worst motors of all time

[teringer]

how about the government bid engines from the sixty. dodge 170/ford 144/ chevy 194 six cly engines with 3 on the tree. they would order them with 410 gears so they move .so how much gas did they save?

 

[SpikeWills69]

Vauxhall Firenza (1970–1975) ..we called them fire-enzas..mind you, the Volkswagen rabbit went up in flames many times dure to the fuse box (I think).

LOL! I was selling cars at a dealership and across the street was a Volkswagen dealership. One day, we watched a guy driving his Rabbit to the VW dealership, (we assumed) for repair. Got to the front of the dealership, but still on the street, pulled over and smoke started coming from under the hood. The guy "finally" got out of the car and smoke starts billowing, then flames. People from the VW dealership start to gather, and then in no time, the entire car is engulfed in flames. Explosion and pops just like (well almost) on TV. By the time the fire dept arrived, the car sat there, a black burned out hulk. (Funny how easy it was to find a photo on the internet).

IT WAS CRAZY!

 

[cjh]

the vw vans always toasted their engines..i learned to wrench on the bug engines..

I spent 4 years workin on early VW's.
The VW Kombi's would catch fire here in our summers......just above the engine compartment door on the inside is a little rubber 'T' piece, that perishes and splits, letting fuel tank vapours into the engine compartment....and when they go to start the thing, the dizzy would ignite the fumes....wooomph.....then see smoke billowing from the upper air vents in the rear 1/4.......many a Kombi died that way.

Another one was in the early Beetles where the insulator matting would come free of the firewall, and get sucked into the fan.....no air for the aircooled engine......siezing it.

 

[mech1nxh]

How bout anything from British Leyland? Lucas had to be the worst electrical manufacturer...

Lucas !!! The Prince of Darkness.

Oh , sorry, worst engine ever... any straight 8, in any configuration, giant lumps of ductile rabbit turd torque.

 

[grassy]

You know Lucas has been American owned since the mid '90s.... OK ..all the jokes..

.The Lucas motto: "Get home before dark."
.Lucas denies having invented darkness. But they still claim "sudden, unexpected darkness"
.Lucas--inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
.Lucas--inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
.The three-position Lucas switch--DIM, FLICKER and OFF.
.The other three switch settings--SMOKE, SMOLDER and IGNITE.
.Lucas dip-switch positions: LOW and BLOW
.The original anti-theft devices--Lucas Electric products.
."I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never experienced any prob...
.If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either.
.Did you hear about the Lucas powered torpedo? It sank.
.It's not true that Lucas, in 1947, tried to get Parliament to repeal Ohm's Law. They withdrew their efforts when they met too much resistance.
.Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night, since they all look the same?" "He replied, it doesn't matter which one you use, nothing happens!"
.Back in the '70s Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product they offered which didn't suck.
.Quality Assurance phoned and advised the Lucas engineering guy that they had trouble with his design shorting out. So he made the wires longer.
.Why do the English drink warm beer? Lucas made the refrigerators, too.
.Alexander Graham Bell invented the Telephone. Thomas Edison invented the Light Bulb. Joseph Lucas invented the Short Circuit.
.Recommended procedure before taking on a repair of Lucas equipment: check the position of the stars, kill a chicken and walk three times sunwise around your car chanting: "Oh mighty Prince of Darkness protect your unworthy servant."
.Lucas systems actually uses AC current; it just has a random frequency.
.How to make AIDS disappear? Give it a Lucas parts number.
.Recently, Lucas won out over Bosch to supply the electrical for the new Volkswagens. So, now the cars from the Black Forest will come with electrics supplied by the Lord of Darkness -- how appropriate!
.Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices.

never had problems with the electrics in my british cars..I had more problems with mechanics..started doing the work myself..

 

[66fs]

...

never had problems with the electrics in my british cars..I had more problems with mechanics..started doing the work myself..

This is true for most cars.

 

[Jarlaxle]

If you knew what you were talking about, or do some research, you would find there was indeed a period of pinto engine failures due to a deletion of an oil passage to the valve train. This was a known shortcoming. and as for a 400 SBC I used to replace those junk engines around 50K - 60K because on the street the bores would go oval and cook rings from the uneven cooling. These were factory engines. No one had touched them. They might be fine in a race car that runs 18 seconds max, but a street car idling with steam holes for cooling between cylinders, what a stupid design!!! In the 70's you would be lucky to have any SBC run 100K. They would only make 70K in a pickup due to timing chain failure. I had so many 4 bolt main high nickel blocks with forged cranks, I would give them away.

What a steaming turd. News flash: I have driven a 400. It did NOT, repeat NOT overheat. This despite it being in one of the toughest applications to cool: a Chevy Vega with air conditioning. 95 degrees in traffic, A/C on...never went over 225 degrees. It went ~85K (45K in the Monte Carlo it came from, 40K in the Vega)...it came out for a rebuild when the car came totally apart for major upgrades. (Mostly: torque-arm rear suspension from a Monza.) Since then, it went ~150,000 miles. It came out this past winter...it was a bit tired, the car's owner wanted to do an LS engine swap, since the 400 couldn't be rebuilt (one rebore on a 400 is the limit).

The 400SB is hardly the only engine with siamesed bores! (For that matter...isn't the MP Hemi block a siamesed-bore design?)

 

[66fs]

If you want to run a 400 SBC go for it, I wish you luck.

 

[69MOPE]

Ding,Ding,Ding,Ding,...We have a winner, I was the happiest Dealer mechanic when Chrysler bought out/got out from under these rolling roadblocks calles Renault...The joke at Mansfield Massachusetts training center was the rear pond by the back entrance was brown cause that's where all of the "buy back" Renaults were dumped....And who wishes they could forget those horrible Premier/Monaco's....

 

[kt340sport]

2.6 in the old Dodge Caravans, piece of junk

 

[pishta]

My sisters 81 Diesel rabbit looked like that every morning when she started it. Funny as hell. She would turn ignition to glow, wait until the plug light went out and then start and floor it, just billow smoke and it would fill the entire carport if she backed in. I always backed it in just so it would do this ;-) Thing got great 50+ mileage but A/C would cut WOT (or whatever a diesel does) speed to 55 mph.

 

[roccodart440]

they had no power. Used to have to turn the AC off to go up some hills

 

[SSG_Karg]

Harley-Davidson "Ironhead" Sportster motors from the 70's = JUNK. Nearly impossible to tune and if you get lucky enough to get it to run good, it will definitely blow up soon after.

 

[MoparDaddy]

Chevy's 3.8 V6, absolute worse engine for reliability. Had 1 in an S10, cracked intake, cracked block, new block and intake under warranty lasted a whopping 25,000 miles and happened again.. Fuel pump went out 4 times, broken valve spring on number 4 cylinder at 65,000 miles. it was a turd.

you didn't have a 3.8 in an s10 unless you installed it aftermarket. They only ever came with a 2.2 l4 or 4.3 v6 from 94-04. Before that was 1.9, 2.0, 2.5, 2.8, 4.3

That however sounds like a defective engine. Our 99 went 300k before it was sold still running and my 87 had a 4.3 installed that ran strong with me beating the shat out of it lol

 

[XiphosDragon]

About 2-3 years ago, my dad had 2001 Volkswagen Jetta, with that vr6 6-cylinder motor. It had nothing but problems. When my dad bought it off one of his friends, it a nasty tick going on under the hood. The next day, that tick turned into clunking noises until it died hours later. $700+ later, it had a new junkyard motor and making noises again, this time it's the chain guides. So he finally gets the motor fixed (after finding a mechanic who fixes Volkswagens) and sells the car, as quick as he can before anymore problems happen, for less than he bought it for.

Another was my dads honda cr-v four cylinder. It had continuous cylinder problems and intake manifold leaks. Same route as the jetta, he fixes it up (twice) and sells it for less than he bought it for.

 

[Dart_Vader]

One word: Wankel

All the power of a medium sized non-performance V6, All the gas mileage of a performance V8 and the reliability of a wet paper airplane.

50,000 miles and time for a rebuild!

 

[pishta]

One word: Wankel

All the power of a medium sized non-performance V6, All the gas mileage of a performance V8 and the reliability of a wet paper airplane.

50,000 mikes and time for a rebuild!

and the displacement of a Super Big Gulp.

 

[roccodart440]

Harley-Davidson "Ironhead" Sportster motors from the 70's = JUNK. Nearly impossible to tune and if you get lucky enough to get it to run good, it will definitely blow up soon after.

and some things haven't chaned much. HD's are still way behind the 8 ball. (except the VROD)

 

[Abodybomber]

The mighty Pontiac 301 Turbo.... The CAFE required better fuel mileage, in 1979. The Turbo 301,was the direct replacement for the Poncho 400. Lost a ton of torque, across the board. Plus the wonderful world of warranty work,that happens with a carburetor/turbo application back then. All to pick up two MPG city/town. TURD.........