Best engine(s) ever made.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

I am always interested to hear of old cars in regular usage clocking up impressive mileages. I wonder what other members believe to be the best engines, say pre-1985ish to be classified as 'old', and from any world manufacturer - but only passenger car petrol engines. Give any reason for your votes, be it service life, reliability, power output, smoothness etc. Real-life experiences are always particularly interesting.

To start off, I believe the old Chevy Stovebolt Six and Pontiac Straight Eight to be particularly durable engines. Also there's the famous Volvo 1800 driven nearly 3 million miles by Irv Gordon.

I like to think our old friend the A-Series has a place amongst the best engines ever made. 5 stars for reliability but with a service life of ~120,000 miles it doesn't score too highly on longevity.

[Matt]

Why only passenger car petrol engines? Whats wrong with diesel and LCV? (afterall a lot of car engines were fitted in LCVs, and LCV engines became fitted in cars!)

Personally I think one of the best engines ever is the transit 2.5Di engine (Early 80s - 2000) slow and noisy but will go on forever. Can be tuned up easily to get rid of the "slow"

[Boris64]

Jaguar straight 6 and Bentley 4.5

Pete

[samuria]

thomas the tank engine

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

Why only passenger car petrol engines? Whats wrong with diesel and LCV? (afterall a lot of car engines were fitted in LCVs, and LCV engines became fitted in cars!)

Personally I think one of the best engines ever is the transit 2.5Di engine (Early 80s - 2000) slow and noisy but will go on forever. Can be tuned up easily to get rid of the "slow"

Commercial vehicles and diesel engines last much longer than the private car and petrol engine, hence the criteria for making a judgement is different, but by all means give it a mention.

[wilfred]

Volvo B230 series, as found in the 244/245.
Low revving,torquey and easily capable of at least 200,000 miles.

[katy]

I believe the old Chevy Stovebolt Six and Pontiac Straight Eight to be particularly durable engines.

As far as the Chevy engines are concerned, they were good as long as they were not pushed too hard or driven fast (60 MPH or so) for too long, then they always burnt valves.

[dalebrignall]

saab engines very good dads old 900 turbo did 190000 no probs his 9000 is on 170000 does not use a drop of oil

[busguy]

Gardner 6LX diesel, fitted to trucks and buses in the 50's and 60's. Good for 600,000 miles plus before overhaul.

Petrol engine, Daimler V8 2.5 from the 1960's.

[morris van]

Up to two years ago I had a 1968 A35 van with a standard A series engine and had done 369,000 miles without being stripped down and stll had the original clutch and gearbox.The person who has it now is restoring the van as it needed welding done to the body.

[JOWETTJAVELIN]

The Standard Vanguard unit was a good engine, versatile too being used in the Ferguson tractor and Triumph TR2, as well as Morgans.

[irmscher]

Mann ,Mirlees Blackstone ,even the Buick was used in our Rover cars but imho the Jaguar engine was the finest in the world .I owned a 57 Chevy Belair with over two hundred thousand miles on it and was still going without a rebuild but regular oil changes

[dunketh]

Gotta get a Ford mention in.
Kent xflow. The 1600 XR2 was a joy to drive, no doubt the rwd escorts even more so!
The Valencia/HCS/endura lump gets a point for stoicism too. They sound like a biscuit tin full of spanners at the best of time but will go on forever getting smokier and more rattly but never failing.

[Boris64]

agree X-flow (711M block)

[lambrettalad]

I always loved the triumph straight six ,(tractor engine ) Box standard (no pun intended ) easy to work on and not over complicated,very easy to fettle


sorry didn't mean to sound like "Round the Horn" Sandie

[POMMReg]

[quote="busguy"]Gardner 6LX diesel, fitted to trucks and buses in the 50's and 60's. Good for 600,000 miles plus before overhaul.

....and '70s

Has to be the best diesel engine ever made.