Engines with questionable designs

[Claud]

Historic bad designs that stick in my mind were the Triumph Stag V8 and its L4 derivative. One row of head bolts perpendicular to the block, the other row studs at 45 degrees. Supposed to be removable, yeah right, steel studs in an aluminum head and guess what?, a blown head gasket. I've seen these heads cut off a few times. British cars used to break down because of poor assembly, but were not often such a crummy design.
The other is the legendary air cooled VW in sedans sold in Europe. They had an oil cooler fitted, but decided to to fit in where it partially obstructed air flow to the right rear head. It was a surprisingly common sight to see these cars with 'unburstable' engines hauled off British main roads with dropped valves during spells of hot (80+f is hot in the UK!) weather.

Claud.

 

[anderson]

my 1984 Cadillac with the 5.7 diesel. no fuel filter , tty head bolts , unbalanced crankshaft , fuel soluble plastic parts inside the stanadyne injection pump

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by Claud

The other is the legendary air cooled VW in sedans sold in Europe. They had an oil cooler fitted, but decided to to fit in where it partially obstructed air flow to the right rear head. It was a surprisingly common sight to see these cars with 'unburstable' engines hauled off British main roads with dropped valves during spells of hot (80+f is hot in the UK!) weather.

I think the Wasserboxer is even worse - I have a good friend and bike mechanic that owns 2 T3s(VW called them the Vanagon in the US) and he wants to keep them all original despite all their flaws - especially the fact the fuel system is fragile(and fire-prone, replacing the fuel lines regularly is PM on these) and the cylinders on it are simple press-fit liners sealed with metal o-rings.

 

[nthach]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Anything where they tuck the engine under the windshield

Or under the driver's seat like the pre-Sienna/Quest Toyota/Nissan vans and the old Mitsu box vans.

Although I will say I see a few JDM RHD diesel Delicas roam the streets around me and the old Toyota Van(our Town Ace) and Previa(Estima and Tarago) are 1000x the van the Sienna will EVER be. Even though the Sienna is considerably more powerful and safer than the Previa, it's simply a more soccer mommy and stretched Lexus RX.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted by quint

What? The only person ranting here is you. Geez, why so defensive? I usually like reading your posts but this one has me trembling under my desk here at work and the cleaning lady is trying to hand me a sucker and telling me everything is going to be ok.

No drama from me. The drama was (and still is) from the forums littered with thread after thread after thread of people having trouble with them. Mine never gave me a problem at all, nor the water pump. But I maintain my stuff, and many people dont.

The early unsealed non-vented optisparks were often reliability turds that could turn an otherwise decent engine into a misfiring or non-running pile of parts in a hurry. The later vented ones were fairly decent, relatively speaking, and luckily thats what I had. But still sometimes a good opti was taken out by a leaky water pump. They put the distributor under the water pump? Intentionally? If the LT1 design team built houses, they'd probably put the breaker panel in the master bathroom shower stall. Then they would route the HVAC vent work through the breaker panel, to vent it in case any of the mist from the shower caused condensation. And they'd think this was a great idea.

If seasoned mechanics are allotted 2 hours book time using a lift and all the tools and knowledge of their profession at their disposal replacing them, for the average DIYer that translates into a 3-4 hour profanity laced afternoon on laying their back after a $100 tow home and stopping at the local dealer spending $350+ for a new opti, wires, and plugs, and then 2 hours on youtube to figure out what they are supposed to be doing.

If you got so good that you were replacing them in a half hour or so, thats awesome, I'm all for good mechanics learning shortcuts, working smart and beating book time to make money, but a professional mechanic learning how to replace a problematic part quickly does not take that part out of the turd category.

Just my opinion.

I apologize for coming off the way I did.

 

[BigShug681]

Originally Posted by Chris142
The 6.0L Ford diesel. You have to remove the entire electric fan clutch and shroud to replace the serpentine belt. The Duramax water pump is an 8 hr job , mainly because you must remove the harmonic balancer just at to get to 1 lousy bolt.

You don't have to remove the fan clutch? Or the shroud? I literally did mine last year and didn't remove anything and it took me maybe 45 mins

 

[mattd]

Originally Posted by BigShug681
Originally Posted by Chris142
The 6.0L Ford diesel. You have to remove the entire electric fan clutch and shroud to replace the serpentine belt. The Duramax water pump is an 8 hr job , mainly because you must remove the harmonic balancer just at to get to 1 lousy bolt.

You don't have to remove the fan clutch? Or the shroud? I literally did mine last year and didn't remove anything and it took me maybe 45 mins


You don't have to do that for belts. I have replaced belts countless times on dual alternator setups without removing anything.

A 6.4 powerstroke ac belt with the fan in place is much more difficult.

 

[CT8]

Any overhead cam engine..

 

[CBR.worm]

Originally Posted by CT8
Any overhead cam engine..


That's a little bit of a generalization.

I appreciate the simplicity and compact size of an OHV engine, but I usually prefer free breathing DOHC engines with individually variable intake and exhaust cam timing and high redlines - as long as the cam drive is reliable. Pulling heads is a little more of a chore, but it is rare that I need to pull heads these days. I don't even mind timing belts in most vehicles. I never thought I would say that, but with what appears to be the inability of some manufacturers to make reliable chain drives, changing a belt every 100K doesn't seem so bad.

Questionable engines? I'd have to say any engine with timing components on the back of the engine, that also happens to be blessed with poor guide materials.