Autoshite's Iconic Engines

[Jim Bell]

Volvo redblock ! Not a particularly exciting engine design, but genuinely built to last a lifetime (just like the cars it powered) :

 

B230.jpg

And non-interference for added roulette win. It is possible to break them, but you have to try very hard, for a long time.

If Mad Max was set in Ingerland, all of the vehicles would be Redblocks and XUDs.

[fairkens]

Perkins diesel from a maestro etc will go on for ever if looked after

 

Isuzu diesel from the Cavalier, likewise great engine

 

Agree XUD and A series as already mentioned.

 

The Yamaha lump in the Puma is a little cracker

 

Lots of diesel engines on this thread, looks like diesel engine design peaked in the early to mid 90s

[Jim Bell]

An honourable mention should go to the Toyota 1SZ-FE 997cc lump. It's a bit modern but it does have a lot of Shite-appeal.

 

Developed jointly with Daihatsu, the cold-box produced, low friction offset crankshaft type 16 valver produces more power and torque than is reasonable to expect from the displacement, and the smoothness of running is bettered only by the outrageous economy delivery. Problems are rare and usually simple to resolve.

 

Surely there is some dystopian future where we all use one. There are no problems there but nobody smiles.

 

[pshome]

Iconic engine? PRV of course. Simple, reliable, indestructible and what a sound it has!

It's good in any variant, with a pair of triple Weber's it becomes sheer fun.

 

[Lacquer Peel]

I'm sorry but I don't get the XUD love, to me the equivalent VAG unit is better, more economical & more powerful. I wouldn't swap the motor in the boring for any other, it is the reason I own and drive the thing. See AHF and the mildly changed pre-pd, veg loving variants in late 90s VAGs. My dream car is one of these lumps in a mk2 Scirocco, and if the boring dies that may well happen.

 

Fiat/Lampredi twink, sounds lovely and 100+bhp in the 70s was a decent score from a stock 2l motor.

It took VW 10 years to better the XUD, their own indirect injection diesels weren't great.

I like the noise an XUD makes, a refined dieselly thrum, and they are capable of high MPG driven gently, even thrashed it's a struggle to go lower than 40MPG. A lot of them are fully analogue and easy to tune.

 

I do like the VAG distributor pump TDI but it's a generation ahead of the XUD and an unfair comparison. The cars it's attached to are dull VAG shite too.

[martc]

BMW flat twin. I know its not a car engine,but Dollywobs showed it would be a stormer in a car. It can be run on 20w50 too,so I claim Autoshite!

 

I trump this with the Moto Guzzi V twin - last almost indefinitely.

 

Oh, and talking of motorbike engines - any of the Japanese across the frame fours. Particularly Honda's and Kawasaki's the impact they made to motorcycling cannot be over emphasised.

 

And the Honda C50,70 or 90. They are the "best" engine in any sphere of motorised transport - if you value reliability, economy, peerless engineering and sheer numbers made.

[Ronnie L]

Another vote here for the wonderful little Austin / BMC / BL A series, for all the reasons already mentioned, and for the fact that it was the engine which taught me how to work on engines over 40 years ago.

 

Another worthy of the vote here is that lovely little all-alloy screamer fitted in the Hillman Imp. Inspired by the Coventry-Climax fire pump engine (but NOT the same as it) this lightweight aluminium OHC designed by Rootes in the early 60's was another unit way ahead of its time. In standard form it was strangled by a tiny carb, but fitted with a big-valve head, twin Stromberg carbs and a nice free-flow exhaust manifold it not only performed superbly and sounded great but it looked beautiful as well. Early problems with water pump failure leading to overheating got it off to a bad start but once these were ironed-out it was a great wee engine, which lived-on after the imp to be fitted to the Sunbeam hatchback.

I scrapped an Imp about ten years ago but I kept the engine just to remind me what a beautiful ornament they make in the workshop!

[the judge]

My K1200s was a mega complicated dry sump jobbie. Fuck it was quick though

[sloth]

triumphs big sixes. the 2000 is a sweet revvy unit that loves a good thrash. the 2500 is a torquey monster that sings and sounds amazing at any speed.

 

toyota 1jz/2jz.  twin turbo 24v 6 cyl, staged turbos on the 2jz, later with vvti. obscene power from only bolt ons, guys here are making 800bhp with stock bottom ends. hard to believe it was designed in the late 80s by yamaha.....

 

 

vw's 2.0 bkd diesel.  has an awesome torque delivery. and has a habit of chucking out huge soot clouds. and does 60mpg.

[fordperv]

The K series is a fantastic engine when looked after, it's lively nature is why I owned so many R8 214

 

The pinto engine, these things will still be running when nuclear apocalypse hits, you can break them but you have to be brutal, so easy to work on and they respond really well to a bit of go faster work.

[Danblez]

Engine addict tonight at 9pm on Quest could be interesting. Although I don't know this jimmy de vile bloke.

[oldcars]

Reliant's 850 engine 

[Cavcraft]

Vauxhall C20SEH. Absolutely the best 8V engine EVER: torquey, bullet proof, take an amazing amount of abuse and just won't die.

 

Transit 2.5Di: As above and when the cam belt goes, just bend the valves back in shape and carry on. They also make the best diesel engine noise in the world.

 

PSA 1.9 XUD n/a. Fabulous thing.

[sloth]

cavcraft, its a 20seh, they never put a cat on a 20seh, it was a c20ne.

[twosmoke300]

Vauxhall C20SEH. Absolutely the best 8V engine EVER: torquey, bullet proof, take an amazing amount of abuse and just won't die.

 

Transit 2.5Di: As above and when the cam belt goes, just bend the valves back in shape and carry on. They also make the best diesel engine noise in the world.

 

PSA 1.9 XUD n/a. Fabulous thing.

Its the pushrods that bend on a 2.5Di (Pedant mode)

[320touring]

Bmw m30 3.5 those who were at shitefest this year know that to which I refer.

 

bmw m10 4cyl - from humble beginnings in junior exec cars to 1500bhp turbo f1.

[Noel Tidybeard]

I'm sorry but I don't get the XUD love, to me the equivalent VAG unit is better, more economical & more powerful. I wouldn't swap the motor in the boring for any other, it is the reason I own and drive the thing. See AHF and the mildly changed pre-pd, veg loving variants in late 90s VAGs. My dream car is one of these lumps in a mk2 Scirocco, and if the boring dies that may well happen.

but you're talking tdi which isnt the equivalent of an xud

[320touring]

but you're talking tdi which isnt the equivalent of an xud

it doesnt need to be an equivilent. both are good engines in their own right:)

[dollywobbler]

Citroen M28 602cc engine. An engine designed in the 1960s that produces maximum power at 5750rpm, and can be driven at that speed for hours on end with no harm. Has hemispherical combustion chambers and a gear-driven camshaft. There is very little that can actually go wrong, and with regular servicing, they can easily top 300,000 miles. Despite the fact you have to thrash the living daylights out of them. 

 

This is the entirety of the crankshaft. 

 

These engines are utterly amazing and beautifully engineered.

[cort16]

The Rover/Buick v8. It's fair to say Rover got every penny of moneys worth out of it. Pity they fucked it all up near then by over boring it, fitting liners that didn't stick to the block and letting quality drop top that of a cold war era Russian tractor factory. 

 

[Tartan58]

An honourable mention should go to the Toyota 1SZ-FE 997cc lump. It's a bit modern but it does have a lot of Shite-appeal.

 

 

 

 

They're a bit of alright in my book too as my old Yaris will testify to, V-reg with eleventy-four owners, 150k miles and probably not been serviced for the last 100k and it still ran sweet as a nut and delivered over 50mpg all day long. The rest of the car was falling apart around it and went to a banger racer 6 months ago.

 

I'd cast my vote for k-series as well , I don't want to tempt fate but the Streetwise is my 3rd 1.4k and I've never had an HGF yet (admitadly I haven't hung onto them for long) but it is a nice little engine and surprisingly nippy once you get it wound up.

 

Can I also add the MX5 engine, another example of a great lump that will outlast the car. The one in mine has done 125k miles and hasn't missed a beat in the 3 years I've had it (ok the last year it's been off the road) it's taken commuting, continental road trips and the occasional track day thrash without complaint.

[Skizzer]

Jaguar 4.2 XK.  Smooth as a baby's, and indestructible.  Cheap as chips in an XJ6 - buy 50 of them for the price of one E-Type, get the same engine.  And avoid having to sit in a giant phallus.

 

Plus eleventy on the Rover/Buick 3.5 V8.

[Bear]

Mercedes: M119 V8 - 32 valves, four camshafts, and built to take 600+ bhp in Le Mans racers - when it made it to the SL and so forth, it was somewhat unstressed with around 330bhp. Much higher quality engineering than the 3-valve per cylinder M113 that replaced it.

 

Honourable mention to the M111 Inline 4 - making a gradual appearance through the '90s and into the 21st century, this 16V unit covered all the bases, often supercharged, meeting the emissions-controlled strangulation that caused a generation of troublesome efforts and downrated models in other marques. It's forgiving, easy to service, easy to maintain and generally avoids many of the issues that blight comparable contemporaries. Arguably it's the last of an era, as the related 24V six-cylinder models would be replaced with V6s.

 

The Lampredi twin-cam has been mentioned already, I believe. The original series of Audi 5-pots should be in there somewhere, making some otherwise dull cars interesting.

 

Jeep/AMC 4.0 Straight Six. A lot tougher than the Jeep's reputation in the UK.

Chrysler LA V8 - like many American V8s, had a much, much longer lifespan than anticipated.

 

For a true AS engine, what about Ford's 2.3 Twincam? Partially developed with Cosworth but never credited as a "Cosworth" engine, hauled about Scorpios and was originally intended for a four-cylinder variant of the Jaguar S-type.

[Eddie Honda]

Reliant's 850 engine 

 

Prefer the 750 myself, but yes, any Reliant OHV, be it 600, 700, 750, 850.

[skattrd]

Daihatsu CB80 as found in the gtti. 100bhp from 3 cylinders 1l and a turbo. 25 years later Ford do the same thing and it's revolutionary...

 

I won't bore you with jc-det as that fan club consists of about 5 people in this country.

[oldcars]

Prefer the 750 myself, but yes, any Reliant OHV, be it 600, 700, 750, 850.

What's the reason you prefer the 750?

[xtriple]

Rolls Royce/Bentley V8. Bollocks to anyone saying they ain't Autoshite enough - anything you can get for a grand qualifies in my book! Dead impressive that an engine designed in the 50s to produce no more than 200 HP and which now produces 600(ish) must be a good engine. I know they had reliability wobbles when they first went for big power ( it turned into a 'K' series and OMGHGF was rampant but a bit pricier to fix   ) but I believe that is sorted now.

[Eddie Honda]

Runs smoother and sweeter. Shorter stroke - squarer engine.

[DVee8]

My vote

 

The Turner V8 as found in the Daimler 250 V8 and the Daimler Majestic 4.5 V8.

 

 

[flat4alfa]

Lexus 4.0 litre V8. The most refined V8 engine I have ever driven, so smooth, so quiet. Mine had done 250,000 miles with nothing more than routine servicing. Still good for 15mph plus.

 

Crikey, that's proper quick for shite