What is the "best" 4 cylinder engine ever made?
Discussion
A controversial choice, but how about the A-series?
Available in 9 different capacities from the factory (and many more by tuners)
Probably the most widely-used four-cylinder engine in history - Morris Minor, Mini, MG, Metro, Austin Healey, Austins, Morrises, Vanden Plas, Wolseleys, Rileys, Allegro, Montego, Maestro...
Won the Monte Carlo Rally outright three times (beating several Porsches) - should have been four, but for disqualification over a headlamp bulb.
Won numerous other rallies around the world
Won numerous british and European saloon car championships
Won numerous endurance racing championships
Available in 9 different capacities from the factory (and many more by tuners)
Probably the most widely-used four-cylinder engine in history - Morris Minor, Mini, MG, Metro, Austin Healey, Austins, Morrises, Vanden Plas, Wolseleys, Rileys, Allegro, Montego, Maestro...
Won the Monte Carlo Rally outright three times (beating several Porsches) - should have been four, but for disqualification over a headlamp bulb.
Won numerous other rallies around the world
Won numerous british and European saloon car championships
Won numerous endurance racing championships
Mr2Mike said:
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.
I remember reading in a bike magazine that when Yamaha reverted back to 4 valves per cylinder that they said advances in designing the heads using stuff like CFA and computers and particularly advances in materials used for the valve train made the 5 valve heads irrelevant. Of course it could have been cheaper and this was a good excuse to change.
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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
I've always been fascinated by this engine. How in the hell do Honda make it so reliable??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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
Not many can get that figure reliably from a 6 cylinder, 3 litre unit!
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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
I've always been fascinated by this engine. How in the hell do Honda make it so reliable??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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
Not many can get that figure reliably from a 6 cylinder, 3 litre unit!
The rules have changed and their engineers have retired now though...
I've not had the pleasure of the high revving VTECcy goodness of the Honda engines...i can only really go off the one's i've driven.
I've owned and driven many 4 cyl cars....of these..my fave are..
An Alfa 156 Sportwagon 1.8 that i owned briefly. I went and sounded far better than any 4-cyl should! Great engine! Liked the car too.
Drove many VAGs of various 4 cyl ilks...including GTis etc.
My fave though was the 2011 Leon Cupra R 265. Fantastic engine, sounded great, and went really, really well, getting stronger as the revs rose, didn't feel too 'turboey'. Addictive to drive hard.
And, of course, my own Citroen AX 1.5d.
I've owned and driven many 4 cyl cars....of these..my fave are..
An Alfa 156 Sportwagon 1.8 that i owned briefly. I went and sounded far better than any 4-cyl should! Great engine! Liked the car too.
Drove many VAGs of various 4 cyl ilks...including GTis etc.
My fave though was the 2011 Leon Cupra R 265. Fantastic engine, sounded great, and went really, really well, getting stronger as the revs rose, didn't feel too 'turboey'. Addictive to drive hard.
And, of course, my own Citroen AX 1.5d.
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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
I've always been fascinated by this engine. How in the hell do Honda make it so reliable??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'.
It's a Jeckyl & Hyde peach.
And I have one.
Not many can get that figure reliably from a 6 cylinder, 3 litre unit!
I've also seen plenty of type-r engines blowing lots of blue smoke at higher miles.
Reliable yes, but not beyond reproach.
Riley Blue said:
'Best' in what respect; most powerful, highest revving, most tuneable, most widely used. I bet the answer is different for each one.
Well on those criteria, you would maybe be looking at the Mitsubishi 4G63T, S2000 engine, Cosworth YB and Rover K-Series (or possibly one of VAGs engines). Personally, I would not consider any of these engines (apart from perhaps the S2000's) to be the greatest or a personal favourite, as for me, character, power delivery and aural quality are more important to me than the above criteria. So I guess, based on your personal preferences, which do you consider to be the greatest?I think that over the years each period has had a 'good' engine.
The 2.5 8V in the Porsche 944 was a pretty good engine, with a nice linear power delivery and the exhaust note wasn't bad either.
And of course it had the balance shafts which made it reasonably smooth too.
The old Ford Kent engine as used in the Escort Mk II had a nice exhaust note as well, but was it a good engine...?
Another one from the 70's was the 2T engine as used in Toyota Corolla's of that period.
It had hemispherical combustion chambers with what looked like twin cams however that was just the rocker shaft layout.
The 2.5 8V in the Porsche 944 was a pretty good engine, with a nice linear power delivery and the exhaust note wasn't bad either.
And of course it had the balance shafts which made it reasonably smooth too.
The old Ford Kent engine as used in the Escort Mk II had a nice exhaust note as well, but was it a good engine...?
Another one from the 70's was the 2T engine as used in Toyota Corolla's of that period.
It had hemispherical combustion chambers with what looked like twin cams however that was just the rocker shaft layout.
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