so not corvette related or maybe it is depending on your opinion but had a friendly argument with some guys at work tonight about which of the big three gm,ford,dodge made the best engine of all time lol

my personal opinion is that the chevy 350 small block is hands down the best performance engine ever and that is why is stayed in use for close to 50 years in everything from grandmas 4 door sedans to vettes and trucks boats an the ocasional modified vega lol

i hate fords for several bad expierences, poor craftsmanship, and an overall reality of me being the guy Found On Road Dead for every one that I ever purchased but none of those breakdowns ever came to me by the 300 straight six which is imo the best work horse gasoline engine EVER mas produced by anyone us, japan, euro ANYONE an i hate fords but i have seen more 300 straights with over 400k miles on them than any other engine an growing up in a foster home on a farm with 8 boys all in driving age at the same time i saw one of those f150 engines that was indestructible and stood a horrifying beating against all of those boys across several years and never let anyone down ever and was a haybailling,log pulling,mud crawling badass everyday of its miserable tortured life which lasted 438,781 before my youngest brother hit a tree on ice that truck was on its 3rd transmission but the same engine only ever had one head gasket believe it or not completely bullet proof

what are your opinions?

 

On one hand, just due to the length of time it was in production, the SBC has to go into the hall of fame. However, in terms of reliability, combined with level of performance, I'd say the LS series Chevys are quickly carving their place in history.

 

I love my LS6

 

The Gen 1 small block chevy hands down the best engine ever made, they will keep running years after they should have been trashed. I have taken apart many small blocks and just shake my head at how the thing was even running with all the broken, worn parts and thick sludge all over the place and nuts and bolts on there hand tight

The Chrysler/Dodge 225ci slant six comes in second
Then my stock 427ci small block

 

Well, if you are one of those people who believes everything you read about or see on TV, then the HEMI takes the blue ribbon. HEMI this, HEMI that. Chrysler corporation's advertising team built a 50 year mystique around it and they've been shoveling the same crap ever since. But I suppose if that's all you have to hang your hat onto, you might as well stick with that one trick pony and milk it for all it's worth. I mean, you never hear them going gaga over their slant six engine...and they out numbered HEMI's 10,000:1.

Barrett-Jackson auto auction is coming soon to SpeedTV. I just know one of their commentators will pee himself a little when a HEMI car crosses the block. I'd surely like to take a fistful of SBC and cram it down his gizzard to shut him up.

I'll grant you that the hemi design found favor with top fuel drag racing. But other than that, what does it excel at? Boat anchor comes immediately to my mind...expensive boat anchor. Let's face it, if a hemispherical combustion chamber were the ultimate why haven't every other auto manufacturer gone to that design? Surely it's not patented.

Which brings to mind one other question...if the HEMI were the greatest thing since sliced bread, why didn't Dodge put it into their Viper sportscar?

 

Please don't mention Barret Jackson, I just ate. I agree with you about the Hemi and it's relentless use by the Chrysler flogging it in it's ads and the motor isn't the same design as the original 426ci, it is some kind of semi-hemi that I haven't looked into because it would make me sick to my stomach.

I disagree about the original 426ci, now that was one motor that shut everything else down at the time and would do so today too if put up against a car in stock trim N/A. No one would rev there motors at a light if it was sitting beside a 426 Hemi Cuda in the day and I was there. Now it would have good tires that would plant the power instead of the skinny plastic tires they had back them

 

The LS and the variants are great. I.E. LS7, LS9. I was watching an old episode of TopGear and they did a story about The Rover V8 which began life as the Buick 215. It was in production for like 40 years. That's a good track record.

 

The best all time engine was the Ford 70-71 351 Cleveland. Had one in my 70 Torino and that thing kicked *** even beating a 70 Torino with a 429 in a race. Made my L82 350 feel incredibly pathetic.

 

I think the z06 427 ls based engine is sweet----------my crate z06 427 made 540hp stock----with a comp cam, springs and retainers made 574hp on the dyno with 510 ftlbs of torque---- its currently awaiting me to finish the frame off resto on my 69 427 coupe for installation with a 6 speed-----it will have alot of power and better than stock gas mileage with fuel injection.

 

I agree with the sbc as all time performance engine it is powerful, unlimited in its list of mods, an bullet proof in every application the ls engine will take its place in time but the 426 hemi is a bad punch line to a bad joke that Chrysler fans won't stop telling yes it was awesome in the cuda an maybe one or two other cars but it was not awesome enough to stay in production it was over priced too heavy an unreliable for endurance use or hard work in a truck it never wouldve lasted the way the 350s did with 2-300k miles that you see all day long on craigslist as far as chryslers go the 318 is their best engine put in production and with for the ford 351 it is a great engine but again not as popular an useful across all production models like the sbc

it will be awesome to see in 10-15 years when the ls motors get some very high mileage numbers reached across all applications corvette,firebird,camaro,gto ect if they are still running hard the way the old steel sbc's do now

 

Say what you want about the Chrysler Hemi...its design was actually pirated from the aftermarket 'Ardun' heads that Zora Arkus-Duntov created for the flathead Ford in the 1940s. These were popular with dry lakes racers and hotrodders and an original set can fetch in excess of $20k nowadays...in the early 1950s Chrysler adapted the design for their 331 Hemi by combining the head design with a proper 5-main bearing crank, eventually increasing its displacement to 354, 392, and 426 ci. True, it was never well-suited as a street engine because it was really designed to make power at high rpm. Hemis were very effective in NASCAR competition from 1964 until the change to the small-block 358" rule in the mid-70s, so the dragstrip isn't the only place that they made their name. As for all-time greatest production car engine? Without a doubt it would have to be the small-block Chevy. From 1955 to 1996 literally millions were made. It was a piece of pure American design genius that compares with anything, dead reliable, simple, cheap, was the basis for dozens of major racing series winners and thousands of individual races over its lifespan. No argument whatsoever.

 

You can substitute L88 in there pretty easily now can't you

 

Not to rain on the parade but your Audience poll,
might be a bit biased toward Chevrolet, .... being a Chevrolet / Corvette Fourm.
just saying...

 

It's hard to argue against the 350 Chevy as the standard for reliability and withstanding the test of time. However, it would not be near the top of my favorite high performance motors. I really like all the variants of the 427 big blocks. The LS7 427 small block is an absolute animal as well. The 426 Hemis were real performers in their day.

 

I'll give you that Richard Petty is the king of NASCAR an he once said that the 426 was the greatest so that has to count for something

an I do also agree that in a Chevy forum the sbc has an unfair advantage but I like these topics it is cool to see everyone's opinions an the reasons an example that back up a persons feeling in their opinion the 427 is a monster as well and have sound that is just beautiful but being born in the late 80's the big block fuel gussling engine were long gone in the street world before I got to hit back road black top drags so I can't say too much but I did get to see a 79 Indy pace cobra mustang (ugliest mustang of all time) hand a 426 in a road runner its *** but to be fair the cobra was built up an the road runner was a mopar Frankenstein of mixed parts/years still a fun drag for teenage kids

 

350 chev by a mile

 

Popularity, cost, availability of parts and sales would most likely indicate that the SBC engine to be the winner here. The LS series engines are certainly following suite.
I also love the old ford 300 sixes.

 

Hmmmm, my old 70 Torino GT Convertable with a 429 would not let a 351 see anything but it's rear end. :O) BUT....nobody has mentioned the Ford 302, quite a workhorse for a lot of years. But I still vote for the 350 Gen 1 as the all time best all around motor.

 

[QUOTE=birdsmith;1579680841]the Chrysler Hemi...its design was actually pirated from the aftermarket 'Ardun' heads that Zora Arkus-Duntov created for the flathead Ford in the 1940s.

..in the early 1950s Chrysler adapted the design for their 331 Hemi by combining the head design with a proper 5-main bearing crank, eventually increasing its displacement to 354, 392, and 426 ci.

birdsmith,

I seem to remember that Peugeot introduced the "hemi" head design in their four cylinder engines in the twenties or even earlier, so Zora would have known about this design before he came to America.

Chrysler had, IIRC, a 265, 331, 354 and a 392 cubic inch engines on the old, rear distributor position V8s. No 426 version. When they introduced the modern wedge combustion chamber B and RB blocks, with the front mounted distributor, the capacities were 383, 400, 413, 426 and 440. With racing classes limiting capacity to 7 litres, or 426 c.i., they rejigged the 426 wedge with modern ( 1966 era ) hemi heads, but these engines bore no resemblance to the earlier hemis.

C6DuffMan,

Yes, Rover used the BOP engine to power their early Range Rovers and the Rover 3500 sedan. In Australia in the early seventies, Leyland Australia created a car called the P76 that had a 4.4 litre ( about 270 c.i. ) version of this engine and this car was way superior to the Holdens, Falcons and Valiants of the time that were made by the "Big 3" . Unfortunately, pressure by the Big 3 on the government and some bad publicity saw the P76 have only a three year run before Leyland Australia went the way of the dodo.

However, in 1964, just after the BOP aluminum engine was released in the USA, Australia's foremost Formula One driver/car builder/engineer, Jack Brabham, used this engine to build a Formula One engine that won him a World Formula One title, and New Zealander Denny Hulme won the world title next year with the same engine, IIRC.

Sir Jack ( he was later knighted ) not only personally built the Formula One car that he drove to a world championship, he was actively involved in the design of the engine itself. With the help of ex- Vincent motorcycle engineer, the late Phil Irving, they designed a single overhead camshaft cylinder head, a stud girdle, a flat plane crankshaft and a fuel injection system for the BOP engine.

De-stroked to three litres, this engine took the world by storm and cemented Sir Jack Brabham as the most gifted Formula One driver of all time. No other driver has ever won a Formula One race in a car that they not only designed, but built themselves. And to make the trifecta, Sir Jack also helped design the engine as well.

But back to the original question. If sales numbers are the criterion, then the SBC wins hands down. No argument. In Australia, the old Holden inline six with 149, 161, 173, 179, 186 and 202 cubic inch versions would win the prize, but then, we do things differently Down Under.

Regards from Down Under.

aussiejohn

 

As far as gawk-appeal.... its hard to beat this at a car show : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JQpsQe-v1Y .