Engine displacement

One complete cycle of a four-cylinder, four-stroke engine. The

volume displaced is marked in red.
Engine displacement is the volume swept by all the
pistons inside the cylinders of a reciprocating engine in
a single movement from top dead centre (TDC) to bot-
tom dead centre (BDC). It is commonly specied in cubic
centimetres (cc or cm
3
), litres (l), or (mainly in North
America) cubic inches (CID). Engine displacement does
not include the total volume of the combustion chamber.
1 Denition
Engine displacement is determined from the bore and
stroke of an engines cylinders. The bore is the diameter
of the circular chambers cut into the cylinder block.
displacement =

4
bore
2
strokenumber of cylinders
Or in decimal form:
displacement = bore
2
0.7854strokenumber of cylinders
Examples: The 427 Chevy bore is 4.312 in, and the
stroke is 3.65 in, therefore the displacement for this eight-
cylinder engine is:
3.1416/4 (4.312 in)
2
3.65 in 8 = 426.4
cu in
or:
(4.312 in)
2
0.7854 3.65 in 8 = 426.4 cu
in
If the bore is 10 cmand the stroke is 5 cmwith four cylin-
ders, the calculation is:
3.1416/4 (10 cm)
2
5 cm 4 = 1,570 cc =
1.57 litres
2 Units of measure
In the United States, the cubic inch was the commonly
used unit of measurement until the 1980s by the manu-
facturers to express the displacement of engines for cars,
trucks, etc. (e.g., the 426 in 426 Hemi refers to 426
cubic inches displaced). It is still used for this purpose in
the context of the classic-car hobby, auto racing, and so
forth.
The automotive industry currently uses the International
System of Units / le Systme international d'units (SI),
a modern metric system for this purpose worldwide (e.g.
6.1 litre Hemi). However, in markets accustomed to cu-
bic inches, the actual displacement measurements of an
engine are still given by many manufacturers in these
units, usually along with metric value; e.g. the 6.1-
litre Hemis published displacement is 370.0 CID/6,059
cc.
[1][2][3][4]
Some examples of common CID-to-litre
conversions are given below. Note that nominal sizes are
not always precisely equal to actual sizes. This principle is
frequently seen in engineering, tool standardization, etc.
(for ease of use) and in marketing (when a big round num-
ber sounds more impressive, is more memorable, etc.).
3 Governmental regulations
Taxation of automobiles is sometimes based on engine
displacement, rather than power output, fuel economy,
or emissions. Displacement is a basic fundamental of en-
gine design, whereas power output depends a great deal
on other factors, particularly on howthe car manufacturer
has tuned the engine from new. This has encouraged the
development of other methods to increase engine power,
such as variable valve timing and turbochargers.
There are four major regulatory constraints for automo-
biles: the European, British, Japanese, and American.
The method used in some European countries, and which
1
2 6 REFERENCES
predates the EU, has a level of taxation for engines over
1.0 litre, and another at the level of about 1.6 litres. The
British system of taxation depends upon vehicle emis-
sions for cars registered after 1 March 2001, but for cars
registered before this date, it depends on engine size.
Cars under 1549 cc qualify for a cheaper rate of tax.
[5]
The Japanese method is similar to the European taxation
by classes of displacement, plus a vehicle weight tax.
The United States does not tax a vehicle based on the dis-
placement of the engine (this is also true in Canada, Aus-
tralia, and New Zealand). Engine displacement is impor-
tant in determining whether or not smaller vehicles need
to be registered with the state and whether or not a li-
cense is required to operate such a vehicle. A common
threshold is 50cc.
In the Netherlands
[6]
and in Sweden, road tax is based
on vehicle weight. However, Swedish cars registered in
2008, or later, are taxed based on carbon dioxide emis-
sions.
Displacement is also used to distinguish categories of
(heavier) and lighter motorbikes with respect to driving
licence and insurance requirements. In France and some
other EU countries, mopeds of less than 50 cm
3
dis-
placement (and usually with a two-stroke engine), can
be driven with minimum qualications (previously, they
could be driven by any person over 14). This led to
all light motorbikes having a displacement of about 49.9
cm
3
. Some people tuned the engine by increasing the
cylinder bore, increasing displacement; such mopeds can-
not be driven legally on public roads since they do no
longer conform to the original specications and may go
faster than 45 km/h.
Wankel engines, due to the amount of power and emis-
sions they create for their displacement, are generally
taxed as 1.5 times their stated physical displacement (1.3
litres becomes eectively 2.0, 2.0 becomes eectively
3.0), although actual power outputs are far greater (the
1.3-litre 13B can produce power comparable to a 3.0 V6
engine, and the 2.0-litre 20B can produce power compa-
rable to a 4.0 V8 engine). As such, racing regulations
actually use a much higher conversion factor.
4 Automotive model names
In the automotive industry, engine displacement is fre-
quently encoded in the auto manufacturers model names.
For instance, Nissans Teana 350JM is a car with a 3,498
cc (213.5 cu in) displacement engine. Motorcycles are
often labeled similarly. However, this can be mislead-
ing. For instance, the BMW 335i only has a 3.0-litre
(twin-turbocharged) engine.
[7]
Lexus hybrid vehicles (h)
are marked higher than true engine size to signify the ex-
tra power from auxiliary systems. (Examples: RX450h
has a 3.5 L engine, LS600h has a 5.0 L engine.)
5 See also
Active Fuel Management
compression ratio
engine tuning
variable displacement
6 References
[1] 2008 Dodge Charger specs &upgrades. Chrysler. Re-
trieved 2008-05-02.
[2] Ford Vehicles: get specications F-150. Ford Motor
Company. Retrieved 2008-04-25. Engine type: 5.4L
Triton SOHC 24-valve V8... Displacement (cu. in.): 330
CID
[3] Chevrolet 2008 Silverado Pickup Truck - specica-
tions (under engine 'tab') extquotedbl. GM. Retrieved
2008-04-25. Engine: Vortec 5.3L Aluminum-Block
V8...Displacement (cu. in.): 325
[4] Dodge specications. Chrysler LLC. Retrieved 2008-
04-25. Powertrain: Engine - Displacement - Cubic
Inches: 345.0
[5] The Cost of Vehicle Tax for Cars, Motorcycles, Light
Goods Vehicles and Trade Licences. Direct.gov.uk
[6] Road tax also based on region and fuel type (petrol / CNG,
LPG, Diesel, or other (electric/hybrid/H2))
[7] https://www.press.bmwgroup.com/pressclub/p/
pcgl/pressDetail.html?outputChannelId=6&id=
T0084262EN&left_menu_item=node__2229
3
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