In car engines, what;s the difference between 2.4L and a 3L, and the difference between 4 cylinder, 6 cylinder, 8 cylinder?

Question

I was looking to buy a car and found two similar car models, one with a 2.4-L engine, and the other with 3. What does that mean, and is it a noticeable difference?

In: 1

Answer 1

The L numbers are the size of the engine, in liters. The 4 thru 8 cylinders are the number of pistons/cylinders in the engine. The overall horsepower is the main effect of these numbers; larger numbers generally mean more horsepower. But outside of the horsepower, those numbers don’t have much of an effect for a daily commuter car. They’re mostly for car geeks.