I think you’re confused here. I never said that “I” was frequently correcting people for writing V4. Where did you get that from? I never criticized anyone for writing about V4 engines.
If you have 8 pistons around a crankshaft versus 4, does it not stand to reason that the 8 pistons will travel less than the 4 cyl.
At a given RPM, no. The piston travel per crankshaft revolution depends on how far the piston travels while moving up and down. If, say (totally made up numbers) a piston travels a total of 1 foot for every revolution of the crankshaft, then at 5000 RPM it will travel 5,000 feet each minute no matter how many other pistons are hooked up to the crankshaft. OP was worried about overrevving because he had a 4-cylinder rather than an 8, and seemed to have the impression that a V8 could take higher RPMs without undue wear than a 4.
Now, once you start thinking about vehicle speed things change because now you’re hooking that rotating crankshaft up to a transmission and changing the RPMs needed from the engine to turn the wheels at a given speed, and you can often run V8s at a lower RPM to get the same power transfer to the wheels because they (usually) are more powerful than a 4, which means you can design them to run at lower RPMs and not worry about going to the expense of making them durable at high RPMs like you often do with a 4.
But a 4 cylinder rotating at X-rpm is rotating at the same speed as an 8 cylinder rotating at X-rpm. Without knowing how far the pistons are traveling you can’t know how fast the pistons themselves are moving. It’s the piston speed that determines whether or not you’re going to get undue wear, and piston speed is dictated by RPM, but only knowing the RPM without knowing the stroke does not tell you what the piston speed is.
For example, a hypothetical giant engine with a half-mile-long stroke would destroy itself at very low RPM, because at 1rpm, the piston is going up half a mile, then back down half a mile, which means that it’s going a mile every minute, or 60mph. And that means at just 300 RPM the piston is moving faster than the Space Shuttle. 
Per your thinking, then a one sentence commentary on how there is a similarity between how posters are reacting to how this government is operating, is going off the deep end. Hardly. I appreciate your thoughtful comments, but you then started engaging in these endless attacks on me, which violate TOS – but who cares? It seems many enjoy joining in on abusive comments towards me.
I agreed that the posts were condescending. The two other posts hadn’t been flagged by others. I responded to a flag that another made on the post in question. I don’t want to end up closing the discussion entirely. I’m not being dictatorial. In fact, there’s a constituency who thinks I don’t ding people enough. Take a deep breath as Bing suggests, and focus on what was helpful to you.
It’s had to take a deep breath, when you are bombarded by condescending posts. You should tell those doing so to stop, and not tell me to take deep breath between the attacks.
I did tell them they were wrong. And I disagree that you’re being bombarded.
I did a search on V4, and there were only 5 results, all on my posts. So where are - "you will see how often the “V4” becomes a distraction?
I was careful not to talk about the actual number of rotations of the crankshaft but just given the same rpm it would stand to reason that the 8 pistons would travel less. Now I understand without knowing how far the pistons actually travel, it’s hard to say but gotta assume they would not travel half the distance as in a 4.
Just expounding on a long held view reinforced by mechanics that a four cylinder (at least in the old days) could not stand the same high speed, continuous pounding as an 8 cylinder could. My Morris and VW though were the only 4 cyl. I’ve ever owned though so my experience is limited. I do know I got good long term service from my 8’s and 6’s though. I don’t need anymore math today though.
If I erroneously called my engine a V4 and got the comments you got (which is entirely possible) I think I would have just laughed at myself. Why would you choose to let your peace be so disturbed over such things as this. Chill out and enjoy the rest of your trip. Life is too short to live angry. But if you want to continue, by all means do. It’s quite entertaining. 
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I gotta go but what would I call my VW 4 cyl, not a V but a flat 4 or something?
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No response to my findings that your suggestion for a “V4 engine” search brings up nothing but this thread? If you did that search as you claim, and the only results are my post, the only conclusion is that you were playing games with me, as you knew the only results of such a search was my thread. If you can’t play ball fair and friendly, then don’t post such intentional put-downs.
You’ve got your wires crossed. I HAVE a V4, and never 'erroneously called my engine a V4." Then tell me to “chill out and enjoy the rest of your trip” when you don’t even have the correct facts. Oh, but you still posit if I want to continue, by all means do. It’s quite entertaining. A post of errors and contradictions.
You seem dedicated to picking a fight over small issues. Have fun.
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You and others are the ones who seem dedicated to picking a fight, and it’s all proven in many of the posts (collectively) above. Guess that’s a number of posters modus operandi.
Pick a fight? I didn’t pick a fight. A fight was shoveled onto me. Guess that’s your idea of fun.
Years ago in my automotive engines class, we studied an ocean ship engine like that. The goal was to compare it to common passenger car engines. We compared things like piston speed, brake specific fuel consumption, power output, and a few others that I forget.
The instructor intentionally had us study this because the above characteristics, once normalized to size, were amazingly similar.
So not being an expert, I had to look. If you can believe Google but subject to any other expert evidence:
What car has a V4 engine?
Initially designed for use in front-engined cars, it was used in various Ford models and also used in the Saab 95, Saab 96 and Saab Sonett models. It was also used in the mid-engine Matra 530 sports car.
So just go look to see if you have two cylinder heads.
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My brother-in-law’s boat had a V4 engine. But that’s the only one I’ve ever seen.
And many people refer to a 4 cylinder as a V4 as opposed to an I-4. But they are just uninformed. They hear the phrase V6 and V8 all the time…so they automatically think a 4 cylinder is a V. They really don’t know the V stands for the configuration engine cylinders. They make a V (2 cylinders to the left and two cylinders to the right). I had this conversation with a couple people I use to work with in India…you can buy cars with a V4 over there…who knew. And instead of calling a motorcycle engine a V2 (some people do, but I don’t) - it’s called a V-twin.
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I’ll admit when I’m wrong, and yes, I erroneously stated it was a V4. But I’m not apologizing to anyone, because the major thrust of all the nasty comments I got wouldn’t have made a hoot of a difference whether it was a straight line 4 or a V4 or a straight 6 or a V6, or a V8. And, as @MikeInNH just posted, there ARE V4 in India, and probably other countries as well. So, WHAT’S the BIG DEAL???
Anyone who read this post that I created, I said nothing about what engine was in my Camry. My question really had nothing to do with what engine was in it, it all had to do about shifting an automatic from D to N while driving.
It’s that simple. If people wanted to foster harmony and treat others with friendliness, they wouldn’t have blown this all out of proportion, because they all want to be the “top dog” and simply defame and insult me, which is totally out of the supposed spirit of this site, and not acceptable at all.
Don’t get upset…Now you know. People in this forum have a lot of knowledge. Maybe it could have been handled differently…but no one really meant any disrespect. And I’d be willing to bet they’d all go out for a beer with you.