Difference in cylinders?
 

Forgive me for asking a few more questions, but currently a friend is looking at small cars/sedans and noted the price difference in 6 cylinders vs 4 cylinders seems to be minimal. But what really constitutes the difference in cylinders? I understand v6 engines tend to have more power than v4 ones but that's about the only thing I really understand. Can anyone put a little more insight into this?

And while I'm at it, my friend is looking/currently complaining towards something... stable? I'm quite unsure what that really means. He feels that the car he test drove on the freeway ... mm... waggles? From that, I'm guessing that means the car feels light?

Typically more cylinders will equal a larger displacement (volume) or a larger engine (this isn't always true). Larger engine; more torque and power.

Cylinders also constitute how many power strokes the engine will produce during engine revolutions (rpm). An engine with more cylinders will be more smooth and have less vibrations then those with less cylinders. However, engine balance will factor into that as well (a strait-6 is a more inherently balanced engine design then a typical V6, ask any Supra guy).

I hope that wasn't to technical...

As for the freeway drive. Is this during cruise speeds? or accelerating or decelerating? There could be many contributing factors... Knowing what car it is would be a bonus: Suspension set-up, tire alignment, previous accident chassis damage, and brake issues among others.

There are very very very few V4 cars, those would be I4 since the cylinders are inline instead of a V shape.

Supposedly boxer/flat engines are the most "stable" when it comes to balancing.

Luxury cars typically have V engines because of this reason, since V engines are historically more balanced than Inline engines, and they would offer a bit more power.

Read this page for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engine_configuration

I agree with your first couple statements but this is incorrect in some points.

Compared to a Inline 4 and 5, certainly. But the 6 can be argued as one of the most balanced engine designs. BMW makes a mean Inline-6 as did Jaguar back in the day. And I need not mention the Toyota: M, JZ, and Nissan: RB engines.

Only the cross-plane V8 and V12 are balanced. The V6, flat-plane V8 (more of a racing application), and V10 are not and require balancing shafts for smooth operation.

The reason for the V8 instead of the Inline-6 is the packaging. You can fit a V8 in a Inline-6 place allowing for more displacement with similar size. However they [cross plane V8] aren't able to rev up like the Inline-6 (which is a quality you don't need in a luxury car, but desire in a sports car).

Yeah I must ask my friend to provide more information, but wow... that's a lot of engine configurations @_@. I'm just wiki-linking away lol.

Hmmm after reading a bit more, the current information we have regarding the FR-S/FT86, it will be a boxer engine right? Hmm, curse the fact that I'm a microbio major instead of engineering, but most engines still produce adequate torque and power but I wonder how these different engines apply themselves to get that effect. Sigh, more reading lol. Though I'll be happy to see if people can point me towards the right direction.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but torque refers to the force that the engine can produce that rotates? So ... its indirectly affecting power? or am I way off?

And how does high/low rpm of an engine affect something?

<_< and to continue my chain of questions, is a naturally aspirated care more reliable than one that is turbocharged? From what I can perceive, there would be less parts, but am I mistaken?

you're correct in that torque is a rotational force. It's generally the amount of force exerted to move an object around a shaft or axis of rotation. When the vehicle needs to do work from a dead stop, it's torque that does most of the work. Horsepower doesn't really become more important until higher in the power band. This is why big rigs have giant engines that produce gobs of torque but don't rev very high.