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Horribad engineering rant

L

lurk3r

Senior member
Ok, not sure if I posted here or not, but the Altima got rear ended last week. Long story short there, they refused to total it, and are going to put $7500 into repairing a car that the dealer offered me $8000 for.

So on to the rant, I'm renting a buddy's (well honestly trading for beer) Jimmy with the 4.3L V6. I kinda like the truck he cheerfully calls "Truckasaris", until I'm sitting at a stop light. I HAVE to put it into neutral or the off balance pulling drives me nutz.


I am kinda worried because the car thats leading the pack right now for a replacement is the Volvo S60R,

Anyone have any comment about how badly balanced the 5 cylinder is? I took the 'base' automatic out on a test drive and didn't notice anything, but the GF, and a salesman went with me, so I'm not sure if I 'missed' anything.

For those that don't know, this V6 is basically a 350 with the front 2 cylinders cut off, with all the elegance of using a large axe. It functions very similar to a V8 engine missing on 2 cylinders, which is what my rant's all about.
 
Originally posted by: lurk3r
Ok, not sure if I posted here or not, but the Altima got rear ended last week. Long story short there, they refused to total it, and are going to put $7500 into repairing a car that the dealer offered me $8000 for.

So on to the rant, I'm renting a buddy's (well honestly trading for beer) Jimmy with the 4.3L V6. I kinda like the truck he cheerfully calls "Truckasaris", until I'm sitting at a stop light. I HAVE to put it into neutral or the off balance pulling drives me nutz.


I am kinda worried because the car thats leading the pack right now for a replacement is the Volvo S60R,

Anyone have any comment about how badly balanced the 5 cylinder is? I took the 'base' automatic out on a test drive and didn't notice anything, but the GF, and a salesman went with me, so I'm not sure if I 'missed' anything.

For those that don't know, this V6 is basically a 350 with the front 2 cylinders cut off, with all the elegance of using a large axe. It functions very similar to a V8 engine missing on 2 cylinders, which is what my rant's all about.
Click to expand...

Don't blame the V6... blame GM for chopping off 2 cylinders off a Chevrolet.

V6 if done properly it should be fine (Benz)
 
Originally posted by: PlasmaBomb
Originally posted by: lurk3r
Ok, not sure if I posted here or not, but the Altima got rear ended last week. Long story short there, they refused to total it, and are going to put $7500 into repairing a car that the dealer offered me $8000 for.

So on to the rant, I'm renting a buddy's (well honestly trading for beer) Jimmy with the 4.3L V6. I kinda like the truck he cheerfully calls "Truckasaris", until I'm sitting at a stop light. I HAVE to put it into neutral or the off balance pulling drives me nutz.


I am kinda worried because the car thats leading the pack right now for a replacement is the Volvo S60R,

Anyone have any comment about how badly balanced the 5 cylinder is? I took the 'base' automatic out on a test drive and didn't notice anything, but the GF, and a salesman went with me, so I'm not sure if I 'missed' anything.

For those that don't know, this V6 is basically a 350 with the front 2 cylinders cut off, with all the elegance of using a large axe. It functions very similar to a V8 engine missing on 2 cylinders, which is what my rant's all about.
Click to expand...

Don't blame the V6... blame GM for chopping off 2 cylinders off a Chevrolet.

V6 if done properly it should be fine (Benz)
Click to expand...

Oh I'm well aware of where it came from, have even been in the plant and talked extensively with the engineers that designed it. There's some spectacular engineering that went into making that abortion work.

The "idea" was to be able to run it on the same assembly line as the V8's, the "idea" died after they built the 2nd plant just to make the V6.

60 degree V6's are great motors, there are lots of examples.

I do see a couple comments from opinions I trust to give the Volvo a solid look.

And waz, I drive past your house on the way home don't make me leave oilpuke in your driveway 😛

--edit--- I've got a horribad V6 and I'm not afraid to use it
 
Two things affect engine smoothness.

First is power stroke distribution and firing order. This is what screws up a 90 deg V6 vs a 60 deg V6 and is what you are referring to, it has to do with the angle of the crank and shared rod journals vs the angle of the cylinder banks and results in an odd firing order where the power strokes are not evenly distributed. The Volvo engine does not have problems here as it's crank is uniquely design for it's application with independent 144 deg throws (720 / 5).

Second is momentum balancing so that the internal masses moving in the engine are canceled out by opposing cylinders. Other than a H6, I6 or V12, all engines have some kind of inherent imbalance that must be damped with a heavy crank or internal engine balancer. The I5 is no exception here. The 90 deg V8 with a crossplane crank is a special exception, which can be balanced with a counter weighted crank instead of a separate balancer.

If you are after a silky smooth engine and it annoys you that much I'd suggest something with a straight six. However there is nothing wrong with smooth running engines that use an internal balancer.
 
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
That 5 pot is smooth as silk and makes a nice sound.
Click to expand...

The 2.3 litre I5 in my S70 is indeed pretty smooth. I'd characterize the engine's sound as "interesting" more than "nice" though. I like how it sounds, but it's definitely distinct when compared to other engines.

I'm a big fan of Volvo's turbocharged I5 engines; they are powerful as well as robustly built.

ZV
 
The Chrysler 3.9 is another example of a 90 degree V6. That motor is as tough as nails, but it makes a nasty noise. I never had a problem with vibration, but the exhaust was always loud even at idle. But you can't kill a 3.9 if you take care of the belly pan gasket leak and you install a new timing chain occasionally.
 
Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Originally posted by: DivideBYZero
That 5 pot is smooth as silk and makes a nice sound.
Click to expand...

The 2.3 litre I5 in my S70 is indeed pretty smooth. I'd characterize the engine's sound as "interesting" more than "nice" though. I like how it sounds, but it's definitely distinct when compared to other engines.

I'm a big fan of Volvo's turbocharged I5 engines; they are powerful as well as robustly built.

ZV
Click to expand...

Yeah, I had a 2000 V70 T5 for a while and my BiL has a 98 V70R, yes in saffron with the dark smoke wheels. I really like the offbeat sound and it reminds me of my Scooby's flat four/unequal length header combo.
 
If you want an unbalanced engine go find an old buick 225 oddfire V6 (called a Dauntless V6 in Jeep applications). At low RPM you can hear the the different lengths of spaces between firing. I've got one in my old jeep and its awesome.
 
Originally posted by: KentState
One of the favorite things of my GTO was sitting at a light and feeling the car rock back and forth.
Click to expand...

I love it too! reminds me I of all the power I have waiting to be unleashed.
 
One thing about the Buick 3800, Chevy 4.3, and Dodge 3.9:
90% of the population hates them because they're not smooth, don't come filled with technology, and are generally not high power.

...but they're still around because they don't know how to die.

A lot of those old straight sixes were the same, a coworker of mine has a '53 Chevy 6 window pickup with a 235 (iirc). When he rebuilt the engine back in the 80s, the hone marks were still visible. We estimate that by the time it's ready for it's second rebuild it'll be 2066.

Edit:
GMC did make a 60 degree V6 up until 1978, it even made up to 254HP. But if there can be a big block V6, it qualifies.
 
Agree. The GM 3800 V6 Gen II or Gen III models are very nice. Very smooth, decent power and gas mileage.
 
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