Always watching Top Gear and notice they start counting how many cylinders are working in the cheap car challenges they do. How do ou count how many cyclinders that are working?

melloa

you know by the sound

Dartz

If it sounds like screaming symphony, 12 cylinders.
If it sounds like Thor Farting after a dozen pints of Guinness, 8 cylinders.
If it sounds like a wailing chorus, 6 cylinders
If it sounds like a lumpy dog growling, 5 cylinders.
If it sounds like hangover scutters on Monday morning, a 4 cylinder.
If it sounds like a moan, 3 cylinders
If it sounds like potatoes. 2 cylinders.
If it sounds like a raspberry, 1 cylinde
If it sounds like nothing, it's proper ****ed

Cee-Jay-Cee

You missed 10 cylinders...

tossy

I also think the OP is asking how do you tell if all cylinders are firing There are various ways of doing this both by listening (the more cylinders the harder it is to hear) and by practical diagnostic of unplugging HT leads or coilpacks one by one.

biko

On an old petrol S40 I had one cylinder stopped working while in traffic because the spark lead was fecked.
The car went from spinning nicely to sounding like a tractor..