Best? My list
292 and 250 straight 6
3.8l V6
283 and 327 SB
396 and 427 BB
Worst
4.2l v6

 

That would have been the 3.1, they had lot's of issues with dexcool and the head gaskets. My brother had the issue in his Bonneville also.

 

Worst:
'79 200 V6(Malibu w/3sp man.)
Best:
Tie
'70 Buick Stage 1 455(swap '82 Buick Regal w/TH350 auto)
'04 LS1(GTO w/6sp man.)

 

1981 CHEVY CAMARO 231 CID V6 (BUICK NOT CHEVY ENGINE) 300,000 MILES with no problems with engine. Drove that thing into the ground for 14 years until I got T-boned.

 

I believe GM tried their hand at some sort of quasi diesel engine on the Caprice and/or Impala station wagons sometime in the late 70's. Knew a couple people that bought them and was given the impression they were the worst.

 

Yea, they tried a 350 diesel conversion. I believe it was an Old's motor. They were plagued with problems and most ended getting swapped out with a gas motor. BUt a few went to a reman diesel unit and I hear those mostly are still running.

 

Worst was the engines that they used in the Vega. I was stupid enough to have 2 of them.

Does anyone know what that engine was?

By the time I got rid of my 1st one it was burning a qt of oil a day! Of coarse I used the expensive stuff (30W non-detergent). At lease I didn't have to do oil changes as the oil was fresh every 4 days

Past best engine was the 350 SB, but I am really taking a liking to this 2.0 LNF!

Honorable mention would have to be the 454 BB for towing since GM never had a good diesel until the duramax. Although I'm glad I don't have it now with fuel prices.

 

best: 5.7L 350, 2.2 ecotec, 4.3L vortech V6

worst:vortech I5, drove a colorado that had it in it and it suck ass, sounded terrible. barely no getup and go.

 

Most Vegas were equipped with a new lightweight aluminum block 2.3 L "2300" SOHC I4. The standard engine used either a single-barrel carburetor which for 1971 produced 80 net or 90 gross horsepower. The two-barrel version of the 1971 engine produced 90 net or 110 gross horsepower. Starting in 1972, the manufacturers no longer published gross (on a test stand) figures. Also, from 1972 on, tightening emissions regulations meant that the one-barrel engine produced about 70 net horsepower. The two-barrel option boosted output to around 85 hp (63 kW). Early two-barrel engines used a Rochester carburetor, which was later replaced by a Holley-built 5210C staged two-barrel (one primary and one secondary), based on a Weber design.

Vega engines become infamous for their lack of durability which was often associated with their use of weight-saving aluminum cylinder blocks with cast iron heads. These blocks did not have traditional iron cylinder sleeves as a cost-saving measure[1], instead, a wear surface was created on the aluminum cylinder bores using the Nikasil coating process. This approach was not generally successful, the harder iron cylinders slowly wore away the aluminum block allowing hot combustion gases to bypass the piston seals, leading to premature engine failure. The block itself was designed in partnership with Lotus, who planned to use it as the basis for a inexpensive racing engine. However, Lotus never used the Vega block or anything similar. The high tech aluminum block had cast iron main caps, a cast iron crank, and an enormous cast iron cylinder head that weighed almost as much as the whole short block. The tall, top heavy, long-stroke Vega motor had major vibration problems, "cured" with huge rubber motor mounts. With the hood open and the engine idling, "it would be rocking and bouncing around like it was trying to escape." [2] Early models overheated due to poor cooling passage design. Overheating was a serious concern for Vega engines, since the lightweight engine block was of an open-deck design, and severe overheating would cause the cylinder barrels to warp and pull away from the head gasket, causing coolant leaks into the cylinders. The 2300 engine typically burned oil due to both heavy cylinder wear[3] [4], and poorly designed valve stem seals, and was both rough and noisy in operation. To try to counter low oil pressure-related failures, Chevrolet designed the Vega with an in-tank electric fuel pump which was wired through the oil pressure sender, so that low oil pressure would cause the fuel pump to shut off, stopping the engine. Also, for 1975, Chevrolet added a coolant level sensor in the right-hand radiator tank, which turned on a warning light if the coolant level dropped below a quart below full. The engine only lasted a few years, with a horrible service record, while Chevrolet claimed the service problems (scored cylinders, scored walls) were mostly due to improper maintenance.

 

Thanks Old Lar, that is very interesting!
My 1st one burned oil so bad that I went to the junk yard and bought an old windshield washer pump/reservoir and mounted it to the firewall, then ran a tube from the pump into a hole I made in the oil cap. When the oil light came on do to low oil level, I would flip a switch under the dash and let it pump about a quart of oil back in until the light would stay off
I guess that was what one would call Jerry rigging.
It was my 1st car and all I could afford, so the pump kept me going a couple of years until I bought my 2nd Vega that only burned about a qt every 500 miles or so