Chevrolet Prism 1.8L engine. GMs best engine
What is the best GM engine?
- Thread starter Cutehumor
- Start date
- Status
T-Keith, While I surely do not like OHV engines I also do not belive in messing with a winner! I think it is silly to design new engines useing old outdated technology. I also belive though that the continued improvment of proven designs is a smart plan.
It can be tricky to get 3-5 valve engine to work from a production stand point with OHV desings. If that is the direction a company is leaning to it is better to switch to a OHC design. I am also sure that they want to be competitive in the market place and that means that push rods have to go.
Just the other day Rick Wagner CEO of GM announced that he want to move the company forward in terms of quality adn durability. He said he wants to make GM kwown for haveing great enignes! So I think that we might be seeing some more changes in the future!
It can be tricky to get 3-5 valve engine to work from a production stand point with OHV desings. If that is the direction a company is leaning to it is better to switch to a OHC design. I am also sure that they want to be competitive in the market place and that means that push rods have to go.
Just the other day Rick Wagner CEO of GM announced that he want to move the company forward in terms of quality adn durability. He said he wants to make GM kwown for haveing great enignes! So I think that we might be seeing some more changes in the future!
Those outdated LSX engines and their old school pushrods what was GM thinking
. Oh yeah they were thinking TORQUE and reduced production costs. Look into the LS6 and 7 monster motors by any standard yet still those crappy pushrods
. Drop the anti domestic crap and think for a second. There is more than one way to skin a cat right? Well this is the way GM chose and if you cared to look rather than just blindly bash you would see they are quite sucessful.
Cheat! That was a Toyota motor!quote:
Originally posted by Drew99GT:
Chevrolet Prism 1.8L engine. GMs best engine
What's outdated? OHC is just as old as OHV. Why use outdated piston engines? Aren't Wankel engines so much more advanced?
Too late, GM is competitive with OHV technology. GM has OHV V6s that have economy near OHC four cylinders. Why do they have to go? This is the stereotype I'm talking about. It's different technology, not vastly superior. They both have benefit's and downsides. You sure won't see many OHV race cars(but there are many), and you'll see hardly any DOHC industrial engines.
Nope, just more of the same. More then likely it's just more publicity and advertisements to overturn the years of import propaganda.
-T
T-Keith I am not just refering to push rods as old technology. I am talking about the entire engines design not just how the valves are actuated. If you truly look at what is cutting edge comeing out of Asia and Europe you can see what I am talking about.
I doubt it is was proaganda since it was an internal memo that was reprinted in a GM engine plant cicular. It is only seen by those people already working for GM.
GM is not competive gloably with their V8 engines or most of their 4 cylinders and V6's. They have in recent years made some excellent leaps to rectify this. Most of their future global engines are going to be the result of good partnerships in Asia and Europe.
DJ, You do not understand how an engine works. HP and torque are not dependent on where the cam is located or if their is a push rod between the cam/cams and the valves. But NVH are affected by haveing extra unsprang mass moveing around in the engine and so is the RPM where valve float happens.Getting the best valve geomtry can be affected by haveing push rods.
I would not call the LS6 a great design it is merly decent. It does have promise though. I am sure hopeing to see if the LS7 does better in UOA I am guessing it will! They have finaly done many of the things I have been saying they should have done since day one!
I doubt it is was proaganda since it was an internal memo that was reprinted in a GM engine plant cicular. It is only seen by those people already working for GM.
GM is not competive gloably with their V8 engines or most of their 4 cylinders and V6's. They have in recent years made some excellent leaps to rectify this. Most of their future global engines are going to be the result of good partnerships in Asia and Europe.
DJ, You do not understand how an engine works. HP and torque are not dependent on where the cam is located or if their is a push rod between the cam/cams and the valves. But NVH are affected by haveing extra unsprang mass moveing around in the engine and so is the RPM where valve float happens.Getting the best valve geomtry can be affected by haveing push rods.
I would not call the LS6 a great design it is merly decent. It does have promise though. I am sure hopeing to see if the LS7 does better in UOA I am guessing it will! They have finaly done many of the things I have been saying they should have done since day one!
Trust me I understand Tq and HP, until a deer took it out my daily driver was a modified LT1 Caprice. My comment was based more on most pushrod engines are lower rev higher torque than OHC or DOHC motors. My mildly cammed LT1 makes peak about 320FWHP at 5400 and peak torque over 350ft. lbs. below 4100(downshifts kept us from reading lower), and that is without headers it has stock manifolds and cats as well as gets over 22mpg highway. The LT1 is really just an old school smallblock chevy with reverse flow cooling and a good set of factory heads, pretty low tech exept for the fuel and ignition controls some parts can be interchanged back to the early 70s. My car goes fast on TQ many smaller cars can be just as fast but do it with HP instead. Like I said more than one way to skin a cat. Tq isn't as sexy as big HP numbers so it doesn't get the respect it deserves but can deliver the same results.
I loved the HO Quad 4 in my 92 Grand Am. Along with the Muncie 5 speed, it would move. Running 75 on 2 lane roads, I could still get over 30 MPG. Not bad for a 4 door. Ate V-8's and turbos now and then.
I agree that any "new" engine wouldn't make my list. Many people think that the early iteration of the much vaunted GM 3800 [aka the Buick 231] was truly awful in its first years of existence. Now, it's almost everyone's pick, including mine.
The one in my Firebird is holding up well, despite how I drive it. I don't think there's an engine of similar displacement that can return such good gas mileage, either. No, it doesn't idle that smoothly-- but it does everything else well.
Just to correct some of the previous posts- the new gm 3500 v6 is not made in China [at least for the US market]. It is made in the same plant in Mexico that produced the 3.1 and 3.4. I believe it is simply an update of those 60-degree V6's. Many people hate these engines because of intake leakage problems. I have had great luck with my 3.1 [in an Oldsmobile] though. 170,000 miles and I've never had to repair anything on the engine. Doesn't even use oil.
If you're looking for reliability in a GM powertrain, I would look to the oldest product in the lineup-- the 3800.
The one in my Firebird is holding up well, despite how I drive it. I don't think there's an engine of similar displacement that can return such good gas mileage, either. No, it doesn't idle that smoothly-- but it does everything else well.
Just to correct some of the previous posts- the new gm 3500 v6 is not made in China [at least for the US market]. It is made in the same plant in Mexico that produced the 3.1 and 3.4. I believe it is simply an update of those 60-degree V6's. Many people hate these engines because of intake leakage problems. I have had great luck with my 3.1 [in an Oldsmobile] though. 170,000 miles and I've never had to repair anything on the engine. Doesn't even use oil.
If you're looking for reliability in a GM powertrain, I would look to the oldest product in the lineup-- the 3800.
Yeah, but unlike just about anything else in production today, this engine's lineage goes back decades. It traces directly back to a 198 cid Buick V-6 which came out in 1961. That engine, in turn, was based upon, of all things, an experimental aluminum V-8 from the late 50s. Oh the irony. Legitimate or not, I really don't see the change from "231" to "3800" nomenclature as particularly significant. Just coincided with more evolutionary improvements to a rock solid engine. They've come a long way from a stuttering little V-6 with an uneven firing interval that had a reputation for actually shaking its alternator bracket off!
I was looking up prices on carsdirect.com at 05 Pontiac Grand prix GTP 3.8L supercharged. they are having a 4k rebate on the vehicle right now in my area. I was wondering why so I checked around. Edmunds.com says pontiac is coming out with a new 06 Grand Prix with 5.3 L V-8 with about 300 horsepower and displacement on demand technology. interesting indeed! the engine is probably the same used in the SUV's and trucks, but the displacement on demand technology scares me a bit! how much do you think this car would cost? about 30k?
- Status
Similar threads
