and i forgot the Nissan 2.4 liter 4 banger

--Benz 240d--i know it is diesel but i coulnt help it
--And though BMWs have little problems all the time--There chassis and motors seem to go forever.

When Cali came out with the crazy smog laws--all the old cars quickly left the streets becuase they had high Hydro Carbons--Benzs and BMW were unreliable but they passed smog when they "were" running

 

I've been thinking a lot about this lately as I'm constantly searching for a winter beater to replace my 86 4Runner when it croaks.

My criteria are simple. When looking at a car with 200k+ miles and not knowing any maintenance history, what engines do I trust to likely go another 100k with no major repairs/maintenance (plugs, wires, starter, sensor here and there, valve adjustments, water pump are acceptable).

There are a lot of 'reliable' engines that given the proper maintenance can have a very long life. But not knowing the vehicle history eliminates a lot of engines that are needy.
22RE - Head gaskets at ~200k and timing chain
Subaru 2.2 - Head gaskets
Any engine with a timing belt.
SBC 5.7 Vortec - intake manifold gasket
SBC LT1 - Optispark
Ford Modular V8's - spark plug threads in heads (and other problems???)
Toyota car V6's - sludge
GM 3.4 V6 - intake manifold gasket

Even though all of the above are great high mileage units, I had to take them off my list. The only engines that remained on were

SBC 5.7 TBI
SBC LSX variants
Toyota 2.7/2.4 Taco's
Ford I6 (fuel injected)
Nissan VQ (haven't dug into the details on this one, but they seem to have a good rep)
GM 3.8 V6
GM 4.3 V6

 

Snow Holly 4 cyl.
1428 Liters, 600 Horsepower, and 39,000 ft/lbs of torque.


This one ran continuously for 50 years at full power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxssIc4HUNM

 

i'm going STEAM on my next build. j/k
to be honest, my 5vzfe in the 4runner has been the most reliable of all the cars i've owned, and i had two 22re celicas with head gaskets go at around 110k. not to say they weren't reliable up until then, but the broke down at about the exact same mileage. i guess you could say that part was reliable since on the second one i was waiting for it to happen

 

International Harvester 345 V-8
GM 327
Toyota r and rz series

 

I had a 93 Accord with the F22, it had 320k on it. I sold it for $500 and it still ran great. Original clutch too. Only problem we had was the camshaft was bad so we put a junkyard one on and kept on driving.


I hope the 350 Chevy is reliable. I'm putting it in my 88 4Runner! It came from my brothers 76 Blazer, and that motor came from a 78 Nova!

 

I'll vote for the 22r and 4.3 chevy as well.

when I sold my '84 the origonal 22r had 408K kms on it, the last 200K of which were very hard and it never needed to be opened up.

my family have also had a bunch of 4.3's in work trucks that went 450K plus without work

 

Tough to tell. The date on the picture is 9/6/07 so maybe not yet.

General Motors 2.8 liter in a Jeep, or was it the Chrysler 2.8?

 

You're kidding right... Worst motor ever.

The old Toyota 4.2 I6 out of the FJ40's (having a brain fart on the series of the motor) might be right there with the 22RE. The FJ45 Farm truck we had in Oz was looking at the downhill side of the 450K mountain, and it had had about as hard a life as any engine I can think of. We never had to fix a thing on it. It was loud,and rough, but it just would not die.

I agree about the 1300cc VW though, hands down one of the most relaible ever. I've also heard that Pinto motors were legendary and that you almost can't kill them. Any validity to that??

Cheers

Dave

 

I agree about the 1300cc VW though, hands down one of the most relaible ever. I've also heard that Pinto motors were legendary and that you almost can't kill them. Any validity to that??

Cheers

Dave[/QUOTE]

If it is the German built 2500cc motor in the pinto then yes it is true

 

I wasn’t. Granted, my answer to the OP question is purely anecdotal. I don’t have any research to back up my statement. But there were a lot of those engines in the town I grew up in and they didn’t seem to leak or burn oil. 250k miles without an overhaul on a few (decent by GM standards).

GM did put them in several cars that they were under powered for though…

Out of curiosity, what cars had problems with the 2.8 and did they have mechanical failures?

 

The 2.8 in the Jeep Cherokee's of the early and mid 80's were crap. Just about the only thing positive that I can say about them is that when they run, they run smooth and quiet. I read somewhere that the horsepower ratings for the 2.8 V6's was 125, and the torque was around 140. The Jeep 4banger they had at that time had 128 horsepower, and 140 torque. and it got around 23 MPG, compared with the V6's 17MPG....that's assuming you could get it started.

 

i had one in an s-10 and i got it to 200k before selling it running good.

here is a link below to 2.8's (cherokees) in the high mileage club. i wouldn't say they are the best motor. but alot of peolpe got over 200k out of em. but some people also had issues.

Link:
http://www.allpar.com/old/club/searc....8&type=engine

 

I have been the one that was confused about this all along. GM DID produce a similar motor for the Jeeps of the 80’s. GM 60 degree V6 - Wiki

I didn’t realize this fact.

I grew up in Flint, MI (the Buick city! ) and there were a ton of these engines in Buick, Pontiac and Chevy coupes and sedans and the Chevy S-body light trucks. Aside from being very underpowered for some applications (try stomping the gas pedal in a heavy 89 Camaro or a 86 S-10 Blazer and you’ll see what I mean) but they were getting 200k.

This was at a time where 90k on the ODO meant a ring job was do for one of the big 3 engines and the Hondas and Toyotas were just starting to show how long they could really run!

Maybe news was already out on the Honda and Toyota longevity by that time in the rest of the country, but people didn’t want to hear about it in Flint.

 

Does this mean I am a victim of brainwashing by mid-eighties General Motors propaganda?

 

Well, I grew up driving a 91 Trooper with the GM 2.8 in it and it was the worst motor I've ever seen in a 4x4. It didn't smoke or appear to burn oil, it just ate it, a stashed it somewhere to the tune of 1qt/500mi... It had an effective power band of 3750-4000rpm and even then it felt like it was going to run a piston out the hood. We had a bunch of valvetrain issues, and some odd little failures. It fianly blew a HG and that was the end of it. Yeah they put them in the Cherokee for a while too. Same story, no power and crappy milage. Another turd from Genral motors what a shocker.

 

the oldsmobile aurora 4.0 liter v8 was pretty good it was codeveloped with lotus i think and was used in indy for awhile pretty advanced for gm in the early to mid 90s

 

Honda 2.2 by far the best motor ever. 16 valves and easily capable of 6000 RPM's all day long. This is what is in my 93 Accord and I run the he|| out of it on the interstates with no problems while on Mobile 1. Never overheats and never lets me down. Good power and good economy. Sorry Toyota. Maybe you should hire some Honda engineers?

 

Lol. GM continues to use that technology in their Northstar line!

I'll keep my mouth shut about the 2.8 FNO. I have heard from enough people to convince me...

cheers!

 

i am going to say the toyota 5sfe and the big brother the 3sfe. first they are non-interference which adds to the fact you see alot of old ones running around (timing belt break won't send them to the junk yard) second they really seem to not have headgasket issues. the only weakness seems to be waterpumps locking up. which is very fixable.