OT Nominate the Best Auto and Aero Piston Engines in History and the Worst

[Spin Doctor]

I'll probably get some flack for this but for best

Automotive-Small Block Chevrolet. Maybe not the highest tech but it still fifty years after it came out still manages to compete both in the truck market but in the high performance market as well. Closely followed by the Cosworth V-8

Aero-Pratt&Whitney R2800 18 cylinder radial. True the merlin may be more storied, the R4360 more powerful and the Napier Sabre more daring in its design but the R2800 was in production up to the early 60s. A close tie would be the Wright R3350

The Worst

Automotive-absolute bottom of the barrel is the Vega 2.3 liter all aluminum rolling smog bank

Aero-This is the hard one since anything that actually made it into production had to be reasonably reliable. The Rolls Royce X engine intended for the Manchester bomber. Proving even the House of Merlin could build a dog

Is my bias showing

[ibewgypsie]

Not just the small block, a 283 or 327 short stroke V8 will last and last and last.

The new 327's have a 3.48 stroke (350 crank) and they are not near as hardy. Next is the Old Falcon motor 170-str-6. You could not kill them.

Aero motors? I don't have a clue.

Motorcycle engines? My favorite is Harley-davidson Panhead. Longest lasting is the 80s evolution engine. Not familiar with the foreign competetion. I learned to ride on a 71 Honda 750-4, It was a good engine design, produced in Japan, designed in America but deemed too costly to build.

Worst, well the worst I have had was a vega, replaced that sucker with a V8 and tore it all to ..... Before the V8 I was buying oil in the gallon cans. Problem so it seems now was the aluminum block-and head. A leaked when it got hot and wore out in minutes afterwards. The later ones with cast iron head are still running along.

David

[tattoomike68]

{{{Automotive-absolute bottom of the barrel is the Vega 2.3 liter all aluminum rolling smog bank}}}

ROFLMAO you nailed that one buddie. I had one, one day it was pumping water out the tail pipe so I held it to the floor and made it clunk me all the way home(the last ride of the vegamatic)

I do like the Toyota 2100R & the 2200R they are like a timex "take a licking and keep on ticking."

cool topic

I don't know aircraft motor at all.

[jim davies]

The Vega engine always gets a bad rap but the
real culprit was the lack of cooling system maintenance. Later Vegas had a low coolant level alarm which helped. People focussed on the linerless aluminum block and there was a thriving business installing iron liners and unplated pistons in them after they overheated. Many engines of that era had aluminum heads and an iron block and when they overheated the aluminum part got the worst of it. Often the head had to be junked as even machining the deck surface flat wouldn't work for long. The Vega engine was the opposite, with a tall, strong iron head and a aluminum block, so when it overheated the block warped not the head. GM finally gave up on the process [alcoa 390 high silicon alloy block, iron-plated pistons] and never used it again. They sold it to Mahle in germany and most later model Benz and Porsche engines use the process. Of course, now it is "high quality."

[.RC.]

what about Detriot two strokes. designed bfore the second world war and still going strong.

[spope14]

The vega engine, for all the things said about it, the problems, the solution...and the eventual sales to Benz. The vega engine BECAUSE of the lack of information, research, and the high need for attention, and such on and so forth - the worst engine ever made.

Best - the Ford Interceptor Engines. These engines, although not the beauties like the aircraft engines, are just completely noteworthy. They are made for high milage use, abuse, 24-7 non-stop workhorse reliability, and full out bottom to top 0 to 100 speed and power, and they require minimum maintenance beyond the normal car engine. Our city sill has old PD cars with upwards of 500K on them, and they have had no internal engine maintenance, nor show any need. The newer Ford interceptors are 24-7 low maintenance, high power units as well.

[hoffman]

SBC is one of my favorites. Can't leave out most of the in line sixes. Mopar slant six comes to mind.
Worst, how about those late 70's diesels that were gasoline motors converted to diesel. I think Olds was big on them and they never seemed to work...
I've always been interested in the early rotary aircraft motors. The ones where the crank was stationary and the block rotated They didn't have any throttle, just one speed so the pilot had an ignition cut-out that was blipped to slow for landing...
Seems like it would be like flying one of those line control planes we had when we were kids.

------------------
Hoffman in Warner Robins Ga

[PSD KEN]

R-2800, bet its TBO was about 2-3 times that of Merlin.
Rotary A/c engines, a fine example of how not to build them.
Small block Cheevy,s The term includes from 283 to 400Ci.(A winner)
Ford 5.0L big six. Long lived.
Y-block Furds, @#$%$%.
Detroit 6-71 diesels, found all over the world, in about anything.
(anyone for YUGOS) LOL.

[This message has been edited by PSD KEN (edited 12-29-2004).]

[wierdscience]

Worst engine/car has to be the Tribant,POS all the way.Joke was they came with rear window defrosters to keep your hands warm while you pushed it down the road A close tie would be the English Ford Escort,miserable little engine,left the factory with blow-by

Best car/pickup engine 300 cid Ford straight six,been making them for years and bullet proof.

Best Tractor/industrial engine AD 153 perkins diesil,3 cylinder,direct injected,CAV pump and injectors,capable of 12,000 hours+ with no problems and CHEEEAP to rebuild.

Aircraft I am biased to the Allison v-12s,unlike the Merlin or BMW it could be rebuilt in the field,in the mud, by G.I.'S

Worst WWII fighter,BF 109, has the distinction of killing more of it's pilots on landing than in combat.

[JCHannum]

Small block Chevy by all means. I have had from first to last.

The 300 CI Ford 6 is the only engine I ever had that was clever enough to remove it's own sparkplugs. Couldn't get rid of it fast enough.