Which engines are good for high milage?

otispunkmeyer

otispunkmeyer

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which type or maybe more specifically which engines produced to date are known to handle massive milage without needing or risking major work or loosing significant performance?

im guessing diesels are better at this than petrols?
 
Diesels are in general better at this than petrols. One of the reasons Taxis (well excluding the US) are usually Diesels, along with better MPG.
 
Mercedes W124 250D/300D. Not even a rare sight to see them running flawlessly with 500.000km and more. I read an article where the writer was in a cab in germany, W124 diesel....had over 1.000.000km on it, on the original engine.

Those old Merc diesels are some feats of engineering in that sense.
 
Most naturally aspirated Japaneses 4 pots will last forever. The Jeep i6 will last forever as well.
 
Honda four and one-cylinders (one-cylinders for bikes obviously), Toyota and Nissan truck fours, Chrysler inline-six, diesels (in particular VW diesels or Cummins diesels).
 
8V Volkswagen I4s (like those in the A1 Golf/Rabbit, and especially the diesels) can not only last for a long time, but put up with some pretty incredible abuse along the way. Only problem was the cars they were attached to were the exact opposite in that respect.

I will have to disagree about the American V8s lasting forever - in my experience, their reliability varies wildly, especially with engines built before about 1990 or so. I remember many years ago having the 305 in our family's 1988 Chevy Caprice crapping out after only 35,000 km, yet the replacement engine was good for more than 250,000 (it was still running almost like new when we sold the car).

argatoga said:
The Jeep i6 will last forever as well.
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They say that you can't kill a 4.0, only make it angrier. Remember, this is an engine that can somehow run happily without oil or coolant.
 
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Volvo 5cyls seem to last ages.
 
MrChips said:
They say that you can't kill a 4.0, only make it angrier. Remember, this is an engine that can somehow run happily without oil or coolant.
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Well the manual transmission mated to the XJs tend to kill them.

CrazyRussian540 said:
Volvo 5cyls seem to last ages.
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Too bad you can't say that about the cars that used them.
 
MrChips said:
I will have to disagree about the American V8s lasting forever - in my experience, their reliability varies wildly, especially with engines built before about 1990 or so. I remember many years ago having the 305 in our family's 1988 Chevy Caprice crapping out after only 35,000 km, yet the replacement engine was good for more than 250,000 (it was still running almost like new when we sold the car).
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The 305 was always the black sheep of the SBC family.
 
The Toyota 22R inline 4 is the first thing that comes to my mind. The SBC V8 would be second. But that's just my experience.

Lupin_IV said:
The 305 was always the black sheep of the SBC family.
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Can't run any good cylinder heads on it. :shrug:
 
International Harvester V8, if you can find one where the body hasn't disappeared into a pile of rust.

Otherwise, the Chevrolet small block is pretty bullet proof.
 
A Honda 4-cyl engine, IMHO.
 
Mercedes Benz OM606. My friend has a W124TD and he swapped a *new* engine to it at the beginning of the year.


The *new* engine he put in had done 690k km's, and is now running happily with upped boost with no problems at all :)
 
boganbusman said:
Mitsubishi Astron 2.6 (4G54)

Bloody horrible piece of junk <_<
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They had a pretty decent amount of torque for their class, though.

The CA20S (carburetor!) was pretty awful from time to time. My example has massive dead spots in the power band, fights you if you rev over 5000rpm and loves to drink fuel. That said, it's got a sweet torque curve at about 3k rpm when you pass the initial deadness...

But I'm surprised it hasn't died yet! I don't think I've actually let it warm up properly in about 10 months! I remember last year I accidentally mixed up the spark plug distributor leads (twin spark) and it ran a little funny for a while... :lol: I've got a feeling that effectively reversed the firing order of the cylinders (probably wrong in my limited knowledge there...)

Buick V6s are pretty strong if I'm not mistaken. They run for ages in Commodores over here. Same goes for the Ford Falcon I6s. It's got street cred because you can slap a whacking big laggy turbo on it!
 
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most engines which make less than 80bhp/liter will last for ages...
 
Nissan's QR25 and CA18 have proven to be not so great... but any Nissan VG or VQ V6 engine will run damn near forever. Likewise the KA24 and Z24 series Nissan four bangers. The Jaguar AJ16-series (not the earlier and related AJ6) inline six is also known to run 250K+ miles with ease.
 
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