Long life Detroit engine?

[pwd72s]

My nominee..the old slant 6. Still being used to power unusual street machines today. Guess I'll always be a fan...

[thingmon]

Most of the Big 3 straight 6s were reliable.

Later Chrysler 318s were pretty solid too.

[Por_sha911]

Plymouth/Dodge 318 cid - not a torque monster but a solid motor that you couldn't kill.
I had one in a '72 Satellite Sebring and it was used and abused but never missed a beat.

[thingmon]

We had a slant 6 in a short bed 4x4 pickup... Holes in the floor, bed sides flapping in the wind, but plowed snow like a champ.

[oldE]

Small block Chevy. The only bad ones I know of were in the late '70s. They has oiling problems on the cam shafts.
Ford 302 was all but indestructible. A BIL drove an old van from Toronto to Annapolis Royal and never thought to check the oil. 5 quarts brought it back to full.

[Tobra]

Ford 300 inline 6

the end

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Ford 300 inline 6

the end

From WIKI - Pretty good run. Just a couple years short of the air cooled 911 engine but millions were produced.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_straight-six_engine

[thingmon]

GM/Pontiac 2.5L Iron Duke, Buick 3.8L, Chevy 4.3L...

[Brian 162]

5.3 iron block in my last 06 Tahoe. No afm, only had to replace spark plugs and a couple of coils over 11 years of ownership. Vehicle had over 350,00- km’s when I traded it in.

[fanaudical]

Maybe not the use case you intended, but I'll leave this right here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_A57_multibank

[speeder]

Originally Posted by Brian 162

5.3 iron block in my last 06 Tahoe. No afm, only had to replace spark plugs and a couple of coils over 11 years of ownership. Vehicle had over 350,00- km’s when I traded it in.

This is what came to mind when I saw this thread title. Hundreds of thousands of miles with no apparent wear. Really pretty remarkable. Cummins and 7.3 Power Stroke diesels as well but diesels are very maintenance dependent. Those Chevy Vortex and LS motors don't seem to need much, just reasonably clean oil and a functional cooling system.

[LWJ]

Never owned a 300 6 but I sure wanted one. 7.3 now. Went slightly over the speed limit in a full size truck recently. Pulls well.

[Arizona_928]

I think a more interesting thread would be on which engine won’t make 100k mi…

Chevy 1.5l and 6.2l gassers, anything Kia/Hyundai, 996’s (ims), baby Cummins and duramax.

[afterburn 549]

Anything with Fiat and Chrysler attached to it.
The 5.9 Cummins with VP 44 had plastic piston cooling jets. These would sometimes jump out of the upper main saddle and burn that bearing up, scoring the ascribed cylinder. The engines now with belt-driven oil pumps dwn inside the engines, seem to be creating a few disasters. (ford and maybe some others)

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Ford 300 inline 6

the end

I'm with Tobra on this one. Those things were about as bulletproof as any engine could be. They put those things in one ton work vehicles!

Someone mentioned the Chevy 4.3... solid engine too but I don't think it reached the level of reliability of the Ford inline 6.

For modern I'd go with a NA 3.5L from Ford. Those things lasted. Why the hell Ford chose to go turbo "ecoboost" is beyond me. Toytota is still cranking out a NA 3.5 that is rock solid.

[Tobra]

7 main bearings on a six cylinder motor is the key, IMHO

[masraum]

Originally Posted by cabmandone

I'm with Tobra on this one. Those things were about as bulletproof as any engine could be. They put those things in one ton work vehicles!

Someone mentioned the Chevy 4.3... solid engine too but I don't think it reached the level of reliability of the Ford inline 6.

For modern I'd go with a NA 3.5L from Ford. Those things lasted. Why the hell Ford chose to go turbo "ecoboost" is beyond me. Toytota is still cranking out a NA 3.5 that is rock solid.

Right, the Chevy 4.3 was just a 350 with 2 cyl lopped off.

My understanding is that the straight 6s were pretty bullet proof, Chrysler 225, Chevy 250, and Ford 300. I think the SBC would have to be up there too, and clearly based on this thread the 318 (what about the 340 and 360), and then Ford 289/302.

And I wonder about the 70s SBC issue that was mentioned, was that actually the motors or a change in the oil formulations.

I saw a thing the other day by several motor/oil guys that said that there was a problem at one point with cam lobes that was due to motor oil formulation.

[cabmandone]

I think the 318 needs a clarification. A 318 with lean burn wasn't a long life engine. Take off the lean burn system and they were great. Funny thing is, they ran like a scalded dog.

[NY65912]

I worked on a ton of 6 cylinder cars back in the early 70's. They were all pretty bulletproof if you did regular maintenance on them. We had a Dodge van with a 225. It destroyed itself when the nylon gear on the distributor disentegrated. The first engine I ever took apart was a Ford six from a 66 Mustang. What a mess I made in the yard when I failed to drain the oil when I started to dismantle it, I was 14. Dad was not happy.

[Steve Carlton]

Originally Posted by Tobra

7 main bearings on a six cylinder motor is the key, IMHO

Agree. Plus a naturally smoother balance to it. One head, less parts.