worst motors of all time

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My parents had a couple different new fords and mercury's in the mid 80's with the 3.8 litre V6, those things were gutless.
 
2.3 ford is miles and miles better than 151 and derivative gm motors.

Everyone LOVES the buick 3.8, but I didn't care for the one my mom had in an 80 grand prix (and I was a buick guy).

Never died but no power after 40K miles. Total dog.
 
jimjimjimmy said:
don't you guys remember the 350 chev diesel conversion engine of the early 80s what a piece of **** .
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Yup. I bought a 78 Seville that had one. TOTAL CRAP. I yanked it and dropped in an Olds 454. that caddy MOVED.
 
Caddy Northstar
Ford 6.0 diesel
Ford 6.4 diesel
Mopar 2.7 V6
Mazda Miller-Cycle V6
 
The Ford 2.8L V-6 in the Mustang II Horsepower Zero of the mid-to-late 1970s. I was always stuck changing the water pump whenever one of them came in. The 16 little bolts would break in the block and the cheap timing chain cover would warp. After a while, our service managers would send them to the Ford dealer because we lost too much labor on fixing those things.
 
I'll second the s-10 2.8s. They run good but they almost ALL leak oil from the rear main seal!!
 
75slant6 said:
I'll second the s-10 2.8s. They run good but they almost ALL leak oil from the rear main seal!!
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Tell ya' story about that. "Our shop" had one, the boss's daughter ran it out of oil. Boss told me to tear it down

"Why not just put an exchange in there?"

"Maybe you can fix it"

Whadda I know, I'm gittin paid by the hour. so here it is, on the bench, the crank over here, the block over there. This thing has, what, 100K miles?

THERE WAS NO rear main seal!!!! NEVER HAD been installed!!!!

The groove in the block was empty, and there was no wear at all on the crank where it should have been!!!
 
1990 Ford Escort 4 speed. Can't remember the size of that 4 cylinder, but let's just say I could change that head gasket in my sleep, and not just mine....
 
I 2nd the Geo 3 banger and GM Quad 4 both JUNK.... Had a buddy w a GEO put 3 motors in the damn thing one summer same w quad I had a grand am in high school w the quad. God bless an interference engine with faulty timing belt tensioners. Who designs this crap? Also ford taurus SHO 3.0 put out by Yamaha and the 1st 4.0 ford V-6 w OH cams. I changed about 20 of each when I worked for Ford garage. Both had oiling issues and would self destruct.
 
frederick_76 said:
1990 Ford Escort 4 speed. Can't remember the size of that 4 cylinder, but let's just say I could change that head gasket in my sleep, and not just mine....
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I had a lynx 4 speed..lasted almost 75K kms..I had forgotten how bad it was...honda dealer would not take it in on a trade even though it was clean, low kms :) and ran well at that time..
 
frederick_76 said:
1990 Ford Escort 4 speed. Can't remember the size of that 4 cylinder, but let's just say I could change that head gasket in my sleep, and not just mine....
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I changed a lot of them myself. I changed even more of the ford 3.8 V-6 head gaskets when I worked for Ford. The 3.8s were coming in w blown head gaskets with anywhere from 20-80K LOL!!! At least they came apart easy.
 
Mid 80's early 90's 4.1-4.5 Cad v8's. They did improve them ,in later years as the 4.9. What a turd.
 
Isuzu 4 banger that was used in a Chevy Luv truck, I had one of these and had the dubious honor of being the slowest car at a huge points meet at Ohio Valley Raceway back in the 80's. I ran triple Z class and they just gave me a trophy and ask me to leave because they didn't have time to waste letting me make a pass.
Any motor that the used in an Intrepid. There are so many nice Intreped bodies in junkyards because the motors were crap and they wouldn't last long enough for people to even crash them.
Just about every motor Mitsubishi made back in the 70's and 80's (and probably still today)
Renault motors
Fiat motors
I could probably list a few more.
 
I had a Fiat 850 spyder that was fun to drive if you could keep the motor running. Sloppy distributor, poor carburation and cooling problems due to the rear reverse draft radiator.
 
I had a Fiat 850 when I was a kid too. Drove the crap out of it. Sold it to my brother in law, when I bought my Duster, and he drove it as his dd for another 2 years, before he sold it. Got almost 40 mpg, and I would run off from VW's on a regular basis. Had a lot of fun in that car. Sorry to say, but the worst motor I ever personally owned, was the 400in my '73 Sattelite Sebring Plus. 318's out run me, and it only got about 13 mpg. Nice car, except the motor. Started using oil at 75,000 miles, so I traded it off. Wish I would have kept in, and just swapped in a different engine.
 
Ha, sister had same 850 spyder .Tony put new pistons in after sis overheated it and they hit the heads! The tops were unmachined, like mill your own CR or something and I guess Tony didn't know it. I remember those pistons. Sis sold it and saw it a week later on side of freeway...in flames! How about the Subaru Justy CVVT ? Almost bankrupted Subaru on warranty claims. Good reads!
 
How bout anything from British Leyland? Lucas had to be the worst electrical manufacturer...
British%20Leyland.jpg
 
Viper21700 said:
The good old GM Tech-4 otherwise known as the GM crap-4.......
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Tech 4 AKA Pontiac iron duke 2.5 was a great engine. I owned a Sunbird for 3 years with that engine, 200K on the clock. I never changed the oil, beat the living crap out of that car, best off road vehicle I ever owned. -20 degrees outside? no problem, she'd fire right up. I traded the car for a torquer 340 intake, I got robbed!


Hows about a Pontiac 301 with it's 3 main bearings, or a buick 231 with its non existent oil pressure?
 
Ford 6.0 diesel for sure. Spent 7,000 dollars trying to get mine fixed and the tec at ford said they have a 90% failure rate... After all that my engine was toast and I traded it for a mini van
 
Back in the eighties, I rebuilt a Ford V6 in my son's girlfriend's Mustang. Both heads were shot and almost impossible to find any used as they were apparently a common problem. Worst engine building experience I ever had. I think it was German built.
 
Mitsubishi Sigma/Chrysler Sigma

Astron engine used to pull up at servo and fill up the oil and check the petrol. Boy oh boy they were smokey dogs. Embarrassing to have a pentastar badge pinned on one of those.
 
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