What is a "Strong engine"

JRS · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:12

Simon said:
96k on mine. Still makes stock power, doesnt smoke and starts and runs perfectly. Japanese engines are awesome.

Come back when both engine and transmission are 23 years old, have done over 200k miles, the transmission works perfectly, the engine doesn't smoke and starts every time. Then I might be rather more impressed.

I'll still hate it for being a torque-less lump of Japanese tin that needs revving like you hate it to go quickly of course, but I will be impressed at the reliability

divine` · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:12

Fishman said:
I thought the bit that hadnt failed was the VTEC change over bit, not the engine as a whole. still though 9000 rpm and sturdy is impressive

You are indeed correct, they have had no failures on any VTEC units, their fair share of engines have gone pop though.

jimblowscash · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:16

example.... my 1977 landrover 2.25 petrol 190k on the clock its never going to win a race it will do 55 mph top whack however it will do 55 mph towing a horsebox with two horses plus eight passangers up an obserdly steep hill whilst up to its doors in mud ( slightly over the top but you get the idea) = strong engine

landrover discovery brand new 2.8 5 cilinder turbo diesel with fly by wire throttle, all the bells and whistles etc etc droping its guts trying to pull an empty horsebox up a small tarmac hill = too many things to go wrong

basicaly the more bells and whistles on an engine the more likley it is to die a horrid deth, plus the more bhp / torque to try to wring from it the less relyable it will become

bottom line if you want to go fast and have a relyable ride then buy a fast and relyable ride, not a 1600 corsa with nitrous and an overbore.....

Simon · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:18

JRS said:
Come back when both engine [/SIZE]

Looks clean under there

JRS · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:24

Simon said:
Looks clean under there

You should see it up close.....mixture of sand, oil, general muck from the road, grease, leaves and other plant matter. That's what it gets for the previous owner driving to southern France and back quite a few times.

When I picked it up after buying it on Ebay, I though something was wrong when we fired it up - looked like smoke coming out of the engine bay. Turns out it was some of the baked-on crap crumbling to dust when I prodded the throttle, as it was windy that day it started to get airborne and looked like smoke coming off the engine

Gibbo · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:45

agw_01 said:
And there's my engine... on 94k, needs new stem seals and leaks from both crank seals.

Great!

HI there

203k on the BMW and no fluid leaks whatsoever.

D4VE · 16 Oct 2006 at 13:49

Yeah Jap engines are awesome, 125k on the MR2 and doesnt use/leak any fluids, is silky smooth and seems to make all its power

Rover engines on the other hand...

Moley · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:00

Nissans RB26DETT is a fantastic engine, as stock it can take plenty of welly and with a few changes can be juiced up to 1000+ Bhp.

JRS · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:04

jamiemoles said:
Nissans RB26DETT is a fantastic engine, as stock it can take plenty of welly and with a few changes can be juiced up to 1000+ Bhp.

Slightly more than "a few changes" - costs an awful lot of money to take it past 1000 horsies. 600 is achieveable on the standard bottom end, but you need strengthened internals if you want to reliably push for much higher.

Mr_White · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:07

jamiemoles said:
Nissans RB26DETT is a fantastic engine, as stock it can take plenty of welly and with a few changes can be juiced up to 1000+ Bhp.

It's not going to be 100% reliable pushed that far, and the slightest thing will be able to mess it up, so I wouldn't call that a strong engine.

Moley · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:10

Mr_White said:
It's not going to be 100% reliable pushed that far, and the slightest thing will be able to mess it up, so I wouldn't call that a strong engine.

Well no, of course it's not going to be 100% reliable. But then again, no engine is 100%. But as far as engines go, it is damned strong.

Mr_White · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:23

Show me an RB26DETT pushed that hard that has been 100% reliable for over 200,000 miles, it can't do it, it would have gone through about 80 services by that time aswell.

It's in no way a strong engine, just a tunable one

burns · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:32

JRS said:
Come back when both engine and transmission are 23 years old, have done over 200k miles, the transmission works perfectly, the engine doesn't smoke and starts every time. Then I might be rather more impressed.

Hasn't your engine had a rebuild though

?
Nothing too impressive from me, one 1.8S in the Manta which sat for 10 years before getting an MOT last week and has done 250 trouble free miles since then

. Lovely engine though, revs nicely to 6K and has enough torque low down.

Moley · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:38

Mr_White said:
Show me an RB26DETT pushed that hard that has been 100% reliable for over 200,000 miles, it can't do it, it would have gone through about 80 services by that time aswell.

It's in no way a strong engine, just a tunable one

Right, an RB26DETT that hasn't been tuned up to 1000Bhp, is a strong engine.

Happy now Mr Pedant?

:rolleyes:

WushuMaster · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:46

D4VE said:
Rover engines on the other hand...

Sigh tell me about it. I could probably afford to run a porsche with the amount ive spent on the Rove :rolleyes:

gurusan · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:50

another thing I consider to be an attribute of a "strong engine" is the ability to reliably make considerably more power than is given stock with some tuning.

I.E....If you turbocharge a honda b16 it can take 250-300whp reliably depending on tuning and maintenance....all without touching the internals or opening up the head. Not to mention the kind of efficiency it has...pretty much the norm to get at least 220+ whp on 6-7 psi from a smaller t3/t4.

agw_01 · 16 Oct 2006 at 14:53

D4VE said:
Rover engines on the other hand...

I don't know what it is, but my dads' 270k mile T-series doesn't lose/smoke a drop.

Apart from a slight misfire from cold, it runs better than mine!

I guess it's the way the engine is driven though. His was a motorway muncher. I expect mine has had quite a hard life only being on 94k.

burns · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:00

gurusan said:
another thing I consider to be an attribute of a "strong engine" is the ability to reliably make considerably more power than is given stock with some tuning.

I'd disagree. The XE for example is very tuneable, but quite a few suffered from pourus heads which meant a new head was needed. Tuneable, but not reliable.

D4VE · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:02

agw_01 said:
I don't know what it is, but my dads' 270k mile T-series doesn't lose/smoke a drop.

Apart from a slight misfire from cold, it runs better than mine!

I guess it's the way the engine is driven though. His was a motorway muncher. I expect mine has had quite a hard life only being on 94k.

Your dad has an 800 doesnt he?

As you say, a 220GSi is more likely to have a hard life.
Its a shame as the "sandwich" design is a good design really and the rest of the car is very good.

gurusan · 16 Oct 2006 at 15:02

burns said:
I'd disagree. The XE for example is very tuneable, but quite a few suffered from pourus heads which meant a new head was needed. Tuneable, but not reliable.

Well I said make power reliably .

BTW the older toyotas are great...my friend has a 91 lexus ls400 with a quad cam v8...it has the original engine with 375k miles and still going strong. He just uses old fashioned dino juice and regular maintenance.