He may be on to something. Everything I’ve tried as a transverse FWD so far can’t fit more than about a 1.9L engine in there. Even stroking out the engine eventually increases the size enough that it won’t fit in the engine bay. At least, not if it’s attached to a minorly critical system like, say, exhaust. Yet in real life, a 2.4L inline 4 is not uncommon for modern cars, even in a transverse configuration.
Which leads to another thing I noticed. Exhaust on a transverse FWD in-game increases the engine length, not width. Look at any modern transverse I-4 and you’ll see that the exhaust manifold, IF it exits the front of the engine (which on a Nissan MR18DE, for example, it does not), the exhaust piping then goes down UNDERNEATH the engine and exit out the back of the car. So this means the extra size for the manifold should go to width, and a small amount for the piping to go to its height as it wraps under the motor.
On the smallest in-game bodies, I’ve had some difficulty getting anything larger than about a 1.4l or 1.5l to fit. But under the hood of my Chevy Sonic, there’s TONS of space all around my 1.4T. The base-model version carries a 1.8 too with no problem.