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Engine Displacement

What is Engine Displacement?

 

Engine Displacement
Engine Displacement - Image courtesy of Wikipedia.org
Engine Displacement is the total size or volume of all the cylinders of an engine. You take the volume of each cylinder from Top Dead Center to Top Dead Bottom and then times the volume by the number of cylinders. But Engine Displacement differs from Cylinder Volume by excluding the volume of the combustion chamber.

Units of Measurement

English Customary

In North America (mostly the United States) they use the old English Customary measuring system. They use Cubic Inches or CID. Some of the old engines that were measured with these units would be:

1. Ford 428 Cobra Jet
2. Dodge 426 Hemi
3. Chevy 396
4. Chevy 350
5. Ford 302

But now even the American Manufactures have adopted the Metric or Liter system.

Metric

Cubic Centimeters

In most other countries and other vehicle manufactures use the Metric Measuring system. Most smaller engines such as Motorcycles and ATV's are measured in CC's (Cubic Centimeters). Some of the sizes used for motorcycles and ATV's are:

Moto Cross
Old 2 Stroke Categories:
125 cc's
250 cc's

Current 4 Stroke Categories:
250 cc's
450 cc's

Road Racing
600 cc's
750 cc's (no longer raced)
1000 cc's

Please keep in mind that these categories are for the bigger more popular race series. There are many other race categories and engine sizes from other manufacturers.

Liters

Most larger engines now days (usually in automobiles and trucks) use liters instead of CC's. Most of us remember the Mustang 5.0 liter which was 302 cubic inches.

Programs that take Engine Displacement into account

We have 3 programs that work with Engine Displacement when conducting Engine Simulation: Engine Analyzer v3.4, Engine Analyzer Plus v3.4. And Engine Analyzer Pro v3.9 also uses Cylinder Volume in Engine Simulation.

And we have 5 other programs that take Engine Displacement into account when making calculations. Compression Ratio Calculator v2.3, Compression Ratio Calculator Plus v2.3 Port Flow Analyzer v3.5 with Valve Opener and Engine Log Book v1.1.

 

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