All I can say is that working with the service manager at the dealership can work wonders. I have been told by them that they have discretionary powers to 50K miles. Again, find a good dealer, establish a relationship, don't get mad just be reasonable, and things will work out in your favor.

You do make a good point, but it isn't limited to the US Automakers, they all have worked in the area of predictive analysis, be it water pumps on Chevrolets, transmissions in GM and Dodge products, timing belts on Hondas, or gas tanks in Pintos. The imports are wonderful for brining interference engines into this country which self destruct in the case of a timing belt failure, then the US automakers thought that was a good idea too.

 

Very well said

Ron
99 Expedion
XLT

 

The dealer makes the difference. I bought my 92 van a bad one, took 6 months to get my jack and tire iron..... .I wish I had listened and gone to the other dealership 30 miles away that had a very good reputation for customer service. I would not recomend anybody go to the dealer I bought my van at, Ford actually pulled their plug, so people can't get ripped anymore.

 

Your warranty is only as good as your dealer. If you are having a warranty problem you need to report it to your regional customer service rep.
I worked at a dealership (not Ford) and our service manager said the salesman sells a customer the first car. The service department sells him all the ones after that.
Even if the milage is a little over they could still fix it if they valued you as a customer.
My first new Ford pickup used a quart of oil every 200 miles from day one. The dealer strung me along until just a few days before the warranty ran out and then said "well we can't do anything about it" I got real P.O.d and threatened to come over there and drive the truck right through the showroom window and kick the service manager's a--. They gave me the number of the regional customer service office and I pretty much told them the same thing plus this was my first and last Ford. A few days later I got a call to bring it in, it was out of waranty by then but they fixed it anyway.
One thing to remember is that the dealer doesn't get paid nearly as well for warranty work so if the shop is busy with customer pay you get put off. And also they always try to squeeze some customer pay into a warranty job to help offset this. Savvy technicians just quote something deeper and then don't actually do it and throw the parts away or in the bottom drawer of their toolbox, just in order to get paid fairly on warranty work.
None of this justifies being treated poorly at your dealer but it might help you understand how things work.

 

This is very true when it comes to dealerships. Whe I was younger my parents bought an 89 Dodge minvan, it had a tons of tranny problems after my older brother got his license (hmm can't imagine why!) plus it had a broken motor mount. The dealership we boought the car from would not repair the broken motor mount under warranty. They paid for it of course, as for the tranny we went through 3 of em and the problem still continued. Needless to say that was the last time my parents went to that dealership. Of course later on we found out 89 was the first year for an electronic automatic transmission. It has been down hill for Chrysler ever since then.

 

when are we going to get back to the best and worst engines ever made talk

 

Best engine ever made the Rolls-Royce Merlin V12

 

How bout the Allison?

 

I was gonna say that!!

The Allison V-12

Also the Pratt $ Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp!

The Silver Diamond 220 and 240s, they nnnever quit.

Well, the FE.

The 472, 500, 502s.





And the V-Twins.

Those are IMO some of my faves.

 

My list of best engines; Pontiac V-8, 427 Ford side oiler, 351 C, 7.3 Powerstroke, Race Hemi, Olds V-8, Mopar RB, 351 W Ford, 429-460 Ford, F E Fords, Baby winsors,(289-302;5.0 for metric kids), gutless 300 6, chrysler slant 6(also too gutless to hurt itself), Buick 455, Cadillac 500, AMC 390-401, International 345(also couldn't make enough to hurt itself), sb mopar, and even tho i hate them, honda.

 

Hey guys why dont you narrow down the field alittle bit. You are talking about some engines that have not been in production for 40years or more.
Why dont we limit it to about 1980s to now? and only engines that were used by gm ford and mopar. Also try to give an explaination why they where good or bad? P.S this is also no mods done to the engines. ONLY FACTORY STUFF!

I will start with the v8s

Ford 302 351 or 460 where a ok engine. To me they seemed to all have to small of a bottom end. The pre fi average ford v8 lacked power. Those 2 barrrel carbs are crap. I do respect the fi units thoese machies rock. The 460 seemed to not have enough power for what it was. Had good torque but runs out of breath why too soon.


Dodge
There 318 is bulletproof. 360 is a little weaker. 440 about the same as the 360. (I was talking about the bottom ends) The 2barrel carbs on the small block mopar where ok. (Lean spark crap is ****) The 4barrl carbs were perrty decent on power some were great. I probley love the 440 out of all the big blocks. That thing has good grunt and likes to keep on pulling. To me it does not seem to poop out like the ford or chevy. The fi engines are good make good power but never exceled like I think mopar could of done to them.

Chevys
305 350 were good engines. If you could over look when gm was haveing problems with the cams there duriablity was good. To me it seem like gm made a very few of these engines with 2 barrel carbs. With the 4barrel carb the chevy whips the early fords on power. (This is in comparison with equal displacement) There bottom ends seem better than fords. (If you compare oil pressure to miles fords seem dead last) Gms tbi setup was nothing more that a super carb. They made a little more power but compared to fords efi they were crap.The 454 too seems like the 460 week bottom end and no more pull after 2500 rpms. Neither of them
like to rev.


All Iine 6s
These engines where all good. (except for thoes aluim ones) None of the them made lots of horse power but they grunted. Acted like a small big block with a little bit more pull in the rpm range before it quit. All of them seemed to slobber oil and eat it.
Horse power though out the years seemed to me about the same. As they got older more power until they were killed off.

V6 fords.
3.8l is good if you can remember to change the headgasket. 2.8 is good for there short run. 2.9l seems if/if. They make millions of them but for the percentage I seen it seems they like to crack heads. 3.0 bullet proof never seen one go bad unless it ran with out oil. 3.0 and 3.2 sho bullet proof.(kind of a pain in the *** to work on) 4.0 ok nothing to rave about.

Gms v6
2.8l early life ****ty later on good. In the truck version early ****ty/later better but still not good. 3.1l early where good later ones are good too if you rember to fix the intake gasket. 3.4 dohc not good but not as bad(manitance bitch). 3.4ohv good except for the dam intake gasket. 3.0l 3.3l and 3.8l in fwd applications where all good. 3.8l later in life are bullet proof. 3.8l in rear drive were bad because of the oil pump. But you cant hate the GN 3.8l. (just too much power)
Also what kinda hurts the gms 60degreV6 is that Oring that they have where the dis use to be. All of them leak oil.

Dodge V6
All where pretty much bullet proof. 3.3 3.8 3.9 are great low mantiace engines. 3.5l is good too when the water pump is changed and intake gaskets. Timing belt too which makes it a mantiance machine. The 3.0 is ok after you fix your guides but they are matiance pigs. Need timing belts and like to leak oil on the valve covers.

ford I4s
1.6 early in life what a pice. I cant tell you how many heads I changed or water pumps. Later on in life got better. 1.9L good
2.3l where good too kinda like to leak oil. 2.2l are good too.
All are mantinace machines because of the timeing belt.

GM I4 1.8l 2.0l barzilan version ****. Chevy2.0 with timeing chain good with gear so/so. 2.2 liter ok if you change the head gasket.
2.5 without blance shaft good engine. Noisey but good. 2.5l with balance shaft ****. Quad four nice power but are one step above ****. Needs headgaket's and you got to change the timeing chain at 100k

mopars I4
1.7good but no power. 2.0neon with newest head gasket good 2.2l with carb ****. 2.2 with fi good. 2.4l good 2.5l good. 2.6l one step below good. Need to change head gasket once and need to change the oil pump chain at about 150k. The mopar 2.2 and 2.5 are good expect for the headgasket problem. They still get the good rating because of how simple it is to change them. All of these are maintace machines (except the 2.6l) because off the timeing belt.


worst engine off all times
Chevy diesel 6.2 and 6.5
7.3l diesel turbo not power stroke
350 diesel
brazilan 2.0l

I kinda based my opions on how munch it takes these engine to run over 200k miles there power out put for there size, cost and how long there bottoms ends seem to live.

I cant talk about the newset engines becasue I dont have enought experiace with them.

 

i am extremely happy with my 302, quite a bit of power. pulls really well. no repairs so far. the engine i hate the most is chevy's good for nothing 4-banger they put in the s-10. gutless!

 

Engines I like are 300I6, 225 slant 6, and I like my 460. I do think the Olds 350 diesel might be the worst, but my brother had one in a car and ran great.

 

Jokey, I commend you on a good, well thought out post. My feelings are just like yours.

 

Jokey, I think you hit the nail on the head. Very good post and acccurate because you used sound reasoning and objectivity. Thanks.