What makes an engine great? Horsepower might be the first thing that comes to mind – no surprise there. Certainly a great engine is a reliable one – can’t discount that. And when it’s time for maintenance, those of you who do your own wrenching surely assign additional greatness points to engines that don’t make you remove a chassis crossmember to access the oil filter. And then there’s smoothness, throttle response, and sound. And what the heck, let’s add “looking cool” to the engine-greatness checklist. It’s not a box everyone is concerned about checking, but if you like looking at engines, cooler-looking ones are better. So let’s hear it:
What are the best engines you’ve experienced?
[Editor’s Note: Torque curve and ability to handle more power are also key. I’m going to say that the AMC straight six and, surprisingly, the VM 425 diesel in my Chrysler Voyager have been the best engines I’ve experienced. (I’ve also loved the Chrysler Slant-Six “Leaning Tower of Power” and the Australian “Hemi Six,” but I haven’t driven those as far. -DT]
Last time around, we asked you what car you would never buy again. The answers included Mercury Monarchs and minivans, Explorers and Eagles and Elantras, BMWs and Buicks. But the heat a few of you had for Volkswagen really jumped out, especially as you were talking about newish and relatively low-mile cars. Most notably, here are Nsane In The Membrane and staffma with their Very Woeful tales:
Thanks in advance for your comments, we’ll do it again tomorrow!
The 1.8 litre (I’m in the UK) 89 bhp Peugeot XUD7 TE turbodiesel in my father’s 1991 Peugeot 405. I passed my test in 1995 in a 1.0 litre Nissan Micra, moved up to a 1.3 litre Ford Escort, but then got to drive the Peugeot and it had what seemed like an immense wave of torque, coupled with a nice bit of turbo lag, back when such a thing was fun. I am sure have driven objectively better engines since, but for subjectively, I still remember how good the Peugeot felt to 17 year old me.
I’d have to go with the N52B30 in my wife’s E61. Buttery smooth, great power delivery, low maintenance when it’s low maintenance.
I’ll be predictable and nominate the ‘Hemi’ Six.
Imagine a Slant Six, but with enough power to get out of its own way and you have the stock 215 or 245ci Hemi.
Get a stock 265ci Hemi and you can overtake stock 318 V8s, massacre stock Holden V8s and give good scares to some small-block Fords.
We did the valve stem seals in my Ute (‘Lenny’, not Project Cactus) which were hard as a rock and did a compression test.
After 53 years and at least 140,000 miles all six cylinders in the 245 had the exact same psi reading.
Even with a single-barrel carburetor (the funky-looking Carter RBS I bought at a swap-meet for $15 and haven’t rebuilt), there’s more than enough power and low-down torque to overtake road trains with the tray loaded up with timber, engines, etc.
One day I intend to write about the tuning scene that still exists for this engine, and the reputation back in the day for these sixes to give domestic V8s a scare on the dragstrip, racetrack and even in marine applications.
Hands down, the Honda V4 motors in the RC, VF, and VFR motos…
https://opposite-lock.com/topic/1853/story-time-how-my-love-affair-with-the-v4-began
Close Second: The 2.4L Turbo A853 engine that Dodge put in the Neon-based SRT-4.
I come to praise Honda v4 as well, but in my case the st1100. I honestly don’t know how much they are related to the vf/vfr motors.
Regardless, this thing is dead nuts reliable, has torque roughly forever, but also puts out reasonable power at the top end.
Such a great engine. such a great bike. Miss mine.
For me it was the Small Block Chevrolet, not so much for the engine design, but for the support both from GM itself and an almost endless aftermarket. A 1950’s design that successfully lasted well beyond its best before date. I suppose the flat 4 VW engine is another one that really stood the test of time as well. For me a great engine has to leave a mark on history and not be a short term wonder and time will tell the best ones.
Ford 300, all day, all night.
I got mine with ~150k on the clock, I put another 250+k on it before the #1 bearing spun. With the engine, I never had an issue outside of normal wear and tear, alternator went out, starter, normal things. The only time it ever stranded me without me causing the issue was the fuel pump going out, the OEM fuel pump, at 220-something thousand miles.
As for making HP, I know several folk that have taken well broken in examples, thrown 10-15lbs of boost on them, and just kept right on trucking. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an example of the bottom end failing on them. Melted pistons, blown gaskets, similar? Sure.
Sounds a bit basic but there’s a reason Dodge puts them in everything.. the 5.7L Hemi V8 in my RAM is the smoothest power I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing. 395hp and 410lb-ft of torque is plenty for my use case and I constantly feel like I’ll never use the engine to it’s fullest potential. Makes a great noise with the stock sport exhaust and it gets pretty good highway economy. The city economy is my biggest gripe but it’s a truck so the trade off is evident.
Close second would be the VQ35DE in my past two Infiniti G35s. Love those engines but both of them had oil burning issues (very common) and ate spark plugs.
I was thinking about the FD RX-7 and, while I loved it when I had one, it wasn’t all about the dual-turbo Wankel. The front midengine layout made for an incredibly balanced and responsive platform. It was about what the compactness of the Wankel allowed the total car to be.
For an ENGINE, I’ll stay with Mazda and go with the 2.3L turbo in the Mazdaspeed3. It has lots of power for the size, turbo-lag is minimal, it sounds good, and mine was reliable as hell.
Also the 3.6L flat-6 in the 997 911. But come on, obvious answer.
13B. All versions.
The BMW 247, aka the Airhead. Smooth, responsive and nigh indestructible since AFAIK the guy I met in 1992 with 400,000 miles on his R75 /5 is still riding it. You can also get a lot of power out of it by 70s standards and hang some seriously exotic bits on it like Krauser 4 valve heads.
3800 V6
LUJ 1.4 turbo (tuned)
2AR-FE
The 3800 needs no introduction. Lots of torque and stone simple.
The GM LUJ 1.4T with a tune makes fun turbo and intake noises while having torque where it’s driven. It’ll also get 40+ mpg highway driving it somewhat conservatively.
The 2AR-FE is gruff and thirsty. But holy heck can that motor scoot. It also is a plenty stout mill that’s up for about anything.
Have to go with the Jeep 4.0, just like David. I’ve had 3 Cherokees over the years, plus another 3 that my parents had. Dad finally just gave up his 2003 Grand Cherokee this year. Only engine issue he ever had was the CPS sensor.
On the ones I’ve had, the 4.0 has never left me stranded. Had to do a couple CPS’s but thats all. Once had a shop put the wrong oil filter on, oil leaked out on the drive home. Put on the right filter, refilled it, and did another 50k miles without issue before I sold it. Even my current 01 had a barely cracked 0331 head and did a trip to Utah and back with mystery coolant loss but no other issues impacting performance. Replaced the head and got some power back and probably another 100k out of it.
BMW E36 M3’s inline six. Just sings to the redline with no effort while pulling so much torque. No other engines come close. I also have a F54 Clubman that uses BMW’s turbo 4 and it’s similar with low end torque and smooth delivery. I love Japanese cars and have owned many (MR2 Turbo, 300ZX, CRX) but their engines aren’t very characterful.
I’ve owned an S2000 for seven years, so my answer can only be the F20C. I get 30-34 MPG on long trips, 28 is my lifetime average, doesn’t burn much oil, dead reliable to this point (165k miles), 9000 rpm scream is super fun and cool. Great car, better engine.
Ford’s 300 I6 and 4.2l V6.
oh man, can of worms engage. ford 300 straight 6(unkillable). gm LS(come on). Honda b,k series. obviously 2JZ. BMW b58(so freakin smooth). gen3 hemi (ran great with regular maintenance and cheap gas). my current favorite gen5 LT1 in my 2020 camaro ss. (Lawd have mercy! the noises, the grunt)
The 6.2 liter, naturally-aspired M156 in my 2009 Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG is the best engine I’ve ever experienced. No turbos, tons of torque, a 7K red-line on a big V8 – and it sounds frickin amazing from part-throttle at low RPMs all the way to red-line.
I just wish the engine was in a better car with less weight and either a manual transmission or a DCT.
I know it’s watercooled (gasp!) and not free of issues (the water fell out once in a pretty bad way), but my buddy’s 997.1 GT3 RS still just hits all the perfect notes as having one of the most perfect engines I’ve ever experienced. Naturally aspirated, smooth power, sounds incredible. That’s one of many that’s been beaten to hell and back on track, too, so it’s just a stout lil’ guy. Maximum parsh as hell.
I KNOW, I KNOW, PREDICTABLE STEF ANSWER IS PREDICTABLE. I KNOW! I LIKE PORSCHES! GEEZ.
I’ll throw three venerable Mopar engines out there:
1) 225 Slant 6 “leaning tower of power” – Not the hugest power in stock form, but smooth and unbreakable.
2) 318 / 5.2L V8 – I’ve driven many miles in three Dodge pickups my dad had and in two ZJ Grand Cherokees of my own. Solid and reliable with plenty of low-end torque.
3) 60s vintage 383 with a 4bbl – The engine in my best friend’s winter beater, a ’65 or so Dodge Coronet 440 called “The Beast”. We hammered the snot out of that thing and it was always willing and able to pull while withstanding whatever abuse we could put it through.
My favourite: 1998 SVT Contour. Best intake noise this side of a Ferrari. I loved that sound.
My best: As much pain as this car caused me, my 1997 BMW540i. Pure, liquid torque. It even pulled well from 80 km/h in 6th.
I’ll go with ones I’ve owned –
Nissan VQ30DE – the original. Lots of VQ35 mentions so far, I think early ones had some timing chain issues in some models, but 3.0 was solid and sounded great. Also, not that Nissan was ever known for good manual shifters, but the manuals the Altima and Maxima paired with the VQ35 never seemed to get great reviews. I drove a used VQ35/6MT 5th gen Maxima once when casually browsing, but the shifter turned me off. Though years later I drove a VQ40 Xterra 6MT and that was actually a lot of fun.
Honda K24 – not quite as Honda peaky as some earlier VTEC motors, but smooth, quiet, sounded good, fun to wring out with a manual.
Dauntless V6 used for a few years in CJ5’s and some Jeepsters.
It was basically a Buick 225 that was made by Kaiser Jeep. It is a 90 degree V6 with 60 degree pins in the crankshaft so it has a very distinctive odd-fire sound. The engine produced 160 hp and 235 lb-ft of torques. The dauntless weighed 392 lbs. The standard F-head engine made 75 hp, 114 lb-ft and weighed 470 lbs.
I’d have to go with the Mazda Skyactiv-G 2.5L NA (PY-VPS) I4 engine. Lots of low-end torque and truly a joy to drive when paired with Mazda’s excellent 6 speed manual. The turbo version is supposed to be quite nice as well but I don’t have any experience with it.
Yep, have that in my 6, but not the manual (sadly). Ignore the haters that call it underpowered – frankly I find that it’s got plenty of real world appeal without the fuss. Also appreciate that it does it’s thing without needing a turbo.
Totally agree it’s much better in real life than the specs would indicate. It’s also dead nuts reliable
Trust me, the turbo version is quite good. My dad have a Signature CX5.
VK45DE
13b
S54
S65
2JZ
I came here to smiley click 13b’s. You are the only one to mention it. Bravo you. Love the 13B rotary. <3
The 428 CJ in Dad’s ’68 Ranchero GT. I was too young to do anything but drive it back and forth in the driveway, but holy displacement, Batman, the sound!!! Gotta love an engine from which you can feel the sound!
I’ve been pretty lucky to own cars with the BMW S38, Alfa Busso V6, and Lancia V4. They all sounded fantastic.