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

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

Author
Discussion

baconsarney

11,992 posts

161 months

Saturday 6th January
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4 cylinder cars I have owned with engines that I have loved… Lotus 7 (1600 x flow), Morris 1275 Cooper S, Sierra RS Cosworth (whale tail), and, er, that’s it frown

Rest (interesting cars) have been i6, i5, V6, V8, and V12…

MajorStare

16 posts

38 months

Saturday 6th January
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VHPD K Series as fitted to S1 Elise, S1 Exige and I think Westfield/Caterham.
Naughtiest 4cyl on tickover.

carlo996

5,645 posts

21 months

Saturday 6th January
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MajorStare said:
VHPD K Series as fitted to S1 Elise, S1 Exige and I think Westfield/Caterham.
Naughtiest 4cyl on tickover.
The VHPD on verniers is very good. Standard it’s a dog.

Ffordd Ar Gau

178 posts

28 months

Saturday 6th January
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Supersam83 said:
Surely the best 4-cylinder engine has to be the Mercedes Benz M139L 2.0 Litre.

469 hp (350 kW) at 6,750 rpm

402 lb?ft (545 N?m) at 5,250-5,500 rpm

The Mercedes Benz M139L is the world's most powerful four-cylinder engine in serial production with 234.5bhp per litre or 117.25bhp per cylinder.

https://www.mercedes-amg.com/en/world-of-amg/news/...

This engine and those stats just screams major issues a few years down the line. Especially when some plank tunes it up even more.

Ffordd Ar Gau

178 posts

28 months

Saturday 6th January
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My choice would be the 1.75TBi but that probably has a lot to do with it being found in Alfa’s, than it being anything hugely special or significant hehe

biggbn

23,351 posts

220 months

Saturday 6th January
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Ffordd Ar Gau said:
My choice would be the 1.75TBi but that probably has a lot to do with it being found in Alfa’s, than it being anything hugely special or significant hehe
I adored the modern two litre twin cam twin spark engine in my 145 green cloverleaf, absolute peach of an engine

172

183 posts

138 months

Sunday 21st April
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crofty1984 said:
Honda vfr800i
Didn't people prefer the 750 due to the valve change upsetting the bike?

JAMSXR

1,475 posts

47 months

Sunday 21st April
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ChocolateFrog said:
Probably a V4, Probably made by Honda.
I would go for Aprilia, their V4 lump is outstanding.

LowTread

4,322 posts

224 months

Sunday 21st April
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172 said:
crofty1984 said:
Honda vfr800i
Didn't people prefer the 750 due to the valve change upsetting the bike?
The vfr800 didn't get vtec until the facelift in about 2003.

The orig vfr800fi had a lovely v4 with gear driven cams that made a characterful whining noise (same as the 750).

The vtec version swapped to chain driven cams i think, so lost that little bit of character.

And the vtec had quite an aggressive switch which would upset the bike mid corner.

I've had one of each.

The later facelift vtec had a revised switchover that was less aggressive.

AceRockatansky

2,095 posts

27 months

Sunday 21st April
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Here's my Smith and Jones 2.5L. This is the highest spec they do, making close to 350hp. Based on a YB, but recast alloy block and head with different internals.


bennno

11,654 posts

269 months

Sunday 21st April
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AceRockatansky said:
Here's my Smith and Jones 2.5L. This is the highest spec they do, making close to 350hp. Based on a YB, but recast alloy block and head with different internals.

Comedy and engines no less

Oilchange

8,462 posts

260 months

Sunday 21st April
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Looks cool

TGCOTF-dewey

5,158 posts

55 months

Sunday 21st April
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bennno said:
AceRockatansky said:
Here's my Smith and Jones 2.5L. This is the highest spec they do, making close to 350hp. Based on a YB, but recast alloy block and head with different internals.

Comedy and engines no less
Good Antil Lag Systems too (ALaS).

Baldchap

7,642 posts

92 months

Tuesday
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By the numbers it's probably Kawasaki's supercharged 1.0 found in the H2R. 326bhp @ 999cc. Makes the AMG's specific output seem a bit pathetic.

Artsy

235 posts

78 months

Tuesday
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Cars - probably Honda K20/K24 even though I wouldn't choose these for driving unless they were turbocharged.

Bikes - Suzuki 1100 oil cooled from the GSXR1100 era. I like the 1300 from the Hayabusa too but there is something about the fact that the 1100 is oil cooled and reliable to silly BHP that appeals to me.


andyA700

2,695 posts

37 months

Tuesday
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Artsy said:
Cars - probably Honda K20/K24 even though I wouldn't choose these for driving unless they were turbocharged.

Bikes - Suzuki 1100 oil cooled from the GSXR1100 era. I like the 1300 from the Hayabusa too but there is something about the fact that the 1100 is oil cooled and reliable to silly BHP that appeals to me.
I agree with you on the bike engines, but I am going to let my heart rule for the car engine and go for this.

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/the-evolution-o...

RustyMX5

7,030 posts

217 months

Tuesday
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I quite like the Subaru EJ20 (NA) engine. It's not inspiring or efficient but provided it's kept well fed on oil it just seems to keep on going.

otolith

56,135 posts

204 months

Tuesday
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RustyMX5 said:
I quite like the Subaru EJ20 (NA) engine. It's not inspiring or efficient but provided it's kept well fed on oil it just seems to keep on going.
Mine left its oil and innards all over the M6.

Gad-Westy

14,568 posts

213 months

Tuesday
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This is a subject close to my heart. As someone who grew up watching only 'council' motorsport live, mainly BTCC and rallying, I got very used to and very fond of screaming NA four pots. Turbos do almost nothing for me, even the old school laggy 80's and 90's stuff. All very impressive and big numbers but there is nothing to interest me there. I make an exception for the Subaru flat 4 which you could always identify in the cold forest air about 2 minutes before it went past you.

To me it has to be a really angry sounding, revvy NA. I could think of umpteen race engines or near race engines that found their way into road cars but a lot of those are a bit too needy for my tastes. Of the more livable examples I've experienced, my three stand outs have been the BMW S14 engine, Honda K20 (it's the best really isn't it? I'm just loathe to single it out as it's so obvious) and a cool little dark horse entry was the 1400cc k-series in a supersport caterham. It made 130 bhp I believe, had no torque but had a lovely lack of inertia and revved so cleanly with a great bark. I'd love to built a 7 with one of those and the roller barrel throttles from the R500. A near boggo 1.8 k-series would have been a much easier way to get 130bhp but be far less interesting.

I cannot get excited about stuff like the AMG turbo engine above or the or any of the endless VAG TFSI type options. I've had a couple and I'm sure I'll have more as they're very effective, efficient etc particularly when paired to some 50 speed auto box but to be honest an EV probably offers those qualities more effectively.

DaveTheRave87

2,084 posts

89 months

Tuesday
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biggbn said:
Can't remember if I've contributed to this thread before but 1.9tdi vag engine was a game changer
I checked through 9 pages of this thread before it was mentioned but I have to agree here.

Used in so many applications from repmobiles on an economy run along a motorway to a hot hatch Skoda Fabia VRS.

Definitely not the most exciting engine out but one of the most capable ever made.