• From: Land Of Subarus, Colorado
  • Registered: 2009-04-30
  • Posts: 9,416

Topic: Longest production run of any engine?

I've been working on doing a TTAC post about the engines with the longest production runs, but it proved impossible for me to get the numbers accurate enough to satisfy TTAC's legions of super-anorak stats fanatics (just try to figure out Lycoming aircraft engines, for example, and I'm sure several Chinese factories are still making copies of the Nissan copies of the BMC A, and so on) so I just posed it as a debate topic for the readers. I figure Lemons racers probably know even more engine trivia than TTAC readers, so y'all are encouraged to join in the debate.

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  • From: Iowa
  • Registered: 2010-04-20
  • Posts: 2,660

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

VW H4?

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  • From: New Orleans, LA
  • Registered: 2009-05-16
  • Posts: 635

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

Judge Phil wrote:

I've been working on doing a TTAC post about the engines with the longest production runs, but it proved impossible for me to get the numbers accurate enough to satisfy TTAC's legions of super-anorak stats fanatics (just try to figure out Lycoming aircraft engines, for example, and I'm sure several Chinese factories are still making copies of the Nissan copies of the BMC A, and so on) so I just posed it as a debate topic for the readers. I figure Lemons racers probably know even more engine trivia than TTAC readers, so y'all are encouraged to join in the debate.

Chevrolet straight-6? In production since 1929, variant still made in Brasil.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrole … t-6_engine

-Tom

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Re: Longest production run of any engine?

pennintj wrote:
Judge Phil wrote:

I've been working on doing a TTAC post about the engines with the longest production runs, but it proved impossible for me to get the numbers accurate enough to satisfy TTAC's legions of super-anorak stats fanatics (just try to figure out Lycoming aircraft engines, for example, and I'm sure several Chinese factories are still making copies of the Nissan copies of the BMC A, and so on) so I just posed it as a debate topic for the readers. I figure Lemons racers probably know even more engine trivia than TTAC readers, so y'all are encouraged to join in the debate.

Chevrolet straight-6? In production since 1929, variant still made in Brasil.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrole … t-6_engine

-Tom

3 different generations 3 different engines.  All straight 6 but not all the same motor.

The VW H4 seems logical 1938 to Present (if we go by the rules that aftermarket manufacture still counts)   I do waiver a bit on the principle as stated above that they did change the motor through the years so they could be considered different.  But the design is the same on all of them just enhanced not full redesigns as the Chevy I6 went through.

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  • From: DFW Metromess
  • Registered: 2009-10-30
  • Posts: 279

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

What are the rules?  My hot-rod buds tell me you can buy a brand-new flathead Ford V8 from aftermarket reproduction and re-engineered parts right now.

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Re: Longest production run of any engine?

The basic Chevy small-block is still mass-produced, by GM itself, as a crate engine.

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7 Reply by Serj (edited by Serj 2010-12-19 01:27 AM)

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Re: Longest production run of any engine?

edit; nevermind what i originally had posted; the TTAC article prohibits boat and motorcycle motors.

  • From: Charleston, SC
  • Registered: 2009-08-08
  • Posts: 466

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

I would venture the Iron Duke Chrysler motors or the Ford 2.3 family of motors...

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  • From: Choctaw, Oklahoma
  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 2,145

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

-71 series Detroit Diesels went into production in 1938 and officially ended in the 1980s. I know DD still produces replacement cylinder heads in Mexico, but I don't know if they're still making blocks. I might be able to find out more today.

  • From: Houston, Tx
  • Registered: 2009-08-24
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Re: Longest production run of any engine?

AMC 6 is a pretty long running engine.  First produced in '64, they basically changed only deck height and stroke until 2006 when they quit making them.  Heads were reworked in the late '80s to make the HO version.  Still making them in China.

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11 Reply by EriktheAwful (edited by EriktheAwful 2010-12-20 08:00 PM)

  • From: Choctaw, Oklahoma
  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 2,145

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

Couldn't find a part number for a -71 series block in the manual at work. Seeing as how the core charge is almost 5 figures, I think they're out of production. That's only about 45 years.

  • Registered: 2009-05-31
  • Posts: 46

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

Chrysler Flathead Six.

Introduced 1924, modified in the early '30s, still in production as an industrial engine.

13 Reply by dmoon (edited by dmoon 2010-12-21 03:41 PM)

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Re: Longest production run of any engine?

Famously unreliable source Wikipedia says:

Except for the Chevrolet Small-block V8 and Lamborghini V12, the Rolls-Royce/Bentley V8 is the longest-lived engine currently in production today.   From a standpoint of usage in currently sold vehicles, the 6.75 litre engine is the second oldest engine produced (after the Lamborghini V12, 1963-2010), given that the production of Chevrolet small-block engines is relegated to sale as crate engines, and the replacement GM LS engine is dynamically unrelated to the classic Chevy engine (though the Chevrolet 90-Degree V6 engine is directly related to the original small block, and is still in production).

Even if that is correct, it probably doesn't answer the "longest production run" question.

  • From: Boulder, CO
  • Registered: 2010-11-12
  • Posts: 602

Re: Longest production run of any engine?

dmoon wrote:

Famously unreliable source Wikipedia says:

Except for the Chevrolet Small-block V8 and Lamborghini V12, the Rolls-Royce/Bentley V8 is the longest-lived engine currently in production today.   From a standpoint of usage in currently sold vehicles, the 6.75 litre engine is the second oldest engine produced (after the Lamborghini V12, 1963-2010),...

I'll second Wikipedia's nomination (even though it might not meet the standard of the question as worded), not only because the Lambo engine is still so impressive today 50 years later, but mainly because it was their first engine design which makes it amazing they got it so right with their first shot:

he Lamborghini V12 is a sixty degree (60°) V12 petrol engine designed by Lamborghini, and was the first internal combustion engine ever produced by the firm.

It first entered production in 1963, in 3.5 litre form, displacing 3,465 cubic centimetres (211.4 cu in), in the Lamborghini 350GT - the first car ever produced by the carmaker. The latest 6.5 litre version is used in all currently produced Lamborghini Murciélago models.

-Victor