jacksoni wrote:Gm never put iron sleeves in the Vega block but some replacement engines. dealer installed for fried ones, were from a rebuilder that did sleeve them under GM's approval.
The problems with the bores were due to a little tiny radiator, no overflow recovery system and the usual maintainence of the average driver= NONE. Get them hot and they were cooked. I had a Doug Roe designed heart shaped high compression head on one of mine that went well over 100000 miles no trouble. I did pull the engine from first one I had- 1971GT- for a 215 Buick 4 bbl that made a really nice swap. And I had one I leaned on some that went over 270 at Bonneville. Weren't perzackly stock though.
You forgot the rare Cosworth Vega motor it was 2litre and had iron cylinders in its block. My neighbor still has a new one in his storage at his closed down Chevy dealership. The Cosworth is probably as good of an investment as his 78 Indy Pace Car Vette and 1993 50TH anniversary ZR1 Corvette
I see that nobody has picked on the early Triton V-8 engines yet. Bad head gaskets allowed oil to cut through to coolant. If not found early, a groove got cut into head/block. This mostly happened to pickups put into towing duty. One of the later generations has poor head castings that tended to crack around 95k too. A good friend just had this happen.
Dodge V-10 pickup engine with inadequate cooling to #7 cylinder. It would overheat and score the piston. It usually only happened when towing a heavy load, which rarely happened with a V-10. I guess you just can't add cylinders as easily as you can take them off.
My grandpa had an old Buick Skylark with an aluminum V-6 engine in it. It was considered a lemon for street use, but boat enthusiasts liked them. That is where his low mileage engine went.
My '33 Dodge sedan has a flat head 6 cylinder that has a brass water distribution tube in the water jacket. The tubes would rot out and the engines overheat.
On the they don't make enough power to hurt themselves list are the smogger 318's and the Hillside Hemi, the Leaning Tower of Power, AKA the slant six. The 2.8L v-6 s-10 engines were very similar too. We had several of them with 300k on them at my old employers place. I know someone listed it as a bad engine, but we had a 2.2L Dodge mini van with almost 400k on it at one place too. Never had a valve cover off it.
Since we are picking on GM diesels, the worst of the lot had to be the 82-85 V-6. Brother had one in a Pontiac 6000 made a whopping 85 horse. He was on the road in sales in those days.. I think he spent as much time in rentals as in the Pontiac. Never could keep a head gasket on it to say nothing of multiple injection pumps
tsanchez wrote:Cadillac 8-6-4
Ford flathead v8 (aftermarket saved it)
ford 3.8 v6
ford 2.8 v6
Cadillac 4100(early)
Olds diesel
MItsubishi 2.4
Toyota
don't forget the 2.2 Mitsubishi what a piece of shyt! easily the worst engine i have personally owned
They burn valves... if its the one in the shorter dodge minivans in the late 80s.. the longer ones got the american engine , shorter ones got the shitsubitchi,and every time it was burnt exhaust valves.
Growing up in Canada people deemed them Lada Nivas, and the car model(a russian built fiat) as the worst made car ever.... I wouldnt say they were good, but I dont actually remember one setting dead on the side of the road
Last edited by justahoby on Wed Apr 10, 2013 6:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
As I'm approaching 40,I still think I'm 20. What the hell is wrong with me?
My Buddy Doc had a '70 Duster with a 225" slant-6 in it and I asked him when the last time he set the valve lash and just what was its miles on the Odometer was.
He said, 175,000 and he'd never set it's valve lash and the old sucker ran great..
brechlrl wrote:Since we are picking on GM diesels, the worst of the lot had to be the 82-85 V-6. Brother had one in a Pontiac 6000 made a whopping 85 horse. He was on the road in sales in those days.. I think he spent as much time in rentals as in the Pontiac. Never could keep a head gasket on it to say nothing of multiple injection pumps
That thing could get dusted by a Rabbit diesel
IMHO that has to be the most chocolatey of the American turd contribution. My pops bought a Malibu with one of these brand new. I remember it struggling so baaad through the West Virginia mountains he took his Honda for the later trips. Motor seized maybe 3 years old and was swapped for some unknown gas junkyard conversion a local shop did.
One more thing about the Cad 4100. If I remember correctly, the oil drain holes in the heads were in the front of the engine, which was higher than the rear. I bought an 83 for my 16 year old son to be a safe beginner in. I could not believe Cad would make such a piece of crap. It leaked from ALL gasket/sealing surfaces. The water pump to block biscuit would shrink in cold weather and coolant would pour out without driving it. Why would GM engineer such piece of crap when 350 SBC's could have been bought from scrap yards and re-manufactured for new Caddys? Would have been cheaper than their warranty work, I'll bet. Were those the Roger Smith years?
I also remember Yugo's had the dead bugs on the rear windows.
"Life is too short to not run a solid roller cam."
"Anything is possible, if you don't know what you're talking about."
I am NOT an Expert, and DEFINITELY NOT a GURU.
Kirkwoodken
dieselgeek wrote:ford 6.0 diesel trumps all. You know an engine is bad when there are law firms that specialize in nothimg but customer lawsuits over that specific engine.
I had a new 2006 that I owned for 4 years and 129k no issues with the exception of an alternator and a Injection connector that needed cleaned.
New hemi can't keep them on the streets in cop cars, many ,many lifter failures.Valves hitting pistons and bending etc. complete piece of crap.I thought our fleet of 6.0 powerstrokes were bad but the hemi makes them look like the most reliable engine ever built.
The Moscowvitch ( even the spell checker doesnt know?) was imported into the UK years back , I seem to remember for sale advertisments for used examples that went something like this : Moscowvitch 402 for sale suit someone living on a steep hill !!!!+ loads of spares thrown in Carbs, engines, gearboxes ,steering parts . any reasonable cash offers or swap considered ,, EVERY thing could and would go wrong with these , starting with the headgasket failure,often at very low mileage .
what a piece of shyt! easily the worst engine i have personally owned 
