B58 (BMW) is super reliable & high performance
same as the I6 used in certain landcruisers & other Toyota cars etc
though now of course - with super cheap solar etc - if you can go electric go electric but if you've to buy an ICE car - yeah buy an I6 - fuel efficient & performance & reliable
The Cummins 5.9L is excellent, particularly the 12 valve with P7100 pump. Awesome low end torque.
From Mercedes the M104 and OM606 are phenomenal. Powerful, efficient, incredibly reliable. The only drawback is the aging engine management software is not very well supported by aftermarket code readers anymore. In the case of an OM606 you can fix this by deleting the ECU entirely and installing an M pump from an OM603, or replacing the ECU with a DSL-1 standalone unit.
Dad has seen AMC I-6s go 400k before the transmission died and ended its run.
I still see it around town from time to time, must have 360 on it now. Original engine and as far as I know, transmission as well.
I ran it out of oil once without damaging it.
Since then, I bought two inline-6 Ford F150s from the mid-90s. I plan on running them forever. I bought two so I can learn to work on them, and have a backup to drive. Both manual, as well.
Jeep XJs from the 90s are still great cars to buy, so are the fords from that era (all the engines are reliable, but the I6 is starting to have a cult following online). I was working on that Jeep before I had any mechanical experience at all. It never failed to start.
Badging a Mercedes as an AMG and asking the price for it and you just fit turbos on a 4 cylinder.
It's a production 2.0L 4-cylinder engine making (in the most powerful config) 350kw. From the factory. Insane.
IDK why they don't just tax the actual fuel used like the rest of the world (not that they don't do that).
It does not hurt that you can easily get 200+ horsepower from the factory with one, either. My car is a series hybrid with an Atkinson-cycle I4 but it still bursts to 200hp because it's a hybrid.
Australia was awash in I6 motors, from the GM Holden motors, the Ford Falcon engine and the Chrysler slant 6 that got replaced by a locally developed version of a Chrysler 6 that was never finished by the US corp. they were all boring, mostly durable, mostly reliable engines for a family car.
Even BMC/Leyland had one. Uniquely they fitted it across the chassis of a land crab derived vehicle which showed why the I6 was ill suited to being packaged as anything other than in line with a rear drive drivetrain.
The V6 fits better in front drive cars for obvious reasons.
Hybrid cars change the equation somewhat, the skateboard chassis doesn’t seem all that suited to an I6 but here we are.
Chrysler have unfortunately found out that no matter how good you make one, customers still want a V8 and I concur.
Daewoo put one in a FWD car in the mid 2000s for some reason too.
But have to admit there is a part of me that would really love to drive something like the BMW M340i [1]. And the gas mileage (26/33 MPG) isn't even too bad.
You want to stuff an in-line six in every race car, buggy, and Jeep that you see, with a supercharger slapped on top? Why not just go with an LS?
That's probably the reason - we only need dressage horses and pure bloods now that the real draft horse is getting put to pasture.
These are no longer workhorses.
Six cylinders are the smoothest engines out there.
Honda used to have a 1L 6 cylinder engine for their bikes - the Gold wing has a 6 cylinder still.
The perimeter of the piston goes down in relation to its area (& multiplied by BMEP) when the radius goes up - looking at you Africa Twin.
The perimeter is where the unburnt fuel lives and gets caught up in the emission rules. So fewer larger cylinders is better according to EPA - 500cc each, maybe.
If we're only going to have hobby vehicles with internal combustion, then a six cylinder or doubling up to a v-12 makes sense.
They're toys for the weekend, not to put a 100k miles on it.
I dunno man, have you ever driven a rotary? The design has a lot of problems, but smoothness isn't one of them...
Why anyone thought "inline" was a better prefix, I have no idea.
Smooth, and sound great.
Automotive myths that won't die. 'Stroke' doesn't make more low end power than bore, displacement is displacement.
Again, it's a myth.
Similarly, there was always the debate over rod length (in the same displacement engines). You use the same crankshaft but the piston has the wrist pin located higher. The longer rod was always supposed to make "more torque" because of the angle but that ended up not being the case.
You can verify this buy putting engines together with different bores and strokes that are roughly equal displacements, and with the same heads/cam on them, they will make identical power. Picture something like a 3.50" bore and 4.00" stroke, and vice versa. Look up someone like Richard Holdener on YouTube for actual data. Displacement is displacement, it doesn't really matter how you make it.
Bore is what would make you more power after a certain point, anyway. You get more surface area to fit larger valves, etc. But again, using the same heads (that aren't shrouding the smaller bores), either combination of bore/stroke will make the same power throughout the rev range.
Then you get into things like piston speed and all that but none of that matters unless you're talking about a race engine. And when you are, they'll just rebuild it more often so they don't care how long it lasts.
Here's another read:
https://rehermorrison.com/tech-talk-53-big-bore-or-long-stro...
If this were the case wouldnt all similar displacement engines have the same torque curve?
Compare a Suzuki G13B 1300 vs a Suzuki Hayabusa 1300 for example.
I'd be curious to know more about the heat problem you've mentioned. Naively, there should be much less waste heat to dispose of due to the fact that the same cylinder volume is doing twice the work.
Spark plug replacement, points change, air filter… even things like water pumps and carburetor were trivial to work on.
Today’s cars are better in almost every way, but I sure loved the simplicity of that engine.
Also: I’m a little surprised the article didn’t make mention of a similar ( but slightly different ) engine. The mighty Mopar slant 6, which is legendary for durability. Maybe we’ll get a newer one of those, too!
franktankbank•3d ago