worst motors of all time

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pishta

pishta

I know I'm right....
Joined
Oct 13, 2004
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I always read, "thats a good little motor" or some other ball washing when you read about peoples builds. I wanna hear about some turkeys! Stuff you owned or were forced to work on, Mopar or not but keep it current, I know Crosly made their blocks out of soldered tin but thats beyond most peoples memory.

repair wise: Im learning the 80's Mazda built Perkins diesel is pretty much an orphan when it comes to parts. It was built by Mitsubishi for Mazda who licensed it from Perkins who was owned by Massy but are now owned by cummins or some strange bloodline. Anyway, its a metric version of a standard Perkins 4.135 but no metric parts are available here.

repair wise: Lexus V8 1UZFE. Quad cam, each driven by a single gear, you have to take off about 40 minutes worth of covers to change spark plugs and the starter is under the intake manifold and about 4 feet of vacuum lines. its just complicated to work on.

performance: Any late 70's american V8 with all the smog crap on them. 170 hp from a 440? Damn, that poor motor is breathing through a straw! eg. 1980 Corvette CA special, 305 V8 rated at 180 hp, ugh!

reliability: Any FIAT (including Yugo and first gen Hyundai) up to when they were kicked out of the US market.
 
Don't remember the specifics, was back in the late 80's.....I worked at a local machine shop in NJ. Steve refused to work on the Subduroo motors...If I remember correct they were of a split crankcase design, similar to old dirt bike motors....and once busted open they leaked...badly....or at least that was his claim....
 
back in the day I had some pile O **** 4 cylinder in a vega that was the absolute worst. not to mention the 4 cylinders in the citations. it took nothing to blow them up. in fact , I think its safe to say ALL GM 4 cylinder crap engines were ticking time bombs. ive had more reliable slant sixes running on all 4
 
I know I got better gas millage with my RAM (318) that my friends Kia Sportage.
The 318 has a problem with cracking heads..

My Dad's Malibu that used to destroy camshafts..

Any Skoda..

Kawi 85 cc engines in their dirt bikes..
 
X2 on the Vega! I had one that came with wife #1 It blew a head gasket. I put another on and it smoked like a tire fire! I took it apart a 3rd time put TWO gaskets and a (lot of sealer) and sold it before it could die again.

#2 worst in the world was the 69 Corvair. I bought one from a guy at a bar (we were both drunk) for $75. It has a transmission seal leak (read remove the ENGINE to change). I did it three times and it didn't stop leaking! I sold it to ANOTHER guy in a bar for $75
 
The Chevrolet 'Vega-Matic'.

They used to come into my Father's Machine by the truck load.

We called them "Super-Smokers".

Most of the Cylinder Walls would have 1/8" deep gouges in them. And the
Piston Rings were literally welded into the Piston Ring Lands.

I must have bored out 1000 Blocks, to install the Sealed Power 'Sleeve-Kit'.

Aluminum Die-cast Block with 17% Silicone 'impregnated'.

 
Vauxhall Firenza (1970–1975) ..we called them fire-enzas..mind you, the Volkswagen rabbit went up in flames many times dure to the fuse box (I think).
 
For 2.3L - junk.................period.

GM Quad 4. Have one in my dune buggy (because I rolled the car it was in and it only had 20K on the motor). Cavitiation in the oiling systems did most in..........that or bad head gaskets. They run well, though!
 
don't you guys remember the 350 chev diesel conversion engine of the early 80s what a piece of **** .
 
When I worked at Burt Chevrolet in the Denver area, The heavy engine guy was replacing 2 Vega engines a day on warranty. The steel cylinder sleeves were sinking in the aluminum block causing head gasket leaks. Great design!
 
2.8- V6 Chevy and GM in the s-10 trucks and Blazers. Bad about the block cracking in the cam valley. JUNK!!!
 
Vega was the worst. It was a toss up as to what it was going to die from. Bad transmission, Bad engine, or Rust. Never past 40k. I used to laugh, they tried to save weight in the engine block and then bolted that big stupid cast iron head to it??? It was only good as a cheap drag car with a SBC. You could hardly give the things away.
 
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