What is the problem with 4 cylinder engines?

[okie592]

It's hard to find a thread on here where people don't slag off a 4 pot car, but why?

3 pots get praise for being bubley everyone loves a 5 pot burble, 6 cylinders are screamers and 8,10,12 bring on a pistonheads frenzy.

I've driven Pleanty of cars with a mix of 4 5 and 6 and I really don't see a difference, it it's a power thing, the Audi s1 and amg a45 both get slagged off for having 4 pots but with great big turbos.


But yet suburus and evos never got the stick?

[McWigglebum4th]

They are common

end of story

[TheEnd]

Peopl like to see something unusual about an engine.

[P-Jay]

Someone on Topgear probably said something nasty about them once and the dye was cast.

[GroundEffect]

Common for one thing makes them less interesting.

And generally, they don't sound too great (my DC2 aside).

Dynamically though they're actually very good.

[kambites]

I think they only don't sound good because they're common. If six pots had always been the norm for shopping cars, fours would sound exotic and sixes dull.

[Ed.]

Subaru's and Evo's are mainly known for and have rallying history with their turbo 4's. AMG means big V8's and the 5 cylinder Audi is legendary in some people's views. They have downsized for emissions and economy which is a boring reason for a performance car.

[Jawaman]

You'll find plenty of threads with people praising cars that happen to have 4cyl engines.

I think the problem is, most 4cyl engines are built to power white goods, and as a result are designed to be user friendly and boring.

Anything with more than 4cyl tends to be designed for a more interesting application.

so what I'm trying to say is it depends on the main target application when developing the engine, and for most 4cyl that happens to be white goods vehicles

[Ozzie Osmond]

There's nothing wrong with a 4-pot, except that it doesn't have enough cylinders!

4-pot is particularly well suited to FWD cars, leaving room for a gearbox inline.

It's all about displacement. 4-pots tended to be small. Engines are most efficient at around 500cc per cylinder which has tended to lead to,

• 1,500 cc 3-Pots
• 2-litre 4-pots
• 3-litre 6-pots
• 4-litre V8s

However, with good turbocharging effectively amounting to "added displacement" this no longer limits performance.

Edited by Ozzie Osmond on Friday 21st March 13:48

[ewenm]

There's nothing wrong with them. People who post that they'll "never buy a 4-cyl car" are missing out on some great cars (Caterham, Elise, GT86 etc), their loss I guess.

[otolith]

They don't sound very nice.

[Vladimir]

Anyone fancy putting up some audio of a decent sounding four pot? I can't think of many!

[kambites]

Vladimir said:

Anyone fancy putting up some audio of a decent sounding four pot? I can't think of many!

That's because your definition of "decent sounding" subconsciously includes "not an inline-4". That's not a criticism, mine does too.

[SturdyHSV]

kambites said:

I think they only don't sound good because they're common. If six pots had always been the norm for shopping cars, fours would sound exotic and sixes dull.

Whether this is the reason they sound dull or not, they sound dull, and so nobody likes them. I'm sure the induction noise from a 4 pot at 9,000rpm does sound quite nice, but any other engine configuration would still sound better...

Older Subarus are held in a higher regard because they sounded distinctive.

I think with a 4 pot, it just sounds like 'some engine'. It sounds like the noise an engine makes. Whereas the 3,5,6,8,10,12s etc. have seemingly a far wider range of tones to them.

The more I waffle on, the more I agree with kambites really, everything boring is a 4 pot. The noise a 4 pot makes is generic, mundane, run of the mill, and un-exciting.

Having said that, the US was raised on V8s, and they still (quite rightly) bloody love the things...?

[otolith]

The only way to make them sound interesting is to make them screamers, IMO. Honda Type-R cars and S2000, for instance.

[Nick_Johnson]

Most 4-Pots don't sound anything special however they shouldn't all be tarred with same brush, my EP3 Civic Type-R had a sound track to die for once it was fitted with a Mugen Power Airbox.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Porsche kinda broke the rules with their big 2.5 litre and later 3 litre 4-pots found in 944 and 968.

Balancer shafts were essential at that size. Some manufacturers also use them at 2 litres.

[kambites]

If inline threes start to take over from fours, it'll be interesting to see whether perception changes and fours become viewed as exotic sounding with threes being viewed as dull. I suspect it will.

[Nezquick]

The engine in both the EP3 Type R and the S2000 are both fantastic examples of what a 4 cylinder engine should be like.

Nobody on PH ever gives those grief (I don't think!).

[RemyMartin]

The B18 in the Integration certainly can't be accused of sounding rubbish!

The big four pots in the 944 always intrigued me. Did they sound different?