best engine ever
 

This might get sticky, but what do you guys think the best engine ever made is? I'm looking for specific engine (not I-4 or V8 kinda stuff). BTW if you're going to use an engine code make sure to specify the car it came/comes in. That way we're less likly to lose anybody too bad.

I personally like the RB26DETT that comes in the Nissan Skyline GTR models.

Best engines in my opinion....

-Porsche 911 flat 6, what needs to be said?

-Dodge Slant Six. Those Dodge Darts ran FOREVER

-Honda VTEC I-4, I am continually amazed at what you can do with these motors

-BMW M10 4 Cyl. strong little motor. I got over 400K on one

-Chevy small block V-8 283-400, The fact that the basic design still survives from the 1950's is a testament to it's durability.

-Mazda 13B rotary (RX-7), amazing the kind of power you get from this tiny little thing

-Briggs and Stratton 5HP edger motor, lol, I built so many minibikes and go-karts using this lawnmower engine.

-Rolls-Royce Merlin (P-51 Mustang) 1280 HP 12 Cyl. Supercharged

-Pratt and Whitney J58 (Lockheed SR-71) 30,000lbs thrust (probably more but classified)

-Rocketdyne F-1 (Saturn V rocket) most powerful engine ever built, 1.8 million pounds of thrust. And the Saturn V had 5 of them!

My top two picks would have to be Porsche's aircooled flat six and Mazda's rotary engine.

935/78

Best one i've ever been into was a lexus v8. I changed the timing belt after 190k and was in awe of the features and build quality of the engine.

Don't forget the:

- Rover V8 (started as an Olds) - 3.5 litre eventually up to 5.0 litres, all alloy
- BDA

wow, I hadn't expected to see most of these. Keep them coming though, this is insteresting.

I would have to say the 12-cylinder, 5.4L, twin-turbocharged, fire-breathing powerplant of the Porsche Can-Am 917/30 (1500 horsepower @ 2.0 bar)!!!:eek:

Jared: great choices! You know your engines!

My choices:
Porsche flat-6 air cooled. It is a marvelous engine!

Porsche 3.0l 4cyl engine: 944S2 or 968 variety: so much power from a 4cyl: love it! (Then again, I'm biased!)

VW Type 411 engine: it saw so many applications: very versitle

Chrysler Hemi from the old Mopar Muscle cars.

Chevy Small Block from many older Chevy's

The engine in the Acura RSX: 200hp out of a 1.8 is pretty impressive!

Greatest engine? Yea, gotta admit it - Merlin V12.

Ever heard a P51 Mustang or Supermarine Spitfire fly by? Similar to the low rumble and high fan whine of a 911 but with twice the cylinders.

A sound that is beautiful, powerful, fast and a bit frightening. And it helped win the war so that Dr. Porsche could stop designing tanks and start designing the 356!

I think they still use old ones in those fast offshore/hydroplane racing boats.

911 Flat Six is best auto/racing engine of course.

Porsche Flat 6; 13B Mazda, Chevy V8 small block, and the engine in P51 Mustangs, though I thought it was a Rolls Royce.

All four last/have lasted decades. As was said, there is nothing in the world like the sound of a P51 during a fly-by.

The Merlin is (was?) a RR. I forgot about those--one of the few sounds that actually gives me chills.

Another would be a low-restriction muffler on a Ducati. Whew!

Blue - did you buy that two-wheeled beast yet?

Yes, sorry I wasn't clear. Merlin V-12 was a Rolls-Royce. Why/how it was given that nickname I don't know. But just the fact that they thought to NAME the engine can give you an idea of what it does and how it sounds.

I've heard it said - I think by Julie Andrews of all people (who learned to sing in the subway tubes/bomb shelters) that she could recognize that sound anywhere.

During the Last Great War.. WW2...my Dad was a Tool and Die Maker working on the RR Merlin engines for Packard, who had the license from Rolls Royce to manufacture those engines....for the Spitfire, Mustang P51, P38 twin engine, twin boom fighter as well as the PT Boats which had dual RR motors.

Everybody forgot the Ford 263...289....302 V8....from the late 50's through the 90's....

Or how bout the Mercedes 450, 500, 560 V8's....talk about bullet proof

Or the Volvo cast iron 4 cylinder....bulletproof

Or the Ford 4.6 Liter V8...DOHC...State of the Art

Or a classic BLAST from the Past......the Ford SOHC 427 of the mid 60's....talk about raw HP.... or just the plain Ford 427 Side Oiler...Put ole Enzo to shame in 66...67...

There's a reason i didnt list any Ford engines, lol

Unfortunately no. Some financial and medical issues have come up in our lives and as a result we're cutting back on the spending. I'd end up having to sell the P-car to be comfortable with buying a Duc. :(

Not gonna happen! :D

When stuff gets settled down I'll be back in the market. Hopefully with slightly more depreciated prices. :D

P38s I've heard are the most dangerous planes to "bail out" of. The pilot has to turn the plain upside-down to eject. I've heard pilots would get their parachutes caught on the tails and go down with the plane.

Awful.

During WW2 the German pilots weren't afraid of the P38, it was relativily slow and not as manuverable as compared to the Kraut stuff.

However againt the Japs in the Pacific the range of the P38, and speed especially in a dive far outclassed anything the Nippers had. The top 2 American Aces of WW2 both flew P38's in the South Pacific....Dick Bong with 40 kills and McGuire with 38. It was also the plane that sent Yamamato to his grave.

The top scoring Japanese Ace of the war shot down 104 American Planes, and was killed in the Philiphines in 1944 while flying a transport plane to pick up some new fighters. The highest surviving Japanese Ace of the war shot down 63 American planes, was seriously wounded losing the sight in one eye during the Guadacanal campaign in 1942 and virtually sat the rest of the war out...however he had the distinction of being one of the only Jap pilots to shoot down a B29 bomber late in the war. Saburo Saki....the Japanese Naval Pilot at the begining of WW2 was probably the best trained pilot of the day..he virtually had the equivalent of the training of a modern day jet fighter pilot...basically 5 years of training...they just couldn't replace them, nor could they replace an obsolete fighter by 1943 the Zero.

Did Mitsubishisi build the Zero?

Yup built by Mitsubishi

Yep...the ad slogan that never was for Mitsubishi...."From the folks that brought you Pearl Harbor"

Thats slogan was for real BTW

I'm surprised nobody mentioned those glorious-sounding Ferrari V12 and V8s!

The 911 air-cooled motor is a marvel... i can't believe it just kept evolving over almost 40 years

At 17K a tune up, I'm not surprised no one mentioned it.

WOW, you mean people actually put that many miles on a ferrari? I thought I was the only person crazy enough to do that to a Ferrari. If I had one of those bad boys I would drive it daily and I would take it to drift events :D BTW-I HOPE to be attending my first drift event with the 944 by the end of summer. It will but at an autoX as soon as I get it back:D

well, I meant "$17K" for a tune up.

I'll mention one. The Ford Industrial V-4, later adopted by SAAB. Not a "performance" engine at all, but designed to do hours and hours of duty in industrial plants driving conveyor belts, etc. I think it rivals the SB Chevrolet V-8 and the MOPAR slant six for long life with good economy.

$17000...for a tuneup....PPPPwhew....What did they do for that kind of money....I knew an engine rehbuild on the old V-12's was about 20K...but a tuneup... Gees

Henry Ford was one of the worlds richest men...and as such he liked to collect stuff...his collection is called the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan...Now Henry just didn't care much for art, or guns, or even cars for that matter...allthough there are alot of them...He like to collect Farm Machinery, and Steam engines...not the Rail Road kind either but a Steam Engines that would pump out mines back in the early 1700's...that stand two stories tall...that kind of stuff....theres even a steam turbine that was used to power the River Rouge Plant...it's just about 200 feet long and 30 feet high...it's in the museum...

How about the Toyota 1.6L 4AGE series of engine?

They have reliably powered Toyotas (likely in the millions) since the early 80's. Toyota may even still produce that engine for cars in other markets aside from North America, not to mention power Formula Atlantic racecars that develop well over 200 HP without a turbo.

My car is 18 yrs old, still runs like a champ and has a 7500 redline if only 115 hp.

Another great engine from Toyota is the 22R engines commonly found in their trucks. They are nearly bulletproof with my tattered and rusty trucks running about with 50000 kms on them.


:)

Hey good one Reg.

Both the 4AG and the 22R are awesome engines. My 84 Toyota pickup has well over 500K on the original motor.

oppps I meant 500000 kms on them. WoW 500000 miles, well thats even further!

Hmm - are we talking technical innovation, durability, or performance here? All three?

I like the RR inline 6, the BMW inline 4, 944 3.0L I-4, and the Chevy 350 V8.

The I-6 used in the post-war Rolls-Royces (1945-1962) are perfection for the cars - smooth, quiet, durable, efficient, and good performance. To me, the post-war years (before the Silver Shadow) are the pinnacle of the marque and thus the pinnacle of car-making in general (hey, it was the "best car in the world" after all.) I think those cars could be driven for a lifetime, and you'd never want another.

The BMW 4-cylinder M10s represent, to me, the pinnacle of small engines. I include the 944 3-liter not because I'm overly fond of it, but because of the genius it represents in out-doing BMW's I-4. Impressive.

The 350 for it's sheer versatility - tuned properly you get a monster performer, left alone you get a solid, all-around engine good for most anything that will run forever if cared for properly, and it is so ubiquitous you could likely rebuild one from parts found at the average Shell station. The automotive equivalent of AA batteries. Of the criteria I named above, I'd give it the prize for meeting them all.

Emanuel

Nice one reg. I love the 4agze, 40 PSI on stock internals is crazy! Not to mention Toyota's 2jz series, brilliance I tell ya. I don't know much about the 22R, but I have heard it's a great engine to supercharge.

U guyz keep on forgetting the Ford 263/289/302/351W....It's powered Cobras, Shelby Mustangs, Boss 302's, GT40's.Mustang Mach 1's. Lightning 150's, Saleen Mustangs, and everything in between..from the 50's to the 90's...and can be rebuilt from those left over gas station parts as well.

I agree that the Ford engine is good (their trannys are the trouble) but I put the 350 ahead of it because of the versatility of its application. The Ford Windsor family has been used solely with sports and muscle cars, hasn't it?

Emanuel

I'm partial to huge industrial , stationary diesel engines. When they get down to work, and the turbos start to howl, you know there is a lot of ***** happening at the driveshaft. Deutz and Man diesels are my favorites.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads/V3240.jpg

I did say huge, didn't I?
Note the little man standing next to The Man.

I'm gonna transplant one of THOSE into my targa when my 3.0 finally bites the dust!

I like a good ocean liner engine. Like the one on the Star Princess cruising down from Seward, Ak.

Nice and quiet.

AND it's a diesel...

So Doug, what sort of torque one of those babys put out?