This question is up in the air for anyone, weather you fix lots of cars or just try to keep your vehical running.
What are your least favorite engines to work on?
This includes but is not limited too Ford, gmc, dodge, (any make), atv's, snowmobiles, motorcycles, tractor trailers, lawnmowers, anything.
Somehow the 3.8L SC comes to mind.
That would have to be the 3.1 liter in my wife's old 92 Chevy Corsica. Everything was tightly packed together so I was always getting minor cuts and ses everywhere from my fingertips to my elbows. It didn't help that in the last 3 or 4 months we had the car it just decided to turn evil and break every chance it got.
I've never actually worked on a 3.8 SC just the standard 3.8's. The look like a bear though, just waiting to make you use band-aids.
What about transmissions/transaxles? Can we add that to the question and make it a 2 part deal?
J-bodies are really bad. especially the v-6's. I know that there was a thread on this earlier, but since I have worked on two more. It sucks ass to have to bust up your elbow shoulder wrist's and knuckles and still no be able to reach the bolt. I am not to fond of 3.8 fords either.
The 3.8 in my cougar. It is easy to work on, but it feels like I am wasting my money. It's a reliable engine, but it has no marbles :dunno: . I hate to buy parts for the 3.8 when I could be using that money towards a 5.0.
for cars, i have to say the 3.8L SC, and the LT1's in the 93-97 camaros/firebirds
as for anything else, the refrideration units on larger straight body trucks are a BITCH, single cylinder diesel engine pretty much tucked behind plastic, metal, rubber, bubble gum and anything else you can think of
Tbird232, I know whatya mean about the LT1 engines, had to put a water pump on one in my 94 Caprice, it wasn't the 5.7 version, it was the 4.3 liter version, but same thing on the outside, man, I hate that shaft drive water pump...what was GM thinkin? :dunno: :screwy:
Actually Duramax Diesels (the Isuzu built versions) are my lest favorite at the moment.
Anyone wanting to add a transmition they hate feel free.
The Fwd Transaxel on a cadillac northstar V8 comes to mind.
I gotta transmission I well could do without, it's the M5 tranny,
most commonly found in newer Ford trucks with the 302...my 92 has the thing, and it is a pos....Mazda built, I may add...it shouldn't hve been used in even a Ranger, let alone a half ton...they only put em behind 302s, if you have a 351 windsor with a stick tranny, it's either a 3/4 ton with a ZF trans. or it's been swapped into the truck.No 1/2 ton trucks ever came from the factory with a 5.8 and a stick...
My dad 2000 Chevy Venture is pain in the a$$ to do engine maintenance....
I cant even have a full acess to the battery. Even if i remove the fuse box over it....
The Chevy 3.4 DOHC and the Ford Duratec V6 (when mounted in a Contour or Cougar) come readily to mind, as does the Isuzu 1.6 DOHC turbo when mounted in an AWD Impulse
I remember being under the hood of a 1983 Subaru GL Wagon. What a pain that was.
Chris
My cousin has an 80 Turbo Trans Am. Nothing is easy. The oil filter fits in such a way that you have to bend the old one to get it out and hammer the new one before you can start twisting it into place. To fill the motor with oil, you have to remove the air cleaner assembly to get to the oil fill tube. Three belts all of which have a specific order to go on. To take the third belt off you have to remove the first two. There is no way of changing plugs without cutting yourself.
then you obviously havnt had to change an opti-spark
basically, its a a distributor like device, mounted under the water pump...making it pr0ne to failures, hard to change plug wires, and harer to change the unit itself
lumina Z34 was the worst i ever had the missfortune of working on.i didthe tranny in one with a tune up as well.that was the first and the last i will ever work on
The 246cc Sohc from my Suzuki Quadrunner.....very big engine in very small displacement and its really hard to take apart the engine from the trans (its one piece only)......
(http://usuarios.lycos.es/racingtrykes/almacen/Cougar.jpg)
I second the LT1's. I had to do head gaskets, plugs, wires, opti_spark, and a clutch on a '94 Z28 Camaro. The worst part were getting the exhaust manifolds off! DSMs aren't much fun to work on either.
Nick
i hate the Dodge Caravans with the 3.0 L, changing plugs is a hassle.
I'm sorry to say this but, if you think the mitsu 3.0L SOHC is bad you got another thing comming. Those are acutally fairly easy engines to fix. The trick to the back three plugs in those is to remove the air filter box (all snap in fasteners) and change then from above. (not below as a manuel would suggest.)
my least favorite to work on is the 2.5 DOHC v-6 in those blasted mazda cougars. took almsot 2 hours to change an alternator once :shoothead
and changing the exhaust manifolds was an all day job it seemed like.
I have a '88 Grand Prix with a 2.8 v6 that I drive to work. Its' a POS so I get to work on it quite often. Some very poor designs on that thing...and I hate working on most FWD vehicles. I really dislike the car but it does get almost 30mpg :)
Ford/Yamaha 3.0/3.2 DOHC V6 as seen in Taurus SHO's. Remove upper intake to do the rear plugs? No thanks.
The Saab/Opel/Saturn/Catera V6 is another sweetheart. It comes in 2.5 liters or 3.0 liters, and you'll never guess how they decide what block gets bored to what displacement (this info is from a GM engineer that taught us courses the engine during GM training): They inspect the raw casting, and if the bores are straight enough it gets poked to 3.0 liters. If they're too crooked, it gets a smaller bore to 2.5 liters.
It gets worse. Everyone knows that some engines are interference engines, meaning that when the timing belt or chain breaks the pistons whack the valves and pandemonium ensues. Even our basic 5.0's are interference engines. With that Opel-designed monstrosity, however, if you break a timing belt the intake and exhaust valves tangle with each other - they come off their seats and jam against each other. Then the piston comes up and whacks the lot of them. The problem is so bad that Saab offered a lifetime warranty on the timing belts. Every 30k miles you could take the car and get it done for free. I've never seen one break, but the engineer told us that should one break it's certain death for a $20,000 (CDN) engine!!!
Of course a 6.5 turbodiesel in a G-van is another nightmare (I haven't had the pleasure of working on the Isuzu diesel, so I don't know if it's any better, but my experience with gasoline Isuzu engines would indicate the Duramax is a pile of shiznit as well).
The Northstar, while one of my favourite GM engines merely because it is one of the only modern engines in the GM lineup, can be a nightmare where it's so tightly packed into that FWD chassis. I had to replace head gaskets in one once and it was not enjoyable.
Anything with the distributor on the back of the engine! lol
Most FWD... J-Bodies take the cake. *puke* removing the exhaust to replace the thermostat... yuck! heater core hoses??? *eeewww* belt tensioner.... why??? the only bright side is i know how to repair them blind so i'll prolly buy another. *sigh*
Then my mom's 99 Hyundia Sonata. That thing eats spark plug wires! And removing the intake just to check them (rear) is not something i'm quite fond of doing. >.<***
Optispark, plugs, and wires on an LT1 Camaro. We were about 4 hours into it, and a friend suggested it would be easier to drop the engine and tranny. We looked at each other for a few seconds, and said " what the hell." Needless to say, this was the perfect opportunity to put headers and exhaust on it. So I can honestly say I helped pull an engine to replace the plugs and wires.
Of my own personal vehicles the biggest pain in the backside had to be the 3.0 & 3.2 SHOs, on customer's cars, either the late model LS1s or any big block in a Shelby cobra(real or kit)