Worst engines ever.

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rp23g7

rp23g7

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Another slow day at work, a few guy around here were talking cars and what they thought were the best engines made, so I thought about how about the worst engines ever made.

Most of the ones I can think of are hearsay, as my family and I have been a Chrysler family, I cant even think of a bad Chrysler motor. Even their 2.2 in the 82 Dodge 400 went 150,000 without major issues.

Ones I can think of or have heard of,

Me neighbor when I was growing up had a 79-80 301 Turbo Trans Am, I remember he was constantly working on it, were these garbage?

Everyone remembers the 350 Diesel motors they made in the late 70’s, never see one of those anymore.

The Cadillac 8-6-4, I don’t remember these ever working right, I have worked on a few of these cars and everyone has the system disabled.

Everyone complains about the Vega motor, I never have worked on one, were they really that bad?

What about the Ford 360 motors, they used to be a lot of trucks with these?

What happened to the GM 400’s, were they really bad, no one ever builds one anymore?

My grandmas 88 Olds with a Quad 4 had constant vibration issues no one ever could find, that little car moved though.

What engines do you guys hate?
 
I had an old Ford truck with a 360 in it. Never gave me any trouble at all. She just keep on rolling along. Not saying they are good motors or not but mine did good.
 
I don't know, the 2.2s around me were some serious pedestrian creators.

I went out with a girl with an Aries K car back in the early 90s. We dated for 3 years. Her car was running for two weeks in that whole time.

I had a bet with a buddy about 10 years ago about who would be the first to see one of the 2.2 cars on the road. He won the bet about a month later. A dodge 600(?) convertible with wood panelling.

Anything put in a Mitsubishi Eclipse/talon/laser.

Ford 3.8 V6. Horrible head gasket blowing abomination. So they put it in everything. Sometimes they put superchargers on them.

6.0 Ford diesel. Disaster from front to back. Horrible.

I think they ran out of the small block GM 400s. They didn't make very many to start with and everyone used them for a long while.
 
The Vega motor is the one that really comes to mind. Non-sleeved aluminum block with an iron head... What the heck were they thinking.

The other GM motors you listed just had supporting hardware problems but the basic engines themselves were fine. But that Vega thing was rotten to the core.

Chuck
 
LXguy said:
I don't know, the 2.2s around me were some serious pedestrian creators.

I went out with a girl with an Aries K car back in the early 90s. We dated for 3 years. Her car was running for two weeks in that whole time.

I had a bet with a buddy about 10 years ago about who would be the first to see one of the 2.2 cars on the road. He won the bet about a month later. A dodge 600(?) convertible with wood panelling.

Anything put in a Mitsubishi Eclipse/talon/laser.

Ford 3.8 V6. Horrible head gasket blowing abomination. So they put it in everything. Sometimes they put superchargers on them.

6.0 Ford diesel. Disaster from front to back. Horrible.

I think they ran out of the small block GM 400s. They didn't make very many to start with and everyone used them for a long while.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, i forgot about those Taurus/Sable's with 3.8's, no wonder you hardly see them on the road anymore.

HAHA, pedestrian creators, thats funny.

I worked at a Dodge dealer for about a month around 94, when they bought Jeep, couldnt make any money, everything was warranty.

A guy came in with the 10th Dodge Ram off the line. It was a mini conversion model, and it was worn out, and really tacky looking with rainbow looking upholstery.
 
The 2.2 Turbo in my 86 Omni GLH has takin a lickin and keeps on tickin :cheers:It has been my daily driver for 5 years now and other than regular parts that wear out like the alternator and battery, oil changes,it has been a damn good motor,gives me awesome gas mileage,and can still leave VTEC Hondas,Eclipes,and the occasional Mustang in the dust.The only mods I have on it are K&N box air filter,MP Computer,adjustable boost valve,and MP + 20 injectors.I love this car,lol:cheers:
The 400 in my Impala has over 174,000 on it and still runs pretty good,although its getting tired.I think alot of it depends how it is taken care of also.Regular maintenence and not running the hell out a car,and it will give you years of good service.
The worse engine I ever had was a 81 Coupe Deville with that modulated 4-6-8 V8 engine in it,the other was a 81 Monte Carlo that had a 305(junk),and my last nightmare,a Dodge Neon that kept blowing head gaskets.:angry7:
 
I would vote GM 350 diesel the worst followed very closely by vega 140 engine Heck even pontiac used the Iron duke in their version of the vega

Brian
 
I had a 74 Fiat Spyder, the worst POS i have ever had the misfortune to drive. Wouldn't idle, head gaskets, just a real problem car. I bought it used during the first fuel crisis. It's amazing the company is still in business!
 
LXguy said:
I don't know, the 2.2s around me were some serious pedestrian creators.

I went out with a girl with an Aries K car back in the early 90s. We dated for 3 years. Her car was running for two weeks in that whole time.

I had a bet with a buddy about 10 years ago about who would be the first to see one of the 2.2 cars on the road. He won the bet about a month later. A dodge 600(?) convertible with wood panelling.

Anything put in a Mitsubishi Eclipse/talon/laser.

Ford 3.8 V6. Horrible head gasket blowing abomination. So they put it in everything. Sometimes they put superchargers on them.

6.0 Ford diesel. Disaster from front to back. Horrible.

I think they ran out of the small block GM 400s. They didn't make very many to start with and everyone used them for a long while.
Click to expand...


I had a 92 bonneville before I got the Dart, $800, it was ugly and I hated that car but the 3.8 V6 was almost indestructible, could not kill that thing. First time I thought there might be a reason GM sold so many damn cars.

Also you might find this interesting http://jalopnik.com/5378755/engine-of-the-day-buick-v6

I plan on never owning another GM product, but if I do it will have that or a 350 in it.

I JUST REREAD YOUR POST YOU SAID FORD V6 --nevermind
 
What about whatever engine they put in the OLD dodge caravan's? I don't think I have ever seen one driving that didn't have a cloud of smoke behind it. :)
 
Robbie2734 said:
I had a 74 Fiat Spyder, the worst POS i have ever had the misfortune to drive. Wouldn't idle, head gaskets, just a real problem car. I bought it used during the first fuel crisis. It's amazing the company is still in business!
Click to expand...


And even more amazing is they OWN Ferrari.
 
67Dart440GT said:
What about whatever engine they put in the OLD dodge caravan's? I don't think I have ever seen one driving that didn't have a cloud of smoke behind it. :)
Click to expand...

That would be the 3.0 Mitsubishi V6. The reason they smoked was the valve guides would fall down in the head knocking of the valve seals (nice huh). The replacement guides have a snap ring on them to keep them from falling down.

I had a 3.0 Mitzy once... and not very long when I heard what the problem was.


Chuck
 
How about any motor that you have to take intake plenum off and throttle body just to change the spark plugs?lol
I dont know if this falls in a bad motor catagory,but has anyone ever witnessed the havoc a messed up security system or passlock security system on newer GMs can cause?It shuts off the fuel pump,car stalls and cannot be started.What a pain .
 
Let's not forget the motor that was supposed to replace the 283, the 307. What a turd. No power & horrible gas mileage. They literally gave up on this one.
 
I worked in a machine shop for over ten years. I saw the worst of everything.

1. Mopar 2.2's are horrible. Every cylinder head is cracked or will be. It's not a question of if, but a question of when & how bad.

2. Anything VW, but especially the water boxers and the Type 2/Type 4//914 engines. Again, not a question of if the head is cracked, but when & how bad. The cracks are soon followed by the exhaust seats falling out, then Kaboom!

3. Mitsubishi 2.6 (same as Isuzu Trooper)

4. 80's Hyundai 4 cyl (esentially a scaled down version of the Mitsubishi 2.6)

5. Anything Jaguar

6. BMW had it's share of turds, too. When I left the shop in 1999, we were resurfacing 5 to 7 BMW 6 cyl heads a week for dealerships. They had a massive problem with blown head gaskets in the mid to late 90's 6 cyls. Also, the earlier 4 cyl stuff were prone to cracking cyl heads.

7. Mercedes 280 SL 6 cyl - crappy short guides that wear out, thin flexible heads that warp easily and an inefficient chamber that makes the suck fuel and spew unburned hydrocarbons.

That's a short list. I'm sure I can think of more if I try.
 
Actually the vega motor wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't overheat them. I bought a new 72 that I dogged the hell out of but never ran it hot. I put 120k hard miles on it.
The 3.0 chrysler motor gets my vote. I replaced more heads on those POS. I think the Nissan diesel trucks of the 80's were a joke too. They didn't have enough power to pull a fat girl off a stool,if you greased the seat!
 
That old Escort motor. If I remember right the timing belt ran around the water pump, the pump would start to wear tossing the belt and bending valves. When I worked in a shop decades ago we did at least 25 of them bastards a month......
 
Honda CRX's and Civic of the same era as the Escort also had the cam belt running the water pump. They had the same problem with bent valves, did lots of valve jobs when I was a Honda tech.

Kind of funny that magically they were supposed to be so much better of a car even though they have the same problem.

Chuck
 
anything with dex-cool in it lol. the 4 cylinder in mid ninetys grand ams i think the quad 4 sucks. the dsm motor and car in general (eclipse,talon, laser) isnt very strong and breaks a lot but they are really fast and fun so i still want one but not as my only dd. ya mopar really hasnt made many basket cases that i can think of except like the 3.0 in mini vans and the prowler motor thats also in the big boat cars of the ninetys and early 2000s really sucks to work on and they always have multiple issues
 
inkjunkie said:
That old Escort motor. If I remember right the timing belt ran around the water pump, the pump would start to wear tossing the belt and bending valves. When I worked in a shop decades ago we did at least 25 of them bastards a month......
Click to expand...

The Escort motor was not an interference engine, no bent valves when the timing belt went. Seems everyone in the family had one in the early 80's. I got so good at changing timing belts I had it down to 20 minutes.
 
timbolia said:
I had a 92 bonneville before I got the Dart, $800, it was ugly and I hated that car but the 3.8 V6 was almost indestructible, could not kill that thing. First time I thought there might be a reason GM sold so many damn cars.

Also you might find this interesting http://jalopnik.com/5378755/engine-of-the-day-buick-v6

I plan on never owning another GM product, but if I do it will have that or a 350 in it.

I JUST REREAD YOUR POST YOU SAID FORD V6 --nevermind
Click to expand...

that 3.8 is a great lil motor other then coolant eating the headgasket. that is the top motor i would want in a rockcrawler
 
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