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

[VladD]

Mr2Mike said:

VladD said:

I had a VW Sanatana many years ago. 2 litre, 5 cylinder non-turbo IIRC. Must have been an early 80s car as I bought it at auction for £200 in the early 90s.

The OP was talking about engines with five valves per cylinder rather than ones with 5 cylinders but only two or four valves per cylinder.

Yes, we've already established that.

[PistonheadRob]

Red top C20XE for me .....best engine in any car I have ever had.
Powerful for its time, economical, reliable, sounded good for 4 pot, took off after 3k.
Shame the astra mk3 handling was no match great looking car but awful handling

[finlo]

I can't believe the Fiat twincam has not been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.

[viggyp]

finlo said:

I can't believe the Fiat twincam has not been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.

I must've posted about it just as you posted your comment. Superb engine.

[williamp]

As an extreme:



4 cylinder Fiat S76. 7.5 litres.....per cylinder!!!!

[J.R.B.]

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

[Equus]

kambites said:

The VHPD is a bit of a pig at low revs with 190bhp in the Exige, I dread to think what the R500 unit with 250ish bhp is like.

That's mainly because Lotus couldn't do a map to find their own arse, to be fair (I owned a Sport 160 Elise, which was equally bad in 'unsorted' form).

[Lagerlout]

This will do for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ8x1AwmwUM&t=...

[rscott]

Boosted LS1 said:

lucido grigio said:

untakenname said:

Saab B2XXX model range as they were so over enginneered.

Except the chocolate timing chains.

What chocolate timing chains? I've had 4 saab 9000's. The first one, a 'J' plate needed a new sprocket after 300'000 miles. That was a heat treatment issue but a rare thing indeed. I especially like this durability event. 20 days and 20 nights flat out. Average speeds of 130 mph plus and over 3'000 miles per day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKE3aLLD3HM

https://www.hemmings.com/magazine/hsx/2009/10/Run-...

Edited by Boosted LS1 on Monday 27th March 19:18

I think they're confusing it with the Holden v6 - that did have less than perfect timing chains (and coolant pipes which cook themselves...)

[Loyly]

Prof Prolapse said:

Has to be a motorcycle engine surely?

MotoGP V4 Ducati as well for me.

Undoubtedly, the best 4 cylinder engines are found in motorbikes.

Leaving aside MotoGP and race bikes and just looking at street bikes, it seems wild that you can take your pick of 200bhp litre bikes these days.

[fttm]

Cosworth BDG , and variants of .Close second would be a Millington .

[coppice]

Errmm..am I the only one who hasn't a bloody clue what some of the acronyms , especially for Japanese cars , relate to ?

[Nickbrapp]

The only Answer is whatever is in the mk1 Mazda mx5

[tejr]

Another vote for the F20C

SR20DET is good, but sounds so dull. Although it gets major bonus points for the amount of abuse it will take and the 7krpm seems sky high for a an FI engine compared to modern FI engines which are limited to a much lower threshold.

[kambites]

Equus said:

kambites said:

The VHPD is a bit of a pig at low revs with 190bhp in the Exige, I dread to think what the R500 unit with 250ish bhp is like.

That's mainly because Lotus couldn't do a map to find their own arse, to be fair (I owned a Sport 160 Elise, which was equally bad in 'unsorted' form).

The 190 was a damned slight worse than the 160!

[rampageturke]

FJ20ET

[Alex]

viggyp said:

finlo said:

I can't believe the Fiat twincam has not been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.

I must've posted about it just as you posted your comment. Superb engine.

I owned a Fiat 131 Sport with the single twin-choke carb version of the Fiat twincam. Personally, I think the all-alloy Alfa twincam is sweeter and more elegant, but they are both great designs that exhibit a rort in a manner that only the Italians know how.

[viggyp]

Alex said:

viggyp said:

finlo said:

I can't believe the Fiat twincam has not been mentioned yet, unless I missed it.

I must've posted about it just as you posted your comment. Superb engine.

I owned a Fiat 131 Sport with the single twin-choke carb version of the Fiat twincam. Personally, I think the all-alloy Alfa twincam is sweeter and more elegant, but they are both great designs that exhibit a rort in a manner that only the Italians know how.

Yes, I definitely agree with you that the Alfa lump is sweeter but I think the Fiat is the more efficient one, which is hardly surprising as there were many variants of it. I still cant believe that the Alfa and Fiat TC lumps came out in 1954 and 1966 respectively.

[Alex]

viggyp said:

Yes, I definitely agree with you that the Alfa lump is sweeter but I think the Fiat is the more efficient one, which is hardly surprising as there were many variants of it. I still cant believe that the Alfa and Fiat TC lumps came out in 1954 and 1966 respectively.

Especially given the mostly pushrod or single OHC 4-cylinder engines that other manufacturers were producing at the time. BMC B-series anyone?

[AW111]

I will go with the 1966 Lampredi designed FIAT twincam (the 1750cc version, with twin Weber carburettors), and the Toyota 4AGE 1600.
The 4AGE was used for RWD (AE86), mid-engine (MR2), and front engine (Corolla). It came supercharged in the MR2.

Mr2Mike said:

white_goodman said:

Am I right in thinking that VAG were the only company to go 5 valves per cylinder with the prolific 1.8T unit? I wonder why this never really caught on and 16 valves have become the norm?

Yamaha made 5 valve per cylinder bike engines as far back as 1984. The complexity and expense compared to a 4v/cylinder design and the relatively small performance improvement have most likely limited it's use.

The 4AGE had a Yamaha-designed five valve head in the mid-late 90's. The final evolution (1999) had 165 bhp at 7,800 rpm.