Which Vehicles Have Simple Engines?

[Soft Cars]

Are there any vehicles manufactured today that have the following:
1. Multi-Port Fuel Injection (instead of direct injection)
2. No Cylinder Deactivation
3. No Variable Cam Timing
4. No Variable Valve Lift

And if not, how far back in time would someone have to go to get a simple engine?

 

[Hyundai Respecter]

2005MY Hyundai Accent with the spunky 1.6L Alpha II engine delivering 104hp and 106lb of torque was the last Hyundai 4cyl (that I’m aware of) with no VVT. The following year the Accent has it on the intake side only.

What’s so bad about VVT? MPI instead of DI and no cylinder deactivation I can understand, but why no VVT?

 

[Soft Cars]

What’s so bad about VVT? MPI instead of DI and no cylinder deactivation I can understand, but why no VVT?

Difficult to detect when the mechanisms fail. Many times you have to have an oscilloscope to see the cams out of time. I watch a lot of fordtechmakuloco videos and he's always replacing those cam phasers on Fords.

 

[demarpaint]

My 88 E150 4.9L engine is pretty simple, as is my wife's 08 Liberty with the 3.7L. Especially after popping the hood on some of the newer stuff.

 

[Graham Piccinini]

No one else, aside from older 3V Fords and older VANOS BMWs, has any issues with VVT systems. These have been around for decades and are pretty well ironed out.
Currently my personal favorite simplest basic engine is 2.0L (K20C2) in Honda Civic. 158hp, naturally aspirated, traditional port injection. Has been around since 2016, still comes in 2023 Civics. So far has a clean reliability record and will likely run until the rest of the car falls apart. Very nice and upscale interior on these Civics btw.

For a simple truck engine I'd look into pre-2015 Nissan Titan. Absolute workhorse of a truck. Old school is the best way to go sometimes.

 

[ctechbob]

Difficult to detect when the mechanisms fail. Many times you have to have an oscilloscope to see the cams out of time. I watch a lot of fordtechmakuloco videos and he's always replacing those cam phasers on Fords.

Ford, yes. Honda has been doing some form of variable timing/lift for ages and with rare exception, those don't fail.

Now Honda cylinder deactivation, that's a whole other story.

I'll take a port-injected Vtec(Or any one of their other -tec's) car any day of the week and not think twice about the system being unreliable.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Due to emissions requirements, you likely won't find something ne without some sort of variable cam timing.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Variable valve timing has been around for 25 years or more. It generally doesn't cause a lot of issues if you actually change your oil.

GDI is the way of the future. I know there are at least a few MPI vehicles out there, but there going away. I can only mention a few I know for sure?

-- Toyota 3.5 as used in the Tacoma. Don't know about other variants
-- The little Hyundai 1.6l (Not saying buying one, just listing
-- The Ford Duratec as used in the maverick hybrid. Not sure where else they use it.

Just search around for cars your interested in. Manufacturers are pretty proud to list GDI. Ha.

The new Toyota's are GDI + MPI. I know there is a thread on here with the Ford 3.5l with GDI + MPI and its still carboned up, but thats a sample of 1 and its also turbocharged, so I don't know how overall reflective that will be. Guess we see.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Difficult to detect when the mechanisms fail. Many times you have to have an oscilloscope to see the cams out of time. I watch a lot of fordtechmakuloco videos and he's always replacing those cam phasers on Fords.

The Nissan V6's throw a cam phaser code pretty quick if the cam's won't go where the ECU tells them too. Not sure about other brands. The few I have heard of it on where vehicles that didn't change their oil as often as they should have - VQ engines are hard on oil apparently.

 

[Shel_B]

The Toyota Four Runner is about as old school as you can get, even the 2023 model.

 

[blufeb95]

The Buick 3800, the 4.3L GM V6 before 2014 are among the last non-VVT and MPFI engines I can think of off the top of my head. The most simplistic engine available today is probably the Ford 7.3L since it doesn't do cylinder deactivation and has no direct injection but does have VVT.

 

[andrew_j]

Are there any vehicles manufactured today that have the following:
1. Multi-Port Fuel Injection (instead of direct injection)
2. No Cylinder Deactivation
3. No Variable Cam Timing
4. No Variable Valve Lift

And if not, how far back in time would someone have to go to get a simple engine?

None of what you write about makes it a complicated engine. It is like saying electronic fuel injection complicated engines when they replaced carbs.

I know the base 2015 VW Jetta motor called the 2.0 slow with 115HP had 8V and “tech” dating back to early 2000s

 

[Egg_Head]

This:

 

[bullwinkle]

The Buick 3800, the 4.3L GM V6 before 2014 are among the last non-VVT and MPFI engines I can think of off the top of my head. The most simplistic engine available today is probably the Ford 7.3L since it doesn't do cylinder deactivation and has no direct injection but does have VVT.

Pretty sure GM LS engines, like the non-MAX 6.0 in my Express 3500, in HD applications didn't have AFM. Not sure if they ever did start putting AFM on the newer ones(?)

 

[Shel_B]

This:

View attachment 132731

In what vehicle is that found?

 

[blufeb95]

Pretty sure GM LS engines, like the non-MAX 6.0 in my Express 3500, in HD applications didn't have AFM. Not sure if they ever did start putting AFM on the newer ones(?)

No AFM, but the 6.6L is direct injected. I guess I could've added the 6.0 from 2015-2019.

 

[Egg_Head]

In what vehicle is that found?

 

[Shel_B]

That's very similar to what we built when I was in high school. Cool!

 

[aquariuscsm]

Those go-carts were super fun!

 

[RooflessVW]

Due to emissions requirements the advantages offered towards power and drivability, you likely won't find something new without some sort of variable cam timing.