Most Reliable Engine(s) Ever Made - Poll

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Originally Posted By: racin4ds
Nissan KA24- my dad bought a new truck in 93 with that motor, drove it 200+k miles before it taught me and my brother to drive, still had the original clutch and all! Only died cause my brother wrecked it 3 times!!

Was that motor also known as the "Z24"? either way....it's an amazing engine.

Nissan SR20DE- my wifes first car was a sentra SER it had well over 230k miles and ran hard every day! Still ran beautiful the day we sold it and didn't lose a drop of oil.

Ford 302- abused so many in my mustangs over the years, ran the pi$$ outta them and watched all my buddies do it too! Couldn't kill them things unless you were dumb like me and spray them with a 150 shot of N2o and 150k miles on the stock bottom end...

Ford 4.6 and 5.4 2V- just bullet proof! The one in my 01 F150 has 213k miles and has never had anything done to it except one coil pack and a set of plugs. Does not lose ONE drop of oil between OCI's...


Couldn't agree more with this list. I want to add the GM 4.2 I6 and surely there are others...never read much into the Volvo red motor but seems the Ford 4.6 may take top honors.

What about the Mercedes diesel engines of the mid 80's...ie in the 300D. Were these high-maintenance or just great high-mileage engines?
 
Cant agree more on the Nissan KA24.. but I might be a bit biased, being that I have had one in my driveway for 15 of the last 20 years. Nice, solid engine.

Am I the only one here that has NOT had good luck with Ford 302's? Two of them lost oil pressure (and subsequently the rod bearings), one at 75k miles and the other at 130k. These werent abused either, one in a Mustang that was never raced, modded or abused, the other in a Crown Vic grocery getter. Both well maintained, regular oil changes, etc. Maybe I just got two bad examples. I know there are a lot of them out there living long, happy lives, but I dont think I'd have another.
 
Originally Posted By: quint
Cant agree more on the Nissan KA24.. but I might be a bit biased, being that I have had one in my driveway for 15 of the last 20 years. Nice, solid engine.

Am I the only one here that has NOT had good luck with Ford 302's? Two of them lost oil pressure (and subsequently the rod bearings), one at 75k miles and the other at 130k. These werent abused either, one in a Mustang that was never raced, modded or abused, the other in a Crown Vic grocery getter. Both well maintained, regular oil changes, etc. Maybe I just got two bad examples. I know there are a lot of them out there living long, happy lives, but I dont think I'd have another.


Were you running something exuberantly heavy in them? They had a propensity to shear off the oil pump drive shaft if you ran heavy oil in them. This is why ARP and FMS both make hardened oil pump driveshaft upgrades for them.

Not an issue with a stock volume oil pump and sane oil choice but I know a lot of guys used to dump 20w-50 in them thinking they were doing the engine a favour. Not saying that's the case here of course
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
I think the little Mazda B engines were pretty good. 1.3L in the festiva 323, 1.6 in the miata, 1.6 Turbo in the AWD 323's
KIA put them in everything in their early years too.
Non-interferance, and capable of making some decent HP in the miata's with a turbo added.
The BP's were used in every mazda and some fords again in the 90's. We had an 91 Escort GT with the BP 1.8 and the ford automatic designed for their anemic 68hp 1.9L. At 30mph you could mat it, and the trans would take a second to get to first by which time the motor would be near redline and give the tires a decent bark which was a bit of surprise for an econo car going city speeds already.

The old gas tractors impress me too. Long piston skirts, and low rpms and low hp/L made them pretty bomb proof. Some are 60+ years old now and may have never been rebuilt...


Yeah, I gotta join in and plug one for the unsung Mazda engines. Got the BP in my 95 323, 210K KMs and it's the quietest engine I've had in over 10 yrs. The injector tick sounds deafening compared the the mechanicals. That said, the B-series ranks just slightly lower than the Mazda K-engine & F-engine. The F-engine (FE3 DOHC, F2) is my fav 4 cyl chunk of iron! They're a high-miler, still used in YALE/Hyster forklifts to this day, despite a lot of competition. They can make +500whp (and a matching torque figure) by simply strapping a turbo on.
4983510064_large.jpg

Many know the Nissan SR20DET as a stout, highly regarded 2.0 DOHC, it's bore and stroke are identical @ 86mm x 86mm, so how does it's rod/piston stack up against the Mazda FE rod? Take a look.
FE3 non-turbo left - SR20DET turbo right - both forged
208651_75_full.jpg

208651_76_full.jpg



The 1.8L F8 had it's piston/rod compared to the Honda D16A6 parts in similar manner
hpim0935jr3.jpg

wink.gif


But one of the original bad boy slabs of [censored] iron was the Nissan FJ20. Early 80's Nissan had some epic engines

groupaeng1.jpg


But my idea of reliable goes beyond "briggs and stratton" reliable, and involves more of the "stout" and "durable" parameters.
 
Originally Posted By: FXjohn
GM Vortec 4.3 truck motor. indestructable


Just sold mine with 250k. Ran Great!
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: quint
Cant agree more on the Nissan KA24.. but I might be a bit biased, being that I have had one in my driveway for 15 of the last 20 years. Nice, solid engine.

Am I the only one here that has NOT had good luck with Ford 302's? Two of them lost oil pressure (and subsequently the rod bearings), one at 75k miles and the other at 130k. These werent abused either, one in a Mustang that was never raced, modded or abused, the other in a Crown Vic grocery getter. Both well maintained, regular oil changes, etc. Maybe I just got two bad examples. I know there are a lot of them out there living long, happy lives, but I dont think I'd have another.


Were you running something exuberantly heavy in them? They had a propensity to shear off the oil pump drive shaft if you ran heavy oil in them. This is why ARP and FMS both make hardened oil pump driveshaft upgrades for them.

Not an issue with a stock volume oil pump and sane oil choice but I know a lot of guys used to dump 20w-50 in them thinking they were doing the engine a favour. Not saying that's the case here of course
smile.gif



Well, those definitely were back in my heavy oil days, so the Mustang likely lived most of its life on 10w-40 or 20w-50, regardless of the season or temperature. The Crown Vic on the other hand had 5w or 10w-30 most of the time.

Neither one suddenly lost oil pressure (i.e., sheared shaft) it was a more gradual thing. Occasional flickering oil light at idle when hot.... then sometimes when driving at lower speeds.... then anything other than highway...(knocking starts)... then all the time... over the course of a few days.

My in-law's Crown Vic 302 which I did a lot of the maintenance on is coming up on 200,000 miles and shows no signs of stopping, so they arent all bad. I think I probably just got two bad apples.
 
Originally Posted By: quint

Well, those definitely were back in my heavy oil days, so the Mustang likely lived most of its life on 10w-40 or 20w-50, regardless of the season or temperature. The Crown Vic on the other hand had 5w or 10w-30 most of the time.

Neither one suddenly lost oil pressure (i.e., sheared shaft) it was a more gradual thing. Occasional flickering oil light at idle when hot.... then sometimes when driving at lower speeds.... then anything other than highway...(knocking starts)... then all the time... over the course of a few days.

My in-law's Crown Vic 302 which I did a lot of the maintenance on is coming up on 200,000 miles and shows no signs of stopping, so they arent all bad. I think I probably just got two bad apples.


Sounds like it
smile.gif
What year was the Mustang?
 
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