Huntington Beach Auto Repair

Older cars needed six cylinders to make their power, while a newer model squeezes more horsepower out of four. Look at the engine size, and it seems backward. How does a smaller engine do more work? Displacement tells you the volume the pistons sweep, but it doesn't tell the whole story about how much air an engine can use or how well it burns fuel. Turbocharging, smarter fuel control, and better engine design can all raise the power each unit of displacement produces. Engine Size Measures Displacement Rather Than Complete Output A two-liter engine sweeps roughly two liters of volume through its cylinders during their combined strokes. That number describes physical displacement and nothing more. It doesn't tell you how much air enters under pressure, how quickly the engine turns, or how efficiently combustion converts fuel energy into mechanical work. So two engines with the same displacement can have very different power ratings, and cylinder count doesn ... read more