Greatest Automotive engines ever made?

[conan]

Well they are made off Volvonium so why not?

[Azurael]

I wouldn't mind a Laguna 1 with the Lolvo-sourced 'N7Q' (Volvo B-series modular 2.0 16v) or Safrane with the 2.5 5-cyl version of the same. At least the engine wouldn't break then. Oddly, I had a Volvo 340 with a 1.4 Renault engine in it...

[Harm]

@azurael
The Volvo 340 wasn't designed by Volvo, it had to become the new Daf 77, but Volvo had bought Daf before the car was finished.

[Azurael]

Worryingly, I knew quite a bit about the history of those cars And the Dafs before them, rubber band gearboxes and all. In actual fact, it was a Volvo 345 - a badge that didn't exist for very long in the UK as they stopped badging the 3-doors and 5-doors seperately for long. I've only ever seen one other on the roads, in fact.

Ever seen the reverse racing that was done in The Netherlands? It's quite funny when the cars can go as fast backwards as forwards

[krussel]

Toyota 4age - Practically the inventor of the high tech small capacity 4 pot that revs to the sky - ones from the 80s still are an impressively fun motor today. The owners manual I seem to recall had a line about not running it over 6000rpm for more than an hour at a time as it might get too warm, which give you an idea of how easy it is to accidently flog the shit out of them. the 20V ones took it a step further with a table flat torque curve and were still smooth as silk bouncing off the 7600rpm limiter

Wow a couple of engines which i can really comment on as i own them

Totally agree that the 4-AGE is an awesome rewarding engine and perfect for a sports car. it’s the only engine that ive driven which gives its best right to the red line at 7700 rpm. All the rest flag out over 6500 rpm and it really encourages you to keep your foot in just for the sound. Fantastic .

[krussel]

If it means engines in general, there are probably far better examples than either in terms of units sold and durability. How about the VAG 4-banger TDi, it's in millions of cars, is very economical, is pretty bulletproof, and even the old ones which shipped as 90-odd bhp can be tuned past 200bhp without any internal work... But I suppose it's not really one of the 'greats'.

Agree with that.

My Seat Ibiza FR has the 130 bhp Tdi lump and it is a good engine, not quite a great one though. It does have a tremendous amount of torque in the mid range rpm which gives you great overtaking speed. To be fair it does not sound too bad for a diesel when you rev it either. The shows pretty much over by 4500 rpm though and you may as well change up to capture the next band of torque.
The downside is that it sounds like a tractor on a freezing cold morning and is quite loud even when warm.

[krussel]

I'm not going any ruder because there's people here who got one.

Really?

oh.. wait a minute...


anyway speaking of the loose back end of the Capri's I don't really see the problem, I had no problems in mine. Same with my E30, they have a reputation of snap-oversteering but in my experience, unless you are a trophy wife from the 80s, I wouldn't call it a snap..

The V6 pushrod engine in my 2.8i Capri was a gutsy beast.
Really quick in a straight line once you stopped the wheels spinning. Yeah not so much fun on roundabouts in the wet unless you wanted to enjoy yourself a little and put it into a drift

[conan]

Hmmmm you better think logical and use edit.

[krussel]

Forgetting the hairdresser image for a moment ( ) the old 2.8i was quite a fun car. Zero to 100 mph in just over 20 sec’s was fast in its day. I guess just 160 bhp from a fuel injected V6 was not a lot really but it did make a nice noise.

[Harm]

Worryingly, I knew quite a bit about the history of those cars And the Dafs before them, rubber band gearboxes and all. In actual fact, it was a Volvo 345 - a badge that didn't exist for very long in the UK as they stopped badging the 3-doors and 5-doors seperately for long. I've only ever seen one other on the roads, in fact.

Ever seen the reverse racing that was done in The Netherlands? It's quite funny when the cars can go as fast backwards as forwards

True, it would be a 345, but strangely the 360 series is not a 6-cil version (it is a 2-litre though), unlike the normal way of Volvo name-giving...

And I have seen those reverse races! They were banned after it turned out to be highly dangerous.

http://youtu.be/S7ipFApsFec I found a video of it...
I warn you though, it's a lot of great cars going to waste. Including some Daf 66 Marathon Coupés

[Leafy]

I should try to get one of those cars over here, we still have a polish race in New Hampshire once a year.

[Z31NA2T]

Yeah... It's ironic how due to their irregular firing patterns, defective engine/exhaust designs tend to sound the best -V6s definitely seem to sound better than I6s, crossplane V8s better than flat-planes, and Subarus just because the header is so asymmetric.

I must just like burbly sounds :d Still, I'd rather drive an I6 than anything really, since that's inherently the simplest possible 4-stroke engine design with perfect balance. Then again, is a V6 so much worse than an I6 that it counteracts the handling benefits of being able to keep more of the weight closer to the centre of the car (in a FR/F4WD configuration, anyway. I'd have thought a V6, all else being equal would be inherently heavier than an I6 though due to the extra camshaft drivetrain and balance weights)

Of course it has an inherit flaw, its a v6. Its funny that the conceptually worse and conceptually best engine arrangement has the same number of cylinders. I'm not saying all I6's are the best nor all v6's are crap. But the v6 is the engine that every engineer is told, "never make these, the inherent flaws of the arrangement typically wont outweigh the benefits." or something to that nature.

What are you basing this on, driving craptacular American V6s that are based off 90 degree V8s? VG and VQ Nissan V6s (60 degree) run smooth in my experience...well balanced, no odd vibrations etc. Not to mention theres a lot more that goes into it than being a V or an I, such as firing order and such. V6s are generally lighter than Inline 6s and as you mentioned can be positioned back to keep the weight of the car more balanced.

For example...the SOHC 2.8L Nissan L28 (Inline 6) weighed 40lbs more than the 3.0L SOHC Nissan VG30E (V6). Both used cast iron blocks, aluminum heads, aluminum pistons, forged steel rods and a steel crank. The V6 added a main girdle and larger pistons and still managed to be 40lbs lighter. The All Aluminum Nissan VQ30/VQ35/VQ37 are lighter than most iron block/aluminum head Inline 4 cylinders.

From my experience in driving many different 6 cylinder cars, the V6s run just as smooth...with the exception of 90 degree Amurikan V6s.

Also to note in my experience with building Nissans, the RB series (Inline 6) engines are heavier than the DOHC VG30DE(TT) (V6) and even with a RB displacing 3.0L, the VG (V6) has a much better powerband with more low/mid range while having the same top-end power...

[Leafy]

No, I'm basing that on Engineering principal. v6's are inherently the most un balanced engine design and are only useful for their space and cost savings.If any of this doesnt make sense its cause I'm drunk enough to miss the autocorrect in chrome.

[Z31NA2T]

No, I'm basing that on Engineering principal. v6's are inherently the most un balanced engine design and are only useful for their space and cost savings.If any of this doesnt make sense its cause I'm drunk enough to miss the autocorrect in chrome.

Yeah, I suppose thats why Nissan raced their V6s so much with success instead of just dropping a RB in everything.... You have no proof of these claims.

In fact, if V6s were sooo unbalanced then this guy wouldn't have been able to get away with making 709whp and revving to 7000+rpm with aftermarket internals that were installed WITHOUT doing balance work to the internals like you're supposed to...but the VG30 was previously balanced well enough that it managed to, and it made quite a few passes reliably. If not for the stock oil pump not being able to keep up with enough volume for 7,000rpm it'd still be going, but it was nothing to do with balance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSgz7IPLNVM

Not to mention hes running SOLID motor mounts and had no complains with vibrations etc that would be an issue with an engine so poorly balanced like you claim V6s to be. Seriously, you drive a Chevrolet...no one would expect you to see the truth in things when GM needs to have balance shafts in inline 4....

[Leafy]

Pst, balance shafts in an in line 4 balance out an inherent second order vibration in the I4 layout. There is a 3rd order vibration which typical balance shafts (like in hondas) dont candle that Gm designed a balance shaft in the early 90's to cancel out in the LD9. I'd explain why the v6 is a very unbalanced design, especially the 90* v6, the 60* less so, but I dont feel like wring a novel of which you wont be able to comprehend anyways.