SteVTEC

The 3800 Series I engine had 160-ish hp and yeah that was a dog above 60 or 70 mph, but the Series II and above made 200hp at 5200rpm and had more than enough power, especially compared to the 190-200hp Japanese 3.0's of the time. And I thought it was turbine smooth for the most part, maybe become just a little more mechanical sounding above 5k.

Earlier Toyota 1MZ-FE engines had the oil sludge issue and needed timing belts, Nissan VQ's loved to go through knock and other sensors all the time requiring you to tear apart the top half of the engine, and the Honda J-series have been reliable but still to this day require timing belt and water pump changes at 100k miles when everybody else has gone to chains.

gengar

Bosch makes HPFPs for Porsche just like they made the unit that was widely deemed to be a significant contributing factor to the N54/335i problems. When suppliers make parts for so many different cars as is common in today's automotive world, there is always the chance that quality issues at a given supplier will affect multiple models.

EDIT: Just to be clear, I did not intend to imply that Bosch was responsible for the problems in the 335i. Given the number of people who replaced HPFPs (occasionally multiple times), I'm convinced there were multiple design flaws on BMW's part.

mmarshall

Actually, relatively few cars had turbos in 1984, at least compared to today. And, of course, engineers did not have much experience integrating turbos back then. There was long lag-time, short turbo-lives, and a number of special operating procedures (and oils) required. Even now, they still require some special sercice and operating procedures.....just less-so than in the past. The part that I disagree with, though, is that turbos are causing recent engine fires...from what I can tell, electronic gremlins, especially in the German makes, seem to be the main culprit.

natnut

One problem with the Ecoboost though, it's actual fuel economy is nowhere the EPA/claimed fuel economy. It might not have the turbo-lag but it's in reality slower and thirstier than a comparable larger normal aspirated engine :


There seems to be a trend where turbo/supercharged engines perform better on EPA rather than in reality.

spwolf

it really depends on specific engine/manufacturer.

Toyota AD diesels had issues with oil consumption due to the block design, as well as some injector issues and cat issues. But generally not turbo's or high pressure fuel pumps..

AD diesel issues have been probably the biggest unreliability issue that Toyota ever had in Europe (ZZ engines were 2nd), and yet Toyota still finishes 1st or 2nd in all these surveys... that just tells you how bad others are ;-). Cars with those engines are now backed with 8 year/115,000 miles warranties.

GS3Tek

iTrader: (8)

My limited exp. with german cars are their electronics/electrical stuff and everything else.... just no engine failures.
I don't fear their engine failures