Autoshite's Iconic Engines

[twosmoke300]

You can poke the a series ( and the pinto ) heavy old shit that's worn out by 60k 😄

[Bren]

CIH straight six fitted to vauxhall's in the 70's and 80's.

A bit agricultural but tough as old boots.

[Rusty Pelican]

Going back decades now but the Hillman Imp engine must be worth a mention , way ahead of its time and developed from a Coventry Climax FWMA engine , all alloy and  overhead cam at the same time the A series was still being made of cast iron and rocks ,  very tuneable , revs to 7K as standard but properly built 998 versions will do 9k without trouble and will almost kick out 100BHP , Even an 875 tuned properly will kick out 60BHP at the wheels , light enough to almost pick up by yourself .

OK so there was reliability issues in the beginning but the technology was so new thats hardly surprising really

 

[Ghosty]

Audi/VW 5 pots like WR, KK, KV, KX and the later NG. Everlasting and with a note which seem to be illegal nowadays.

 

2.6 V6 from the 80/Coupé/early A4 seems to be good too, and it has a bit of the 5 cylinder sound somehow.

[anonymous user]

You can poke the a series ( and the pinto ) heavy old shit that's worn out by 60k

The A series might be worn out, but it will still run.

[cms206]

The Mazda B3 1324cc 8v 4-pot, as fitted to the best car ever built anywhere by anyone...

 

[HH-R]

The 1 litre twin cam 16v as fitted to K11 Micras.

 

Very strong, and they could do more than 43 MPH flat out with the correct amount of right foot.

 

The Fix It Again Tomorrow FIRE is a great engine, very strong, just firstly let down by HGF then once they'd fixed that, shitty sensors and wiring. Probably the best example would be a later one retrofitted with a dizzy and points, and the ECU slung into the nearest canal (if that's even possible).

 

They unfortunately took the ruining one step further with the Euro 5 versions which had any enjoyment mapped out of them.

[Junkman]

Isn't the Cologne V6 a bit "meh"? I've had a couple, nothing wrong with them at all but nothing to shout from the tree tops about either. They are just engines?

 

 

Yes, they are just engines, propelling whatever they are supposed to propel forward and there is never anything wrong with them.

Isn't that exatly what one would expect from an iconic engine?

[Bear]

CIH straight six fitted to vauxhall's in the 70's and 80's.

A bit agricultural but tough as old boots.

 

Opel's lump, though. Vauxhall's straight six from the '70s only had the cam in the head when things have gone VERY wrong.

[Junkman]

DKW 3 cylinder two-stroke. Because it's a 3 cylinder two-stroke.

[rml2345]

Speaking of iconic, the enormous Bugatti 12.7 litre OHC straight eight definitely deserves a place. Only six of them were installed in cars, the Bugatti Royales but they went on to power the sleek Bugatti railcars built for the SNCF in the thirties.

[Ghosty]

Probably the only time it's ever okay to say a car 'pulls like a train', unless you have a Cummins from a Pacer shoehorned into your Proton or something.

[warren t claim]

Triumph Stag V8

 

Ford V4

 

Peugeot 1.6 HDi.

[Noel Tidybeard]

rolls royce rb211

rr olympus

[Des]

If we're straying into fancy stuff like Buggeryerauntie lumps, then I nominate the Bristol six, single cam in block and the valves arranged like a twin cam, made possible by a couple of shovel loads of pushrods, makes a nice clatter, like a roomful of just oiled sewing machines on the with maybe a skeleton or two having a discreet jostle in a tin bath. They're a great engine simply because they're screwed together with Whitworth threads, and as we all know, the engine that's Whitworthed together, stays together. All non-Whitworth engines are shit, cheap and nasty modern trash cast from monkey metal with the odd bucketful of horses hooves from the knackers yard thrown in, pistons made from fudge, the only heat treatment cranks get is having smelly tramps to piss on them while hot from the forge. If the K-Series had been made with Whitworth threads, we'd now have our empire back, while busying ourselves colonising Mars with K-powered spacecraft, and BMW would be back where they started, building wanky metric threaded pushbikes.

[Taff]

Yes, they are just engines, propelling whatever they are supposed to propel forward and there is never anything wrong with them.

Isn't that exatly what one would expect from an iconic engine?

 

all engines are supposed to do that. they should have a certain something extra that makes them iconic, be it a sound, a look, a small idiosyncrasy about them that carves them out a niche in motoring folklore. I was negative about the A series but I agree it's an icon.

 

I'm not having a dig at the Cologne, it's a capable engine and the two I had were trouble free. But, unlike flatties, Fiat twinks & the Stovebolt 6, I don't recall people ever get excited about seeing a Cologne.

[martc]

 Probably the best example would be a later one retrofitted with a dizzy and points, and the ECU slung into the nearest canal (if that's even possible).

 

 

 

Sorry that is not possible - the canal is full of dead batteries.

[chaseracer]

DKW 3 cylinder two-stroke. Because it's a 3 cylinder two-stroke.

 

There was an Audi running one of those at Chumblebubley last Sunday... 

[twosmoke300]

Not a car but KTM 250/300 two strokes from 03 onwards . Moved the game forward for reliability and spread of power

[Junkman]

all engines are supposed to do that. they should have a certain something extra that makes them iconic, be it a sound, a look, a small idiosyncrasy about them that carves them out a niche in motoring folklore. I was negative about the A series but I agree it's an icon.

 

I'm not having a dig at the Cologne, it's a capable engine and the two I had were trouble free. But, unlike flatties, Fiat twinks & the Stovebolt 6, I don't recall people ever get excited about seeing a Cologne.

 

They sound like Aston Martin straight sixes. Is that nothing?

Besides, they do have their loyal follwership. You don't seem to be one, I understand.

[Junkman]

Chrysler Hemi.

[DSdriver]

I'm going to go off piste here and nominate the SABB (not Saab) 2HG. A 2 cylinder diesel with hand start designed for use in Norwegian lifeboats. Found its way into fishing boats, yachts and I believe some trucks (Scammell?).

[sco14]

My vote would be for the PSA XUD. An engine that keeps ticking as long as oil, filter etc are changed regularly. My XUD covered almost 499000 miles before I had some work done. Even at that mileage it would always start first time and take you anywhere.

[Junkman]

I'd say you ruined it with your regular oil and filter changes. They are designed for the French attitude towards car maintenance,

hence allergic to fresh oil and filters.

[Uncle Jimmy]

The Saab V4 (entirely different from the V4 turd that vibrated Transit vans along)

Saab 'B' and 'H' engines, take an underdeveloped British lump, use small time Scandinavian nous to turn it into a long lived continually developed winner.

[twosmoke300]

and then proceed to ruin it with poor crankcase ventilation / piston design / oil specs

[John F]

Gnome Monosoupape 9 Type N:

 

 

 

And here's one with its internals on display:

 

[Junkman]

Not a car but KTM 250/300 two strokes from 03 onwards . Moved the game forward for reliability and spread of power

 

1981 - 1984 KTM 495. Makes mince out of everything.

[Junkman]

Napier Deltic:

 

 

 

Zwezda M520, a 56 cylinder (8 rows with 7 cylinders) marine diesel radial, 191.4 litres of displacement and 5400 hp:

 

 

 

Lycoming XR-7755, the largest piston aircraft engine ever built. 4 rows of 9 cylinders, 127 litres of displacement, 5,000 hp:

 

[danthecapriman]

Napier Deltic is a fantastic engine. They are horrific on fuel and they cost a lot to run and repair but still great and the sound of one is like nothing else!

My uncle used to work on them for British Rail in the 70's, he loved them! I've got an original operators manual somewhere for this engine and loads of others, English Electric, Sulzer and all sorts.