Your top 5 worst engines.

Third Opinion

Third Opinion

Third Opinion

Soldato
Joined
3 Jun 2005
Posts
5,365
Location
West Sussex
You know the engines that looking back on them really were not up to the job.

1. Ford CVH (Breaking cambelts, burn't out alternators and starter motors, weak crankshafts, unrefined and over rated).
2 Alfa Romeo Boxer (Outdated, rattly and unreliable, poor power to CC and limited improvements made over 25 years + life).
3. Rover O or S series (both as bad as each other, Overhead head cam carrier was gasket less so leaked like a collinder, clogged up oil ways from massive condensation during winter, weak everything and frequent breakdowns).
4. Suzuki 1000cc SJ410 (25 MPG on average and a lifespan of around 60K before you start burning as much oil as petrol).
5. Vauxhaul 1.3/1.6 from the MK 2 Astra ( all my mates owned these and all had major camshaft trouble regularly. GTE engine was over rated so they say).

How about you guys?
 
1. A 10 year old mitsubishi dunne buggy engine, must have been about 50cc, broke the fanbelt every 40 miles and at 60 squid a pop i got a chain in to do the job instead. Soon after, I sold it:)
 
Ford CHV ,or, its crappy cambelt! :rolleyes:

Vauxhall 1.8 - I went through 3 of them, 1 siezed, the 2nd threw a piston and the 3rd lost all its oil.

Iveco 75e15 7.5tonner, those things go "pop" frequently!

Ford Essex 3.0 V6, plastic gear in the oil pump that wears out with nasty results...

Scania 11 Litre (114), No torque and prone to turbo faliure.
 
Ford CVH?

You what!

The CVH is a tried and tested engine and of all the Ford sites I'm on I have never known anyone to mention the cambelts being a problem. I owned two with no issues whatsoever, and it's tuning potential in 1.6 n/a and turbocharged form for little money makes it a legend in my opinion!!

Now if we are talking rubbish engines my vote would go for the HCS engines Ford use in the Fiestas and Escorts in 1.1 and 1.3 flavours. God the noise of those things is awful!
 
I had an XR2 with a CVH and a 1.3 Astra (Mk2) and both were fantastic. The Astra got to 98k before the head gasket went and the XR2 took more abuse than any Ford should yet it never failed me once.
 
exactly, all those xr2s u see these days burning a bit oil and such like, they probably had the tail rode off them all their life. as long as like any car u keep the oil fresh it could take a beating
 
Stonedofmoo said:
Ford CVH?

You what!

The CVH is a tried and tested engine and of all the Ford sites I'm on I have never known anyone to mention the cambelts being a problem. I owned two with no issues whatsoever, and it's tuning potential in 1.6 n/a and turbocharged form for little money makes it a legend in my opinion!!

Now if we are talking rubbish engines my vote would go for the HCS engines Ford use in the Fiestas and Escorts in 1.1 and 1.3 flavours. God the noise of those things is awful!
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Cambelt failure is a common and expensive problem with CHV engines, especially when your talking in the bag of crap league most of my Mk3 Escorts were! :o (none cost me more than £500!) but, hey! Don't quote me....

"The most common problems are warping the head by overheating the engine or breaking a timing belt."

CHV's also go through valve stem seals and have an ability to convert oil into sludge!

Not for nothing does CHV stand for "Chronic Vibration & Harshness" in some circles.

Rubbish engines imo, found in scrappys where they belong! :p
 
The Oldsmobile LF9 - a diesel version of the 350ci V8 and my God what a useless heap of junk. They somehow managed to sell over a million cars equipped with this POS between '78 and '85, and ended up putting the general car-buying public in the States off diesels for a very long time. Lawsuits were brought up, so customers ended up being able to claim back most of the cost when the engine inevitably blew up.

And why did they blow up? Simple really - the design just plain didn't work as it was based on a petrol engine block. It couldn't take the stress, so they ended up with a wide range of failures involving pistons, crank, heads and cylinder walls. GM never built another diesel passenger car after that fiasco.
 
lol, I was wondering why no one had mentioned the K yet, and then I saw the above post :)

How many did you and Steve go through Stu?

I can't say I've ever had a problem with mine yet.
 
I think Ste did one on it himself and I had to have one done at Rover which with new radaiator, labour and all that rubbish was just short of £600 :o

I think mine was due to a slight blockage in my radiator which is why I needed a new one, after that was perfect and temp guage was never above half way, but shes gone now to a new home.

Stu
 
Ford CVH 1.4/1.6. Gruff, rattly and unrefined when it was new. Turns the oil to sludge. The 1.8 Sierra I drove was actually OK which I never could work out.

Ford HCS. Tappety and just plain horrid.

Ford 1.8TD. Urgh. Use search for Fox's comments...

Rover K-series 1.8. Damn clever engine and ahead of it's time. Designed as a 1.1 and 1.4, so boring it out to 1.8 and sticking it in a lard ass Freelander was never going to be a great idea.

VW 2.0 8v from the Mk4 Golf/Bora. Inert, rough and rattly as a bag of spanners in a washing machine with an appetite for oil. Great in the Mk2 Golf but way past it's sell by date when they re-introduced it in 1999! I never understood why they binned the NA 1.8 20v for it.
 
cvh were notorius for turning oil into sludge, in all breather pipes and in the rocker cover, very hard to remove it from the rocker cover btw, with the chanels in it being covered by a non-removable plate.

then hcs: god damn those blasted noisy tappets that are never ever silent.
 
hmmm another vote for CVH engines being ok.

owned 4 now all in differant states of tune and never a single problem, ever!

The problem is they come in some very very cheap cars = no service

main reason for burnt out starter motors is people dumping the heat shield from my experiance...on the RS Turbos this normally comes up.

also did I see the Astra GTE engine(xe) being mentioned as over rated? :p


I could mention a far more expensive engine that is known to fail way earlier than say a CVH...guess this means its crap so I will add it to my crap list.

1. boxer from the scooby P1's ;)

Edit: 2. add 1g/2g 7 bolt 4G63's to the list as well as Evo's from 1 to 3. crankwalk ***.
 
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To be honest, all engines no matter who the manufacturer are going to have problems one way or the other, and it's most likely down to lack of servicing/cambelt change.

The OP mentions the O series. We had a few Montegos with these engines in and never had a hint of trouble with them.
Also, I notice that the 1.8TD Ford engine is mentioned above. I see no problem with these, we've had many a vehicle go through our hands with these lumps in at work, which have all been fine. They break cambelts, sure, but only when you don't change them when they should be changed. We have two Mondeos in at work for servicing etc.(alright, so they have the Endura-DE version) but they are at 160k and 190k nearly and they both pull like a train and put out not a puff of smoke or anything!
 
1. My 1.3 Escort engine - it's weedy and pathetic and according to Parkers.co.uk has a shade over 60bhp which might explain why.
2-5. see point no.1 (I've only ever owned one car, everything else I drive feels like an F1 car in comparison).
 
The Ford 1.8TD is tough but that's about it's only good attribute. It's unrefined, noisy, smokes like a whaling ship and has a powerband about <this> big. The old 1.6 diesel it's decended from was hopeless even in 1985. Compare it to an PSA XUD and tell me why the Ford is a better engine.

OK, so I'm varying my criteria a bit. It's all opinion :D
 
MagicBoy said:
The Ford 1.8TD is tough but that's about it's only good attribute. It's unrefined, noisy, smokes like a whaling ship and has a powerband about <this> big. The old 1.6 diesel it's decended from was hopeless even in 1985. Compare it to an PSA XUD and tell me why the Ford is a better engine.

OK, so I'm varying my criteria a bit. It's all opinion :D
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Fair enough, but as I said they do smoke when not maintained. I've seen many a 1.8TD (or just plain D) that puts out no smoke at all. Unrefined, all right but it seems to pull alright to me. Noisy, well I've heard noisier! As I say, all the vehicles i've driven with this engine seem to go very well. But I agree, the XUD is a great engine. Must've been used on loads of vehicles, Peugeots, Citroens, Rovers, Sherpas, etc :)
 
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