no love for the crysler 3.3, 3.8 family? ive seen many of those engines in dodge caravans run a long time reliably. the transmissions they were mated to ruined their reputation, but they were/are reliable engines.

They were mediocre engines that guzzle fuel, have no power, and consume a lot of oil. They're better forgotten.

As far as the best V6s, the ones currently in production by all major manufacturers all seem to be pretty darn impressive. They all seem to get 260-280hp out of 3.5 liters and get close to 30mpg doing it, even with modern emissions controls. I think that's better than something made in the past.

Buick 231 or I guess its also a GM 3800. An GM 4.3l are the best IMO.

I had a 4.3l in my 1996 C1500 truck. Sold it and got a 4.8l V8 in my 2000 Silverado 4x4 truck. Liked the 4.8l V8 but...

When I bought my 2004 Sierra I was VERY happy it had the 4.3l V6 in it with the 5 speed.

Full size truck, plenty of power, great 20+ MPG with a 4x4 and SIMPLE to work on.

Plus they last forever. (my 1996 has close to 300k (it may have over since I have not seen it since the owner moved to southern Utah))

My vote is the 4.3L V6

Bill

Honda J30A4

260hp VTEC SOHC 3.0L

Has to be the GM 3800 but I would include the Ford 300 I6 if I could.

I thought these were known for head gasket failures and Toyota was replacing the HGs for years outside of the original warranty? That was the case with the 4Runners/pickups at least in the 1990s. I'd argue that maybe the 3.4 was a better motor, but I really hated doing oil changes on them through the wheel well.

That's a coin toss.

The GM engines are highly prone to LIM failures and it is a major issue if ignored. Otherwise though, not many issues with them.

The Vulcan is good, but not without its issues either though...
- Cam synchro. Affects all models with distributorless ignition (coil pack). This part replaces the distributor in EDIS Fords and likes to destroy itself. It gives PLENTY of warning, usually for months before failure. It will scream bloody murder long before it gets to the point of locking up the oil pump. People do sometimes ignore the months of "SCREEEECCHH...chirp chirp chirp" though until the oil pump does fail. If you replace it when the noise starts it's not a big deal. It's about $80-$90 for the OEM part, at least back in 2009 or so when I last bought one. Not hard to replace, though you need to mark the orientation of the original when you take it out. Do NOT use Dorman...Motorcraft or A1 Cardone only. Most Vulcans will need this part replaced at some point in their life, and some, particularly on Taurus boards, do it as preventive maintenance at around 100K miles. Failure can happen much sooner than that though. My truck trashed the original at 60K miles. Dorman replacements only make it 10-15K miles before failing.

- Taurus cooling system. Aerostars and Rangers are unaffected by this, but the Taurus used a completely different cooling system from these RWD vehicles, and the Taurus cooling system has some issues. Corrosion, early water pump failures, and coolant reservoir failures are common. If you are anal about cooling system maintenance, it's fine. If not, problems. Not too different from GM in that respect, but probably just not as widespread.

- Oil leaks. All Vulcans leak. Ford supposedly revised the gasket for the oil pan at some point, but you'll likely still get a nice film. I just consider it automatic undercoating. My truck has leaked the same amount since about 40K miles, not going to bother fixing it.

Other than that though, the Vulcan is a super reliable engine. Hard to say if it's more or less reliable than similar GM engines, but if reliability is what you want, it's hard to beat an all iron pushrod V6. If you're aware of the potential issues, it won't let you down. I still beat the tar out of my truck fairly regularly and am really not worried about the engine.

3800 Buick.

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I have a 3.5L with 179K+ in a 1996 Chrysler Concorde and I have no engine complaints...and I'm the third owner of this car.

GM 3800 by far.

It did seem pretty impressive at the time in my Dad's 85 Buick Skylark, Dad would hit the gas and the tail would drop and the angry chewbacca noises would start.
We had a Mazda KLV6 in a 626 and it was nice too, almost an inline 6 sound and smoothness to near 7k rpm.
The 3.5 in the Intrepids had also great power at the time, and recently I got to thrash around a pentastar 6 saddled with hauling a Grand Cherokee, I imagine it must make a Chrysler 200 quite a rocket.

Ford 4.0 OHV. I have 174k on mine, never had any problems.

Ford 4.0 SOHC - OK, they were known for bad timing chain tensioners for the first few years, but Ford eventually got it figured out. I expect to get 200k+ trouble free miles from mine. I'm only at 41k so far. Gas mileage isn't that great though.

If you include I6's count my vote for the Ford 300, in fact I'd call it the best 6 cylinder engine ever made. Their little 3.0L V6 was one tough cookie too.

I agree..My friend had a 72 Dart with the slant 6 and could not kill it.