I swear, I'm only buying cars with in-line engines from now on, like my wonderful W123. So easy to work on.

Rant: I had to change the spark plugs on my daughter's Malibu yesterday, with the transverse V6 and front-wheel drive. Bastard offspring of GM and Satan. (the Malibu, not my daughter). Here they have a car that measures about 13 feet long x 5 feet wide and what do they do? Shove the engine, trans, axles, and everything else in a 2ft x 3 ft. area so you can't access anything. It took me 3 hours and I scraped up my hands something awful getting at the rear spark plugs.

Every car I ever owned that had a straight engine was just a joy to work on. A couple of BMW 6's come to mind, plus an Alfa, Fiat, TR-6 going back to the 70's. Plus isn't smoothness one of the supposed advantages of V-engines? All the straight-4 and 6 cars I've owned have run equally smooth in my opinion.

I sure hope some of these new diesels coming out will have in-line engines, and ideally longitudinal, although I guess I could live with transverse if I had to.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG

I'll chime in before this thread is moved to the open forum -

Replacing plugs on a transverse Chrysler 3.3 or 3.8 is a similar adventure. I don't know what it is with Detroit and sharp edges. I can send my hands behind a 603 IP and worst case I'll get it back a little dirtier than it went in. If I send my hand anywhere around a 3.3 I won't get it back in one piece.

It's odd to see later 'vettes and Camaros with mile long hoods yet half the engine is tucked under the windshield. WTF???

Sixto
87 300D

The Camaro and Firebird have an access panel in the Dash to allow you to get to the distributor....

Wow.

Jim

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14 E250 BlueTEC black. 45k miles
95 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 66k miles
94 E320 Cabriolet Emerald green 152k miles
85 300TD 4 spd man, euro bumpers and lights, 15" Pentas dark blue 274k miles

I liked my 400 ci and 455 ci engines in my 70's era Pontiacs. Lots of room under the hood, like our w123's.

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Geez you whiners. I've been working on my Jag V-12 for years. You want something hard to work on, try that one. It takes a large amount
of Zen concentration to do anything on that car. It takes about 6 hours
to change the plugs. You can't get your hands close to anything without
taking several things off first. If you drop a tool in there, it's gone for good,lol. Everything on that car takes roughly 4x longer to accomplish.

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85 300TD FED-Daily
84 300SD-Wife's
86 XJS-Sunday
66 GMC-Work- Given to my stepson
83 BMW Airhead- Given to my stepson

I had a 1974 Jag XJ12L, last year of the carbureted V12. I dropped a crow's foot wrench in/onto the top of the engine while doing plugs or something and I never, ever found it.

Rgds,
Chris W.

In-line aways trumps the heat build up between the V.

I have 10 cars. All inline.

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80 300SD (129k mi) 82 240D stick (193k mi)77 240D auto - stick to be (153k mi) 85 380SL (145k mi) 89 BMW 535i 82 Diesel Rabbit Pickup (374k mi) 91 Jetta IDI Diesel (155k mi) 81 VW Rabbit Convertible Diesel 70 Triumph Spitfire Mk III (63kmi)66 Triumph TR4a IRS (90k mi)67 Ford F-100 (??)

Try working on a BMW 750I V12 there is 0 working space!!!!!

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Current Garage
2008 Mercedes GL320 CDI 188k mi Repair/Work in progress
1994 S350 160k mi Garage Queen & prepping for repairs
2005 E320 CDI 203k mi Healthy & Daily Driver
1994 S350 357k mi Retried as parts car
1984 300TD 214k mi Blown OM617 Poss OM603 Swap??

Sold
1987 300SDL 200K+
1994 S320 181K mi
2008 E320 Bluetec 127k mi
1999 S420 130K mi
1980 240D 360k mi
15+ Others that has come, stay and gone

GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
1995 E320 SE 220k mi
1984 300SD 350k mi

A Jimmy V12 (or 16) 71 series is a nice engine, as is the V12 (or 16) 149 series. Cat made some, IMO, better engines that were medium speed, V engines up to the 399, This is from the view point of running them, they have always, with rare exception, got me home I like my Cummins but I have respect for the "V"s.

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1985 Euro 240D 5 spd 140K
1979 240D 5 spd, 40K on engine rebuild
1994 Dodge/Cummins, 5 spd, 121K
1964 Allice Chalmers D15 tractor
2014 Kubota L3800 tractor
1964 VW bug

"Lifes too short to drive a boring car"

Instead of hating V engines, perhaps your hatred should go towards their placement in small compartments that aren't very DIY friendly?

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

A properly designed and packaged V engine is fine. Though, for some reason a few manufacturers are making 90 deg. V6's rather than 60 deg. This makes them sound somewhat gruff as well as deliver power with more vibration due to the firing.

V8's should be 90 deg. and V12's can be either.

For diesels, I'm definately partial to the inline.

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

I have three inline motors, much easier to work on.

I like my Cat 3208, liked my Olds 455 and don't have fond memories of the 948cc in-line 4 in my MG Midget. I also liked the 250 inline 6 in my Camaro and my 617's. My Fuso inline four 3.9L is beginning to endear itself to me.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

If I may be allowed to post in my own thread, I've always wondered how Buick's straight-8's ran. That was Buick's main engine I believe throughout the 1930's and 40's. I bet they had pretty good torque.

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'81 300CD - 180K, cannot be killed by any conventional means
'99 Ford Escort - good MPG