When talking about the size of a car engine, do you say cylinders or do you use V8?

Question

And what is a V8...don't tell me it's a kind of healthy vegetable drink or i'll report you!!

Thanks for those who actually took time and thought about the question and not criticizing me!!

Answer 1

Both are accurate.
V8 means 8 cylinders and the pistons are configured in a V shape.
There are also V6 engines (with 6 cylinders) or I6 engines (Inline 6 meaning the cylinders are all in rows instead of a V).
Inline 4 cyclinder engines are also common.
Some high end cars have 12 cylinders arranged in a W shape.

Answer 2

An automobile engine is composed of a number of cylinders all hooked together. The hand lawnmover you use to mow the lawn has one spark plug and one cylinder. Auto engines come in an assortment of cylinders. Some autos have 3 cylinders,(Geo Metro) some 4, some 5, some 6 some 8, a Dodge viper 10 and some older cars even had 12. The best way to size a car engine is by cubic inches of displacement or cubic centimenters of displacement. A liter is 1000 cubic centimeters. A 5.7 liter is 5700 cubic centimeters or 350 cubic inches. Some engines have all their cylinders in a straight line, for instance an in line 4 or a in line 6 and old Buicks and Pontiacs had in line 8's. When the cylinders are in a V shape, the engine is called a V-6 if it has three cylinders on each leg of the "V" and a V-8 if each bank of the V has 4 cylinders each. How many cylinders would a V-10 Dodge Viper have and how many cylinders are in each Bank? You can guess the answer from the information above I've given you.

Answer 3

For 4 cylinders its most refered to as a: 4 banger
As for the 6 and 8 cylinders, its common to say V6- V8.
A V8 refers 8 cylinders in an engine, thus the V stands for the V shape of the engine.

Answer 4

The V8 is a very common configuration for large automobile engines. V8 engines are rarely less than 4 L in displacement and in automobile use have gone up to 8.5 L or so.

The V8 is a common engine configuration in the highest echelons of motorsport, especially in the USA where it is required in IRL, ChampCar and NASCAR. Formula One began the 2006 season using naturally aspirated 2.4L V8 engines, which replaced the 3.0L V10's as a move to cut down power.
[edit]

V angles

The most common V angle for a V8 by far is 90°. This configuration produces a wide, low engine with optimal firing and vibration characteristics. Since many V6 and V10 engines are derived from V8 designs, they often use the 90° angle as well, but sometimes with balance shafts or more complex cranks to even the firing cycle.

However, some V8s use different angles. One notable example is the Ford/Yamaha V8 used in the Ford Taurus SHO. It was based on Ford's Duratec V6 and shares that engine's 60° vee angle. A version of this engine is used by Volvo Cars as of 2005.

Answer 5

Usually you say the engine size in liters. And you know whether it's an 8 or a 6
You'd say it's a 3 liter or 3.8 liter You could say a 4 liter V-6
or you can just say it's a 3.8 or a 3800 Lots of ways.
A V-8 is an 8 cylinder and the cylinders are in the shape of a V , with 4 cylinders on each side.

Answer 6

A v8 is a very healthy ....size of engine. V8 means it has 8 cylinders, a V6 has six cylinders and so on...
V8 being one of the biggest if you don't include high end cars such as Jaguars etc.. that have 12 cylinders and are called v12's.

Answer 7

cylinder is a more accurate when talking about engine size. the letter V in V8 means the shape of the engine where the cylinders go. a V8 has 8 cylinders.

Answer 8

Engine size is usually expressed in cubic inches or liters. A V8 is an engine that has eight cylinders arranged in a "V" shape..... or it can sometimes be a healthy vegetable drink that tastes kinda yucky.

Answer 9

I notice everyone talking about the displacement of an engine, but never explaining how that is determined.
The displacement of an engine defines how much air (and thus fuel and power) can pass thruough it. The displacement is defined by the cylinder bore, piston stroke and number of cylinders. You find the area of one piston (pi times radius squared) then multiply by the distance the piston moves up and down in the bore. Then multiply that by the number of cylinders. Depending on the units you use, you'll either have the displacement in cubic inches or cubic centimeters. Since there are 1000 cubic centimeters in a liter, you can get the final metric displacement in liters.

Answer 10

# of litres , volume of the cylinders and how many cylinders

4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, or 8 cylinder for almost all cars
(and rarely 12 cylinder too in some luxury cars)

...and V is the position-arrangement, configuration of the cylinders, supposedly gives more power