Here is how I picture the development of the iron duke to have gone: Engineer: My life's goal is complete. I finally designed the smoothest 4 cylinder engine ever Beam counter: Wow! Your engine is so smooth that we could remove the harmonic balancer and save $4 on each car! Engineer: But that would make my masterpiece run like a tractor engine Bean counter: What part of $4 on each car don't you understand?
I'd have liked to have seen a good pushrod inline four, for example a modular upgrade to the Chrysler slant six with a four cyl version - sharing only the bore center spacing of the old slant six with a 3.60-inch bore. Replacing timing belts is widely unappreciated and the Chrysler 2.2/2.5 four wasn't higher reving than a pushrod motor could have been
The Duke was good for utilitarian work. It can't take a ton of power upgrades unless you get your hands on a Superduty engine. I really like the Chevy II 4cylinder later turned into the Vortec 3000 it didn't make it into passenger vehicles, but it was great in boats and forklifts.
I owned a 1979 Olds with the 4.3 diesel V8. The engine was junk at 60K miles. GM warranted the engine because I had meticulous maintenance records (I had to pay for the labor to replace the engine, but not for the engine itself). The 4.3 was replaced with a '84 Mr Goodwrench 350 diesel. That engine lasted for years without any major problems. My neighbor, who was a traveling salesman, bought a 1983 Buick Riviera with the 350 V8 diesel--he drove it over 300K miles with no significant engine issues. People need to realize that, back in the 1980s, those diesel engines could get up to double the fuel economy of gasoline engines in the same vehicle model, and diesel fuel was considerably cheaper than gasoline, as well. What killed the GM diesels, on top of their reliability issues, was the introduction of the great 3.8L pushrod gasoline V6 by GM. The 3.8 was reliable, had great longevity, and would get fuel economy as good as the 350 diesel had gotten, not to mention having much more horsepower. If one of GM's biggest mistakes was selling the 260 and 350 diesels, one of its second biggest mistakes was discontinuing the 3.8L pushrod V6.
@@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt chrysler literally had to recall all of the first fuel injection motors for not working properly. Gm put the wrong dipstick into fieros locking up motors. Car companies have always had their heads up their ass
Agreed. I've been fixing them 30 years. The worst are what's been made in last 15. Earlier are stout. Easy to fix. 90s same thing. Owned many Panther platform cars and never had a 2 valve pop out a plug. Had a few 3 valves do it, break plugs etc. Any eco engine that has a internal waterpump are great when they run, a nightmare or hours of work and thousands to fix. Yes you get the 350 HP and more compared to 239 on 2 valves but only 1 hour water pump jobs and that's taking your time. Right under alternator. 2 bolts loose, 2 out, belt off and a handful for water pump. Costs 35 bucks for wp, and 20 in coolant. Dome. 10.5 hours ecoboost. While there ford says if you have around 100k do timing set. So that $1700 turns into $2400 easy. Cvt and wet belts are crap. Most places won't rebuild them. It's crazy how much ppl pay for these baskets of repairs and still keep buying them. Oh well, it keeps me working. So keep buying eco cars, keep buying wet belts, interference engines, cvts, and about all chryslers. 😂
@@jasonchristopher2977 There definitely can be a list of the ten worst engines from 2000-2025. I've bought American cars as cheap used cars, but never new. Most of them are terrible when compared to Hondas, Toyotas, etc.
My parents had a Pontiac 6000 with the iron duke...it was idling in a parking lot and someone asked me if it had a diesel due to the clatter. Everything about was unrefined...the starter when activated, at idle and under acceleration. Spent years with that car and I think of it when the USPS drops our mail via a Grumman LLV.
Ahem. Briggs and Stratton are much more reliable. I wonder how all of the past owners of the engines listed in the video compare to the woes of post covid vehicles..
My mom got a fulltime job once I and my three siblings were in school and I can remember the fall evening when she came home with her first car - a brand new first year Vega two door grey coupe. She was - justifiably - proud. 20000 miles later the engine was replaced and it was a rattle can at any speed. As I type this I feel bad for how much disappointment GM caused her at that point in her life. Needless to say she never owned a GM for the next six car purchases she made.
The Iron Duke was a dog, but it was a fairly reliable engine. There were a lot worse from this era, like the 301 Turbo and early versions of the HO Quad 4.
I've driven many 4 cylinder cars that annoyed me more than my parent's 1981 2.5 L Citation, including some later GM 4 cylinder engines and even a Honda Civic that seemed to downshift on every incline. I can't explain it, but the clatter from the Iron Duke just didn't bother me. I've heard some people say similar things about the machine-gun sound of GM's odd-firing V6's.
My parents traded in an 81 Fairmont with that engine on a brand new Pontiac 6000 with the iron duke in 1989 . My dad was done with Ford after the fairmont , it had 100k miles on it and oil was literally pouring out of rear main . The Pontiac went on to be a great car outside of the paint .
My boss back in the early 90’s had a Caravan with the 2.6 L Mitsubishi engine. I drove it many times. That thing was thrashy and crude. Fast forward to a day when I spent the day driving a rented U-haul 80’s vintage IH diesel, manual box truck to haul some heavy parts around the state. I got back very late and dropped off the U-Haul and drove his Caravan home. It seemed like the quietest most refined vehicle that night after driving that horrible box truck all day long. We never owned one, but the iron Duke was so ubiquitous back in the day that I consider it part of the soundtrack of my youth. They did sound like a tractor at idle
My uncle bought a used 78 Chevy truck with the Olds Diesel from the factory. He quickly pulled that out and put in an Olds 350 from a '72 Cutlass. Ran like a scalded dog after that.
@michaelreppert1207 all I heard was they weren't metal. Even in this day and age I wouldn't trust a plastic composite material for gears... barely would trust aluminium alloys for gears... best left for old fashioned hardened iron and steel... 💪 Those materials are best left for bodywork and the dash.
@@johndespain4620 I understand what you're saying, but it is a bit silly. If you buy a new Caddy, you expect it to last. There should be no reason to expect that your engine needs some kind of modification, so it wouldn't be junk after so many years.
The Ford Essex V6 should get an honorable mention. Head gasket issues which seem to be more problematic in transverse applications like the Taurus/Sable, Continental and Windstar.
In particular, the 3.8 liter version of that 6 cylinder engine had chronic head gasket issues. The smaller 3.0 liter version, on the other hand, was one of Ford's best all-around engines, period. Go figure!
Fortunately the only one of these I ever owned was the infamous 5.7 diesel, circa 1980, but I had an aftermarket fuel/water separator on it and never had an issue. But I witnessed friends' drama with many of the other engines on the list. Perfect list, perfectly explained.
I own a 1979 240D owned since 1993. Mercedes designed the fuel filter to trap water. Never had any issue with water in the fuel. Simply change the fuel filter periodically.
I have 2 anecdotes about 2 of the motors on you're list. The first involves my father. From late 1978, early 1979 until early 1983, my father was the lead mechanic at the Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills, Ca. N as you know, at the time, Cadillac was still the top luxury car everyone wanted. He was thoroughly sad though when Cadillac stopped the V-8-6-4. He told me that pretty much every customer that came in would complain to him n offer him money under the table to fix it. Well, he'd spin this tall tale of how he couldn't do it at the dealership cuz if the manager saw he'd get in trouble n how time consuming it was n each one would offer anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 cash n let him take their car home for however long (he'd usually just take it for the night. As he used to joke, sitting in LA traffic isn't so bad when you're in a Caddie). Needless to say that money came in handy for a guy who was just starting his family. The second anecdote is about the infamous HT4100. My maternal grandfather always bought a brand new Fleetwood Brougham, black exterior/padded landau with maroon interior every 2 years starting from the early 1970's when he lived in New York. Fast forward to 1982, n he's moved to California. Time for a new Cadillac. Goes n purchases his double black with maroon interior Fleetwood Brougham. About 3 months later, him n my grandmother decided to make their one of many trips from LA to Vegas (both my grandparents were avid casino goers). So they pack up the Caddie n head out. It's late June/early July. Their out in the middle of the desert, pre cell phone days, n the car dies. I'm not exactly sure what happened but my grandfather always said "The damn motor melted!" N him n my grandmother got lucky that someone stopped n gave them a ride to the next town which was over an hour away. After that debacle, my grandfather refused to buy another Cadillac n switched to Buicks (mostly Rivieras with a few Electra Park Aves here n there) from then on.
Vega engine *could* work with nikasil coated bores, but that technology was a couple of decades later. Any body that ever 0:02 owned a teflon coated frypan knows you are not supposed to scrape it with metal stuff. I'm almost surprised GM didn't fit plastic piston rings.
As I was not of driving age until the late 90s, I had only one experience with the infamous Ford VV carburetor. My dad bought an older F150 (I think 81 or 82) that my younger brother drove. This was a total bare-bones machine: 2WD, 4 spd manual, single fuel tank, bench seat. It did have 4.10 gears in the diff, and the 351W with the VV carb. This truck ran like a scalded dog! You could spin the rear tire (open diff, lol) all the way through 3RD gear and I would bet serious money would run into the triple digits. We never had a single issue with it as far as the engine running until the wiring harness started to crumble and cause issues with the Duraspark ignition. Was far and away the peppiest and torquiest vehicle we ever had my entire childhood (not a high bar, but still...).
You're bang on with your assessment of the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine. Such a complete piece of trash. Had one in my dad's 1982 Chrysler LeBaron. It was pretty much done by 80000 kms. Even the rebuilt engine that replaced the original was a piece of crap. By 1990 the car was off the road.
Imagine the millions GM spent designing and building all these new engines if they had just put the money into improving one of their proven V6 and V8 engines. Like lighting money on fire.
I had an 85 Reliant with the mitsu 2.6 as my college car from 2000-03. The mikuni carb was impossible to get parts for and service back then. It was always running rich, impossible to tune correctly and replacement mikuni carb was $500, more than the value of the car so I just drove it rich, out of tune, with a rejected inspection. Mpg depending on weather was 13 in the winter 20 in the summer lol. It ran smooth though and had good power for an early 80s car. In rhe end, around 95k miles it was the timing chain guides that did it in. Clatter from the timing chain side of rhe engine was the dead giveaway. I drove it that way while i searched for a new car, gen 3 prelude SI. The mitsu 2.6 never gernaded itself and I drove it into the junkyard.
Back in the day we used to have to get those choke pull off diaphragms from Hyundai dealers for those crappy Mikuni carbs on the 2.6's. Changed a lot of them back in the day. Don't miss them, either.
My relatives owned a junkyard, and my grandfather said they had a junk Lincoln Zephyr to haul parts and oxy acetylene torch equipment around the yard, and he said that it smoked like crazy and burned a ton of oil. Thankfully they had plenty of dirty oil to add to it.
2.5 iron duke : excellent except for the fact it was terrible. 305: we all know some old timer who says they had a 305 that didn't suck ( or a "305 that thought it was a 400") and he's just as confused about as it as the rest of us. 255: an engine for the fudds who have to have a v8. Cadillac V8-6-4: The worst version of the worst version of the 500 engine family. Cadillac 4100: The fact that they kept the 368 for commercial chassis says it all.
Aside from better fuel economy, another aspect that made diesel engines appealing in the early 1980s, at least in California, was the lower price for fuel. I had a 1982 Isuzu pickup diesel, and to this day I still recall at a self-serve gas station that year, while I was paying $1.05 per gallon for diesel, the regular grade gasoline was selling at $1.45 per gallon at the same gas station. BTW: When it came to diesel fuel and water -- My truck had a fuel filter with a water separator petcock valve; whereupon once or twice per month I'd end up with a tablespoon or two of water from that separator, as well as a few bits of algae, too.
Ah, the iron duke. You did a good job of covering this, but didn't quite touch on everything. That's understandable on a list like this, so I humbly add: Piston knock. My first car, in 1985 when I was a broke E1 in the USAF fresh out of high school, was an '81 Olds Omega. I could never, no matter what I did, get it to not just start randomly piston knocking for no apparent reason. FF 20 years and I become a mailman and...every mail truck has piston knock, because they all have an iron duke (with some exceptions that have the Vortec 2200, but they are a tiny minority, and the also minority of Ford-based mail trucks). The iron duke goes forever, but it is a curse, not a blessing. It is not a trusty friend, it is a frustrating poltergeist that never lets you relax, wondering what it will do wrong next.
Interesting you mentioned the oil cap being made of rubber. I had a ‘72 Chevy Caprice small block 400 V-8, which had a rubber oil cap. It did indeed crack and fall into the engine, though I think the mechanic doing the oil change got most of it out, maybe all of it. This engine was an oil burner, about a quart every 700 miles as I recall. What a nice car overall, to be saddled with such a ridiculous idea as the rubber oil cap. I bought two or three during the time I had the car. They didn’t last long.
The first time I heard of the 255 was when a neighbor got a beautiful new LOADED LTD Crown Victoria and couldn't stop raving about how great that 255 was,,, he had it for many years.. He loved it because of the mileage it got on the open road and that's what it was,, a traveling car.... Every summer it went from Houston to New Hampshire and back.. Woof ! I would have HATED that drive !! lol
The last GM vehicle I've owned was an '83 S-10 Blazer with the wonderful 2.8L iron/aluminum V6. Heads warped about two months after warranty expiration. Dealer said sorry, you're out of luck. I had the engine rebuilt at a local rebuilder, and went into arbitration with GM. Despite their rep clearly being a lawyer, my detailed records impressed the arbitrator enough that GM had to pay for my rebuild costs and some ancillary expenses.
I has an 88 S-10 with Throttle Body fuel injection and 5 speed manual. It had a serious off the line hesitation that sometimes was so bad it would stall. It had a check engine light that no GM dealer could ever fix!
a documented list of how GM nickle and dimed itself to death and went from 60 % market share in the 1960's to where they are today... i think GM would have been better off if in 1977 they made the really hard decision and went back to Alfred Sloan's model... Chevy should have been the small car and only the small car and then the cars got bigger and more powerful as you went up the ladder... every division selling every size car with the same engines made no sense except to the dealer network
5:11 - I remember 1982 Canada new auto show. Checking out beautiful big body style Camaro. After popping the hood and seeing tiny black four cylinder engine. Most of the engine bay was filled with various rubber hoses going all over. That was only time I remember seeing four cylinder Camaro. I laughed out loud seeing it. Thats just embarrassing. 17:42 - Emissions controlled engines were literally opening can of worms. Any mechanics nightmare to find a vacuum leak. If they didn’t have smoke machine or didn’t smoke.
Although I agree with the internal water pump criticism on the modern Ford 3.5, I have owned two with over 250,000 miles in Ford Edge models without changing the water pumps.
The leaks were from owners who didn't change the coolant on time which caused it to become acidic. If you did proper maintenance those 3.5 V6 engines were very reliable.
@khakiswag not true. The water pump weep hole can fail, and you don't even know your oil pan has filled with coolant. It was a garbage idea. Shouldn't happen, no matter the miles.
I have to say I may be weird but I live hearing the mailman roll up in the million mile iron duke ! They were used in a racing series and they can take a beating! I had one in a sand rail with turbo and they would just go! The 305 is the exploding Pinto internet lore. In reality all small blocks suffered from bad cam and lifters from that era . Other than that they ran and ran.The Mitsubishi engine itself was fine it had the same carb issued as everything else in that era. Head cracking or warping was from overheating. The Vega engine once cast iron sleeved wasn't too bad . There were a lot worse like the V6 used in Ford Rangers and Exploders that ate head gaskets faster than fuel or the 400 m that was garbage .
I just watched a Periscope Film on the ‘75 Nova, Monza, and Vega. I miss my two Vegas, especially the ‘76 GT with the 5-speed. I drove it from 93,000 miles to 218,000, and never even had the head off of it. It didn’t burn oil - just leaked it.
The HT4100 was the most unpleasant experience working on and owning an engine i have ever had. Whoever ran AIR lines over the distributor bolt.....Cadillac should have stuck TBI and chrome valve covers on an olds 307 and called it a Cadillac 5.0 😂
Agree with the Vega being #1. Had a Vega wagon back in the day. Its exhaust could have been used in an 007 movie. Loved that car though until I hit a deer with it in the mountains. Oh well.
ill take just about any classic car engine over the modern overcomplicated cuckoo-clocks with 20 feet of timing chain, cam phasers,direct injection etc. my daily driver is 35 years old - super simple and cheap to fix
None of the things you list are "modern". (Double) overhead camshafts have been around since at least the late fifties, direct injection is - to my knowledge - an invention of WW 2 aero engines and was first used in the famous inline six powering the Mercedes Benz 300 SL. Cam phasers have been around since the fifties, too. The first engine I know of that used this technology during warm-up phase was the early Mercedes Benz Diesel engines. Just because you don't know about these technologies does not mean they were not around for quite a while. Even "new" hybrid and EV technology dates back to pre WW 1 times. Better do some research first before posting crap 🤷.
None of the things I mentioned where put in regular production. cars until fairly recently. I was not refering to aircraft, super rare exotics or goofy diesels. No one was driving around with a Merlin or a DB605 in their car. Older cars that did have overhead cams used a simple timing setup. Not a half dozen chains with 14 different guides. Things that should be simple and cheap like the mentioned water pump are now costing a fortune to fix.
You are very gracious in not discosing all the problems with the Vega mill! Another big issue is the oil liked to stay in the top of the engine if revved for a while. I beat my 1970 (got it on introduction day) and never had problems. At 80K replaced it from a wrecked one. Drove total of 147K mi. Loved it.
I almost bought an early 80s Cadillac when I first got married. My wife wanted something smaller. And by the time I convinced her that it was the right car. I got to the owner's house just in time to watch the new owner drive it away. I was heartbroken for awhile. But after learning about the engine problems. I was relieved
I'd have to throw an honorable mention to the 262 cu in V8 that came in my father's 75 Chevy Nova. Rated at an amazing 110 HP it was a truly dismal engine.
The Iron Duke wasn’t a bad engine.. it was rough as a cob and relatively gutless, but it was reliable. I’d rather have a reliable turd than a fire-breather that breaks every other month.
I had a neighbor who had a Jeep CJ7 with the Iron Duke and he absolutely loved it. I have a 2005 Ford F150 FX4 with the well hated 5.4 3V. When I bought it new it had 25 miles on the odometer and it now has almost 350,000. The engine has never been touched. I do my own maintenance and I’ve put spark plugs in it several times. I had to replace the throttle body due to an electrical failure, but it still has the original alternator, starter, water pump, power steering pump etc. I had to rebuild the transmission at about 285k because the splines in the 3rd and 4th gear drive hub stripped out. I live in a little travel trailer and I tow it with my truck. It’s all about the maintenance.
2 engines that belong on this list- the gm quad4 and the ford 3.8 v6. The ford 3.8 is especially ironic given their goal was to reverse engineer the buick 3800, the most reliable gasoline engine of all time. Fords copy just ate head gaskets cuz they used aluminim heads.
The 3.8 was hit or miss. If the head gasket survived, it was a solid engine. And once the head gasket was replaced, it was trouble free from then on. But a good number were destroyed by the blown gaskets. I think the quad 4 was much worse, cracked heads, timing chain issues and fixing them didn’t seem to last.
@@Henry_Jones Back in 1981 the 3.8 Buick engine was far from the reliable engine it became as the 3800. No, it didn’t have many head gasket issues. But the oil pump was notorious for failing at relatively low mileage followed by the timing chain. You were lucky to make it to 100,000 miles because of the oil pressure issues.
@Henry_Jones: My brother in law could change Ford 3.8 headgaskets in about an hour because he had so much practice at it. All years from the 80's through the 90's blew headgaskets about as frequently as Cadillac 4100.
@@dmandman9 i had a quad4 powered olds achieva. Worst car Ive owned crashy suspension, cheap as hell interior, leaks, i was happy when the 4t60e gernaded itself and I junked it
Water separators--my father had a '76 Peugeot 504 wagon w/diesel in those years, great, extremely frugal and reliable; had I not been a broke college student I'd have bought one. I had a bunch of friends in college then with M-B sedans of varying displacements with diesels, swore by them. I had a couple of employees in the early 90's with Isuzu diesels in their P'up trucks--also amazingly trouble free and extremely economical. I never heard of water separators until several years ago when our pickups started getting them by law. Did those old Euro diesels have separators and I just never heard about them? Thanks for the education.
Going way back for this one Adam! 1923 Chevrolet Model M 134CID " Copper Cooled " engine. It failed testing at GM but was released anyway. 759 were built but only 100 made it into public hands when it was dropped by January of 1923. GM tried to recall all of them ( and destroy them all ). However two cars escaped ( one is at The Henry Ford in Detroit, MI & the other is at the former Harrah's Collection in Reno, NV ), plus 2 or 3 free-standing engines.
I had a Dodge Caravan cargo van e.g. "Mini-Ram Van" with the 2.6 Mitsubishi. I can attest to the fact that it was a smooth engine. The carburator actually did a pretty convincing impersonation of fuel injection. However, when the carb started leaking gas and came time for a rebuild, it was horribly expensive and my carburetor guy said "these things are needlessly complicated." I also had problems with blown head gaskets and timing chain keepers and guides. At 185,000 miles, coming back from skiing at Jimini Peak, it threw a rod and blew a hole in the engine block on the Taconic State Parkway.
I have the 2.5 in my 83 Camaro with the 4spd manual transmission. It is the most crude and vibrating engine I’ve ever owned. Was going to replace it with a V8 but might just keep it the way it is for novelty 💁♂️
Motor Oil Geek has a video on here in which he talks about ZDDP. Too much of this can cause camshaft pitting, so if you add it you have to add the correct amount.
Funny how GM and Ford introduced 2.3 4 cylinders within a couple of years from each other but had vastly different outcomes. The Vega 2.3 came out in ‘71 and was a disaster. Ford’s Pinto 2.3 came out in ‘74 and went on until 1997. Even got turbocharged and powered the Mustang SVO and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.
We had a Cadillac 4100... think it was from 84'. My dad bought it used as a work car, and speculated that the factory recommended oil fill was too low. I think he put an extra quart into it. In the 90's he was testing the new hip full synthetic oils and going 10k miles per oil change... as it was a long highway cruise to work every day. When the timing chain gear crapped out, he fixed it and kept it going.
In my opinion, The Ford 255 wasn’t unreliable. (Unless it had the variable Venturi carburetor. ) It was just underpowered. When in the Full sized cars, it was just over taxed.
Now you guys all mention it was in the full sized cars and I somehow don’t believe that cause number one ford wouldn’t do something as senseless as that as they already had the 302 and 351 anyhow and number two I’ve never seen or heard of them being in the full size cars given the fact I’ve had 4 and my father had just about as many my brother had one my friend had one and none of them had a 255 my brother dies have an 81 mustang with a 255 and my 2 friends had 81 t birds and they were both 255s. 255s were reserved for the midsize fords mustangs and capris not the full size cars
@ While most of the full sized cars were equipped with the 302 in all years. The 255 was indeed offered in the full sized cars as well in 1981 and 1982. It was offered in an effort to improve the CAFE . My father had a customer with a 1981 LTD Crown Vitoria ( then a trim level) equipped with the 255. He kept the vehicle until at least the late 1990’s. It had the infamous variable Venturi carburetor that was the only significant mechanical problem it had. It was noticeably slower than the 302. But it wasn’t as slow as the 3.8 v6 equipped GM full sized cars. Our customer’s car was the only 255 equipped LTD I remember seeing. The others were 302’s. Yes, the 302 and (a relative few) 351 were available. But the 255 was the base engine in 1981-1982 . This was in the midst of a recent increase in gas prices from around 65 cents in early 1979 to around 1.20 by the end of 1980. Here’s one that was for sale recently www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/184/1981-ford-ltd
@@dmandman9 well I must say this is news to me and I’ve been into fords for at least 40 years now . Like I said with all the ltds and grand marquis I’ve been involved with none of them had a 255. Now I’m in Canada and I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Like I said 255s in mid size cars yes 255 in big fords from what I knew and saw here no
@ Again, it wasn’t common. Like I said, I e only personally seen ONE in the LTD. Having said that, I’ve also only seen 2 or 3 1980-1980 Lincoln Town cars equipped with the 351 . The rest were 302. I can’t recall seeing ANY 351 equipped 1979-1982 Ltds or Marquis equipped with a 351 even though I know they were offered as options.
I would include the NORTHSTAR engine. They were excellent until they were not. There is a fix for them but unfortunately the Cadillac's the engines are in are worthless. Plus the transmissions were trash. Oh..And the electrical systems were plagued with parasitic draws.
My friend have 4.3 v8 olds diesel siting in his yard in rual poland in middle of nowhere. How this engine ended up here ? Many of those olds diesel cars was sold new in europe. One time i saw 2 door chevy celebrity with 4.3 v6 old diesel with manual ? siting 4 sale in some junkyard in the nederlands. Back to v8 olds, his uncle bought olds cutlass 4 door fastback in belgium back in 90s and import it to Poland. The old v8 died fast from poor quality of heating oil used as diesel back in the day and they swap it for om616 mercedes diesel at the time that was super comon swap for us cars here.
The 2.6L Mitsubishi’s Mikuni carburetor was a piece of work. A fist-size bundle of vacuum hoses. Coolant circulating through its body. And often the secondary would not even open. The high altitude, California-legal tuning was LEAN. When it got fuel injection in 89/90, was improved a lot. The short block was bullet proof. Excellent service in fork trucks. Fork truck did have jet valves either which helped with reliability.
Toyota of the same years late 90's to 2010 V6 had a worse oil sludge issue than Chrysler and Toyota's failed at low miles too, research it! Yes the 2.7 Chrysler was not good,150,000 miles it could last if you changed oil every 3000 miles. I ama former Toyota tech..Also Toyota 3.0 of the 90's blew head gaskets and 2010- current Toyota 4 cyl engines burn oil and blow pistons and piston rings from new albeit the 2022- current Toyota Lexus 3.5..
My son had a 2.7 300. Change the oil every 3000 and use mobile one it ran 300,000 without a hiccup. Frame rotted out. If that didn’t happen it still be in the road today. The 2.7 was a high maintenance engine not made for people who don’t do regular maintenance
The fact that GM had so many years of 305 that had soft camshafts is inexcusable. I also never understood why the Iron Duke was so LOUD. My brother's '80 Monza had the I.D. and it was ridiculously raucous. In fact, GM powertrain engineers should be embarrassed that they have so many engines on this list, as they were using their customers for R & D. I love the Buick and Olds 350's and 455's, as well as iterations of the Chevy smallblock, but far too many buyers ended up with crappy 301's, 305's and 307's, plus all the engines you mentioned.
I was surprised to not see the Oldsmobile 260 ci V8 gas engine in this lineup. I owned a 1982 Delta 88 2dr. Coupe with this engine. It was a small, cute engine, but it was a dog. While reliable and pretty much trouble free, it was S.L.O.W. It only had 100 net hp, 190 lb./ft. of torque, trying to push a 3400 lb. car off the start line. A dog.
If we're talking engine mechanical, so not ignition/fuel/electronics related, I'd say take the 365, 255 and 2.5 off the list. And idk how new you want to go but the Northstar has to go on this list, as well as the Chrysler 2.7, which imo has to be the worst engine they ever made, hands down. Otherwise I agree in general with the list
I had an 82 LeBaron Mark Cross convertible. I loved that car and put up with the 2.6 Mitsubishi. The engine, although underpowered was actually a pretty good engine. If I remember right during the maintenance period, you had to retorque the head and if you didn't, you had head gasket issues. I always retorqued mine so I probably escaped those issues. I did have some timing chain and guides issues which would rattle and I had a Mopar mechanic that I was good friends with who loved working on these things, put the chains and guides in for me. Only problem I had was with the carb. Occasionally it would go haywire and run rough and surge. I would put in a can of gas additive and then it would stop acting up. Engine was still strong when the transmission went out. Had the box rebuilt and kept it for a couple more years before I traded it in on a new 95 Lebaron ragtop. My mom also had a 84 T&C that she bought new that had the 2.6 in it. I don't think she had a lick of problems with it.
I am wanting to say that the 2.5 liter "Iron Duke" came out in 1976 for the 1977 model year. The Pontiac Astre used this engine while the Vega still used the "Durabuilt" aluminum block engine. (It was anything but durable.) Beginning in 1981, Cadillac had their own engines, Oldsmobile and Chevrolet were assigned V-8 engines, Buick had the V-6 engines, and Pontiac had 4 cylinder engines, hence the reason why most everything then had the Pontiac "Iron Duke." I think AMC also used that Iron Duke in some of their cars like the Spirit and Concord. (This was later; I am wanting to say they used a Porsche 4-cylinder engine before that.) GREAT VIDEO!
I knew someone who had a Caddy with one of those V8-6-4 engines. He had nothing but problems with it. He started calling it the V8-6-4-2-0 engine. The 4.3 V* diesel in the Olds were very poor sellers in the secondary market. People just didn't want them, and you could get them for a real steel. Often what some would do is buy an Olds diesel and then convert it over to a gas burner V8. You'd get a car, same year, that had a gas engine, totaled in an accident with low miles. Rip out everything related to the diesel, including the diesel engine itself, and swap over the gas parts. Emission testing was beginning so you still had to smog out the car. In my state you could do the swap but had to have it inspected and the emissions classification was updated.
Oldsmobile Diesel! Worst damn engine ever made. My mother bought a ‘79 98 Oldsmobile. My father was so impressed, he bought one two weeks later. Then the problems started. Can you imagine owning two of those POS?
This list is honest. He admits the Iron duke was reliable, which is true. It was a weak engine that was unrefined, but it was in everything and lasted a long time, like the Fiero engine it worked but it did not make the Fiero a sports car. There is a new engine that would kill the engines on this list - the Theta engine and Theta II engine which dies before 100,000 miles in nearly every 4 cylinder Kia/ Hyundai/Mitsubishi/Nissan (joint venture engine) with overhead cams that fail, killing many engines before 100K miles. If you show correct maintenance to Kia/Hyundai dealers, they will replace it for free with a fight as the result of a class action lawsuit. However, you just get another Theta engine which will die just as quickly. Parents had a Vega, it died in an engine fire when a block cracked.
Interesting info. I always heard that the iron duke was a pretty stout motor. Learned some new things today! What about those cavalier motors that used to eat head gaskets?
I had the Iron Duke in a 84 Celebrity wagon, I used to refer to it as farm machinery. Off idle, it wasn't all that bad. Others on the list that I have had were the Chevy 305 in a 78 Cutlass, my cam did fail at about 85K. I did the replacement of the cam, lifters, timing set and related parts. Interestingly, the gas mileage in the Cutlass was about the same as my 76 Buick Regal with the Buick 350. Had a 2 liter Mitsubishi in a truck, it too cracked heads. Not great!! I had a 4.1 POS in an 85 Sedan DeVille, the oil pump failed. I towed the car home and put in an upgraded pump from a 4.5. I sold it shortly thereafter. On the positive side, I never had a Diesel anything or a Vega.
I pretty much agree. I hate the gutless 305. Mopar should have a mention for whatever they put in that first year of LeBaron convertibles in the 80s. I borrowed one from a friend and had my foot to the floor and felt like hanging the other out to push it forward.
I believe the LeBaron had a relatively decent engine, the 318 V8, but kind of like the Caddy V8-6-4, they had put a fuel injection system on it that was just garbage. Most were converted back to a carburetor and were generally decent after that.
I had a Chevy 305 in a Firebird. Started to knock at about 75K miles. Rod bearings were all worn despite good maintenance, the mains were good. Seemed like an assembly problem. Replaced it with a crate 350. It was fine.
The Ford 2.8 Colone V6 had to have been another mention. It wasn't a question of if, but when, the cylinder heads would crack. Also the reverse cooling system. The thermostat was in the lower radiator hose. One had to fill up the cooling system by pouring the coolant into the upper radiator hose. Then couple it with mechanical adjusted rocker arms. Which pretty much went away in the 60's. Stuffed into a Ford Aerostar, it was a nightmare to work on.
Save for the spark plug ejecting itself, those Ford 4.6 V8s were very reliable. They powered taxis and Police Interceptors for hundreds of thousands of miles in the worst possible use case. Also GM also uses the wet belt on its new 3.0 Duramax V6.
@@khakiswag : The 90s version of the 4.6 had some teething problems. Busted intake manifolds, pre mature oil burning. One cabbie I talked to back then said his was on it's 4th engine at 300,000mi.
Because GM's recent 4 cyl and V6s certainly don't have a rep for oil burning, timing chain failure, engine out repairs or anything..../s/ - but as a former Ford tech (05-18), I spent a decent amount of time removing broken 5.4 3V sparkplugs and exhaust studs...lol. Thankfully only ever did one water pump on the FWD 3.5 V6, which was an absolute nightmare.
A 305 in the hands of your old Uncle could last 200k. Lend it to your nephew for the weekend, DEAD. The rear camshaft bearing webbing would break out of the back of the block, snapping the camshaft in half as it did so. My machinest's shop was full of them. All through the 80s the 5.0 litre Mustang thrashed the 305 Camaro like a rug. Near the end of the doorstop Camaro run, they finally had to install the Vette 350 with real EFI just to beat the 5.0 litre Mustang. Where I grew up the 305 was known as the grenade motor.
The Lincoln V12 engine in the number 10 position , has a song from the 50's referring to it called "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Charlie Ryan . There were two remakes of the song , but I think in those versions it said the engine had 8 cylinders instead of 12 . But , I never heard of it having problems the first year , I just thought they were popular engines back in the early days of hot rodding , because I heard the same thing about the Ford Flat Head V8 that it was based off of .
305K miles on my 1991 Calais 2.5L that I go for free 19 years ago. Had it been equipped with the "Quad 4" instead, it likely would have long since crushed. Yes, it's loud and rattles a bit. But it's the timing chain/balance shaft/roller lifter variety so it's smooth. Maintenance is key.
I grew up with an 86 Caravan with the 2.6L engine. It ran like absolute garbage with the carb configured 'properly.' Dad could get it to where the engine ran smooth as could be, but had to change it back every 2 years when the van was due for an emissions test. It would fail emissions if the engine was actually running right. That thing had no power. Had to shut off the AC going up steep hills. I can't believe they sold that van with an even less powerful base engine...
Chrysler products with the Mitsubishi 2.6 and 3.0 engines were trash! Chrysler's own 2.2,2.5 4cyl and 3.3 and 3.8 V6 would last 300,000 plus miles easily and keep going!
Cylinder deactivation is common now. The problem at the time was computers were not advanced or powerful enough to make this work. The original design was developed by Eaton. They offered it to Ford and Ford rejected it. Cadillac gave it a try. Eaton's design was fairly sound but advancements in computer technology plus multiport fuel injection made it work better.
@chrisroberts7638 I have a Honda Pilot with cylinder deactivation. It works smoothly and flawlessly. Definitely improves gas mileage. But many mechanics warn not to use it as it may shorten the life of the engine.
My aunt had a 1967 Corvair Monza She bought in the spring and did not like the heater in the Michigan winter. It had 18K miles on it when she traded it in on a new Vega in 1971. She had good heat but it rusted away in three years.
Here is how I picture the development of the iron duke to have gone:
Engineer: My life's goal is complete. I finally designed the smoothest 4 cylinder engine ever
Beam counter: Wow! Your engine is so smooth that we could remove the harmonic balancer and save $4 on each car!
Engineer: But that would make my masterpiece run like a tractor engine
Bean counter: What part of $4 on each car don't you understand?
Balance shaft. Not harmonic balancer. Otherwise correct.
I'd have liked to have seen a good pushrod inline four, for example a modular upgrade to the Chrysler slant six with a four cyl version - sharing only the bore center spacing of the old slant six with a 3.60-inch bore. Replacing timing belts is widely unappreciated and the Chrysler 2.2/2.5 four wasn't higher reving than a pushrod motor could have been
GM's gonna GM!
The Duke was good for utilitarian work. It can't take a ton of power upgrades unless you get your hands on a Superduty engine. I really like the Chevy II 4cylinder later turned into the Vortec 3000 it didn't make it into passenger vehicles, but it was great in boats and forklifts.
@@RareClassicCars General Motors could never pass up the opportunity to save one dollar in order to spend or lose 500
The Iron Duke is considered "good" because it replaced a really bad engine, the Vega engine.
I owned a 1979 Olds with the 4.3 diesel V8. The engine was junk at 60K miles. GM warranted the engine because I had meticulous maintenance records (I had to pay for the labor to replace the engine, but not for the engine itself). The 4.3 was replaced with a '84 Mr Goodwrench 350 diesel. That engine lasted for years without any major problems. My neighbor, who was a traveling salesman, bought a 1983 Buick Riviera with the 350 V8 diesel--he drove it over 300K miles with no significant engine issues. People need to realize that, back in the 1980s, those diesel engines could get up to double the fuel economy of gasoline engines in the same vehicle model, and diesel fuel was considerably cheaper than gasoline, as well. What killed the GM diesels, on top of their reliability issues, was the introduction of the great 3.8L pushrod gasoline V6 by GM. The 3.8 was reliable, had great longevity, and would get fuel economy as good as the 350 diesel had gotten, not to mention having much more horsepower. If one of GM's biggest mistakes was selling the 260 and 350 diesels, one of its second biggest mistakes was discontinuing the 3.8L pushrod V6.
My parents owned TWO ‘79 Olds Diesels simultaneously! Complete and disasters!
The GM V6s were excellent, I've owned a few. The shared many of the same design elements as the SBC.
The worst engines have been made in the last few years. Some of the classics were dogs but they didn't just explode when near new.
There were plenty of lemon motors in the 60s 70s and 80s. Especially at the early years of fuel injection
@@nothanksguy Yes, that's what I said, there were dogs back then but they didn't generally literally explode at near new like they do now.
@@AnyoneSeenMikeHunt chrysler literally had to recall all of the first fuel injection motors for not working properly. Gm put the wrong dipstick into fieros locking up motors.
Car companies have always had their heads up their ass
Agreed. I've been fixing them 30 years. The worst are what's been made in last 15. Earlier are stout. Easy to fix. 90s same thing. Owned many Panther platform cars and never had a 2 valve pop out a plug. Had a few 3 valves do it, break plugs etc. Any eco engine that has a internal waterpump are great when they run, a nightmare or hours of work and thousands to fix. Yes you get the 350 HP and more compared to 239 on 2 valves but only 1 hour water pump jobs and that's taking your time. Right under alternator. 2 bolts loose, 2 out, belt off and a handful for water pump. Costs 35 bucks for wp, and 20 in coolant. Dome. 10.5 hours ecoboost. While there ford says if you have around 100k do timing set. So that $1700 turns into $2400 easy. Cvt and wet belts are crap. Most places won't rebuild them. It's crazy how much ppl pay for these baskets of repairs and still keep buying them. Oh well, it keeps me working. So keep buying eco cars, keep buying wet belts, interference engines, cvts, and about all chryslers. 😂
@@jasonchristopher2977 There definitely can be a list of the ten worst engines from 2000-2025. I've bought American cars as cheap used cars, but never new. Most of them are terrible when compared to Hondas, Toyotas, etc.
The Iron Duke feels more like it was built by Briggs and Stratton than an automobile company.
My parents had a Pontiac 6000 with the iron duke...it was idling in a parking lot and someone asked me if it had a diesel due to the clatter. Everything about was unrefined...the starter when activated, at idle and under acceleration. Spent years with that car and I think of it when the USPS drops our mail via a Grumman LLV.
lol
That's an insult. Briggs has made some pretty good engines that would actually rev and were smooth.
Ahem. Briggs and Stratton are much more reliable. I wonder how all of the past owners of the engines listed in the video compare to the woes of post covid vehicles..
My mom got a fulltime job once I and my three siblings were in school and I can remember the fall evening when she came home with her first car - a brand new first year Vega two door grey coupe.
She was - justifiably - proud. 20000 miles later the engine was replaced and it was a rattle can at any speed.
As I type this I feel bad for how much disappointment GM caused her at that point in her life.
Needless to say she never owned a GM for the next six car purchases she made.
The Iron Duke was a dog, but it was a fairly reliable engine. There were a lot worse from this era, like the 301 Turbo and early versions of the HO Quad 4.
I've driven many 4 cylinder cars that annoyed me more than my parent's 1981 2.5 L Citation, including some later GM 4 cylinder engines and even a Honda Civic that seemed to downshift on every incline. I can't explain it, but the clatter from the Iron Duke just didn't bother me. I've heard some people say similar things about the machine-gun sound of GM's odd-firing V6's.
🐶
The 255 Small Block Ford was truly a dog of an engine.
My parents traded in an 81 Fairmont with that engine on a brand new Pontiac 6000 with the iron duke in 1989 .
My dad was done with Ford after the fairmont , it had 100k miles on it and oil was literally pouring out of rear main .
The Pontiac went on to be a great car outside of the paint .
So was every other v8 at the time
My boss back in the early 90’s had a Caravan with the 2.6 L Mitsubishi engine. I drove it many times. That thing was thrashy and crude. Fast forward to a day when I spent the day driving a rented U-haul 80’s vintage IH diesel, manual box truck to haul some heavy parts around the state. I got back very late and dropped off the U-Haul and drove his Caravan home. It seemed like the quietest most refined vehicle that night after driving that horrible box truck all day long. We never owned one, but the iron Duke was so ubiquitous back in the day that I consider it part of the soundtrack of my youth. They did sound like a tractor at idle
That Caravan wouldn't have been newer than 1987!
@ I think it was an ‘87
Actually…no. ‘86. Still had the stacked quad sealed beam headlights. 2 tone silver/gray SE model. He was far too cheap to pop for the Lux L3!
My uncle bought a used 78 Chevy truck with the Olds Diesel from the factory. He quickly pulled that out and put in an Olds 350 from a '72 Cutlass. Ran like a scalded dog after that.
had the pleasure of working at plant 9 at pmd in pontiac mi assembling the iron dukes back in 79. installed cam shafts
Timing gears: 👍😀
_(wait for it)_
They wear plastic: 😨
No they weren't. They were a fiber composite material. Only on the cam.
@michaelreppert1207 all I heard was they weren't metal. Even in this day and age I wouldn't trust a plastic composite material for gears... barely would trust aluminium alloys for gears... best left for old fashioned hardened iron and steel... 💪
Those materials are best left for bodywork and the dash.
Yeah so we're the cam timing gears on every gm v8 since the 60's , nothing new there .
Cadillac, GM's Flagship has 20% of the Duds shown, but I think the Northstar also belongs on the list
northstar was reliable minus the head studs, replace those and you had a great engine
I run Northstars, great engine if you keep on top of the maintenance.
@@johndespain4620 I understand what you're saying, but it is a bit silly. If you buy a new Caddy, you expect it to last. There should be no reason to expect that your engine needs some kind of modification, so it wouldn't be junk after so many years.
I’m sure the Nothstar didn’t finish too far out of the running for this list
Deathstar. Took them around 10years to fix its flaws
The Oldsmobile Diesel Program: Transforming the Rocket into a SCUD.
The Ford Essex V6 should get an honorable mention. Head gasket issues which seem to be more problematic in transverse applications like the Taurus/Sable, Continental and Windstar.
In particular, the 3.8 liter version of that 6 cylinder engine had chronic head gasket issues. The smaller 3.0 liter version, on the other hand, was one of Ford's best all-around engines, period. Go figure!
Very well thought out list! Only change I’d make is remove the iron duke to make room for the lean burn 318.
Fortunately the only one of these I ever owned was the infamous 5.7 diesel, circa 1980, but I had an aftermarket fuel/water separator on it and never had an issue. But I witnessed friends' drama with many of the other engines on the list. Perfect list, perfectly explained.
I own a 1979 240D owned since 1993. Mercedes designed the fuel filter to trap water. Never had any issue with water in the fuel. Simply change the fuel filter periodically.
I have 2 anecdotes about 2 of the motors on you're list. The first involves my father. From late 1978, early 1979 until early 1983, my father was the lead mechanic at the Cadillac dealership in Beverly Hills, Ca. N as you know, at the time, Cadillac was still the top luxury car everyone wanted. He was thoroughly sad though when Cadillac stopped the V-8-6-4. He told me that pretty much every customer that came in would complain to him n offer him money under the table to fix it. Well, he'd spin this tall tale of how he couldn't do it at the dealership cuz if the manager saw he'd get in trouble n how time consuming it was n each one would offer anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000 cash n let him take their car home for however long (he'd usually just take it for the night. As he used to joke, sitting in LA traffic isn't so bad when you're in a Caddie). Needless to say that money came in handy for a guy who was just starting his family. The second anecdote is about the infamous HT4100. My maternal grandfather always bought a brand new Fleetwood Brougham, black exterior/padded landau with maroon interior every 2 years starting from the early 1970's when he lived in New York. Fast forward to 1982, n he's moved to California. Time for a new Cadillac. Goes n purchases his double black with maroon interior Fleetwood Brougham. About 3 months later, him n my grandmother decided to make their one of many trips from LA to Vegas (both my grandparents were avid casino goers). So they pack up the Caddie n head out. It's late June/early July. Their out in the middle of the desert, pre cell phone days, n the car dies. I'm not exactly sure what happened but my grandfather always said "The damn motor melted!" N him n my grandmother got lucky that someone stopped n gave them a ride to the next town which was over an hour away. After that debacle, my grandfather refused to buy another Cadillac n switched to Buicks (mostly Rivieras with a few Electra Park Aves here n there) from then on.
I agree 100% concerning the Vega engine. Total junk unless equipped with cylinder liners.
Vega engine *could* work with nikasil coated bores, but that technology was a couple of decades later.
Any body that ever 0:02 owned a teflon coated frypan knows you are not supposed to scrape it with metal stuff.
I'm almost surprised GM didn't fit plastic piston rings.
Wet oil pump belt 🤢
What a joke
Ford is doing that now! lol
@ I I know will not own one
The definition of planned obsolescence
As I was not of driving age until the late 90s, I had only one experience with the infamous Ford VV carburetor. My dad bought an older F150 (I think 81 or 82) that my younger brother drove. This was a total bare-bones machine: 2WD, 4 spd manual, single fuel tank, bench seat. It did have 4.10 gears in the diff, and the 351W with the VV carb. This truck ran like a scalded dog! You could spin the rear tire (open diff, lol) all the way through 3RD gear and I would bet serious money would run into the triple digits. We never had a single issue with it as far as the engine running until the wiring harness started to crumble and cause issues with the Duraspark ignition. Was far and away the peppiest and torquiest vehicle we ever had my entire childhood (not a high bar, but still...).
The iron Duke is in our post drivers van.
You're bang on with your assessment of the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine. Such a complete piece of trash. Had one in my dad's 1982 Chrysler LeBaron. It was pretty much done by 80000 kms. Even the rebuilt engine that replaced the original was a piece of crap. By 1990 the car was off the road.
Used to be lots of smoky old 2.6 Astrons getting around in Australia
Imagine the millions GM spent designing and building all these new engines if they had just put the money into improving one of their proven V6 and V8 engines.
Like lighting money on fire.
They would never make smog requirements they keep making stricter every year.
Engineering prowess has been replaced by accounting prowess.
It seems that "goodwill" and "reputation" are numbers that are too hard to nail down.
Adam, Determining the Top 10 Worst engines was a Herculean feat. 🙌🙌
I had an 85 Reliant with the mitsu 2.6 as my college car from 2000-03. The mikuni carb was impossible to get parts for and service back then. It was always running rich, impossible to tune correctly and replacement mikuni carb was $500, more than the value of the car so I just drove it rich, out of tune, with a rejected inspection. Mpg depending on weather was 13 in the winter 20 in the summer lol. It ran smooth though and had good power for an early 80s car. In rhe end, around 95k miles it was the timing chain guides that did it in. Clatter from the timing chain side of rhe engine was the dead giveaway. I drove it that way while i searched for a new car, gen 3 prelude SI. The mitsu 2.6 never gernaded itself and I drove it into the junkyard.
Back in the day we used to have to get those choke pull off diaphragms from Hyundai dealers for those crappy Mikuni carbs on the 2.6's. Changed a lot of them back in the day. Don't miss them, either.
My relatives owned a junkyard, and my grandfather said they had a junk Lincoln Zephyr to haul parts and oxy acetylene torch equipment around the yard, and he said that it smoked like crazy and burned a ton of oil. Thankfully they had plenty of dirty oil to add to it.
Gotta disagree on #9. We know you like to hate on the iron duke, but it's a great little engine.
Years down the road, the new Toyota tundra engine will be on a list like this!
Iron Dukes were used in AMCs as well.
Was that the 2.5 that was in the Cherokees for a few years?
2.5 iron duke : excellent except for the fact it was terrible.
305: we all know some old timer who says they had a 305 that didn't suck ( or a "305 that thought it was a 400") and he's just as confused about as it as the rest of us.
255: an engine for the fudds who have to have a v8.
Cadillac V8-6-4: The worst version of the worst version of the 500 engine family.
Cadillac 4100: The fact that they kept the 368 for commercial chassis says it all.
Aside from better fuel economy, another aspect that made diesel engines appealing in the early 1980s, at least in California, was the lower price for fuel.
I had a 1982 Isuzu pickup diesel, and to this day I still recall at a self-serve gas station that year, while I was paying $1.05 per gallon for diesel, the regular grade gasoline was selling at $1.45 per gallon at the same gas station.
BTW: When it came to diesel fuel and water -- My truck had a fuel filter with a water separator petcock valve; whereupon once or twice per month I'd end up with a tablespoon or two of water from that separator, as well as a few bits of algae, too.
Ah, the iron duke. You did a good job of covering this, but didn't quite touch on everything. That's understandable on a list like this, so I humbly add: Piston knock. My first car, in 1985 when I was a broke E1 in the USAF fresh out of high school, was an '81 Olds Omega. I could never, no matter what I did, get it to not just start randomly piston knocking for no apparent reason. FF 20 years and I become a mailman and...every mail truck has piston knock, because they all have an iron duke (with some exceptions that have the Vortec 2200, but they are a tiny minority, and the also minority of Ford-based mail trucks). The iron duke goes forever, but it is a curse, not a blessing. It is not a trusty friend, it is a frustrating poltergeist that never lets you relax, wondering what it will do wrong next.
Sooo? They rattled for how many hundred thousand miles? They never left you stranded no matter how crude.
Interesting you mentioned the oil cap being made of rubber. I had a ‘72 Chevy Caprice small block 400 V-8, which had a rubber oil cap. It did indeed crack and fall into the engine, though I think the mechanic doing the oil change got most of it out, maybe all of it. This engine was an oil burner, about a quart every 700 miles as I recall. What a nice car overall, to be saddled with such a ridiculous idea as the rubber oil cap. I bought two or three during the time I had the car. They didn’t last long.
The first time I heard of the 255 was when a neighbor got a beautiful new LOADED LTD Crown Victoria and couldn't stop raving about how great that 255 was,,, he had it for many years..
He loved it because of the mileage it got on the open road and that's what it was,, a traveling car....
Every summer it went from Houston to New Hampshire and back..
Woof !
I would have HATED that drive !! lol
The last GM vehicle I've owned was an '83 S-10 Blazer with the wonderful 2.8L iron/aluminum V6. Heads warped about two months after warranty expiration. Dealer said sorry, you're out of luck. I had the engine rebuilt at a local rebuilder, and went into arbitration with GM. Despite their rep clearly being a lawyer, my detailed records impressed the arbitrator enough that GM had to pay for my rebuild costs and some ancillary expenses.
I has an 88 S-10 with Throttle Body fuel injection and 5 speed manual. It had a serious off the line hesitation that sometimes was so bad it would stall. It had a check engine light that no GM dealer could ever fix!
a documented list of how GM nickle and dimed itself to death and went from 60 % market share in the 1960's to where they are today... i think GM would have been better off if in 1977 they made the really hard decision and went back to Alfred Sloan's model... Chevy should have been the small car and only the small car and then the cars got bigger and more powerful as you went up the ladder... every division selling every size car with the same engines made no sense except to the dealer network
I think the iron Duke was ok. But it was put into vehicles that simply overwhelmed it. The noise made it seem worse than it was.
5:11 - I remember 1982 Canada new auto show. Checking out beautiful big body style Camaro. After popping the hood and seeing tiny black four cylinder engine. Most of the engine bay was filled with various rubber hoses going all over. That was only time I remember seeing four cylinder Camaro. I laughed out loud seeing it. Thats just embarrassing.
17:42 - Emissions controlled engines were literally opening can of worms. Any mechanics nightmare to find a vacuum leak. If they didn’t have smoke machine or didn’t smoke.
Although I agree with the internal water pump criticism on the modern Ford 3.5, I have owned two with over 250,000 miles in Ford Edge models without changing the water pumps.
The leaks were from owners who didn't change the coolant on time which caused it to become acidic. If you did proper maintenance those 3.5 V6 engines were very reliable.
@khakiswag not true. The water pump weep hole can fail, and you don't even know your oil pan has filled with coolant. It was a garbage idea. Shouldn't happen, no matter the miles.
I've got at least 2 of my father's Pontiac 301s here, or, 4 Iron Dukes the way I look at it 😂
I have to say I may be weird but I live hearing the mailman roll up in the million mile iron duke ! They were used in a racing series and they can take a beating! I had one in a sand rail with turbo and they would just go! The 305 is the exploding Pinto internet lore. In reality all small blocks suffered from bad cam and lifters from that era . Other than that they ran and ran.The Mitsubishi engine itself was fine it had the same carb issued as everything else in that era. Head cracking or warping was from overheating. The Vega engine once cast iron sleeved wasn't too bad . There were a lot worse like the V6 used in Ford Rangers and Exploders that ate head gaskets faster than fuel or the 400 m that was garbage .
I just watched a Periscope Film on the ‘75 Nova, Monza, and Vega. I miss my two Vegas, especially the ‘76 GT with the 5-speed. I drove it from 93,000 miles to 218,000, and never even had the head off of it. It didn’t burn oil - just leaked it.
I miss my Vegas too, never had an issue with either one, and the 74 with a 4 speed would do 40 MPG on a long trip.
I can’t argue with your number #1 pick. We had a Vega when I was a kid. The little engine that couldn’t.
The HT4100 was the most unpleasant experience working on and owning an engine i have ever had. Whoever ran AIR lines over the distributor bolt.....Cadillac should have stuck TBI and chrome valve covers on an olds 307 and called it a Cadillac 5.0 😂
Agree with the Vega being #1. Had a Vega wagon back in the day. Its exhaust could have been used in an 007 movie. Loved that car though until I hit a deer with it in the mountains. Oh well.
Great job as always, Adam! Thank you for your comments on the history of the Oldsmobile Diesel engines. You nailed it!
ill take just about any classic car engine over the modern overcomplicated cuckoo-clocks with 20 feet of timing chain, cam phasers,direct injection etc. my daily driver is 35 years old - super simple and cheap to fix
Pushrods forever for me!
None of the things you list are "modern". (Double) overhead camshafts have been around since at least the late fifties, direct injection is - to my knowledge - an invention of WW 2 aero engines and was first used in the famous inline six powering the Mercedes Benz 300 SL. Cam phasers have been around since the fifties, too. The first engine I know of that used this technology during warm-up phase was the early Mercedes Benz Diesel engines.
Just because you don't know about these technologies does not mean they were not around for quite a while.
Even "new" hybrid and EV technology dates back to pre WW 1 times.
Better do some research first before posting crap 🤷.
Idk my new porsche never needs fixed and if it did the factory warranty, well to put it one way free repairs!
None of the things I mentioned where put in regular production. cars until fairly recently. I was not refering to aircraft, super rare exotics or goofy diesels. No one was driving around with a Merlin or a DB605 in their car.
Older cars that did have overhead cams used a simple timing setup. Not a half dozen chains with 14 different guides. Things that should be simple and cheap like the mentioned water pump are now costing a fortune to fix.
You are very gracious in not discosing all the problems with the Vega mill! Another big issue is the oil liked to stay in the top of the engine if revved for a while. I beat my 1970 (got it on introduction day) and never had problems. At 80K replaced it from a wrecked one. Drove total of 147K mi. Loved it.
I almost bought an early 80s Cadillac when I first got married. My wife wanted something smaller. And by the time I convinced her that it was the right car. I got to the owner's house just in time to watch the new owner drive it away. I was heartbroken for awhile. But after learning about the engine problems. I was relieved
Timing driven water pumps serve no purpose
I'd have to throw an honorable mention to the 262 cu in V8 that came in my father's 75 Chevy Nova. Rated at an amazing 110 HP it was a truly dismal engine.
The 4100 was junk. But the 4.9 was pretty decent. I’d take a 4.9 over a Northstar any day.
The Iron Duke wasn’t a bad engine.. it was rough as a cob and relatively gutless, but it was reliable. I’d rather have a reliable turd than a fire-breather that breaks every other month.
I remember the GM307 has noisy valve assembly.
I had a neighbor who had a Jeep CJ7 with the Iron Duke and he absolutely loved it. I have a 2005 Ford F150 FX4 with the well hated 5.4 3V. When I bought it new it had 25 miles on the odometer and it now has almost 350,000. The engine has never been touched. I do my own maintenance and I’ve put spark plugs in it several times. I had to replace the throttle body due to an electrical failure, but it still has the original alternator, starter, water pump, power steering pump etc. I had to rebuild the transmission at about 285k because the splines in the 3rd and 4th gear drive hub stripped out. I live in a little travel trailer and I tow it with my truck. It’s all about the maintenance.
I have an 09 that I purchased new and it's still going strong at 140K. I maintain it and never abused it. I plan to keep it until it wears out.
2 engines that belong on this list- the gm quad4 and the ford 3.8 v6. The ford 3.8 is especially ironic given their goal was to reverse engineer the buick 3800, the most reliable gasoline engine of all time. Fords copy just ate head gaskets cuz they used aluminim heads.
The 3.8 was hit or miss. If the head gasket survived, it was a solid engine. And once the head gasket was replaced, it was trouble free from then on. But a good number were destroyed by the blown gaskets. I think the quad 4 was much worse, cracked heads, timing chain issues and fixing them didn’t seem to last.
I'd forgotten about that engine! I had friends with both Fords and that little Lincoln Taurus-based with it. It'd just run and then die.
@@Henry_Jones Back in 1981 the 3.8 Buick engine was far from the reliable engine it became as the 3800. No, it didn’t have many head gasket issues. But the oil pump was notorious for failing at relatively low mileage followed by the timing chain. You were lucky to make it to 100,000 miles because of the oil pressure issues.
@Henry_Jones: My brother in law could change Ford 3.8 headgaskets in about an hour because he had so much practice at it. All years from the 80's through the 90's blew headgaskets about as frequently as Cadillac 4100.
@@dmandman9 i had a quad4 powered olds achieva. Worst car Ive owned crashy suspension, cheap as hell interior, leaks, i was happy when the 4t60e gernaded itself and I junked it
Great video thanks.
Water separators--my father had a '76 Peugeot 504 wagon w/diesel in those years, great, extremely frugal and reliable; had I not been a broke college student I'd have bought one. I had a bunch of friends in college then with M-B sedans of varying displacements with diesels, swore by them. I had a couple of employees in the early 90's with Isuzu diesels in their P'up trucks--also amazingly trouble free and extremely economical. I never heard of water separators until several years ago when our pickups started getting them by law. Did those old Euro diesels have separators and I just never heard about them? Thanks for the education.
My parents had a ‘79 504 Diesel. Very unreliable. The fronts seats were amazing!
Going way back for this one Adam!
1923 Chevrolet Model M 134CID " Copper Cooled " engine.
It failed testing at GM but was released anyway.
759 were built but only 100 made it into public hands when it was dropped by January of 1923. GM tried to recall all of them ( and destroy them all ). However two cars escaped ( one is at The Henry Ford in Detroit,
MI & the other is at the former Harrah's Collection in Reno, NV ), plus 2 or 3 free-standing engines.
I forgot that one!
I had a Dodge Caravan cargo van e.g. "Mini-Ram Van" with the 2.6 Mitsubishi. I can attest to the fact that it was a smooth engine. The carburator actually did a pretty convincing impersonation of fuel injection. However, when the carb started leaking gas and came time for a rebuild, it was horribly expensive and my carburetor guy said "these things are needlessly complicated." I also had problems with blown head gaskets and timing chain keepers and guides. At 185,000 miles, coming back from skiing at Jimini Peak, it threw a rod and blew a hole in the engine block on the Taconic State Parkway.
Vega had a kissing cousin .... the Pontiac ASTRE .... same dog but wearing a different collar. [I drove one in 1974 as a Pontiac salesman.]
I have the 2.5 in my 83 Camaro with the 4spd manual transmission. It is the most crude and vibrating engine I’ve ever owned. Was going to replace it with a V8 but might just keep it the way it is for novelty 💁♂️
Keep it. Super rare.
Iron Duke was indestructible
Beat engine ever
Great video as always!
Motor Oil Geek has a video on here in which he talks about ZDDP. Too much of this can cause camshaft pitting, so if you add it you have to add the correct amount.
Correct. You want a thin layer. If the layer thickens, it schluffs and peels off.
Funny how GM and Ford introduced 2.3 4 cylinders within a couple of years from each other but had vastly different outcomes. The Vega 2.3 came out in ‘71 and was a disaster. Ford’s Pinto 2.3 came out in ‘74 and went on until 1997. Even got turbocharged and powered the Mustang SVO and Thunderbird Turbo Coupe.
You nailed them all! Great work. 😎
Thank you for the research this takes, whether that was first-hand or from other sources.
The Olds Quad 4 was trash. My parents had one that blew 3 head gaskets before being declared a lemon.
We had a Cadillac 4100... think it was from 84'. My dad bought it used as a work car, and speculated that the factory recommended oil fill was too low. I think he put an extra quart into it. In the 90's he was testing the new hip full synthetic oils and going 10k miles per oil change... as it was a long highway cruise to work every day. When the timing chain gear crapped out, he fixed it and kept it going.
In my opinion, The Ford 255 wasn’t unreliable. (Unless it had the variable Venturi carburetor. ) It was just underpowered. When in the Full sized cars, it was just over taxed.
Now you guys all mention it was in the full sized cars and I somehow don’t believe that cause number one ford wouldn’t do something as senseless as that as they already had the 302 and 351 anyhow and number two I’ve never seen or heard of them being in the full size cars given the fact I’ve had 4 and my father had just about as many my brother had one my friend had one and none of them had a 255 my brother dies have an 81 mustang with a 255 and my 2 friends had 81 t birds and they were both 255s. 255s were reserved for the midsize fords mustangs and capris not the full size cars
@@roberthaygarth8525 : They were in LTD's. It was hard to tell unless you read the emissions decal.
@ While most of the full sized cars were equipped with the 302 in all years. The 255 was indeed offered in the full sized cars as well in 1981 and 1982. It was offered in an effort to improve the CAFE . My father had a customer with a 1981 LTD Crown Vitoria ( then a trim level) equipped with the 255. He kept the vehicle until at least the late 1990’s. It had the infamous variable Venturi carburetor that was the only significant mechanical problem it had. It was noticeably slower than the 302. But it wasn’t as slow as the 3.8 v6 equipped GM full sized cars. Our customer’s car was the only 255 equipped LTD I remember seeing. The others were 302’s. Yes, the 302 and (a relative few) 351 were available. But the 255 was the base engine in 1981-1982 . This was in the midst of a recent increase in gas prices from around 65 cents in early 1979 to around 1.20 by the end of 1980. Here’s one that was for sale recently www.primoclassicsllc.com/vehicles/184/1981-ford-ltd
@@dmandman9 well I must say this is news to me and I’ve been into fords for at least 40 years now . Like I said with all the ltds and grand marquis I’ve been involved with none of them had a 255. Now I’m in Canada and I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Like I said 255s in mid size cars yes 255 in big fords from what I knew and saw here no
@ Again, it wasn’t common. Like I said, I e only personally seen ONE in the LTD. Having said that, I’ve also only seen 2 or 3 1980-1980 Lincoln Town cars equipped with the 351 . The rest were 302. I can’t recall seeing ANY 351 equipped 1979-1982 Ltds or Marquis equipped with a 351 even though I know they were offered as options.
I would include the NORTHSTAR engine. They were excellent until they were not. There is a fix for them but unfortunately the Cadillac's the engines are in are worthless. Plus the transmissions were trash. Oh..And the electrical systems were plagued with parasitic draws.
My dad had a 1981 Oldsmobile 98 with the 350 diesel, it spent more time at the Oldsmobile dealer than in our garage.😂
My friend have 4.3 v8 olds diesel siting in his yard in rual poland in middle of nowhere. How this engine ended up here ? Many of those olds diesel cars was sold new in europe. One time i saw 2 door chevy celebrity with 4.3 v6 old diesel with manual ? siting 4 sale in some junkyard in the nederlands. Back to v8 olds, his uncle bought olds cutlass 4 door fastback in belgium back in 90s and import it to Poland. The old v8 died fast from poor quality of heating oil used as diesel back in the day and they swap it for om616 mercedes diesel at the time that was super comon swap for us cars here.
The 2.6L Mitsubishi’s Mikuni carburetor was a piece of work. A fist-size bundle of vacuum hoses. Coolant circulating through its body. And often the secondary would not even open. The high altitude, California-legal tuning was LEAN. When it got fuel injection in 89/90, was improved a lot. The short block was bullet proof. Excellent service in fork trucks. Fork truck did have jet valves either which helped with reliability.
Chrysler 2.7 v6
Toyota of the same years late 90's to 2010 V6 had a worse oil sludge issue than Chrysler and Toyota's failed at low miles too, research it! Yes the 2.7 Chrysler was not good,150,000 miles it could last if you changed oil every 3000 miles.
I ama former Toyota tech..Also Toyota 3.0 of the 90's blew head gaskets and 2010- current Toyota 4 cyl engines burn oil and blow pistons and piston rings from new albeit the 2022- current Toyota Lexus 3.5..
My son had a 2.7 300. Change the oil every 3000 and use mobile one it ran 300,000 without a hiccup. Frame rotted out. If that didn’t happen it still be in the road today. The 2.7 was a high maintenance engine not made for people who don’t do regular maintenance
I don’t miss doing those 3.0 head gaskets.
The fact that GM had so many years of 305 that had soft camshafts is inexcusable. I also never understood why the Iron Duke was so LOUD. My brother's '80 Monza had the I.D. and it was ridiculously raucous. In fact, GM powertrain engineers should be embarrassed that they have so many engines on this list, as they were using their customers for R & D. I love the Buick and Olds 350's and 455's, as well as iterations of the Chevy smallblock, but far too many buyers ended up with crappy 301's, 305's and 307's, plus all the engines you mentioned.
I was surprised to not see the Oldsmobile 260 ci V8 gas engine in this lineup. I owned a 1982 Delta 88 2dr. Coupe with this engine. It was a small, cute engine, but it was a dog. While reliable and pretty much trouble free, it was S.L.O.W. It only had 100 net hp, 190 lb./ft. of torque, trying to push a 3400 lb. car off the start line. A dog.
If we're talking engine mechanical, so not ignition/fuel/electronics related, I'd say take the 365, 255 and 2.5 off the list. And idk how new you want to go but the Northstar has to go on this list, as well as the Chrysler 2.7, which imo has to be the worst engine they ever made, hands down. Otherwise I agree in general with the list
Late seventies Ford 351M....👎🏻
I had an 82 LeBaron Mark Cross convertible. I loved that car and put up with the 2.6 Mitsubishi. The engine, although underpowered was actually a pretty good engine. If I remember right during the maintenance period, you had to retorque the head and if you didn't, you had head gasket issues. I always retorqued mine so I probably escaped those issues. I did have some timing chain and guides issues which would rattle and I had a Mopar mechanic that I was good friends with who loved working on these things, put the chains and guides in for me. Only problem I had was with the carb. Occasionally it would go haywire and run rough and surge. I would put in a can of gas additive and then it would stop acting up. Engine was still strong when the transmission went out. Had the box rebuilt and kept it for a couple more years before I traded it in on a new 95 Lebaron ragtop. My mom also had a 84 T&C that she bought new that had the 2.6 in it. I don't think she had a lick of problems with it.
I am wanting to say that the 2.5 liter "Iron Duke" came out in 1976 for the 1977 model year. The Pontiac Astre used this engine while the Vega still used the "Durabuilt" aluminum block engine. (It was anything but durable.) Beginning in 1981, Cadillac had their own engines, Oldsmobile and Chevrolet were assigned V-8 engines, Buick had the V-6 engines, and Pontiac had 4 cylinder engines, hence the reason why most everything then had the Pontiac "Iron Duke." I think AMC also used that Iron Duke in some of their cars like the Spirit and Concord. (This was later; I am wanting to say they used a Porsche 4-cylinder engine before that.) GREAT VIDEO!
What are you talking about with this beginning in ‘81 stuff with engine size? Not accurate.
I knew someone who had a Caddy with one of those V8-6-4 engines. He had nothing but problems with it. He started calling it the V8-6-4-2-0 engine.
The 4.3 V* diesel in the Olds were very poor sellers in the secondary market. People just didn't want them, and you could get them for a real steel. Often what some would do is buy an Olds diesel and then convert it over to a gas burner V8. You'd get a car, same year, that had a gas engine, totaled in an accident with low miles. Rip out everything related to the diesel, including the diesel engine itself, and swap over the gas parts. Emission testing was beginning so you still had to smog out the car. In my state you could do the swap but had to have it inspected and the emissions classification was updated.
Oldsmobile Diesel! Worst damn engine ever made. My mother bought a ‘79 98 Oldsmobile. My father was so impressed, he bought one two weeks later. Then the problems started. Can you imagine owning two of those POS?
This list is honest. He admits the Iron duke was reliable, which is true. It was a weak engine that was unrefined, but it was in everything and lasted a long time, like the Fiero engine it worked but it did not make the Fiero a sports car. There is a new engine that would kill the engines on this list - the Theta engine and Theta II engine which dies before 100,000 miles in nearly every 4 cylinder Kia/ Hyundai/Mitsubishi/Nissan (joint venture engine) with overhead cams that fail, killing many engines before 100K miles. If you show correct maintenance to Kia/Hyundai dealers, they will replace it for free with a fight as the result of a class action lawsuit. However, you just get another Theta engine which will die just as quickly. Parents had a Vega, it died in an engine fire when a block cracked.
Interesting info. I always heard that the iron duke was a pretty stout motor. Learned some new things today!
What about those cavalier motors that used to eat head gaskets?
The Buick 350 CID from 1973 also suffered from the camshaft issue and weak valve springs.
I had the Iron Duke in a 84 Celebrity wagon, I used to refer to it as farm machinery. Off idle, it wasn't all that bad. Others on the list that I have had were the Chevy 305 in a 78 Cutlass, my cam did fail at about 85K. I did the replacement of the cam, lifters, timing set and related parts. Interestingly, the gas mileage in the Cutlass was about the same as my 76 Buick Regal with the Buick 350. Had a 2 liter Mitsubishi in a truck, it too cracked heads. Not great!! I had a 4.1 POS in an 85 Sedan DeVille, the oil pump failed. I towed the car home and put in an upgraded pump from a 4.5. I sold it shortly thereafter. On the positive side, I never had a Diesel anything or a Vega.
I pretty much agree. I hate the gutless 305. Mopar should have a mention for whatever they put in that first year of LeBaron convertibles in the 80s. I borrowed one from a friend and had my foot to the floor and felt like hanging the other out to push it forward.
I believe the LeBaron had a relatively decent engine, the 318 V8, but kind of like the Caddy V8-6-4, they had put a fuel injection system on it that was just garbage. Most were converted back to a carburetor and were generally decent after that.
I had a Chevy 305 in a Firebird. Started to knock at about 75K miles. Rod bearings were all worn despite good maintenance, the mains were good. Seemed like an assembly problem. Replaced it with a crate 350. It was fine.
The Ford 2.8 Colone V6 had to have been another mention. It wasn't a question of if, but when, the cylinder heads would crack.
Also the reverse cooling system. The thermostat was in the lower radiator hose. One had to fill up the cooling system by pouring the coolant into the upper radiator hose.
Then couple it with mechanical adjusted rocker arms. Which pretty much went away in the 60's. Stuffed into a Ford Aerostar, it was a nightmare to work on.
Throwing all the shade at ford with those modern engine comments at the beginning of the video.😂😂
No comment ;)
Save for the spark plug ejecting itself, those Ford 4.6 V8s were very reliable. They powered taxis and Police Interceptors for hundreds of thousands of miles in the worst possible use case. Also GM also uses the wet belt on its new 3.0 Duramax V6.
If Ford had any sense they would have built Barra's in the US
@@khakiswag : The 90s version of the 4.6 had some teething problems. Busted intake manifolds, pre mature oil burning. One cabbie I talked to back then said his was on it's 4th engine at 300,000mi.
Because GM's recent 4 cyl and V6s certainly don't have a rep for oil burning, timing chain failure, engine out repairs or anything..../s/ - but as a former Ford tech (05-18), I spent a decent amount of time removing broken 5.4 3V sparkplugs and exhaust studs...lol. Thankfully only ever did one water pump on the FWD 3.5 V6, which was an absolute nightmare.
Chrysler's 2.7 is definitely among the worst, but their 318, 2.2, and 3.5, and 3.3/3.8's are incredibly good
A 305 in the hands of your old Uncle could last 200k. Lend it to your nephew for the weekend, DEAD. The rear camshaft bearing webbing would break out of the back of the block, snapping the camshaft in half as it did so. My machinest's shop was full of them. All through the 80s the 5.0 litre Mustang thrashed the 305 Camaro like a rug. Near the end of the doorstop Camaro run, they finally had to install the Vette 350 with real EFI just to beat the 5.0 litre Mustang. Where I grew up the 305 was known as the grenade motor.
The Lincoln V12 engine in the number 10 position , has a song from the 50's referring to it called "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Charlie Ryan . There were two remakes of the song , but I think in those versions it said the engine had 8 cylinders instead of 12 . But , I never heard of it having problems the first year , I just thought they were popular engines back in the early days of hot rodding , because I heard the same thing about the Ford Flat Head V8 that it was based off of .
305K miles on my 1991 Calais 2.5L that I go for free 19 years ago. Had it been equipped with the "Quad 4" instead, it likely would have long since crushed.
Yes, it's loud and rattles a bit. But it's the timing chain/balance shaft/roller lifter variety so it's smooth. Maintenance is key.
I grew up with an 86 Caravan with the 2.6L engine. It ran like absolute garbage with the carb configured 'properly.' Dad could get it to where the engine ran smooth as could be, but had to change it back every 2 years when the van was due for an emissions test. It would fail emissions if the engine was actually running right.
That thing had no power. Had to shut off the AC going up steep hills. I can't believe they sold that van with an even less powerful base engine...
Chrysler products with the Mitsubishi 2.6 and 3.0 engines were trash! Chrysler's own 2.2,2.5 4cyl and 3.3 and 3.8 V6 would last 300,000 plus miles easily and keep going!
Cylinder deactivation is common now. The problem at the time was computers were not advanced or powerful enough to make this work. The original design was developed by Eaton. They offered it to Ford and Ford rejected it. Cadillac gave it a try. Eaton's design was fairly sound but advancements in computer technology plus multiport fuel injection made it work better.
Not sure if any "6 cylinder mode' on a cross plane V8 could ever be smooth. The Mopar hemi and GM LS engines today only use 4 and 8 cylinder modes.
@chrisroberts7638 I have a Honda Pilot with cylinder deactivation. It works smoothly and flawlessly. Definitely improves gas mileage. But many mechanics warn not to use it as it may shorten the life of the engine.
My aunt had a 1967 Corvair Monza She bought in the spring and did not like the heater in the Michigan winter. It had 18K miles on it when she traded it in on a new Vega in 1971. She had good heat but it rusted away in three years.