What is the rarest or strangest, unusual engine you have owned?

[Dave Sherman]

Is there a reason for this? Seriously, owners of posh Lincolns changing their engines? Tell me more!

The V-12 wasn't particularly powerful (125 HP), but it has a reputation for overheating. It's also a headache to time the ignition properly because it has one set of points for each bank, and because it's a 75 degree V instead of 60 degrees, the firing isn't even. Lastly, even though it appears to be the Ford flathead V-8 with 4 more cylinders, none of the parts are interchangeable. Ford V-8s were much easier to come by if the relatively scarce V-12 needed a rebuild.

 

[4WD]

I owned a Chevy Colorado with the Vortec 3500 3.5L I5. AFAIK it and the later 3.7 were the only five cylinder engines ever made by a major US carmaker.

Had both - a Colly and an H3 … wished they’d had a 6 speed or more trans …
My Canyon had a 5.3

 

[tom slick]

I tuned up a Citroen 2CV once.

I built some machinery that used Deutz air cooled 3 and 4 cylinder Diesel engines. They are really neat engines.

I was a jet and turboprop engine mechanic in the USAF, GTC (not APU) engines were odd little machines. Most people haven’t worked on F110, F101, and T56 engines. F101 being the most “rare”.

 

[02SE]

I saw a posting on a BMW forum asking who had a manual transmission bmw m6 gran coupe or the 4-door. Apparently they were sold in double digits. I thought the post was 80 convertibles which seemed weird and 46 hard tops. The weird thing is that the BMW e60 M5 was only offered with the manual transmission in the north America market. Europe only got the 7 speed smg.

The official figures from BMW, were 701 manual transmission V10 M6's in North America. 323 E63's (coupes) and 378 E64's (convertibles). Ours is a 2010 Interlagos Blue Metallic E63, bought new.

 

[97prizm]

incorrect, SMG was available in US.

Yes but what I tried to iterate was that you couldn't get the 6 speed manual transmission option in Europe. That option was solely for the N/A market as apparently enough people complained. Weirdly enough on the Audi S8 you could get it with a manual transmission in Europe but not here.

 

[97prizm]

In the late 90s, a friend of a friend in Fitchburg, MA, had a hobby of building sleepers. He was a natural genius and designed and machined a supercharger for the popular Saturn sedan of the time. That was his daily driver and it boggled my mind how fast it was and how well it handled.

He tried to sell my then-girlfriend a monstrosity of a car, a Honda CRX with a longitudinally-mounted rear V8 of some sort. I only saw it once and admittedly never saw it actually drive. It was like a DeLorean where you opened the hatch and the belts were right there at the extreme rear. I believe the intent was racing as the cabin was stripped and hardly insulated from the engine noise and fumes. No idea what happened to that car— I cut ties with the guy when his name made headlines for some serious crimes.

Back in the day why Sport Compact Car was still around a guy took a bright yellow first gen Hyundai Elantra I think. While not rare apparently Mitsubishi and Hyundai collaborated and a 4g63 from an eclipse would bolt in. He lowered it, threw on some cheap aftermarket rims, blacked out the windows and would bate people into a race with hilarious results.

 

[Owen Lucas]

but also adapted for churns

Alright, now I want a gas powered churn. Finally, making butter at home would be fun and BITOG approved.

 

[OVERKILL]

Not all that strange or rare, but the S62 in my M5 I guess would be the "rarest".

 

[MrGraybeard]

International Harvester model M diesel farm tractor.

Go the the parts store for a set of points and condenser, they thought I was messing with them.
It had a distributor and started on gas to warm, then you switched it to diesel.

Dad had one of these. IIRC the positive electrode in the spark plugs were about 1/2 inch long.

I used to have a Audi 4000cs quattro with the 2.2l 5-cylinder engine. Like a lot of VW motors, it was undersquare with a long stroke that produced more torque than horsepower. At the same time it revved freely to over 5k with a 6k redline. I tracked it at Road America driver's schools several times.

It was not a particularly economical engine, possibly because the car was AWD. The rest of the drive line also was interesting, a 5-speed manual gearbox with locking center and rear differentials. I believe it was shared with all other quattro models of the period, including the turbocharged 5000s and 200s and, of course, the Turbo Quattro Coupe.

 

[wemay]

G60 In a VW Corrado

 

[notharry]

2.4 liter toyota 2l diesel. 1985 toyota hylux.

 

[Klutch9]

I owned a Chevy Colorado with the Vortec 3500 3.5L I5. AFAIK it and the later 3.7 were the only five cylinder engines ever made by a major US carmaker.

Ford briefly offered a 5 cylinder diesel in the Transit van.

 

[redbone3]

I had a 76 Mercury Capri with a 2.8 liter Ford Cologne engine. While not rare at all, it was unusual because the the crank and cam were meshed together with two gears and not a timing chain or belt.

My wife had a 76 Honda Accord that I rebuilt. It was a CVCC with a third valve to let in the rich mixture. The valve was the size of a person’s little finger.

My 74 Saab Sonett had a shorter version of the Cologne engine, a V-4.

 

[TiGeo]

2.4 liter toyota 2l diesel. 1985 toyota hylux.

In the U.S.?

 

[Exhaustgases]

Owned at one time.

Toro Flow
Turbo Corvair
FI 327
.01 Cox
D353 Cat
6V-92
Wasp Major
1960 Datsun (common engine in various cars at the time)
Harley M50
W8 (mechanic droppen intake align pin)

 

[Exhaustgases]

I've had many of these. Two cycle diesel. Still have one in its original box. Weighs about 23 grams.

View attachment 263666
Cox International

That is a glow plug engine, not a compression ignition (diesel) I don't think Cox made a diesel? The small diesels had compression adjustment. The smallest Cox engine was .01 Tee Dee.

 

[Sam_Julier]

Mercedes 2.5 l turbo diesel 5 cylinder.

A OM602 is not rare. We own one, in our 1992 300D.

 

[TiGeo]

Owned at one time.

Toro Flow
Turbo Corvair
FI 327
.01 Cox
D353 Cat
6V-92
Wasp Major
1960 Datsun (common engine in various cars at the time)
Harley M50
W8 (mechanic droppen intake align pin)

Bummer, yeah, have to be really careful, it's a total loss basically if you do this.

 

[Oldwolf]

A OM602 is not rare. We own one, in our 1992 300D.

View attachment 263783

Thank you.

 

[Shel_B]

Saab 96 3-cyl, 2 stroke ... the model year was about 1967-68

1972 Mazda RX-2 ... ran great when it ran. Resealed the engine twice before selling it. It sounded like a wounded, screaming banshee when I lost the muffler.