What does a "liter" mean in car specs?

Question

For some reason I can't find out what the liter system in an engine means.

For instance, there are cars that are like "1.8 liter" 4 cyl. like the honda civic

or a chevy truck with a "6.6 liter" V-8 turbo diesel

considering that is kind of small and I know that the engine is much bigger than a few liters, what does it all mean?

Is each of the liters like the size of the cylinders or the pistons?

what is displacement?

Answer 1

If you turn a cylinder head upside down and fill it with a liquid, it will hold a given quantity of liquid. The displacement is the quantity of liquid that the combustion chamber (cylinder & head) will hold. Multiply the cubic centimeters that each cylinder holds by the number of cylinders and you will have the displacement in Cubic Centimeters.
Then divide by 1000 and you will have the displacement in liters. (there are 1000 CCs in a Liter.)
1 liter's is equal to 61.02374 cubic inches so a 1.8 liter engine would be around 110 cubic inches..
A 350 CI engine would be around 5.7 liters.

In general, displacement is the volume of air that is displaced (purged) from the cylinders when the piston goes up and forces it out of the engine.

Answer 2

What Does Liter Mean

Answer 3

Liters and CC's (cubic cenimeters) are the metric system way of measuring an engine's displacement, like we use cubic inches here.
1,000 cubic cenimeters epuals to one cubic Liter. etc

There is a way to convert CC's and Cubic liters to cubic inches.

1 cubic inch = 16.39 cc's
On that 1.8 liter engine that is 1800 cc's (cubic centimeter)

And by dividing that by 16.39 you will get the cubic inches of the engine.
1800/16.39 which = to 109.84 or 110 cubic inches.

On the 6.6 liter diesel that is 6600 cc's
Dividing that by 16.39 will give you the cubic inches.

6600/16.39 = 402.76 cubic inches or 403 cubic inches.

You need to jot down somewhere that you will not lose it that 1cubic inch = 16.39 cc's
and that 1,000 cc's equal to 1 liter.
That way you will always have the conversion factor to convert from cc's and liters to cubic inches.
Some other handy engine sizes to have:
351 cubic inch Ford engine = 5.8 Liters or 5800 cc's
350 cubic inch Chevy engine = 5.7 liters or 5700 cc's
460 cubic inch Ford engine = 7.54 or 7.5 liters
305 cubic inch Chevy engine = 5.0 liters.
302 cubic inch Ford engine = 4.95 or 5.0 liter they fudge a little.
Easy to figure out once you know the conversion factors.

Answer 4

Liter in this instance is a volume amount, Not something for your cat. It's your engines displacement, i believe. Don't quote me.

Answer 5

READ THIS IT EXPLAINS IT , YOUR KINDA RIGHT
http://auto.howstuffworks.com/question685.htm