leigerreign wrote: I vote for any pre 90s rotary...i know there is much love for them....but how many times can an engine blow up.
The ones from 93-95 are the ones that blow up all the time.
leigerreign wrote: I vote for any pre 90s rotary...i know there is much love for them....but how many times can an engine blow up.
The ones from 93-95 are the ones that blow up all the time.
And it's not really an engine problem. It's a cooling issue.
Jensenman wrote: The Ford Fiesta's Kent engine had the weird flat head/dished piston design like the 924's. Only the Fiesta motor went quite well.
is that the same Kent engine that is used in the FF spec series ?
I believe so. but now you can use the Honda Fit engine.
The FF 1600 engine is also the Kent motor but IIRC it's more like the Pinto/Capri version, those had the combustion chamber in the head and (sort of) flat top pistons.
...Really guys? I thought I put enough sarcasm into that everyone would understand it's a joke. Especially since there are tons of SBC's that come with over 200hp from the factory, making my statement completely false. Perhaps you guys need to lighten up?
okay, I'm surprised it took to page 3 to acknowledge that the Fiero had a hacked pan. Of course, the Iron Duke wasn't a 'performance' engine and Fiero wasn't a performance car. I always considered it a commuter car. A disappointing commuter car at that. It drove just like an Astre from 6 year earlier 'cept it was red. Another grand case of bean counters undermining engineering, design, opportunity, demand, good timing, common sense...
My vote is for the PRV V6, which was putrid in sporty and domestic guises. Disclaimer: I'm referring to my exposure of POS Premiers, 960s, et. al. . I've never seen an Alpine so prove me wrong...
as they say, YMMV.
Steve
spitfirebill wrote:Adrian_Thompson wrote: Triumph Stag 2.5L V8, utter total POS rushed into production to compete with the Rover (ex-Buick) V8.What would you expect from two TR7 engines siamezed together (in theory anyway)?
Although the engine is a 3.0 ( 2 x 1.5 4 cylinder blocks) I have two and I have to heartily agree, but much of the problem was in the timing when Triumph was going under and the staff didn't care a lick about what went out the door.
leigerreign wrote: I vote for any pre 90s rotary...i know there is much love for them....but how many times can an engine blow up.
Dude, ever own one, I have had 13 x 12a carb engines and 3 x 13b carb engines in various RX's none blew up, not one, even when over revved, raced or just abused and all were running when sold, most over 200K on the original engine.
You may want to do some research before spouting the old lines of someone who never understood them, these cars are almost bulletproof, if you let them warm up prior to running 8000 rpm through them
I think durability is besides the point. We should be mocking engines that were advertised as performance engines but turned out to be massive turds.
Here's another great example...
Sure it makes 405 ft-lb of Torque but a 454 cu in engine that only produces ~250 horse = 35 HP/L or a total turd machine. It was popular with the zubaz pants and rat tail set.
edit: the 1990 produced 230 horse.. HAHAHAHA
All the MPG of a fast car without any go.
I have to second the BL1500, it makes less hp than a 1275, but makes up for that by being a lower reving grenade. Not to mention the head probably weighs 80lbs.
ROTARY_X_7 wrote: How about the Ford 3.8L V6 used in the tbirds and low end stangs? I owned a Tbird SuperCoupe, and after throwing $$ after $$ after $$ at this block of garbage I could barely muster 300HP and then my head gaskets blew...The Eaton SC was a nice touch, but the block just couldn't handle the boost if it was barely cranked up.
The 22 PSI my Supercoupe lived with begs to differ. I killed the bearings autocrossing it, but I had no problem at all with gaskets. Sccoa.com is your friend for this engine.
Edit: and any stock V6 that makes 330 lb-ft of torque can't be too bad. My SC dynoed at 446 lb-ft at the rear wheels with stock heads.
The Kent 1600 was mentioned. Generally Kent engines are unburstable, but here's a little Kent Carnage.
This lump (below) came out of Cal Trumbo's Formula Ford Kent engine during a practice session at the 2009 Jefferson 500. There is actually part of the block attached to it. This was #4 piston.
The flywheel was still attached to the remainder of the crank and you could spin it by hand! 
This apparently happened while the engine was at a moderate RPM and not screaming. No oil pressure problem and no overheating. It just let go. Weird.
By the way, Ford has said they will re-start their Kent 1600 manufacturing line in the UK. And I'm not sure the switch to Honda motors in FF is a done deal yet.
93celicaGT2 wrote:P71 wrote:They do? Tell me more....junkbuggie wrote:Now even Hyundai has a 2.0L N/A 4-cylinder with 200+ HP in an economy car...Bobzilla wrote: My choice for worst engine: Ford's 2.3L OHC dual plug engine in the rangers.the 2.3 is a beast they don't break ever plus the mustang svo, merkur xr4ti and thunderbird turbo coupe all had over 200hp
The 2011 Sonata's base motor is the 2.0L 4-cyl "Theta II". A 198HP, naturally aspirated, directed-injected, PZEV, 35+ MPG economy engine. It's pretty cool. Also remember it's rated on a much tougher SAE standard for HP rating then the 25-year old 2.3 was...
The upcoming "Veloster" is rumored to have a turbo'd version.
leigerreign wrote: I vote for any pre 90s rotary...i know there is much love for them....but how many times can an engine blow up.
My all-original, 242,xxx mile 12A rotary from 1983 says differently. It has over 200 autocross passes on it and an SCCA Regional Season Championship under it's belt...
Ohhhh, iggy, I forgot about the "SS 454". That engine was a freaking DOG and it was touted as a "performance motor" for decades. It was very recently that one of those dumb Spike shows tried to do their typical bolt-on power setups on it and it just wouldn't make any power no matter what they did.
MrBenjamonkey wrote: If you want power for cheap, I just saw a 91 Talon TSI AWD in good shape for $1800. You can run 12's with that thing by gutting the interior and purchasing, get ready for the long list of mods, a cone filter and a boost controller.
Yup. That'll run 12s. Once or twice. Then the crank will move a fraction of an inch in the wrong direction at 5,000 RPMs and bam! It's all over. They blew up all the time didn't they? Isn't that called "crank walk"?
Okay who didn't close their bold tag?
Stupid HTML. 
16vCorey wrote: Oh, and those late eighties Pontiac OHC engines were total garbage! I had a Passat that had a healthy appetite for coolant hoses (PO had driven it a long time with a sticky thermostat, so it ran hotter than normal and made the hoses a bit squishy). On THREE different occasions, I smelled anti-freeze while driving it and thought "berkeley! Not again!", then I looked up and realized I was driving behind a Pontiac Sunbird. They would blow head gaskets if you looked at them wrong.
Mine did lol but to be fair all it did was burn the fire rings between number one and two never did use any coolant
confuZion3 wrote:MrBenjamonkey wrote: If you want power for cheap, I just saw a 91 Talon TSI AWD in good shape for $1800. You can run 12's with that thing by gutting the interior and purchasing, get ready for the long list of mods, a cone filter and a boost controller.Yup. That'll run 12s. Once or twice. Then the crank will move a fraction of an inch in the wrong direction at 5,000 RPMs and bam! It's all over. They blew up all the time didn't they? Isn't that called "crank walk"?
That wasn't til they changed the motors over to the 7 bolt design midway through the 1992 model year. 1991 had the 6 bolt. A LOT of DSM people afflicted with 2g cars desire these motors. One other solution is to get the JDM 7 bolt from the EvoIII.... then you get the hot injectors and the 16g turbo too, and they didn't do the whole crankwalk thing. Even then, my 1995 had 130k of HARD miles on it, before it let go.
confuZion3 wrote: Yup. That'll run 12s. Once or twice. Then the crank will move a fraction of an inch in the wrong direction at 5,000 RPMs and bam! It's all over. They blew up all the time didn't they? Isn't that called "crank walk"?
How soon till someone busts out THE picture?
See crank.
See crank walk.
Walk crank, walk.
Sub 4" bore SBCs. They just can't breath like their big brothers.
ratghia wrote: The vw 1100 from a split window Beetle. It has around 15hp at the wheels (almost 24hp at the flywheel). The compression ration is 5.8:1 and it has a redline of 3,000rpm. It could bring a Beetle up to 60mph downhill.
Got ya beat Rat, I had an Austin Cab with a Perkins Diesel which made a magnificent 11hp at the flywheel, it couldn't dream of 3,000 rpm
I don't have any experience with Rotaries firsthand, but from what I've seen you have to be religious on maintenance... and then they're actually pretty reliable and long-lived. When you've got people who don't give that level of care and preventative maintenance, you get the reputation. Wouldn't be the first time that something like that happened.
You'll need to log in to post.
