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In your opinion, what's the best and worst automotive engines ever built?

  • Dodge slant 6, I still see my 1975 dart swinger driving around.
  • Toyota 22re.
  • cummins 5.9l
  • 7.3L powerstroke diesel
and for the worst:

  • Mitsubishi k-car motor
  • 6.5L chevy gasser block turned int a diesel
  • 3 cyl jobby in those sprints
 
dodge 318

you can't kill a dodge 318 keep oil and coolant in it, every day to work for years 120mph and 4000 rpm no warm up, loose like a sks pop off in severe cold weather this is the best motor of all time, although the inline 6 of ford dodge chevy are also great
 
I dunno about thoe 3 cylinder Sprint/ Firefly engine, 'Cuso. Ak any high school student. You can't kill them. We only ever rebuilt one, and it was SCHWEET. Didn't even need an engine hoit to put the engine and tranaxle back in the car:D
 
The worst was the old VW Type I that used the magnesium blocks! They were actually pretty reliable but in a small fire, the magnesium would ignite and burn REALLY hot, and REALLY bright for about 15 min. All that would be left was a crank, cam, and a pile of misc. bolts, nuts, valves, etc. Cool 4th of July trick, by the way! Best engine might have to be the the small block Chevy. Yeah, the 400's had their block issues, but for the most part, the 283, 302, 305, 327, and 350's all ran pretty freak'n bulletproof. Mopars kinda suffered from there poor oil galley lifter feeds, Fords did have some misc. issues too. Dunno, only issue I ever had with a SBC was a cracked head gasket at 210,000 miles, and trust me, 210k with a Turbo 400 and 4.11's, and the way I drove it, pretty impressive! Oh, I put 3k miles on it running on 7 cylinders!
 
worst - 6.5 diesel, couldn't keep injector pumps in it, poor mileage, no power unless modded

best - 7.3 ford, been a rock so far


btw, my wife and I both drive bmw cars and the engines are superb. Very well designed and absolutely reliable.
 
Pimp Daddy said:
FORD 351 - not the small blcok but the big block. Don't matter if it's the Cleavland or the Modified they were both a pile. Had one in my 1980 3/4 ton I was talkin to 2 brothers who mudbogged both only used big block Fords. They said one day that motor is gonna work awesome. It'll have more power than it ever did, it's gonna sound awesome. When you put your foot into it that truck will put you in the seat. When it does stop drivin it. Sure enuf a couple months later it did. Felt like a brand new mill. 2 days later it blew on my way to work. POS!!!

.
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Just to correct you. The Cleveland was not a big block. It has similar deck height to the 302. It was a far superior engine in the 4v setup to any other 351, including the Windsor. The Modified uses the same bell housing as the 460. Hence the reason alot of Modified owners swapped in the 460.

Cummins 5.9
Ford I6
Toyota 22re

All these engines are nearly bullet proof.
 
Yup, the Grand National engine, the 3.8 litre V6, was the coolest little engine. I had an 87 GN, boost turned up, and bagged the heck out of that car. Finally blew the crank out of it. Turns out, they had some bad oil pressure control springs in the oil pump, and they would lose oil pressure. Mine did, and locked solid. I pulled the engine( man, is there ALOT of wires and hoses and stuff on that car) and rebuilt it. It was a cool engine to rebuild. The bottom end on that little bugger is STOUT. Wish I would have kept that thing. It was fun, and done right, those things look wicked. I had fat and skinny Cragar Drag Stars on mine, with tinted windows.
 
Most overbuilt - Toyota 2JZ-GTE inline six...came stock with 320hp, has held up and over 1000hp on stock, untouched internals.

Chev 350....been in everything this side of a toaster.

LS1....low end, high end, whatever, it goes good.

Bad....Ford 3.8L V6 (ie windstar). Any Mazda rotary with a turbo on it. Quad 4.
 
Dogmeat said:
I don't see how a Toyota with a 350 is changing anything really, I mean hell people have been swapping Chevy 350's into Toyotas to get them to run right for years ;)

hahaha ;)

Now, a Tundra with a diesel, that'd change things :D
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yep! that would chnge thinngs then there would be two gutless diesels not just the ford
 
Pimp Daddy said:
Couldn't agree more. The motors internals are so overbuilt it'll last forever with just mild mods.

Cummins - of course, worked on a 1994 1 ton with a job box on it back in 1998. The owner was an elevator technician in Alberta, drove that thing day in and day out. It already had 450,000kms on it and the dude said he never had a single problem with that motor.

7.3 Powerstroke - NOT A FORD GUY!!! But credit where credit is due. Not sure why they ever stopped making that mill.

426 HEMI!!! - SPEED channel did a dyno shootout with all the famous motors of that era, just to see how close to advertised hp #'s they were. 426 Hemi advertised at 425hp. On the dyno put down well over 800hp.

Dodge 8.0l V-10 - Big time HP, unbeliveable torque, atrocious fuel milage. Well you can't win em all.

As for the worst:

FORD 351 - not the small blcok but the big block. Don't matter if it's the Cleavland or the Modified they were both a pile. Had one in my 1980 3/4 ton I was talkin to 2 brothers who mudbogged both only used big block Fords. They said one day that motor is gonna work awesome. It'll have more power than it ever did, it's gonna sound awesome. When you put your foot into it that truck will put you in the seat. When it does stop drivin it. Sure enuf a couple months later it did. Felt like a brand new mill. 2 days later it blew on my way to work. POS!!!

GM 8.1l - Hit the long thin peddle and it sounds like all hell is gonna break loose. . . . . . kinda disappointing when nuttin happens. No more jam than the 6.0 with half the milage. No thanx.

Ford 6.0l Diesel - WTF were they thinkin replacing the 7.3 with that hunk o junk?

GM 3.4l Quad cam - useless power at it's finest. Gotta drive it like you hate it to get 70% outta that mill. Then since it's made out of paper mache and toothpics it flies to pieces. Then you gotta shell out a metric @ssload to get the thing fixed.

Toyota 5.7l iFORCE - iTHINK their dyno is busted. My best friend has one. If that thing has 381hp then I gotta get my truck on that dyno. I figure mine should be hittin close to 600 on that one. Oh yeah and if yer gettin worse milage than me with a motor thats 2.3l smaller and down 2 cyl, you gots problems.
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Where the hell do you get that from. Obviously have never owned one...
 
I worked for a GM dealer. Road tested an avalanche, a 1 ton and a 3/4 ton all with that wheezin, coughin, useless anchor. No you are absolutely right I have never owned one and unless I go completely stark raving mad I never will.
 
Pimp Daddy said:
I worked for a GM dealer. Road tested an avalanche, a 1 ton and a 3/4 ton all with that wheezin, coughin, useless anchor. No you are absolutely right I have never owned one and unless I go completely stark raving mad I never will.
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Driving it in and out of the wash bay doesn't count.
I've got 2 years of fuel records on my '01 2500HD crew cab 4X4 8.1 that proves it gets better mileage than my old mans 6.0 in a ext cab 4x4 2500.
 
Hey I'm all for big blocks, and lord help me I tried to like that motor but my experience with it was always negative. Just didn't have the jam that I would expect from an 8.1 liter,and the avy was so pi$$ poor on fuel the owner wanted to trade it in.

Oh and we never got any of em into the wash bay, it was around the back of the shop. The avalanche ran outta gas, the 3/4 ton fell apart when it hit the dirt and the 1 ton didn't have the power to climb the incline into the wash bay. We couldn't get the cavalier started to pull it in. :D
 
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Pimp Daddy said:
Hey I'm all for big blocks, and lord help me I tried to like that motor but my experience with it was always negative. Just didn't have the jam that I would expect from an 8.1 liter,and the avy was so pi$$ poor on fuel the owner wanted to trade it in.
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Let me guess, he was one of those numb-nutters that bought one thinking it would get 20mpg?
 
Pimp Daddy said:
Oh and we never got any of em into the wash bay, it was around the back of the shop. The avalanche ran outta gas, the 3/4 ton fell apart when it hit the dirt and the 1 ton didn't have the power to climb the incline into the wash bay. We couldn't get the cavalier started to pull it in. :D
Click to expand...

Okay, this made me laugh..... :beer;
 
No the dude with the avy bought it to have the biggest motor. He was gonna lift it to some ungodly height and put some gi-gunda tires on it but then got a job outta town. Seems as though the abysmal milage kinda wrecked his bottom line. Hey I love my 8.0 but if I was runnin up n down the hiway all the time, I'd be first in line at the VW dealer for a TDI.
 
Either the Toyota Echo or the peice of crap Prius that ICBC gave us for a rental for the worst. Makes me think what was wrong with Tony Stewart was thinking to go to Toyota! The best, my old '88 7.3 Ford diesel, 400 K and ran like new when I sold it.
 
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