There are many ways to figure how much air does our cars’ engines use, picking up a designer manual would be one of them. Of course, that wouldn’t result in an awesome YouTube video with two massive balloons attached to the exhaust of a revving Honda S2000, so your argument stands invalid!
The balloons are filled using a 240 HP air compressor within seconds, and since there’s minimal back pressure, it provides an adequate estimate of the amount of air the engine sucks in at wide open throttle! The only assumption that is taken in the calculations is that the engine has a volumetric efficiency of 100%, meaning that the engine can completely fill its cylinders with air at wide open throttle.
“Engineering Explained” uses a Honda S2000 that has a 2.0L engine and a rev limiter at 9,000 RPM, and cranks it up to its extreme! The four stroke engine is heard revving like crazy as two balloons are filled with the exhaust gas. The video first calculates the flow rate of air and then using the dimensions of the balloon filled they calculate the volume of air!
Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
