Engine sizes

Can somebody explain what different engine sizes mean. I'm guessing this question could be pretty broad.

Basically, what's the difference between a 1.8 and a 2.0 liter engine? Are they four cylindar cars? What is a four cylindar car?

What I'd really like is an article on various engine sizes. But I can't find anything. This is probably because I don't know what I'm looking for..

TIA :icon16:

The difference between a 1.8L engine and 2.0L engine is 0.2L of displacement. The "volume" of an engine is its displacement, which is basically the number of cylinders multiplied by the volume of each cylinder, which is determined by setting the bore of the cylinder as 2r (radius), and stroke as height, then subbing those values into the formula for the volume of a cylinder.

That said, visit http://www.howstuffworks.com/ to find out more.

Do yourself some real good here. Go and find some books on basic automotive and read them cover - cover. Dont pick a book on one car, JUST cars in gen. Then enroll yourself in a calss for car repair.
You can find some real good help on this site. At the same time with the little you know about engines some of the advise you get here could screw you up in a big way. Just use care.
You hit it on the head. It's the size. The size of the cylinders & pistons and with the amount of air\fuel they displace as a whole. So a 350 has 350 cubic inches of displacment. Your motors in liters are just being done in metric. So the 350 from above would also be a 5.7 liter motor.

Thanks for the replies so far.. Although the first was complicated, by reading it a few times (and thinking about it) it helped.. I'm going to check out howstuffworks.. Iv'e seen that site before but it never occured to me to explore it for this particular topic.

While I'm here, I may as well throw this one at you guys.. (sorry about the metric stuff, but I'm Australian..

How can a car with a 2.0 liter engine generate 92kw (kilowatts) of power just as an 8.0 liter engine...

I think I've a lot of reading to do...

:icon16:

Sorry but I dont wanna start another thread for this. When somebody says 350 c.i.d, what does the d stand for?

Sorry but I dont wanna start another thread for this. When somebody says 350 c.i.d, what does the d stand for?

you could at least read the thread...

So a 350 has 350 cubic inches of displacment.

c.i.d. = cubic inches displacement

How can a car with a 2.0 liter engine generate 92kw (kilowatts) of power just as an 8.0 liter engine...
:icon16:

see, this is a perfect example-displacement does not always equal horsepower, or in your case KW's.

this is true however that said you should also read into the differince between horsepower and torque (there are some threads in this forum which are wuite helpful)

the small engine would need 4X the air and fuel to equal that of the 8L which is 4X the size.
that would mean a turbo or supercharger with 4Bar of pressure and very large fuel injectors.
or lots of nitrous oxide.

the small engine would need 4X the air and fuel to equal that of the 8L which is 4X the size.
that would mean a turbo or supercharger with 4Bar of pressure and very large fuel injectors.
or lots of nitrous oxide.
Given that they have the same VE, thermal efficiency and are giving the power at the same rpm.

For example...
Under the eighties they used turbocharged 1.5 liter engines in F1 which likely had a VE of above 100% "unboosted". They gave maximum power at around 12,000 rpm. Let's say that we are going to compare the F1 engine against an "old tech" NA V8 engine with 8 liters of displacement and maximum power at 5000 rpm. Since the F1 engine uses a higher rpm its size will be equal to 3.6 liters. Since the engine is turbocharged with 4 bars of boost this will be equal to an engine which is 5 times the size of a 3.6 liter engine; we'll now have an engine which can be compared to the 8 liter engine as a 18 liter engine. Then we will also have an affect of the VE and thermal efficiency of the engine, and most large engines are using a two valve technology which is less efficient, both volumetrically and thermally.

the small engine would need 4X the air and fuel to equal that of the 8L which is 4X the size.
that would mean a turbo or supercharger with 4Bar of pressure and very large fuel injectors.
or lots of nitrous oxide.
You mean 3 bar (measured by most people).

Given that they have the same VE, thermal efficiency and are giving the power at the same rpm.

For example...
Under the eighties they used turbocharged 1.5 liter engines in F1 which likely had a VE of above 100% "unboosted". They gave maximum power at around 12,000 rpm. Let's say that we are going to compare the F1 engine against an "old tech" NA V8 engine with 8 liters of displacement and maximum power at 5000 rpm. Since the F1 engine uses a higher rpm its size will be equal to 3.6 liters. Since the engine is turbocharged with 4 bars of boost this will be equal to an engine which is 5 times the size of a 3.6 liter engine; we'll now have an engine which can be compared to the 8 liter engine as a 18 liter engine. Then we will also have an affect of the VE and thermal efficiency of the engine, and most large engines are using a two valve technology which is less efficient, both volumetrically and thermally.
SJ, at what RPM (roughly) do you think that the boost on those racecars rose up to an acceptable level (that is, how much lag was there)?

SJ, at what RPM (roughly) do you think that the boost on those racecars rose up to an acceptable level (that is, how much lag was there)?
When designing a turbocharged engine for maximum power it's common that they reach full boost somewhere in the middle of the rpm range.

The amount of lag was probably very diffrent from engine to engine. As worst have heard of around 2 seconds from 2 to 5 bar. Between gearchanges the lag was probably very low. But these cars didn't use anti-lag either and they runned on toluene which itself can reduce throttle response.

yes, I meant 3 bar.
and My reply was ridiculously oversimplified to say the least.
an 8L pushrod 2v is hard to compare to a 2L DOHC engine because they are so different. but he didn't say that the engines were different so I gave him a blanket answer that was, in order to make more power, you need more air/fuel.

Does anybody know how the anti-lag system works on the WRC cars?
I would think it would just be some motor that spools the turbo to a desired boost level.

Does anybody know how the anti-lag system works on the WRC cars?
I would think it would just be some motor that spools the turbo to a desired boost level.

Enjoy ;) (http://www.rallycars.com/Cars/bangbang.html)