Re: 2 or 3 cylinders, does it really matter?
Only a fool would deign to comment after all the enjoyable insights above -- so here goes: The answer to the original question (remember the original question?) is clearly "anything the engineers want it to be". Torque is how hard you twist the shaft. How often per minute that you twist the shaft that hard makes horsepower -- and smoothness. So, 40 Horsepower at 1500 rpm is a gob more torque (and impact) per fire in the hole than 40 horsepower at 6000 rpm. You can build a 2, 3 or 12 cylinder engine for torque at low or high rpm. That makes the 2, 3 or 12 cylinder engine the clear winner! What was the race?<br /><br />Fuel economy is a measure of efficiency and that discussion is not limited by cylinder count. If you ever compared mpg on identical Chevy trucks with identical displacement pre and post Vortec you have more insight into that complexity than most. Even more if you then traded your Chevy for a Dodge like somebody I know...<br /><br />Generally, higher displacement per cylinder (same displacement per engine) has been related to most low end torque while smaller cylinders and great breathing makes for high rpm -- high horsepower. Think Buick and Ferrari. <br /><br />Or try motorcycles, say 250cc; high torque at low speed comes with one cylinder trials bikes that can be ridden over a Volvo wagon at 1 foot per second. High horsepower at high speed comes with 4 cylinder GP bikes that hit 130 mph every lap. Having said that, big GP bikes are revisiting 2 cylinders w/o giving up speed. Thought that might clear things up...<br /><br />On a planing hull a torque curve imbalance can be quite visible since few boats have shifting transmissions. Some struggle to get on the step and then go like scat meaning inadequate mid range torque compared to top end horsepower. Here at altitude I've watched a 60+ mph fire breathing V8 flatbottom take 20 seconds to make 20 mph ("peaky") -- and a 24' 4 cyl. outboard pontoon make 20 in 4 seconds and then top out at 22 ("torquey"). Put a prop of the pontoon's pitch (better be much bigger diameter for this silly game) on the ski boat and it'll hit 20 in 1 second -- and then top out at 24 ("goofy"). One assumes that the ski boat came with enough midrange torque at sea level to step quickly on-plane and then hit 80 ("aah")<br /><br />Back to Buick and Ferrari: More cylinders seem to cost more money -- how smooth do you want your engine to run?<br /><br />Search words: P--- up a rope, dumb as a stump, smacked head on rock, reading it wrong, would-be expert, just plain deviant, irrelevant fraud and skinned-knuckle charlatan. Just tryin to help...
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