Today's automotive fun thread is a little different. Rather than choose a class of cars to showcase, I want to list my favorite American powerplants. While a bad engine can torpedo a vehicle (think the anemic 4.3L V6 that GM stuffed in their full-sized trucks in the '80s), it's not a real killer as there are many aftermarket possibilities. A good engine, though, can really make a car shine.
As with most things American, the rule of thumb of "bigger is better" certainly applies to this list - I've only listed two engines with less than 8 cylinders. Generally speaking, American small engines have been underpowered, short-lived, and generally pretty craptacular, to say the least...
So here's my list of favorite American Powerplants:
1. Ford Flathead V8. Yes. This is the granddaddy of them all, the 8 cylinder engine that powered hot rods for decades. It was introduced in 1932 and production continued into the 1970s, and even made Ward's list of top ten motors.
2. Chrysler 426 Hemi. A motor so powerful it was banned by NASCAR. How on earth could this not make the list? So-named for the hemispherical head design (which theoretically allowed for more complete combustion), only 11,000 426 Hemi's were produced. The Hemi designation contined through the 1980s (in the Mitsubishi 2.6L engine put in the K-cars) and was revived in 2002.
3. Ford 427 Cobra Jet. The fact that it powered the Carroll Shelby Cobra alone puts this motor on the list. It pushed the Cobra to a top speed of 180 MPH, and boasted a 0-60 acceleration time of 4.2 seconds. That's approaching a decent motorcycle...
4. GM 3.8L V6 turbo/intercooler. Moving a lumbering beast like the mid-80s G-body Regal without using an unG-dly amount of cubic inches is an impressive feat to say the least. Oh, sure, they blew up around 50K miles, but what fun you could have with those 49,999 miles!
5. Oldsmobile Rocket 455. 7.5L of big block goodness. Insert Tim Allen "Tim the Toolman" grunt here. 400 HP available in certain applications. It was inexplicably stuffed into the Custom Vista wagon, making just about the world's ultimate sleeper.
6. Chrysler 2.2L Turbo. The only four-banger to make the list, it's here mainly because it was just about the only thing Chrysler did right in the 1980s. It's also the second Carroll Shelby engine on the list - sense a trend?
7. Ford 5.0L V8. While the 225 HP achieved by a 302 cubic inch engine is on the low side compared to what's currently available, in the 1980s when this motor was most common it was respectable. The 5-oh was Ford's "do it all" motor, powering their full-sized cars, light trucks, and the Mustang. (And yes, that picture is the 5.0L Ford in an MGB...)
8. Chevy 350 V8. See above for "do-it-all" engines. The Chevy 350 has got to be one of the most ubiquitous engines on the market, powering everything from their workhorse trucks to the Corvette to the Boss Hoss. And the world of aftermarket parts for improving/fixing/wringing more power out of the Chevy small block is staggering - think of it as the 1911 for the automotive world... (And like the Ford 5.0L engine, the picture shown is of the Chevy 350 stuffed into a 1980s Jaguar XJS...)
9. New Chrysler Hemi. Current production engine, it's an out-of-the box engine making very close to the metric of 1HP per CI so highly sought by the hot rodders of the late 1960s. I can attest to the power of the 5.7L engine - it pulls our 6,000 pound camper without hesitation, and will give most cars a decent run for the money (when not towing, of course).
10. Pontiac 6.6L V8. Yep, the 6.6L shown in the "Smokey & the Bandit" T/A holds the anchor slot on the list, and for good reason - it moves that little Trans Am like nobody's business. When I graduated from college and had decided to give my little sister my old Buick, I shopped around for a new (to me) car. I was looking at muscle cars, and test-drove a 1980 Firebird with the 6.6L engine. The used car lot had a policy of leaving the car's gas tanks empty, so when I test drove it, I had to put in a couple dollar's worth of gas first. When I left the gas station, I nailed the gas hard. The Firebird took off like it had been launched off the deck of an aircraft carrier, with both rear tires smoking and the car swaying from side-to-side doing the "posi-hop"...
Thus concludes another automotive list of "stuff Jay likes." As always, feel free to agree, disagree, or add your own favorites in comments...
That is all.
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Oldsmobile "Rocket" 330ci V8. The first generation was introduced in 1949. It was the first OHV V8 that GM produced. The second generation was introduced in 1964, so I have to wonder if GM enthusiasts talk about pre '64 vs 64 engines. A little inside gunnie humor there.
Anyway, back in my callow yout, when I worked in my dad's auto parts business he had a delivery that needed to go to Providence RI. He gave me the keys to the well used 1966 Olds F85 four door grand dad mobile and told me to deliver the part. Which was in fact a straight six engine out of a MG or something. The grand dad mobile had the afore mentioned 4 doors, tan plastic covered bench seat, AM radio, no AC and other grand dad stuff. Oh, it also had a 330ci V8 with a 4 barrel carburetor.
I-95 from Dedham to Boston had very recently opened. So recently that most motorists didn't know it existed. Hell, I don't think the troopers knew it existed either, but I did.
I left Braintree and drove to Providence and back in less than 90 minutes. I think I hit 120 on the way down, but I'm not sure. Dad was surprised when I came back so soon. He asked if something was wrong since I had left so short a time ago. I told him no and handed him the check for the part. It took him a minute to realize how fast I had to be going, but he never said a word about it. He just shook his head (he did that a lot when I was around) and told me to go get lunch.
And that is why the Olds F85 with 330 Rocket engine is my all time favorite.
What about the LS series motors from the Corvette, new GTO, and others?
I'd LOVE to stuff one of those in an FD RX-7.
TOTWTYTR,
Heh... Sounds like me driving my buddy's 1970 Cutlass. Talk about sleeper - it was tan, with the black vinyl roof. White walls, hubcaps, single exhaust...
With the Rocket 350 under the hood mated to a Hurst "His'n'Hers" dualgate shifter...
So we're out one night, and he's had a couple too many. Hands me the keys...
We're winding our way through the backroads and such, and it gets stuck in 2nd gear. Not too bad, just annoying, and he tells me that it sticks sometimes and you just need to wind it out.
So we head on 95 and I punch it.
At about 80-85 MPH, I feel it shift and I let off the gas. He asks what I'm doing - I tell him it's all set.
It wasn't. That was just the shift into SECOND...
Mike W.,
Is that the new 5.3L engine? I've fallen out of touch with the GM line, given that they seem hell-bent on cartwheeling into the ground on fire these days... Hell, the Chrysler Hemi is the only "modern" engine on my list, and that's only because I have one and appreciate just how freakin' awesome it is...
My first car was a '74 2-door Impala with a 454. I guess the guy who had it before us custom-ordered it with the GM HEI ignition (which wasn't standard until '75, I think).
It's scary to think how fast I drove that car sometimes.
I have a 1974 Malibu, that at one point, with it's 2:55 gears in the rear, was good for (I'm guessing) 150 or so.
Thing has the 400 smallblock from hell.
I'd take it out on the turnpike to pick up my buddy from college, and bury the needle. Speedo ended at 130, and I was rounding the dial before I'd get off the hammer.
Good times....
You didn't mention the Ford Turbo Coupe motor! That's about the only American small motor that gives a good account of itself.
During my misspent college experiment, I lived next door to the bodyshop teacher at Boston Tech HS. He tracked down Jaguars from the boneyards and had the students cut their teeth rebuilding the interior and exteriors and sold them. He told me that the jag-you-ar engines were crap, so he dropped the unkillable Chevy 350 under the hood.
Talk about young and poor at the same time being teh suck.
I like a couple of Mopar products that you didn't mention. The first being is beastly 440. My dad had a '70 Imperial with that motor in it. It sounded like a 747 on takeoff when you shoved your foot to the floor. I got it up to 120 before I lost my nerve... had a curve coming up and the suspension on that car truly sucked (the car was 8 or 9 years old with well over 100K on it), so I backed it off.
The other engine wasn't particularly fun, but it was immortal: I refer, of course, to the 225 Slant Six. Not fun, nor sexy, but efficient and fricking immortal - you just couldn't kill one of them.
Until 1977, that it, when the friggin' idiots in Detroit decided to put a new carb on it, one that was built with a new gasketing material... that SWELLED when unleaded gas hit it!!! Had a '77 Aspen with a Slant Six and three on the tree - when you started out from a light, it'd get to the middle of the intersection and the engine would just sag out from under you. Not stall, just had no power.
Far as I'm concerned, Chrysler can die. Let it be resurrected by someone who knows how to make cars. Chrysler hasn't known how since 1975.
To be fair, many of the 3.8L turbos blew up at 50K miles because of the owners' penchant for adjusting the boost heavenward. I have a friend who bought a GN, and almost immediately had to have the engine rebuilt. He chipped the new engine, but with adjustable settings.
I owned a normally-aspirated G-body, and the way that GN moved out was hair-raising. The Buick may not have left the factory this way, but I suspect many of them were tuned, and much faster than any contemporary Vette or IROC-Z--at least, until the 20th Trans Am came along.
I have to disagree with the Chrysler 2.2L Turbo; I had a Lebaron and it was a joke. Adding a turbo to the 2.2 brought the 0-60 time down from 16 seconds to about 10 seconds (best case--maybe downhill), comparing two of the pentastars I owned in the past. Someone in a Neon Sport really drove the point home when he zipped by me one day, as I was doing my best to get the turbo spinning.
The only exception was a slightly adjusted Omni GLH another friend had. That car was respectable. The 2.2 turbo reached its peak with the VNT design, whereupon Chrysler predictably canceled it, along with the Daytona.
I'm shocked, how could you leave out the 1970 Chevy LS-6 454? The only time chevy has ever let anything top the 'vette in horsepower.
The Dodge 2.2 turbo came in 4 different flavors, from mild to wild. Carroll Shelby's version was the T2. They all needed a bigger turbo and injectors (called the "Super 60" upgrade), but the T3 version had a Lotus designed 4 valve DOHC head that put out 225HP out of the box. In an Omni (that's what the Shelby GLH and GLHS was) that would give you nearly a 1:1 HP to weight ratio. Too bad they never put them in the Omnis.
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