What is the "best" 4 cylinder engine ever made?

[Agent XXX]

"Am I right in thinking that VAG were the only company to go 5 valves per cylinder with the prolific 1.8T unit?"

Ferrari 355.



Anyway, as mentioned earlier, the 2.0l twin spark Alfa engine. LOVELY.

[culpz]

BaronVonVaderham said:

Renault F4R as used in all hot clios (apart from the most recent one) and countless other renaultsport cars including the Clio cup racers, r3 rally cars, formula Renault single seaters etc.

100hp/litre and loves to rev.

ETA: can even get 270hp out of it!

http://www.kmsracingengines.com/renault-f4r.html

Edited by BaronVonVaderham on Monday 27th March 18:43

Edited by BaronVonVaderham on Monday 27th March 20:47

Glad this got mentioned as that would be my pick of the 4's. Placed in a car as light as the Clio was just a brilliant idea IMO.

Call me crazy but i've always admired VW's 2.0 TSI engine. I know it's been tweaked over the years but it's a good compromise of performance and economy.

[Buzypea]

From personal experience of owning around 25 four pots over the years.

Stand out for me are easily:

4AGE in a Corolla GTi-16 - Light years ahead of most competitors at the time. Mine had covered 170,000 when sold and still purred like a kitten.
2ZZ-GE in Corolla Compressor - Awesome screamer of an engine when mated to a supercharger. So good Lotus used it in the Elise and Exige.
1.6 EcoBoost in Fiesta ST - Great power delivery across the range - though does run out of puff much earlier than the two mentioned above.

[GSalt]

Since this "all time" and "best" (with no definition of what "best" is), I stick with the two I nominated in the previous best engine thread:


Coventry Climax, in all it's 4-pot iterations

Standard wet liner inline four


If you're not familiar with either of these, you'd do well to look them up and compare the range of applications these engines were put to.

[SirSamuelBuca]

Best is the YB block. legendary engine (yes not the strongest or whatever). they just look awesome too

close 2nd is the C1J hilarious push rod design that can be EFId and make silly power and they just sound fantastic.

[ukaskew]

BaronVonVaderham said:

Renault F4R as used in all hot clios (apart from the most recent one) and countless other renaultsport cars including the Clio cup racers, r3 rally cars, formula Renault single seaters etc.

100hp/litre and loves to rev.

My choice too from those I've experienced. It may not be the 'sexy' choice but it's been there in some of the best hot hatches ever made and it's generally reliable.

[ettore]

I'm not sure if its already appeared but:

Ford FVA - the nicest sounding 4 pot ever (BDA also good of course).

Other than that most 4 pots are dull with the odd exception:

Lotus Twin Cam
BMW M10
Fiat Twin Cam (Lampredi)

Some of the Vintage and Veteran stuff is pretty splendid including the 28 Litre 4 pot from the Fiat S76...

[TTwiggy]

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet but personally I have a soft spot for the humble K-Series after having one in a Caterham. Nice sound, high-revving, very light and very tuneable.

[TheOversteerLever]

J.R.B. said:

Loved the engine in the 306 Gti I had many years ago.

Good shout! Cracking engine.

[lee_erm]

The Ford 1.7 Sigma was a peach. The BDA gets my vote as far as older 4 pots go. I'm sure Alfa made some awesome 4 pots in the 60's/70's, can't say I've never experienced them myself however.

This gets my overall vote:



Titanium valves in the 5th Gen one

Edited by lee_erm on Tuesday 28th March 12:42

[VladD]

Nickbrapp said:

The only Answer is whatever is in the mk1 Mazda mx5

1.6, 1.8 or both?

[EK9_CTR]

H22A7 from the Accord Type-R.

[blade7]

J4CKO said:

blade7 said:

Re the 968 engine, 240 bhp from a 3.0 16v is hardly impressive.

It is from the 80's, Porsche could have got more from it but they wanted it to be tractable, reliable and easy to live with.

Porsche couldn't get more out of it because it wouldn't rev high enough reliably without spending a fortune on it. The E30 M3 Sport Evo made the same power from 2.5 litres.

[rambo19]

Land rover 2.25.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Peugeot Sports fettled 1.6T with 270 hp isn't bad. In a sea of dull sounding 4 pots, it sounds relatively exotic.

[Mr2Mike]

rambo19 said:

Land rover 2.25.

Mmm, the power of a 1 litre engine combined with the economy of a 4 litre engine.

[Quickmoose]

blade7 said:

J4CKO said:

blade7 said:

Re the 968 engine, 240 bhp from a 3.0 16v is hardly impressive.

It is from the 80's, Porsche could have got more from it but they wanted it to be tractable, reliable and easy to live with.

Porsche couldn't get more out of it because it wouldn't rev high enough reliably without spending a fortune on it. The E30 M3 Sport Evo made the same power from 2.5 litres.

and Honda the same from 2.0...

Has any production car got more than 240BHP from less than 2.0 NA ?

[AnotherGareth]

Agent XXX said:

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, the 2.0l twin spark Alfa engine. LOVELY.

Do you mean the older engine with two sparks per ignition stroke, or the later engine with one spark for ignition and another to 'clean up the exhaust gases'? I prefer the former as the latter seemed little more than a marketing exercise.

When people talk about the sound of an engine, how much of that comes from the engine, and how much from the exhaust system?

[AW111]

AnotherGareth said:

Do you mean the older engine with two sparks per ignition stroke, or the later engine with one spark for ignition and another to 'clean up the exhaust gases'? I prefer the former as the latter seemed little more than a marketing exercise.

When people talk about the sound of an engine, how much of that comes from the engine, and how much from the exhaust system?

With 4 cylinders, it's often more about the inlet. One throat per cylinder, either carbs or throttle bodies.
The evocative sound of a BDA powered Escort is all about it gobbling air through those carbies.

[havoc]

Olivera said:

daveco said:

Quickmoose said:

I'm going with the S2000's unit.
For the NA power per litre and sustainable 9000rpm...
it's damn near bullet proof also..
and with the vtec shift just adding a smidge more 'drama'.

I've always been fascinated by this engine. How in the hell do Honda make it so reliable??

Not many can get that figure reliably from a 6 cylinder, 3 litre unit!

Wasn't there a late batch/year of S2000 engines that were prone to poor reliability and early failure?

I've also seen plenty of type-r engines blowing lots of blue smoke at higher miles.

Reliable yes, but not beyond reproach.

Agreed with two caveats:-
- F20C (S2000) has an occasional problem with timing chain tensioners. Colloquially and hyperbolically known (as elsewhere) as the 'death rattle'. Treat the TCT as a service item and it's fine, albeit I wonder how such a highly-strung engine will deal with big miles.
- I THINK there was a period where the F20C did have a few issues
- B16C/B18C and K20A (Civic/Integra Type Rs) are all fine as long as oil levels are checked regularly - I've had 2x B18Cs, 1x F20C and 1x K20A, of which one drank a lot, two drank a little (1 litre of oil every 6,000-8,000 miles) and on one the level barely moved between services.


Import-spec K20A is real-world 220+bhp, enough torque, 30+mpg, reliable and sounds like a touring-car. amongst the modern engines, without going to a race-spec Caterham engine on roller-barrel / ITBs, that'd get my vote - turbo's are too easy to wind the boost up and lack some character vs the best n/a's.

I DO really rate the old 2.2 Lotus Twincam though - as characterful as the Escort BDAs but torquier and if anything felt more responsive. Splitting hairs though - both are cracking engines.