What does the liters in car motors refer to?

Answer 1

In most internal combustion engines, a piston travels within a cylinder, compressing a mixture of air and fuel until a spark ignites it, forcing the piston back and generating the engine's power. The two dimensions of the piston chamber, bore and stroke determine an engine's actual size. Bore is the diameter of the chamber, and stroke is how far the piston travels within the chamber. These figures, combined with the number of cylinders, will give us an engine displacement, which is what is referred to when manufacturers say '2 liter' or '3.4 liter'. Most American cars up through the '80s used the cubic inch measurement of size, but now almost all engines are measured in the metric term liters.