engines - crappiest of them all ?

[Crosswise]

I hate to nominate an engine I'm actually fond of, but based on the poor fuel consumption, high maintenance costs and most of all for the clouds of black smoke which are synonymous with cities across the country during my childhood, it has to be the Leyland 510 for straight 6.

[Axionknight]

The absolute worst I have had the pleasure of driving was in a Ford Fusion, a truly terrible car with a crap engine - t'was a 1.4 diesel that managed to be gutless, noisy and totally st in every way, to top it off it wasn't even good on the old jungle juice because you had to tan it to make it go.

I wouldn't even use one as a boat anchor.

[cirian75]

Vauxhall 1.4 Hi-Troq engine

blew mine up twice

gutless POS, oh why did I sell my Clio RSi........oh wait, I'd been naughty and got a few points and an accident, the insurance sky-rocketed :/

[Bebee]

This one........ain't worth 50 cent

[AC43]

I drove plenty of rubbish petrols in the late 70's and early 80's but they were paragons of refinement compared to many modern diesels. I think the prize for noisiest must go to the diesel Jag X Type. Looks like a Jag (sort of) but sounds like a 1996 diesel Montego van.


An Harleys. Don't get that noise. V twins can sound great. Dukes and TLR's sound like heaven. A mate had a 78 Guzzi Le Mans and it made a tremandous noise. But Harleys sound my ears like some piece of industrial plant gone wrong. And then the owners take the silencers off. Every time one goes past it makes me feel ill.

[cirian75]

AC43 said:

I drove plenty of rubbish petrols in the late 70's and early 80's but they were paragons of refinement compared to many modern diesels. I think the prize for noisiest must go to the diesel Jag X Type. Looks like a Jag (sort of) but sounds like a 1996 diesel Montego van.


An Harleys. Don't get that noise. V twins can sound great. Dukes and TLR's sound like heaven. A mate had a 78 Guzzi Le Mans and it made a tremandous noise. But Harleys sound my ears like some piece of industrial plant gone wrong. And then the owners take the silencers off. Every time one goes past it makes me feel ill.

Old mans TLR had open harpoon race cans, the smtek airbox mods and yoshibox, it sounded glorious

Much like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqeiAXIMi-M

Edited by cirian75 on Friday 22 May 07:16

[Andy665]

Many will disagree but how the combined resources of Volkswagen Group could create such a dull, characterless engine as the 1.8T lump is beyond me. Had two cars with those engines and hared them - tuneable maybe but that's like sprinkling a dog turf with glitter and saying its now pretty

[lowdrag]

Had a new Clio hire car a couple of weeks back. No guts at all and had a job to get it up to 80 mph. Could row a boat faster it seemed, and it's natural cruising speed was about 60. Oh, and top was a direct ratio, not overdrive.

[Mr E]

Tango13 said:

Mr E said:

castex said:

Crappiest flat 12?

Life racing?

The Life was a W12, 3 banks of four cylinders, doesn't alter the fact that it was indeed, a dog!

You are of course correct. I vaguely recall an attempt at a flat 12 that was dreadful around that era and assumed it was life.
Google tells me it was a coloni-Subaru effort; and never made a race.

[Limpet]

itcaptainslow said:

pigeonskirt said:

Rover K series??

Why?

I don't think it's the worst, but it's a bit crap. How many otherwise tidy, well cared for Rovers end up in scrapyards or in the classifieds as spares or repair because of HGF?

I accept that the K is very innovative, and has lots of positive attributes, but it has this massive, fundamental issue that you can't really overlook if you plan to own one for any period of time.

[bennyboysvuk]

Two completely different engines, but with similar top end power, producing similar performance figures, but are night and day in use:

BMW S54 - E46 M3. A joy to use, hugely charismatic, goads you on to drive it harder. Hugely characterful.
BMW N55 - M135i. Near silent in operation, drives a bit like a good TDI, suffers turbo-lag. There almost doesn't seem any point in revving it out. At tickover, you wouldn't even know it was on.

[pigeonskirt]

Limpet said:

itcaptainslow said:

pigeonskirt said:

Rover K series??

Why?

I don't think it's the worst, but it's a bit crap. How many otherwise tidy, well cared for Rovers end up in scrapyards or in the classifieds as spares or repair because of HGF?

I accept that the K is very innovative, and has lots of positive attributes, but it has this massive, fundamental issue that you can't really overlook if you plan to own one for any period of time.

Precisely. Shame really... they are nice engines when working.

[andburg]

Not much expoerience with older engines, but agree with 1 of the more modern suggestions

Vauxhall 1.4 petrol in the current astra's

harsh, unwilling to rev with no power at any point in the range and terrible fuel economy.

[jamies30]

V5 as fitted to the B5.5 VW Passat. As smooth as a 4, as economical as a 6. No redeeming features at all.

[Zod]

Stuart70 said:

British Leyland 1750 engine found in the Austin Maxi . "E" series? Slow, gutless, thirsty, sounded dreadful, could not Rev to save its life; and still at the time, I loved it.

Until I killed it by trying to treat it like a GTI rather than a 3 bed roomed Victorian terraced house which it wanted to be.

The joy of first cars. Still, the engine really was crap. And the gearbox made the engine seem impressive, but that is a different thread....

Edited by Stuart70 on Friday 22 May 05:37

My Mum had a yellow one (replaced a 1500 and felt no different). It was the first car I ever drove. It had a five speed gearbox! Within a year she replaced it with a Maestro 1600. That I thought that Maestro was a tight-handling performance machine by comparison shows just how awful the Maxi was.

[SuperchargedVR6]

The BL 1275cc engine is the worst 4 cyl engine I've experienced.

[MX51ROD]

Zod said:

My Mum had a yellow one (replaced a 1500 and felt no different). It was the first car I ever drove. It had a five speed gearbox! Within a year she replaced it with a Maestro 1600. That I thought that Maestro was a tight-handling performance machine by comparison shows just how awful the Maxi was.

And a developement of that engine in a Maestro , mated to a VW gear box , a chimera of a car

Today though, a marmite of an engine , my Daughters 1.4 Ecotmotive Seat Ibiza , a 3pot diesel ,from outside sounds like a bag of spanners with sanded ball bearings as a dressing ,inside though not so bad when under way , BUT ZERO road tax and getting on for 60mpg ,

Edited by MX51ROD on Friday 22 May 09:57

[muckymotor]

Whatever engine is in the latest Peugeot Expert van. I borrowed one last week and the lack of power is dangerous. And the turning circle is laughable.

I'm surprised to see the air cooled vw flat four mentioned, its a great engine

Edited by muckymotor on Friday 22 May 10:17

[Oilchange]

Another vote for the Ford CVH. Gutless, uneconomical and unreliable and worse still it was the best thing about the entire car, which says very little.
Boat anchor.

[TankRizzo]

I4 - Peugeot XUD9A, 68bhp from a 1.9 diesel unit. I affectionately christened it "creeping death".