4 Cylinder Or 6 Cylinder Engines. Which One Should I Go For?

There are a lot of considerations and factors carefully looked at when buying a vehicle. The engine the car comes with is one of them. Whether you’re buying an executive Mercedes Benz S-class or a Kia Picanto, the engine type should be put into consideration. The number of cylinder a car comes with is a very important factor in the general performance of the engine.

Be it as it may, a lot of people still don’t give a damn about the engine so far it is healthy.
The most popular categories of car engines are the 6 cylinders and 4 cylinders. The 6 cylinder can come in either V6 or straight 6 configurations.

The aim of this post is to straighten out the differences between the 6 cylinder and the 4 cylinder so you’ll be very much decisive of the one to go for when buying that your dream vehicle.

We would start by first giving the explanation of 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engines.

4 Cylinder engines:

It can come in straight line or V4 configuration. The V4 engine which can be found in some old model Saab, Ford… has now become so rare in cars. However, V4 engines are still widely used in bikes. The common straight line 4 cylinder engine has 4 cylinders mounted along the crankcase either upright or an inclined plane.

6 cylinder engines:

The 6 cylinder engine has 6 cylinders. We have the straight-six engine and the V6 engine configurations. The straight-six offers great engine balance and easier access for maintenance while the V6 is more compact and fits better in front-wheel drive configuration.

We would be comparing the 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder engines in terms of efficiency, carbon emission, power and maintenance.

1. Efficiency:

A 4 cylinder engine will save you more fuel than a car with 6 cylinder engine. The higher the number of cylinders, the more the fuel the car consumes. So, if you’re much concerned about the cost of fueling a car you’ll buy, go for 4 cylinder.
Automakers are working diligently to improve the overall performance of the 6 cylinder engine to match the 4 cylinder engine in terms of gas mileage and emission.

That being said, it is possible for some 4 cylinder engines to have higher capacity than some 6 cylinders, hence, the possibility of being less efficient.

2. Emission:

People are now very cautious of the environment and have the goals to make it as green as possible. 4 cylinder engines will cause less pollution to the environment when compared to 6 cylinder engines.

3. Power:

The 6 cylinder engines are more powerful, last longer, relatively faster and give better driving experience. Power delivery is much better. They are also more balanced at top speed than the 4 cylinder counterparts.
4-cylinder is the best if you know that you are not traveling at top speed every day. Like if you’re the intra-city type of guy.

4. Maintenance:

The 4 cylinder would always be easier to maintain. Routine maintenance like servicing of injector can easily be done on a 4 cylinder engine than 6 cylinder engine. The parts for 4 cylinder engines are cheaper than that of 6 cylinder engines. Although, some 4 cylinder engines can be more difficult to maintain than some 6 cylinder. Especially those 4 cylinder engines that comes with turbochargers as well as excessive tech to boost performance whilst reducing fuel consumption as against a simple naturally aspirated 6 cylinder engine.

Tell us the one you prefer in the comment section.