What is the "best" 4 cylinder engine ever made?
Discussion
otolith said:
And I would blame credit PSA with birthing the diesel hot hatch, with the ZX Volcane and 306 DTurbo.
I remember being pretty much shown the road when I came across a 306 DTurbo years ago when I had the XR4x4. We were both going up quite a steep hill and the 306 was getting away from me, however prior to that I'd always associated diesels with being slow. How wrong was I?! 
kambites said:
The "best" (as in most interesting) 4-cylinder car engine I've experienced was probably the one in the Honda S600.
I had a friend that owned one. It spanked minis and was super reliable but I remember him changing the alternator belt, it was about a metre long and went through two 90° bends around the engine...Gtxxjon said:
Ford twin cam 1600, back in the day, 100bhp stock!
Then the humble 'Redtop' two litre Vauxhall 160bhp, good for 300bhp with a Coscast head.
Erm thats a Lotus twin cam not a ford....its just a Ford 116E block, the rest is Lotus with input from both Costin and DuckworthThen the humble 'Redtop' two litre Vauxhall 160bhp, good for 300bhp with a Coscast head.
Edited by Gtxxjon on Thursday 2nd March 09:35
Also 300bhp on a Red Top is a race build (if n/a), theres plenty of other engines that also do that..., plus the later Red Tops without the coscast heads were porous and s
teEdited by What The Deuces on Thursday 2nd March 09:57
SimonTheSailor said:
If people are mentioning the A series then you might as well mention the Imp engine !!
Can scream to 9k revs+, powerful (for a 2 valve per cylinder engine), lightweight.
Used in many cars and won many motorsport championships.
I had a 998cc Hartwell Imp engine in my Stiletto. Back then it was very quick compared to everything else. This is a laugh! https://www.imps4ever.info/tech/tuners_builders/ha...Can scream to 9k revs+, powerful (for a 2 valve per cylinder engine), lightweight.
Used in many cars and won many motorsport championships.
Edited by jamespink on Thursday 2nd March 11:35
white_goodman said:
The humble 4-pot. A lot of us would prefer an I6/V6/V8 but many of us drive 4-pots because they tend to be cheap and provide the best compromise between performance and economy for our useage. However, maybe this is selling the 4-pot short, as it does have some advantages, namely relatively low weight and compact design.
For me, (although I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to tell me that someone else was doing it in the 70s), the Japanese are largely responsible for making 4 cylinder engines "sexier", as they made stuff like twin camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder more mainstream. Also stuff like VTEC helped people to take 4 cylinder engines more seriously in performance applications. 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?
For me, the greatest 4-pot engines are the NA Type-R/S2000 engines which sound really good and rev like crazy and the Subaru Flat 4 engine when turbocharged. I've never driven one but I also hear that the Vauxhall "Red Top" engine as fitted to the mk2 Astra GTE 16v and various mk3 Cavaliers is also one of the greats.
So what in your opinion, is the best 4-cylinder engine ever made?
For me, (although I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to tell me that someone else was doing it in the 70s), the Japanese are largely responsible for making 4 cylinder engines "sexier", as they made stuff like twin camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder more mainstream. Also stuff like VTEC helped people to take 4 cylinder engines more seriously in performance applications. 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?
For me, the greatest 4-pot engines are the NA Type-R/S2000 engines which sound really good and rev like crazy and the Subaru Flat 4 engine when turbocharged. I've never driven one but I also hear that the Vauxhall "Red Top" engine as fitted to the mk2 Astra GTE 16v and various mk3 Cavaliers is also one of the greats.
So what in your opinion, is the best 4-cylinder engine ever made?
Don Roque said:
In terms of fearsome performance the Nissan Skyline Super Silhouette comes to mind for getting 570hp out of a 2.1 four cylinder in the early 80's. Impressive now, never mind then.
An amazing car and engine. If we are talking race engines I nominate the Abarth 233 ATR 18S as used in the Lancia Delta S4. 1759cc engine that had a rev range up to 10000 rpm using turbo and super charging and eventually used 500+ bhp in competition. They allegedly achieved 1000 bhp from it on a test bench. In the real world I nominate the K20Z4.
white_goodman said:
The humble 4-pot. A lot of us would prefer an I6/V6/V8 but many of us drive 4-pots because they tend to be cheap and provide the best compromise between performance and economy for our useage. However, maybe this is selling the 4-pot short, as it does have some advantages, namely relatively low weight and compact design.
For me, (although I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to tell me that someone else was doing it in the 70s), the Japanese are largely responsible for making 4 cylinder engines "sexier", as they made stuff like twin camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder more mainstream. Also stuff like VTEC helped people to take 4 cylinder engines more seriously in performance applications. 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?
For me, the greatest 4-pot engines are the NA Type-R/S2000 engines which sound really good and rev like crazy and the Subaru Flat 4 engine when turbocharged. I've never driven one but I also hear that the Vauxhall "Red Top" engine as fitted to the mk2 Astra GTE 16v and various mk3 Cavaliers is also one of the greats.
So what in your opinion, is the best 4-cylinder engine ever made?
All that you have mentioned in your post are very good engines. The "Red Top" from Vauxhall was only good if the head castings were cast by Cosworth, which were only produced by Cosworth in the first year of that engines production after that they were cast by another company in Italy and the porosityFor me, (although I'm sure someone else will be along shortly to tell me that someone else was doing it in the 70s), the Japanese are largely responsible for making 4 cylinder engines "sexier", as they made stuff like twin camshafts and 4 valves per cylinder more mainstream. Also stuff like VTEC helped people to take 4 cylinder engines more seriously in performance applications. 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?
For me, the greatest 4-pot engines are the NA Type-R/S2000 engines which sound really good and rev like crazy and the Subaru Flat 4 engine when turbocharged. I've never driven one but I also hear that the Vauxhall "Red Top" engine as fitted to the mk2 Astra GTE 16v and various mk3 Cavaliers is also one of the greats.
So what in your opinion, is the best 4-cylinder engine ever made?
(air bubbles in the casting) was present in many cylinder heads which led to failures.
"Best" means everything from "one I like " to "one I've read about it " and (especially ) "the one in my car" . I will nominate the 2.9 litre straight four in the Ford Model T on the ground that it made travel available for the first time to so many and thus changed more people's lives for the better than any other engine. Not as good to listen to as a BMW M12/7 (as fitted to Seventies F2 cars) , nor as popular as many Japanese screamers nor as loved as the A Series but the engine in the car which helped changed the world for the better . For a time , anyway ....
What The Deuces said:
Gtxxjon said:
Ford twin cam 1600, back in the day, 100bhp stock!
Then the humble 'Redtop' two litre Vauxhall 160bhp, good for 300bhp with a Coscast head.
Erm thats a Lotus twin cam not a ford....its just a Ford 116E block, the rest is Lotus with input from both Costin and DuckworthThen the humble 'Redtop' two litre Vauxhall 160bhp, good for 300bhp with a Coscast head.
Edited by Gtxxjon on Thursday 2nd March 09:35
Also 300bhp on a Red Top is a race build (if n/a), theres plenty of other engines that also do that..., plus the later Red Tops without the coscast heads were porous and s
teEdited by What The Deuces on Thursday 2nd March 09:57
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