Most dependable engines

[warren t claim]

Nissan 2.7 dizzler as fitted to the LTI Fairway.

[Ghosty]

Honda D-Series - SOHC flat fours. 

 

Old Man's had a Prelude with a 120hp D20 and two 90hp D14 engined Civics - they go on forever, and only ever seem to need oil, filters and cambelts.

 

The D14 goes pretty well when it's in good shape and paired with a manual.

 

Easy to find with low miles, too.

[oman5]

Volvo red block. Look, all other manufacturers, THIS is how you do it.

Volvo/vw D24 IF you look after it.

VW atmos 1.9D (umwelt?) they'll do stupid mileages before expiring. The car it's fitted to will fall apart first.

Another vote for the transit 2.5 Di. They're unburstable and about as complex as a rock. Again, it will outlive the van its fitted to.

An off the wall choice, but the Peugeot indenor is a damn fine engine in my book. In low powered 2.1/2.3 n/a form it's so unstressed that it just runs and runs. They just started to run into bother when turbocharging it or fitting it into a big heavy van.

 

This is only from my own experience. All of them had over 200k on the clock and I never had a minutes trouble from any of them.

 

From the heavy side, I nominate the cummins 14 litre. Advertisements proclaiming it as a million mile engine were not lying.

[spike60]

For something Modern and complicated the petrol Merc V6 from mid 1990's-mid 2000's seem pretty good, you don't hear many bad tales of CLK320 etc. 1.9D from 1998 Polo etc, slow but seem pretty bomb proof. Chevrolet 350 "small block" seem good too.

[Cavcraft]

Any 8V Vauxhall engine. Bullet proof, totally reliable and take masses of abuse/neglect.

[twosmoke300]

I agree , the 8v vaux motor seems to be as tolerant of abuse as the 1.3 ohv ford lump .

The Toyota small engine series that are used in the 90s starlets and corollas are pretty bomb proof

[castros_bro]

Whatever engine was fitted to Levant n Middle East Merc or 405 million kM diesel taxis

any XUD

BSA M20 / M21

J A Prestwick's 350/500 SV

Hodna C90

[500tops]

Toyota 4EFE

[Richard]

I've always found XUDs to be quite fragile, especially in the water retention department.

[derskine]

I think 8v Vauxhall engines too, not had experience but my mate (who's on here) has a 4 speed 1.2 Nova that he drives flat out everywhere, with the oil pressure light flashing when he goes round corners, and has done for the past 2 years, and it's still going, if sounding a bit rough.

 

In my own experience, 8v VW engines have been pretty good too.

[twosmoke300]

I've always found XUDs to be quite fragile, especially in the water retention department.

Like many french cars , the engine is quite solid its the (usually valeo) rubbish around it that causes the problems

[Lukas]

I´m not surprised nobody mentioned the best engine ever built in terms of reliability and dependability. 

 

The 4 Litre V8 1UZ-FE from Toyota/Lexus. Many LS400 with more than a million km on the clock known, even Toyota Germany owns of of them. 

 

And of course the Toyota JZ-engine. An inline-six with 2,5 and 3 litre under the bonnet of Chaser, Crown, Supra etc. etc. 

 

And don´t forget all the inline-six-Diesel in the Land-Cruiser J6, J8, J9. And the 1HZ in the HZJ7. Known around the world for being the most dependable offroader-engine ever. 

 

Oh and the Nissan TD42, a 4,2 litre inline-six-Diesel in the Patrol. The Aussies love them because they are so reliable. 

[Honey Badger]

The bigger Isuzu J engine diesels that come in 2.5lt and up in the TF pickups are really good as well, very tough and capable of real abuse, proper old school unit.

 

I mentioned the Toyota lumps earlier, they do seem to be capable of mega mileage, a giffer down the road has a Mk1 LS with 275k on the clock and it still looks and sounds brand new.

 

He has my number just in case he wants rid of it

[Cavcraft]

Say what? The XUD (albeit the n/a) is a cracking engine, very reliable indeed and good on fuel. Don't they also have a huge cam belt interval as well? The turbos are great but seem prone to throwing rods and HGF.

[406V6]

Surprisingly the Peugeot / Citroen / Renault petrol V6 (ES9J4 and ES9J4S) is a pretty reliable engine. The only real weak point was the coil packs fitted in the early years and those are sorted now.

[barefoot]

I broke my Trabant engine.

[steve_earwig]

I've got a spare lawnmower engine

 

I've never had anything long enough to comment, HDi ownership is now reaching the heady heights of 8 years, which is the longest time I've ever had a car barring those that spent most of their time with me pretending to be garden sheds.

 

I'd probably agree with the 2.5 Di Transit though, the one I had was pretty cream crackered but always impressed me with it's ability to start like it'd just been turned off, even after the van was parked outside all winter buried in snow.

[UltraWomble]

I've always found XUDs to be quite fragile, especially in the water retention department.

HGF is a fact of life for the XUD, I do think that longevity can be helped with regular coolant changes though. That said HGF is rarely fatal for the XUD and not a huge job to do. Bleeding the system afterwards is a bit of an ordeal but not impossible. Ive let previous ones bleed and burp themselves and just carried around a bottle of water / antifreeze mix.

[Keymaster]

I think 8v Vauxhall engines too, not had experience but my mate (who's on here) has a 4 speed 1.2 Nova that he drives flat out everywhere, with the oil pressure light flashing when he goes round corners, and has done for the past 2 years, and it's still going, if sounding a bit rough.

 

 

Is your mate me, circa 1999-2002?

 

Similar to the Aussie theory, I'd suggest anything that gets exported to live on Africa is a good candidate - so old Peugeots, Mercs etc

[MrDuke]

Mitsubishi 4g13

[Cavcraft]

Good call on the Transit Di. Quite probably the best Diesel engine ever made.

[cms206]

Isuzu 1.7 diesel, Ford 2.5 diesel as in the Transit, any Vauxhall 8v and of course the Volvo redblock, particularly in 2316cc flavour.

 

Other surprising candidates... the Rover K-series - my gaffer's managed nigh on 250k from his 416 kettle and it's only had one head gasket, the Cummins B-series diesel and the Austin/Rover S-series. The 1.6 in my Montego was one of the best things about the car, still feels quick even today.

[fordperv]

Pinto engines, yes people may say about cam wear but that was down to poor servicing and the spray bar gumming up, out of all the pinto engined cars I have had not one has experienced cam wear, another vote for the hcs, Isuzu 1.7 diesel and the vauxhall 8v engines

[MarvinsMom]

bmc a-series.

 

jaguar xj6, aj6 and aj16.

 

8 valve pinto's, me dad had one in a mark 1 sierra when we were growing up. he drove around in it with a knackered water pump for quiet a while before getting it fixed, when the tempreture gauge got up towards the red, he'd ease off for a couple of miles and let it cool down. the rest of the car was a crusty rusty piece of shit by the end, but the engine and drive train were mint. he also made a point of canging the oil at 5000 mile intervals, i think ford at that time were saying the service interval was double that.

[phil_lihp]

I broke one - about 5.5k with my foot down in third and a valve head dropped off, wrecking the engine. I think the mileage was about 120,000.

 

Funnily enough, my sister's W-reg 1.25 Zetec Fiesta died around the same mileage, possibly due to a 'friend who's studying to be a mechanic' putting what I'm fairly sure was the wrong oil in it.  It burned oil at an increasingly alarming rate after that and was frequently run very low.  It eventually got to the point where it consumed about 1.5 litres on a 70 mile drive and two weeks later lost compression on one cylinder and was scrapped.  They're very good engines and will do moderately high mileages if looked after but I wouldn't call them tough really, they're quite demanding about having the right oil and keeping it topped up - or at least the 1.25 is.

[sierraman]

Nissan small older type 4cyl engines, toyota 4cyl as fitted to carina etc... Ford zetec... When you consider that most engines used to be ready for a rebore at 100k, most engines are pretty durable now. Its all the other shit like turbo and flywheel that fuck you over instead.

 

I would have said the K Series would be anything but durable. Most didn't get past 60k before the head gasket went.

[xtriple]

Any Merc V8 from the 70s onwards. Not so sure about the latest ones but going by past records... I had a 350 with 400K km on it and it was sweet and fast. Had a 380 with about the same but it had been clocked (several times!) so not sure. I had one that wore it's l/h cam out on a couple of lobes so it was tappetity but still ran well.

 

Lexus 4 litre V8, mega miles and always sweet. If I recall correctly (doubtful) the engine was guaranteed for 500K if Lexus serviced!

 

A series engines. Am I gonna get flamed to death for that one? All the ones I knew of in my youth were ragged mercilessly from cold, never had oil changes and only topped up when the oil pressure disappeared on bends.  Okay, the timing chains rattle from about 6K miles but they seem to soldier on forever!

 

Bikes; Kawasaki 903/1015cc 4 cylinder engines. Absolutely bulletproof and good for galactic mileage.

[Pete-M]

Mercedes OM613. Yes it's common rail diesel madness but they don't seem to die.

 

Ford's Duratec TDCi 1.8 lump. I know a cab firm that runs these to half a million miles before they'll even consider scrapping the car. Half their fleet now are Mk2 Focus estates with humongous mileages on them - "we thought they'd do a couple of hundred thou then die - they're on double and triple that and just keep going. Cambelt every 90k and they just plod on - forever".

 

Rover V8. Other than camshaft wear the 3.5 will just keep working. Bigger ones have liner issues (that are easily sorted)

 

Jag AJ16. I know plenty of folk who's XJ40s died through terminal rot - don't know anyone who killed the engine in one.

[sloth]

c20xe, bullet proof and reliable.

triumph 2000/2500six, watch the thrust washers but a peach of an engine

toyota 1jz, bomb proof, possible to get 600bhp on an unopened engine. 

toyota 1uz. over built, 6 bolt mains, desgined for 1 million miles.

[Coprolalia]

8v VW engines (bias here) fitted to mk2 golfs/scirocco/polo/vans in the 80s/ early 90s. Simple, unstressed in the 1.8 form, start every time. Plenty of them smoking about at 150-200k. Most seem to have disappeared as they are pineappled then sent over bridge/ have poorly fitted TOON IT UP MATE bits/ written off by eejits. 

 

XUDs - mate had one that was on 300,000, only ever needed oil and filters.

 

The Toyota A engine - how many middle aged Toyota Corolla liftbacks with that horrible bloated arse do you see floating around?

 

Chevy stovebolt 6 - rebuilt a couple of 250,000+ milers. Unbelievably simple. First produced in 1929, in production until 1990.

 

Chevy 350 V8 - unburstable, unstressed lumps. Fond memories of towing a 350 v8 in a 1980s c10 into the workshop. Truck had been sat in a field for 5 years with the bonnet open. Crack off the sump to find 4 litres (!) of water and some oily sludge. Water in half the bores, full of rust.

Let it dry, poured diesel down the bores and put a breaker bar on the flywheel. 4 weeks of tugging later she turns over. One month after that she's ticking over blowing 6ft smoke rings out the straight pipes. That trucks still driving around somewhere.