when a car is said to be 1.4 or 1.6 litres, what is actually being measured?

Answer 1

the total cubic capacity of all cylinders, 1400 cubic centimetres, which is the volume of the petrol/air mix to be compressed before ignition. in general, the higher amount of cc, the more powerful the engine will be and the more petrol you will use to develop that power.

Answer 2

The swept volume of the engine.

that is the total capacity of all the cylinders of the engine, this is measured in Cubic inches for American engines and Litres for European, or jap. Small engines ues cubic Centimetres, cc conveniently 1000 cc = 1 litre so 1.6 litre = 1600 cc.

It is not amount of air the engine can breathe in when turned through one revolution, although in a two stroke this figure would be similar, but in a conventional Four stroke engine each cylinder only produces power once in every two revolutions. Also Supercharged or turbocharged engines can breathe in far more air than the nominal capacity when running at peak efficiency speed

C.C also stands for Cubic capacity so , "what CC is it" means what is the Cubic Capacity and the reply 1275cc means 1275 cubic Centimetres .

The CC is roughly related to the power of the engine, which is measured in horsepower or Kw and primarily affects the top speed of the car, The CC also has a more direct effect on Torque which provides acceleration and pulling Power, although some engines such as Rover 1100 cc units pull better than other peoples 1400s

Answer 3

Total displacement. The higher the number the larger the displacement, therefore more power. In the US most engines are rated by horsepower. And cubic inches rather then litres.

The total displacement is: The cubic cm or inches as measured by a piston in an engine being at bottom dead center, the space above that point times the number of cyclinders. Now days they convert that to litres.

Older muscle cars are almost always referred to by the cubic inch. Which, I suppose, one could convert in litres. Examples:
426 Hemi, Chevy 409, Chevy 327, Chevy 350, Dodge 318, and 360, etc. During the 60's and 70's manufacturers used a "rated horsepower" table which was not very actuate but sounded better. Later on they changed to "brake horsepower." Which is the actual horsepower.

Answer 4

Its the displacement, or swept volume, of the cylinders in the engine.
i.e. the cross-sectional area of each cylinder x the "stroke" of the piston (the amount the piston can travel up-and-down within the cylinder) x the number of cylinders.

For example, many VW engines have 4 cylinders of 81mm (8.1cm) bore, and pistons with a stroke of 86.4mm (8.64cm).
C/s area = πr² = 3.14159x(8.1 / 2)² = 51.53 cm²
Swept are per cylinder = c/s area x stroke 51.53 x 8.64 = 445.2 cm³
Total displacement = 445.2 *4 = 1780.8 cm³ which rounds off to 1781cc or 1.8 litres.

See http://auto.howstuffworks.com/engine1.htm

Answer 5

cubic size of its cylinders

mostly used in differenciating 4 cylinder cars
cylinders refer to the cylinder shaped shaft where fuel and air are mixed then ignited by the spark plug to create an explosion that creates force that drives the car

bigger cylinders = bigger power = bigger mixture of fuel required = more trips to petrol stations

more cylinders = less engine work to drive = even more power = even more trips to petrol station

Answer 6

The displacment of the Cylinders.

Answer 7

The volume, in litres, of the cylinders.

Answer 8

Engine size.

Answer 9

total cylinder volumn, for example if each cylinder holds 0.625 liters of gas and you have 8 cylinders it would have 5.0 cubic liters (before compression

Answer 10

its measuring how many ltres it will take to get the car to move 1.4 or 1.6 millimeters on a perfectly flat surface.
For example
a Fiesta 1.1
A.it will move on a flat surface 1.1mm forward per litre,

B.it will move downhill- 1.1 mm +((downward gradiant/specific gravity of moon juice)-wind speed)

C.it will move uphill 1.1mm-gravity x (number of fairys who wear boots on Shrove tuesday/the amount of volume of exhaust fumes it takes to fill 12 balloons)