The Greateast Mass Production Engines Ever Made?

[Olivera]

My votes:

Honda K20A
BMW S54

Others:

VW 1.9 TDI - Reliability and economy apart it's a turd of an engine. Terrible refinement and powerband.
Alfa Busso - I've driven a few and found them very mediocre. No better than many other V6s. It's Kudos seems to mainly be based on the fact it's in an Alfa and has a polished intake manifold.

[InductionRoar]

Olivera said:

My votes:

Honda K20A
BMW S54

Others:

VW 1.9 TDI - Reliability and economy apart it's a turd of an engine. Terrible refinement and powerband.
Alfa Busso - I've driven a few and found them very mediocre. No better than many other V6s. It's Kudos seems to mainly be based on the fact it's in an Alfa and has a polished intake manifold.

I like this answer because I have an S54 and find it to be a very nice engine but I haven't experienced enough to say it is the best though it is certainly the best I have experienced. I would have thought the S65 or S85 would be better though.

It also goes some way to address the praise that is heaped on the Busso - I have never understood the attraction but then I have never been interested enough to research them I suppose. They are undeniably pretty engines and are supposed to sound good. Is that the only attraction or are they really that good?

[RizzoTheRat]

chris285 said:

Granted it's not going to set the world alight

Ferrari 458 engine wins that one surely?

[Beardo]

SAAB B234R/B235R are worth a shout.

[anonymous-user]

can't remember said:

GSalt said:

SMC In-Line Four
Coventry Climax FW

Finally someone mentions the winner. The Coventry Climax powered everything from forklifts to F1 winners.

Good call. Very influential in other engine designs of the time too. Extra kudos for having the best company name ever.

Edited by dme123 on Friday 17th February 14:05

[tombar]

Define your terms for 'greatest' but the ones I've enjoyed being behind most are:

1UZFE Vvti Lexus. The best engine bar none.
5 pot Fiat (Marea, not Coupe!!!) Crap car, great engine!
Saab 9 3 Aero 4 pot turbo
TVR's 4 ltr version of Rover V8
MX5 1.6 - no power but turbine smooth

Bloody awful ones include :

1993 VW 1.9 diesel - SO rattly
Toyota 2ltr in Avensis - may as well be a diesel

[anonymous-user]

Bdevo3 said:

Mitsubishi 4g63t
Honda b series
Toyota 4age and 2jz
Subaru ej207
Isuzu 1.7td

Have you been drinking? We have

Mitusbish 4G63T - Generic highly boosted farting 4 pot;

Honda B Series- Generic economy farting 4 pot, only virtue is that it was less st than the rubbish Ford used at the time;

Toyota 4age and 2jz - Generic economy farting 4 pot & The first decent one in your list - a nice 6 pot often featuring turbos

OK the Subaru is pretty cool. Our six fingered cousins over the Atlantic don't rate it's robustness and reliability though. Probably because pouring dinosaur sludge oil in every 3000 miles was not quite the maintenance regime it requires.

As for the Isuzu taxi engine I'll just leave that one right where it is.

Edited by dme123 on Friday 17th February 14:20

[Johnny 89]

tombar said:

Define your terms for 'greatest' but the ones I've enjoyed being behind most are:

1UZFE Vvti Lexus. The best engine bar none.
5 pot Fiat (Marea, not Coupe!!!) Crap car, great engine!
Saab 9 3 Aero 4 pot turbo
TVR's 4 ltr version of Rover V8
MX5 1.6 - no power but turbine smooth

Bloody awful ones include :

1993 VW 1.9 diesel - SO rattly
Toyota 2ltr in Avensis - may as well be a diesel

Regarding the TVR, do you rate the 4ltr version above the higher capacity variants, or is it just the one you've owned/driven?

[S0 What]

Ford kent engine, in production from 1959 till 2002 in one guise or another.

[jjohnson23]

There is one engine I can think of but it is a very old design.
Made by a little company called Rolls Royce in the 1930`s and 40`s.
They called it the Merlin and there is no other sound quite like it.

[Mr2Mike]

dme123 said:

Honda B Series- Generic economy farting 4 pot, only virtue is that it was less st than the rubbish Ford used at the time;

Hardly a "generic economy" engine, it was pretty exceptional in it's day.

[twizellb]

PurpleAki said:

TVR straight six.

[JB!]

1JZ/2JZ Toyota engines
LS series V8s
VAG 1.8 20VT - for swapping in older VW, same block casting as 70's MK1s etc. will take a bit of tuning too.
20B rotary - sounds epic.
BMW S54 - such an ace soundtrack

[PurpleAki]

twizellb said:

PurpleAki said:

TVR straight six.

Roll your eyes all you like. I own one in a Tuscan and it's been a fking pain in the arse.

Even more so than the single turbo wankel I had in an FD RX7 track car, which is renowned for poor reliability.

[Escapegoat]

1UZ-FE: effortless, dependable, great balance between power and economy, auto/marine/aero versions.

Flies under the radar of many car fanatics because in its main role, it's totally anonymous. If it always sounded like this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuTuQ5N6gLE - everybody'd know it.

(Plea: if you know any mechanic skilled enough to bolt one of those into a W201, let me know.)

[JeffreyB]

There's only one winner - the small block Chevrolet engine. Over 100 million manufactured, fitted to everything from trucks, race cars to boats. Drag racers can get over 1000 hp out of them. All parts available off the shelf and at bargain prices. Oh and a lovely exhaust note too!

[JeffreyB]

There's only one winner - the small block Chevrolet engine. Over 100 million manufactured, fitted to everything from trucks, race cars to boats. Drag racers can get over 1000 hp out of them. All parts available off the shelf and at bargain prices. Oh and a lovely exhaust note too!

[Davey S2]

JeffreyB said:

There's only one winner - the small block Chevrolet engine. Over 100 million manufactured, fitted to everything from trucks, race cars to boats. Drag racers can get over 1000 hp out of them. All parts available off the shelf and at bargain prices. Oh and a lovely exhaust note too!

Pretty much what I was about to post.

My fathers Gordon Keeble had one in it.

[lee_erm]

- Ford BD series engines that came in road cars.
- Some iteration of small block Chevrolet surely deserves a mention.
- Ford 1.0 ecoboost also deserves a mention.

[Bunfighter]

PSA 1.0 3 cylinder.