Why would engine designers opt to include more cylinders in an engine instead of increasing the displacement?

Question

For example, why would a car manufacturer opt to to use a 2.0L in line six instead of a 2.0L in line four in a vehicle. Are the benefits of including more cylinders in an engine worth the added complexity?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Giant 4-cylinder engines can vibrate like crazy. It’s mostly a refinement issue (and you can make big 4-cylinders refined, but at a greater cost than just using a V6 or inline 6.

With V8, V10 and V12 engines it’s again mostly a refinement thing, or in the case of a lot of American V8’s tradition.