What was the worst GM engine ever made? I hear alot of bad things about the 2.3 Liter 4 cylinder engine that was used in the Vega/Monza and the 2.8 Liter V6 that used was in the X body cars, the A body cars and the Chevy S-10/GMC S-15 pickups.

 

ALL of them? Had to say it. Wasn't there an aluminum block chevy engine without cylinder liners so the pistons were rubbing the aluminum cylinder walls causing the block to wear out in a short time?

 

Not that I know of to be honest with you.

 

Th 2.8 is a durable motor. Gm sure mad a lot of them for a long time. Couldn't have been so bad.

The Ponitac 265 and 301 were horrible engines. But most engines created in the late 70's early 80's were. But my personal pick for the worst Gm engine has to be the 350 diesel.

 

I've forgotten all about the 350 diesels, those were awful motors.

 

Yep- strong tie between the Aluminum 4-banger in the Vega and the 350 diesel. they were both as durable as a potato chip.

BTW- I really liked that 301 in the Pontiac- got great gas mileage, had more power than the 305 chebbie at the time.

 

but the 301 was inherently flawed with very thin block castings, there was no room to bore. Lots of oiling problems and face it, the turbo, while a novel concept at the time, was pretty worthless. I forgot about the chevy 267 V8. That was a dog.

 

Found it. 2300cc 4cyl aluminum Vega motor (thanks PolarBear)

http://yarchive.net/car/vega.html

High silicone (SAND) content aluminum block with the aluminum removed from the bores. So the pistons are rubbing on silicone which in my experience has a delicate crystaline structure. How would you bore such a thing out to refurbish it? Oh yea, you can't that's why it's junk.

 

My friend had a buick station wagon with a 307 v-8 in it. Worthless. Had ZERO power.

 

307 was durable though. You could beat on it and it would keep starting up and running.

 

I hear alot of good things about the Oldsmobile 307's, weren't they also used on Chevrolet's back in the late 60's/early 70's?

Does anybody remember the Chevrolet 260 (4.3 Liter V8) that was used on the Chevrolet Monza's back in the mid 70's?

 

No- it wasn't that. Mercedes used the same process- around the same time- for their 3.5 and 4.5L V8 motors, and I don't think anyone knows the outer life expectancy of those engines. It was GM, i'm afraid.

 

How about the Quad 4 Olds engine.

 

what? the quad 4 was a great engine. Lots of power potential.

 

How good is the 'Iron Duke' motors? I hear alot of good comments about the motors, they may not have alot of power but they are pretty indestructible.