Why are engines described in litres, not gallons?

Question

why 4 litre engine instead of 2.5 gallon V6

and what does the litre mean in terms of the engine? the amount of gas burned per second?

Answer 1

Its simple because "most" engines with a liter amount on them are, or were at one point made over seas, or in Canada. All american engines ie. the 305, 350, 442, 383, and so on, are on in cubic inches of displacement.

Answer 2

The term litre (or liter in the U.S.) is a term used to describe an engine's displacement, mostly for performance comparisons where automobile sales are involved. Larger engine displacement usually equates to higher engine performance. "Displacement" is the total volume of air/fuel mixture an engine can pull into itself as one of the engine's pistons travels from the highest point to the lowest point within the engine. Kind of like starting with your lungs empty and inhaling all the air you possibly can. If you had a way to measure it, that would be your "displacement." Cubic inches, cubic centimeters, and liters, etc. are the norm used to measure volume. For the record, a liter is equal to 1000 cubic centimeters (cc's in the motorcycle world.) To better answer your question, in the world of engineering and design, the "volume" of a solid object is the three-dimensional concept of how much space it occupies, often quantified numerically using length measurements. A gallon, quart, or pint, etc. doesn't fit into this category. However, the magical "liter" is accepted both in the world of engineering and simple liquid measurement. The link I've provided should help.

Answer 3

because the litre is the nearest metric equivalent to cylinder volume to cubic inches...

prior to the 70's all american engines were specified out as cubic inches...

327, 350 & 396, 454 cu. in. Chevrolets

318, 340, 360, & 383, 413,426, 440 for Mopars

289, 302, 351, 352, 360, 390 427, 428, 429, 460 for Ford...

exception to this was in 1966 to be cute Ford did use Liter on a Special 1 year only Galaxie called it a "7 Litre" it had a 428 cu in engine..

Pontiac did it with a 6.6 litre Firebird T/A (Bandit Blackbird from Smokey and Bandit Fame)

this is why gallons not used for reference to engine size comprende???

Walt

Answer 4

American engines used to be described by the cubic inches they displaced in the firing chamber. Since the rest of the world has gone metric, that changed to litres. Litres in this case is a measurement of the cubic volume in the engine, not a volume measure of a liquid, like you're thinking.

Answer 5

Liters are a more precise measurement used by engineers and they are needed for correct volumes of the air fuel mix and displacement, etc.

Liters are the size of the combustion areas. Liters have nothing to do with the speed of a per second burn.

Usually gas burn, depends on horsepower attained and the type of engine, load on the engine, speed, performance quality and what the torque the engine makes, mufflers, aircleaner, oil, friction, heat, etc.

So to sum it up you can have a higher displacement (liters) engine but acheive more horsepower from a smaller engine. So liters normally require more fuel to attain horsepower but not always.

Answer 6

Because every developed country besides the U.S. use the metric system. For example, U.S. use inches while other countries use centimeter. The U.S. uses gallons while everyone else uses liters. The U.S. uses pounds while everyone uses kilograms. The U.S. government on several levels have tried to convert to using the metric system but it is so ingrained in Americans to use inches, feet, pounds and gallons.

Answer 7

wrong litre engine size is liters