Ranking The 8 Best V8 Engines Of All Time (And The 7 Worst)

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I used to work in pontiac parts, in the late 70's ..... The trans ams were 6.6 liter (olds engines) or 6.6 TA (pontiac engines)
 
What is the "Best" engine is like saying what is the best fruit or type of wood yada yada?
But the small block chev would tick more boxes than any other engine ever built.I think the 100 millionth sbc was produce in 2012.
But I'm still a mopar small block guy!
 
What is the "Best" engine is like saying what is the best fruit or type of wood yada yada?
But the small block chev would tick more boxes than any other engine ever built.I think the 100 millionth sbc was produce in 2012.
But I'm still a mopar small block guy!

Hard to say anything bad about the Bowtie small block. They had a good run.
 
What is the "Best" engine is like saying what is the best fruit or type of wood yada yada?
But the small block chev would tick more boxes than any other engine ever built.I think the 100 millionth sbc was produce in 2012.
But I'm still a mopar small block guy!

Funny, I'd actually rank the SB Chevy as one of the worst V8's. They made so many cause they blew up all the time. I used to give 4 bolt main, forged crank 350's away. They'd only last 70,000 miles. Had two 350 blocks, one in each back corner, of my Dodge PU bed for traction in the winter time. They started filling the air cleaner with oil from the vent tube around 30,000 miles. You couldn't tune them since there was blowby and or leaking valves around the same 30,000 miles. Always had a real bad oil leak, I'm talking the whole engine compartment. They also always had an exhaust leak. I'd rather have almost any other V8 engine. AMC, Ford, Olds, Buick, and the top 8 motors would be MOPAR, maybe a 289 Ford K motor.
 
This mostly pushrod engine list? Don't see Porsche or AMG on here or any Mercedes engine

I don't know much about them, and am not interested in "money is no object" or hand built race only engines for a very, very few special people, like the 427 SOHC engines.
 
My dad had a 305 in 1985 it was blowing blue smoke at 60,000 miles- ran good though
The 305 in my '84 Chevy ran 369,000 before spinning 3 rod bearings.
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I do not like the idea of a 6ft. long timing chain

Neither do I but trust me when I tell you, I drove a 65 ford truck with a 427 sohc and dual 4s and the last thing on my mind was the timing chain. That thing was a monster. There weren’t a whole lot of hemis that would run with one. It’s too bad Ford never put one in a car.
 
Mine ran just fine for the 10 years I owned it.Took it on long trips ,used it to haul all sorts of stuff and it just ran like the energizer bunny
Your post is a good example of the difference between objective and anecdotal evidence. Here's what Wikipedia says on the subject:

"The intake manifold fed both banks from inside the vee, but the exhaust ports had to pass between the cylinders to reach the outboard exhaust manifolds. Such an arrangement transferred exhaust heat to the block, imposing a large cooling load; it required far more coolant and radiator capacity than equivalent overhead-valve V8 engines. Ford flathead V8s were notorious for cracking blocks if their barely adequate cooling systems were overtaxed (such as in trucking or racing)."

I grew up with these engines; my parents owned one and so did many friends and acquaintances. The Wikipedia article is right.
 
Thanks, I just edited my last post from Poncho to Oldsmobile thinking I might (and did) make a mistake.


Rob, you would think the olds motor with such a short stroke would be a high rpm motor... But I think it was through around 4,000 rpms.

JMO but alot of the motors they named as a bad motor, was because it had 7.5 or 8.0 compression and was the mid 70's smog version.
Not taking up for chevy, but how could they rate the 350 as a great motor and the 305 as junk? Other then the 305 was a smog motor.
IMO it would be like saying the 5.2 magnum is junk, but the 5.9 was a great motor....
In reality, they are both the same motor, other than bore and stroke...
JMO. Another article written by someone who really does not know cars.....
 
I understand you. What further hampered any engine besides the massive amount of smog equipment and low compression would be just about everything else on the dang engines of the era. Small cams with weeinie springs, small valves, revised heads, carburetor smog updates... ugh! What a nightmare it was.

The Chrysler 400 wasn’t any better in the way it was crushed for power due to the emission standards of the time. While it made more power than the other offerings in it’s cubic inch class, it was still a horror.
 
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