out of ford, chevy, and dodge which one engine from each was the biggest mistake they ever made?

 

Chevrolet: The 267 smallblock that found its way into the 80's Camaros. What a turd.

Ford: The 4.2 255 ci V8 in the early Fox Mustangs. Even bigger turd.

Dodge: the 2.6 "Hemi" in the Aries. Enough said. (though this was actually a Mitsubishi built motor)

 

what about the ford 351m and chevy 305's what do u think about those motors?

 

i haven't found many people who like the 351m/400 series. The 305 is a pooch! but so is a standard 302.

 

Chevy-400 small block. The only good thing about it is that the crank can be used to make a 383 stroker. Also. GM has had trouble with OHC designs, such as the quad-4 or the 3.4 V6. The pre D-max diesel engines were not really much good.

Ford-302 & 351 EFI engines are inefficient and powerless. Also, the 351 and 400M were not the best. The diesel engines have always had some problems, but the 7.3 IDI is the worst. The 3.8 V6 was very prone to head gasket failure.

Dodge-I have heard bad things about some of the older 4cylinder and V-6 engines, but pickup-sized engines seem to be pretty good.

I am sorry that I listed more than one engine for each brand, but I could not think of any one that was particularly worse than the others.

 

The early GM diesels in their pickups.

The new 6.0PSD in the ford trucks.

No idea on the Mopar's. I just don't pay much attention to their products since the good old days of 340 6-packs and hemi's.

 

the 3.3 V6 in our 01 Dodge Caravan is pretty worthless

 

and the 302 and 351 EFI worthless? i dont know, i like mine a lot, and everyone I have known to have one liked thiers.

 

The EFI 302 and 351's? Theres a whole bunch of no power adder 350 horse 302's out there. The idea that the Ford 302 is more less equal to the GM 305 is not the reality. Stock Ford 5.0 HO's will stomp stock GM 305 Z28 motors into a mud hole. Heck they can hold there own vs LT1 350 Z28 motors. I just saw an article on a relatively mild 351W, but using Aluminum heads, cranking out 427 horses. Do you just mean the stock truck 87-97 EFI motors?

I worked for guy that a 70's GMC 3500 with the GM 400 years ago. Now that thing was probably the worst American V8 of all time. Totally gutless and got 6mpg. That motor blew twice on a horse pulling trip. We were layed up 500 miles from home for a week getting it rebuilt. On the same trip later, using my 79 F350 with a 400 cleveland we got 14mpg, had plenty of pulling power, and no blown motors. I can't agree that the 400 was a worthless motor in that truck at all. I put 400,000 miles on it in ten years. Don't know about the 351M though?

 

Got to the 3650m/400 forums plenty of people that love the 400 cleavland

 

Yes, I am talking about the stock Windsor EFI pickup motors. I do not think that Windsors are bad motors, and the 302 is a very good motor for the Mustang, but I am very unimpressed with the EFI pickup engines. Also, I don't hear many good comments from others who own them. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, but I just do not see anything very good about them. I know a number of Ford guys who do not care for them either.

 

Yeah I don't undersand why they just didn't use a version of the Mustang HO motor. The Mustang motor has good low end and the intake manifold is a long runner design. Perhaps they could of used the E6S swirl port heads and a different cam. I think the problem withy the pickup EFI motors was that the intake and exaust systems can only be described as asthmatic. One of my brothers had a 94 F150 2wd with a 302. He put on a Flow Master cat back system and it was a major improvement. The nice thing about this truck was that it could get about 18mpg on the highway. My little brother had 96 4x4 version with the 302. His wife complained about the gas milege, so I cranked up the timing, and we frabricated a true dual (quiet)exaust system, with no cats, and it made a good improvement in both tourqe and milege. It could get 17mpg on the highway. We never got around to changing intakes. Both those F150's had manual 5 speeds, so I wonder how much the Automatcs were robbing power and milege? I'm not impressed with Ford automatic tansmissions in trucks.

 

Honestly? The 5.4 Modular motors. Supposed torque kings - hardly. They barely hold their own in the lower end, and despite being OHC they can't wind with power nearly as well as the competition. They're a great engine to me, but they don't live up to their name. And they don't live up to their competition. I'd still buy one though ^.^

The Hemi. It's not even a true hemi design, yet it bears the name "Hemi." I like the engine..but it doesn't live up to its name to me. I don't find it to have alot down low either - and trust me, Prom night I put it through some rounds. If it was saddled to a 4-speed, I think it'd make me wanna cry - the 5 speed lets it sync the gears close for it to keep revs up high.

Chevy? All their engines live up to their names. But of course...Chevy sucks so that's why. (Just playing around...our Suburban is pimp).

Remember this isn't a ****fest of brand loyalty. I love Ford just as much as the rest of you.

 

I think that I would have liked a stick shift more, but the Mazda M05 is not a very strong tranny and it likes to eat up clutches with its high 1st and Reverse gears. In the case of these particular pickups, an automatic may be less problematic. The people that I know with pickups like mine have both stick and auto trannys, and all seem to get around 12-14 mpg with the 302 and a little less with the 351. The best that I have gotten was 16.5 mpg going 75 mph with a good tail wind, but I usually average around 12-13. My only mods are a cat back straight Y-pipe and a K&N.

I have heard of people putting a throttle body fuel injection system on an older carbed Windsor. In fact, I saw one at a junk yard warehouse last summer. The GM motors with this setup were very efficient and were pretty powerful. It would be tricky, but I might look into it if I decide to take a 73 F-100 up as a project.

 

I fail to understand why simplistic TBI can beat Ford's setup. TBI is basically EFI rigged up on an otherwise Carb engine. Port gives more precise metering of gas...and better flow characteristics otherwise.

Other engine that doens't live up to its name? Anything Import. Everything is supposedly big and bad - but unless you're one of the 5% of the Import Tuning crowd that has bolted on a big-boost turbo to your 1.6-2.4 liter engine, you're not pumping power at all. I'm talking about the 4-cylinder engines, btw. Not picking on the Titan, its ugly bit its already spanked the F-150. And Import 6-Cylinders are nice. But the 4-Cyl people have an attitude and think their vehicle is god. Cept...my taurus could show them what was up - and it had the same horsepower they did..turning the same wheels too. Manual or otherwise. VTEC, VVTI-L, etc - line em up and tell them that they're high-winding losers. Look at the spoon. 9500 rpm's to build power? Amazing as it is to wind an engine that high...still sucks. I'll take pushing a 302 or a 350 up past 6000 and still whip their butt.