What are/were Detroit’s most memorable engines?

[railfancwb]

 

I notice the song pokes fun at stablemate Chevy. A few years later General Motors paid big bucks to a “Rocket 88” owner whose car came from the factory with a Chevy engine.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Silentpoet]

9 hours ago, tous said:

Just me, but I found the Audi 5-cylinder engine series interesting.

I well remember that the Quattro dominated rally and IMSA events in the 1990s with it.

 

 

I remember when gm copied the idea for their mid sized trucks.  I don’t know if the motors were any good or not but I recall reading about it at the time.

[Lazy R]

Ah, the good ol' Small Block Ford. Pretty good run for over 30 years, in various displacements but all very closely related. Built a good handful of them; easy to build and can make surprising power; small and simple. Millions of them produced in everything from Falcons to pickup trucks and boats. Of course the new 5.0 Mustang engines are a completely different animal.

 

[Eric]

One of my person favorites is the Chrysler 413 & 426cid Wedge/Max Wedge, made in the early 1960s before the 426 Hemi came onto the scene. This was a hugely popular drag racing engine.

 

 

 

[Eric]

Turn up your speakers and revel in the bass.

 

[Bish1309]

 

[Eric]

1/6 scale running Duesenberg engine.

 

[janice6]

 

[Bish1309]

What have I done? LOL

[Eric]

In my opinion, the best series of V-8 engines that America ever produced is the GM LS engine series. I don't think any other engine comes close to the power, dependability, efficiency, durability and versatility of the LS engine. For a pushrod engine to make the kind of power this thing is capable of is amazing and it does it with complete streetability. I've owned four LS engines, in various vehicles: 2 LS7s, an LS3 and an LS1. Every one of them gave me impressive, dependable power and great gas mileage and dependability in the bargain. This engine has been pushed at least as high as 1,600hp and can run at that level of performance and still be streetable.This is a truly epic series of engines.

 

[Eric]

[Eric]

The new Hennessee Venom F5's 1,600hp engine is based on a GM LS engine. I'm surprised to see that the block is aluminum. Hennessey used a LSX-based cast iron block engine in the Venom GT.

 

[Wyzz Kydd]

23 minutes ago, Eric said:

The new Hennessee Venom F5's 1,600hp engine is based on a GM LS engine. I'm surprised to see that the block is aluminum. Hennessey used a LSX-based cast iron block engine in the Venom GT.

 

Yep, the 'new' Chevy small block.  Aluminum with cast iron cylinder liners.  Got one in my Camaro, though it doesn't make 1600 hp.

[jmohme]

On 6/11/2019 at 6:23 PM, janice6 said:

Ford 300 cid inline 6 cylinder.

And the 240 cid that it was derived from.

I had the 240 in my 69 F100. 4barrel manifold and split headers. It had a very unique sound.

[Eric]

1 hour ago, jmohme said:

And the 240 cid that it was derived from.

I had the 240 in my 69 F100. 4barrel manifold and split headers. It had a very unique sound.

No engine sounds as good as a straight six with good exhaust, especially at lower rpm when it is under a load. It is an amazing sound. 

[tous]

It just occurred to me that the title of the thread is Detroit's most memorable engines and I mentioned an engine made in Germany. 

I have an excuse; I'm old and need more naps.

[janice6]

15 hours ago, Eric said:

No engine sounds as good as a straight six with good exhaust, especially at lower rpm when it is under a load. It is an amazing sound. 

Friend of mine thought that the sound of a school bus with 20 feet of pipe, rapping off when the driver was slowing down in gear, was the voice from heaven.

I helped him put Titanium shims on his small block to block the exhaust crossover in the manifold, and he replace the mufflers with 16 inch tubes.

On the way home from work he stopped for a stop sign in his neighborhood and just wound it up to listen to it sing.  A police car in the shopping center came at him with light and siren. 

When the cop jumped out and looked at my friend with his black tie, white shirt with pocket protector, black suit, and briefcase in the front seat, He asked, "Was that you?  My friend said yes, I think somethings wrong with my muffler!  The cop let him go.

Edited June 13, 2019 by janice6

[janice6]

3 minutes ago, tous said:

It just occurred to me that the title of the thread is Detroit's most memorable engines and I mentioned an engine made in Germany. 

I have an excuse; I'm old and need more naps.

We are all old enough to be "wandering".  S'all good!

[Lazy R]

So much cool stuff over the years.

I have to say, the new technology is really out of this world. I saw a show on the development of the Ford 3.5 V6 Ecoboost engine. Everything designed today on computer modeling and this engine was really designed to withstand stress. The block design is a thing of beauty. It's direct injected (fuel spray injected into the combustion chamber rather than intake port) and of course turbocharged. They had one on an engine stand dyno, and put stress on it simulating a Formula 1 car going around such and such a track. They throttled the piss out of it and let it run this course continually for like a week so see what would fail. Nothing did, and the exhaust was glowing the whole time. 

I just bought an F150 with this engine. It has 375 horsepower and 470 lb/ft of torque at 2500 rpm. From 214 cubic inches! It's incredible, in a 4wd truck getting over 20 MPG and will boil the tires. Feels like a big block. The high output 3.5 Raptor is 450 horsepower and 510 lb/ft. Tuners are getting in the 600 horsepower range without going inside the engine. Again, 214 cubic inches. 

We're living in the golden age right now. 

[holyjohnson]

Ford 427 S/O FE specifically the Medium riser.

it was the most dominant engine in motor sports in the 50s,60s and 70s and the bottom end is the basis for the GM LS based engines being built right now.it won LeMans 1-2-3 two years in a row was the FIA winner and record setter.

30+ NASCAR wins most were 1-2-3 until NASCAR banned it before it ever made it to one race in DOHC form.it fit in anything Ford made for a decade.

blown Nitro Cammer rails were running 219 M.P.H. in the mid 60s

it was the first and best do all V8 engine made in the USA.

it was a passenger car and truck engine,marine engine and even industrial in generators and some tractors.

and it sounds like music at R.P.M.

 

the Small block Chevy they have been around forever,in everything for every use.

everyone has owned at least one in its 50 years.

 

Ford Flathead was a cheap and revolutionary engine.the Lincoln L-head v12 was a 5.0 liter flathead.

i saw a custom car carrier at a car show a few years back that was an old 70s German truck and it had a Ford flathead in it stock.

 

Cummins 6BT because a Diesel for the masses that has half the moving parts and twice the torque and a turbo.

a million mile engine in a 100,000 mile truck.

 

i had a Ford 300 I6 that we noticed a hole in the block at 300k miles between the fuel pump and distributor it went to 450k miles before it died from too much water getting in the crankcase and rarely getting an oil change.

the low end torque that little engine made it went anywhere and pulled anything and the fact it just would`nt die is memorable to me.

i hung out with a guy that ran a slingshot dragster with a Jack Clifford head intake/exhaust on 80% nitro that ran in the 8s and low 9s and he pulled junkyard 300s from Econolines and swapped the heads,the distributor and a gear driven fuel pump,he got a seasons worth of runs out of a block before it ate the pistons or tore the plastic timing gears apart,

thats a tough motor and built this country,it was in tractors,dozers,backhoes,trucks,farm equipment,military vehicles,cranes,and every airport food truck,luggage truck,stair truck and push car you`ve probably ever seen.

a Ford 300I6 was also used as the engine to pull a ski lift in Vermont.

 

Edited June 14, 2019 by holyjohnson

[AK_Stick]

Well either the 71 series or 6.2 and 6.5 are probably the most numerous Detroit engines.

 

 

I’ve always wanted to put a 71 series into a pickup and listen to it scream. 

[Cougar_ml]

yup, when I heat "Detroit" I think of the 2 stroke diesels, especially the 71 series.  In production from 1938 all the way up to 1995, almost 6 decades.

Might not be very fuel efficient compared to the newer stuff, but they were workhorses, many are still going strong in everything from fishing boats to busses.