What is the best engine you have had in any car and why?

[paulqv]

Sort of opposite of the last thread I started.

I know you can have an amazing engine in a crap car! How many of us buy the car just for the engine?

My top five would be:

1. Honda/Rover 2.7 V6 in the 827 etc
2. Lancia Fulvia V4 1.3 Beautifully engineered, nice to look at, endlessly tuneable, great noise, power and flexibility
3. Alfa Romeo Alfasud 1.2 Flat 4. only 66bho/lb.ft. Super smooth, revved it's heart out every day,
4. Lambo V12 5.2 QV and thereafter,. The noise in partic above 5000rpm. The power , everywhere. The flexibility 5th gear at idle driving at 30mph without touching the throttle
( in diablo) Did I mention the noise? On the 5.2 pulling 7500rpm rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
5. Ferrari V8. I like the earlier carb 3.0 version, mainly for the noise of those 4 carbs gurgling and gulping. Noise and the way it revs

So why the Honda V6?

did 150k miles. Never missed a beat. Revved so sweetly, could cruise all day at 115mph and still get 28mpg; could pull an honest 140mph without too much effort and would cruise at 135 mph ( my fastest average speed over 60 miles) was 120 eg in 30 minutes) . Could pull away in any gear, could use 5th at 25 and still smooth.
Basically the best all round engine ever. Smoth, fast, economical and reliable.

I suspect a welter of flat 6 cylinder air cooled inputs here!

I think we are lucky in the past 20 years as we have some stunning engines, eg Honda VTEC, Fiat Fire; Bentley W12, Fiat twin cam; BMW straight 6; VW TSI; etc.

Lets here it!

Paul

[S2red]

Any engine which used no oil and never missed a beat

[collingbroon]

The new 4.3 speed six I have In the Tuscan, the power is amazing and along with the noise makes it one engine I will never get bored with.
Would also have to say the 3.0l v6 in the Alfa gtv I had a few years ago. A gorgeous engine!

Edited by collingbroon on Saturday 3rd November 11:30

[bigblock]

This one, very quiet and economical

[Stuart70]

Don't expect it will cut it on here, but vr6 engine; first in a mk3 golf and then in a corrado storm. Lovely, tractable, reliable and sounded great. Even better with a k+n filter in the corrado.

[jith]

paulqv said:

Sort of opposite of the last thread I started.

I know you can have an amazing engine in a crap car! How many of us buy the car just for the engine?

My top five would be:

1. Honda/Rover 2.7 V6 in the 827 etc
2. Lancia Fulvia V4 1.3 Beautifully engineered, nice to look at, endlessly tuneable, great noise, power and flexibility
3. Alfa Romeo Alfasud 1.2 Flat 4. only 66bho/lb.ft. Super smooth, revved it's heart out every day,
4. Lambo V12 5.2 QV and thereafter,. The noise in partic above 5000rpm. The power , everywhere. The flexibility 5th gear at idle driving at 30mph without touching the throttle
( in diablo) Did I mention the noise? On the 5.2 pulling 7500rpm rrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
5. Ferrari V8. I like the earlier carb 3.0 version, mainly for the noise of those 4 carbs gurgling and gulping. Noise and the way it revs

So why the Honda V6?

did 150k miles. Never missed a beat. Revved so sweetly, could cruise all day at 115mph and still get 28mpg; could pull an honest 140mph without too much effort and would cruise at 135 mph ( my fastest average speed over 60 miles) was 120 eg in 30 minutes) . Could pull away in any gear, could use 5th at 25 and still smooth.
Basically the best all round engine ever. Smoth, fast, economical and reliable.

I suspect a welter of flat 6 cylinder air cooled inputs here!

I think we are lucky in the past 20 years as we have some stunning engines, eg Honda VTEC, Fiat Fire; Bentley W12, Fiat twin cam; BMW straight 6; VW TSI; etc.

Lets here it!

Paul

I'll take you up on this Paul.

Firstly, you were a very lucky devil with the Honda V6. I used to service the Rover 827s for the police and they positively ate camshafts. They were collosally expensive to replace. I also did at least 3 sets on Honda V6 Coupes. Beautiful car yes, but flawed in design.

I would totally agree with you re the Lancia V4 in the Fulvia. I love these, and they were so driveable! Alfasud as well; brilliant engine.

My take on engines is of course, a bit different from the average owner because I work on them. Experience gives you a different view of things.

The first V12 Jaguars in the XJ saloon were absolutely fabulous engines, although spoilt by a silly rear crankshaft seal design and breathing on Stromberg carbs..

The best V6 engine ever made was the early Audi 2.6. I have lost count of how many of these I have had and not one of them failed. My last was an 80 Avante that I bought simply as a workhorse to last a couple of months. I kept it almost 3 years. It had been totally neglected and was leaking oil everywhere. When I decided to keep it I took the heads off and renewed all the seals and gaskets and a new timing belt.

After that it literally drove like new, used absolutely no water or oil regardless of how hard I drove it, and I finally sold it with 193K miles on it.... to an Audi mechanic!

I now have a seriously nice 80 2.6 saloon with full service history that I will probably keep for ever. Has to be one of the most underrated cars ever made.

The early UR Quattro 5 cylinder turbo. Utterly fantastic noise and unburstable if properly serviced.

I also own an '86 Merc 500 SEC. The 5 litre V8 Merc engine of that era is simply stunning. Totally reliable and silky smooth, but turning into a snarling beast when pushed hard. Fabulous engine.

I have a liking for Ferrari flat 12s. Phenomenal power and torque. Unfortunately I have one in the workshop in bits as it's lost oil pressure. Ferraris just don't seem to have a reliability factor.

Mid 80s 911 2.7 or 3 litre engines running on K Jet. The perfect mixture of performance and practicality and turbine smooth.

There are also some excellent engines in more lowly production cars. One if the best was the Ford 1600 crossflow, i.e 1600E engine. A great little power unit and very tuneable and reliable. Another was the Opel Manta 2.0 litre engine; tough and unburstable.

Finally, one of my all time favourites, the BMW 2002tii, early '70s running mechanical injection. I toured Europe in one of these and it was utterly fantastic. Just kept on revving and pulled like a train. Hard to believe it was only 2 litres.

Next please!

J

[scotty_d]

I love the AJP 8 in my Cerbera. Not the most refined engine ever built but it is so free revving and seems to pull very hard till max rpm. Oh and the pops and bangs set of parked car Alarms even when potting around town

I also liked the AJ6 engine in my old jag xj6 just for how smooth it was.

And the Rover V8 in both my range rover and old Chimaera mainly the chim for that noise

[paulqv]

I had a Passat 2.8 V6 which is the same engine. With my notorious lack of luck it blew a scrapper ring and needed a rebuild! Then a ned stole it and wrote it off 1 mile from my house. Now have the W8 passat. Better engine but heavier on fuel. Also blew a cam follower at 60k although is now at 172k without further trouble, although had to rebuild the auto box at 80k!

I find it strange that some 'old' cars from the 70's and 80's could return nearly the same MPG as modern ones, although generally a lot lighter cars then! I sometimes wonder about 'progress'! Mind you, when I was a kid and the family had a fleet of ice cream vans, the talk was always about rebuilds of engines after 40k or 'de-coking' heads etc lol. We mainly had bedford CF and CA based vans.

My Honda V6 went on to do about 195k with David, who used to run my garage. Engine got a bit tappedy at the end, but still great. Scrapped the car as the heater failed! Had some traffic cops in the car around Castle Donington and they said it was the fastest one they had ever been in!

Keep the posts rolling

[M1KEY]

scotty_d said:

I love the AJP 8 in my Cerbera. Not the most refined engine ever built but it is so free revving and seems to pull very hard till max rpm. Oh and the pops and bangs set of parked car Alarms even when potting around town

Agree, I used to love the engine in my Cerb. As you say, probably not the most refined but the power & noise was superb!

Also thought the engine in my mk2 Astra GTE 16v was great. Shame the handling wasn't quite as good.

Early days but am loving the V8 in the 360!!

[steelej]

Paul, Enzo Ferrari once said with a Ferrari you buy the engine and get the rest for free, so looks like I didn't just buy my car for the engine but I just bought the engine

Can't beat a Ferrari V8 screamer

John.

[shambolic]

2.5 straight 6 in my Z4

[chunkymonkey71]

I think you would all be really surprised with the engine in the Ignis Sport! As well as having Hyabusa bits, it's revvy, tractable, makes a great noise and has a nice push (for a 1.5) when the vvt kicks in.

If anyone ever fancies a wee shot just let me know.

[wav8]

Going back a bit but the mgb b series engine with twin su's and today the stonking V8 Ls2 6 litre of wonderfull noise

[dycecooper]

Toyota 4AGE, bulletproof and revs to oblivion

[D6GMB]

S54 in my Z4MR,straight six that revs to nearly 8k! sounds amazing on full chat with the roof down.

[VetteG]

The Chevy V8 such as I have in my Corvette is very impressive, I have seen many small block popping out huge amounts of horse power reliably. I also loved the V8 in my Audi S4, stick it in 5th gear at 30mph and it was happy to sit there or pull you well beyond 100mph. But maybe the one that impressed me most was the imp engine I had in my F4 car I used in hillclimbs in the 80's. Like the Rover K series more recently, once you get rid of the cheap bits the original manufacturer put in to cut costs, you ended up with a cracking engine that pulled well beyond its fighting weight.

G

[paulqv]

wav8 said:

Going back a bit but the mgb b series engine with twin su's :

That was one choice I was not expecting! Plenty of torque, but didnt like to rev! Each to their own though.

Paul

[Ug_lee]

dycecooper said:

Toyota 4AGE, bulletproof and revs to oblivion

Loved that engine in my Mk1, almost turbine smooth the way it revved.

The V8 in my RS6 is quite impressive in 2 ways, the way it lugs 2 tonnes down the road with ease and the way it drinks fuel!

[wav8]

paulqv said:

wav8 said:

Going back a bit but the mgb b series engine with twin su's :

That was one choice I was not expecting! Plenty of torque, but didnt like to rev! Each to their own though.

Paul

Was probably the noise I had a Marina TC with twin su's made a good noise and surprisingly reliable too

[ViperPict]

The 7,990cc V10 in the pre-2003 Viper. The most reliable, under-stressed 415bhp you'll get. Prodigious torque means that it pulls like a train in pretty much any gear at any revs. Also, sitting at 80mph in 6th, the engine's at ~1500 rpm so a genine 25mpg on long drives is achievable.

Edited by ViperPict on Sunday 4th November 12:48