Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
I-6's are tried and true, especially in the diesel versions, but my concern is displacement. We're pushing more power out of smaller and smaller engines with turbos to stand in the gap. What does that do for engine longevity?
I'm waiting to find out with my I-4 turbo Cruze, but I'm a low mileage driver, so I may never actually find out, which I guess is a good thing.
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6 in a row is indeed tried and true and a good way to go. They lost favor for awhile due to their length and unsuitability for front wheel drive/transverse engine vehicles which are so popular today. The 258 straight 6 barely fit in the AMC Pacer, which was originally designed for a rotary engine that never happened. I remember servicing them 45 years ago, and I had to get #6 exhaust valve open so the rocker arm was down, and turn on the wiper motor, and as the firewall oil-canned, I'd time my snatch of the valve cover to get it off and clear of the engine. I-6's are inherently smooth and torquey and long lasting. As for tweaked turbo and supercharged smaller engines doing big jobs, just don't be their second or third owners. BTDT the first time around in the '80's and they become very expensive. I put 2 turbos on a customer's '85 Turbo T-Bird....if it had the base 302 it would have run for years after the Turbo Coupe cashed in its chips. A larger, under-stressed engine will always, always, always outlast a smaller, highly stressed one, even more so if the maintenance is lax.