Greatest/worst 3.5/3.6 24-valve V6 of the late 2000s?

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Seemed like in the late 2000s, every car manufacturer had a 3.5 or 3.6 normally aspirated V6 that was pumping out 250-300hp. Pentastar, J35, GM High Feature, VQ35DE. Now these high tech sixes are being "displaced" by 2.0 turbo fours.

What, in your opinion, was the best of this era? The worst?

I've had a couple of Honda J35s and I think they are OK. A few problem spots, like VCM, but overall pretty good. Haven't owned any of the others, had a couple of 3.0s from the late 90s though....
 
We had a 2002 Oldsmobile Intrigue back in the 2000s that had a 3.5 DOHC engine that was rated at 215hp. Never had any problems with the engine, but it went through struts, front wheel bearings and CV shafts at 100k kms.

It was okay, but I always thought the Nissan 3.5 was a good motor but I never had one.
 
A J-series without VCM. The J35A8 in my TL didn't have VCM and that was 2008.

The same basic design is in my 03 Accord and is edging ever closer to 300K and still runs as good as new, although it does use maybe a quart of oil over the 7500-mile OCI.
 
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Mitsubishi 3.5 v6, 200hp/200tq, too weak to hurt itself (unless you overheat it, they blow head gaskets when they get hot) keep oil and coolant in it, change the timing belt, and it should run forever. they were heavy, weak engines though, especially in a 5000lb suv.
 
Nissan 3.3 was a wonderful engine. It was just well-refined, didn’t get ahead of itself, and soldiered on. But, the manifolds and plumbing all around it was awful.

I really had solid respect for the chrylser V6s at the time. The pushrod 3.3 was smooth and powerful. It could loaf along or you could drive it hard, and it seemed equally at home doing both.

a different design, but the Chrysler 3.5 with the dual intakes was a fun engine. The 3.3/3.8 saw van duties but the 3.5 was found in the LHS and new yorker types. It had some snarl to it; we had one in the family that received minimal care and hard driving and I’m pretty sure it outlasted the vehicle, which was at least 100k miles after someone ran it dry and it seized on i-40 somewhere near knoxville, TN. They added 4.5 qts of oil and it came back to life.

honda had a longitudinal v6 in their early legends. I never got my hands on one, but I really wanted one, bad.

I didn’t have great feelings for the Chrysler 3.7 found in the rams and grand cherokees. As an owner, I wanted to like it. Mine had some fuel rail issues, but what got me is that if you were doing “truck duty,” like towing a 5x8 trailer at 65, once it got good and hot, all sorts of new noises started happening - valve racket and piston slap, all early in life, but it wasn’t the “ok” kind of piston slap sound, it was a little deeper. Weird electronics ghosts plagued mine too.

we had a couple of the Honda v6s - an mdx and an odyssey. Bottom end seemed solid. Both started consuming oil. They seemed performance-oriented. But both also seemed a little delicate to me, and the mdx variant had the EGR issues associated with that incredible intake manifold.

a friend of mine had a 5 speed manual Lincoln LS. Fords v6 was in that one, I think a 3.7? THAT was a wonderful combination in that car…. Highly underrated… I would have gladly owned that one.
 
ctechbob said:
A J-series without VCM. The J35A8 in my TL didn't have VCM and that was 2008.

The same basic design is in my 03 Accord and is edging ever closer to 300K and still runs as good as new, although it does use maybe a quart of oil over the 7500-mile OCI.
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I have 4 Honda Odysseys with J35 engine with VCM with 0 oil consumption.

My OCI is 4k/6 months with a good full synthetic 5W-30.

I never leave the oil in the engine long enough for it to get dirty, so it's likely my.oil control rings are clean and not allowing any oil burning.

The J35 is a great engine. Smooth and powerful.
 
KCJeep said:
We had a Chrysler Concorde with the 3.5 and it was a good one. The opposite of its evil sibling 2.7. I don’t remember it having much power but it was reliable.
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That was before the pentastar, right? I don't know much about the 3.5. I really don't have much Chrysler experience.
 
I think the GM 3.6 is the worst of the time period, at least that's what Car Wizard says, supposedly the timing chains are a time bomb.
 
Nissan VQ35 in many applications (others were difficult to work on) was an extremely smooth, reliable engine.

I give another nod to Chrysler's 3.5L / 4.0L V6's. I have a 4.0L in my '07 Pacifica and it's been bulletproof, very easy to work on as well. Only engine I've ever had at this age that is not leaking or seeping something; completely dry underneath. At 250-260 hp and tq (forget exact specs), it compares favorably to modern VVT engines in output. Only thing it lacks is fuel economy.

J35 is a great engine, never had one with VCM though. I thoroughly enjoyed the one I had in my Odyssey-- smooth, powerful, great gas mileage, easy to work on. It did like to consume oil though, went through 1qt / 3-4K or so. Lasted some 220K before I sold it, and was still running fine at that time.
 
Bill7 said:
I have 4 Honda Odysseys with J35 engine with VCM with 0 oil consumption.

My OCI is 4k/6 months with a good full synthetic 5W-30.

I never leave the oil in the engine long enough for it to get dirty, so it's likely my.oil control rings are clean and not allowing any oil burning.

The J35 is a great engine. Smooth and powerful.
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You’ve left the VCM active with no problems?
 
brages said:
Most of the engines from that era are timing chains, J35 is sohc timing belt.
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Widespread adoption of chain driven cams happened with the appearance of cam phasers for VVT. There were plenty of V6 engines mid to late '00's whose cams were belt driven-- Chrysler 3.5/4.0, J35, Kia/Hyundai, Mitsubishi, many engines that didn't have VVT in that era were using belts (other than a select few, namely the legacy pushrod engines from GM/Ford, Chrysler 3.7L, I'm sure there's others).
 
brages said:
I think the GM 3.6 is the worst of the time period, at least that's what Car Wizard says, supposedly the timing chains are a time bomb.
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Knock on wood we own that one and it's 12 years old. Never thought that guy was too good at what he does. His vlogs often began with whining and justifying why he charges so much. To each his own. Not everyone can be a ChrisFix and actually want to help others. Then again not everyone will reach 9.5 mil subs either. One thing I remember even ChrisFix didn't know (too young) was what the W stands for in 10W30
 
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