What is the hardest car to work on

the hell kinda question is that?

Rotories if you dont know anything about them. But in reality they are simpler than a piston engine.

Originally posted by Entreri33
Rotories if you dont know anything about them. But in reality they are simpler than a piston engine.

Cant they go up to like 20,000 RPM?

And what kind of car's have them, I know they used to drag race them, and I know their in rx7's

Originally posted by victimizati0n


Cant they go up to like 20,000 RPM?

And what kind of car's have them, I know they used to drag race them, and I know their in rx7's 20,000 no, BUT! they can rev well into the 10,000's and the cars that have them are all mazda rx7's the new rx8 as for drag racing i dunno but they were frequently used in lemans for there reliability (though they used more oil than a 2stroke lol)
GM also had a rotary program in the 70's i belive but they scrapped it

yes chevy was talking to wankel in the 70's about a rotary powered Corvette, but decided the engine used to much fuel, so mazda took wankel up on the offer.

Originally posted by SolTheHoelessPimp
yes chevy was talking to wankel in the 70's about a rotary powered Corvette, but decided the engine used to much fuel, so mazda took wankel up on the offer.

Actually, a number of companies were working on Wankel engines in the 1960s and early 1970s. Only NSU, Citroen and Mazda actually put them in cars (Suzuki put them in motorcycles), and Mazda's rotary cars were in production well before GM gave up on rotaries. Mercedes-Benz was another one of those companies toying with these engines.

I have heard that AMC had planned to use a wankel engine in the Pacer, but changed their mind to save money. Am I right?

As for hard to work on engines... Subaru's DOHC engines are a pain in the ass to change sparkplugs on, but that's really the only reason they're a pain in the ass. Toyota Corolla's the front wheel drive versions (excluding the corolla-tercel, which isn't really a corolla) Where the gas filter is an absolute pain in the ass to remove and replace - ugh!
But I haven't had more experience with cars other than Subaru and Yugo so I can't say too much.

yeah i would imagine horizontlly oposed engines would be hard to work on

Originally posted by 2strokebloke
I have heard that AMC had planned to use a wankel engine in the Pacer, but changed their mind to save money. Am I right?

Partially. AMC did design the Pacer to use a rotary engine. In the middle of development, GM (the planned supplier of Wankel engines to AMC) dropped the rotary engine project. AMC, now with no engine for their car, needed to redesign the Pacer to accept the AMC six-cylinder. It wasn't AMC's mind that changed.

now wouldent that be a bitch?

from what i've been around, anything that has a Lucas electrical system. :wink:

The Wankel engine was also considered for use in aircraft at one point. In a 2-rotor rotary engine, there are only 3 moving parts...the two rotors and the crank. Pretty damned amazing. Check out the huge section on www.howstuffworks.com about the rotory engine or hit up lycos. Friggin ingenious.

rotaries are the prefered engine in smaller planes for its light wieght nature.

10k rpm is very easy to attain.

the mazda rotary was used in only 1 le mans race that was 91 where it was immediatly banned from ever racing again when they swept 1st 2nd and 3rd place.

The rotary actually killed NSU.....they were too unreliable at the time, and the RO80, which used them, were relatively popular. New engines every 20000 miles wasnt uncommon, under warranty of course. And they went bankrupt. :shakehead

Lamboghini Urachos cause of the steering

any car.....
that when your working at night and you drop a tool or bolt and it never reaches the ground. That sucks and it always happens, even during daytime it takes forever to find one stupid socket that was eaten by your engine compartment? Just a few days ago i had to go by a new 10mm 1forth drive socket cause my grandpas 99 Camry ate it....Lol

vans. dont work on vans. especially if its a ford echonovan. dont do it

worst job would be cylinder head work or transmission swap. especially if its done in an econovan.

Fwd v6 Caravan: changing the rear spark plugs took like 3 hours. we took off the intake manifold. was not fun. but we did end up have ing the intake cleaned while it was out. cause it was filthy.

Just about anything new that's domestic. My friend has a 35 anniv Camaro and said that you actually had to drop the engine to get to the rear 2 spark plugs because they were under the dash. All that just to change the plugs and/or wires! Think that they might just be trying to make work for the dealerships......??? :uhoh: Another guy I knew had a new Ford Taurus SHO. He went hunting for the plugs and couldn't even find the things...told him you probably had to remove the engine cover thing to get to them....I was right.

However...changing the alternator in my 86 300ZX was fun...not too horrible, though.

Hey nice 300zx looks like it can haul ass.

Thank you very much. I'm sure it does....I just wish it was mine...

econovan = no

I couldn't imagine working on one of those things....or a Toyota Previa...Seems like a nightmare.

Simply Put...fiat !

Simply Put...fiat !

Which models? The older ones, like the 128 were very easy to work on. The sparkplugs, distributor, oil filter, were all at the front of the engine and easy to get at.

Any turbocharged Porsche, specifically the 930, 964 Turbo and 931. :grinno:

The MGF/TF is pretty hard for the DIY'er as even a spark plug change means dumping the engine on the floor I beleive as it's mid engine configureation doesn't give you any access.

Simply Put...fiat !

My Dad, who used to be a mechnaic, always the Fiat 127 was the hardest car he ever worked on due to the compact rear engine, and I'm sure our Toyota Estima Lucida minivan wouldn't be too easy to work on either, with the engine under the front seats ...

http://www.auto-italia.com/FiatLanc/images/1273.jpg

Lotus Elise - hard to get close to the engine bay and no space around the engine, you have to put it on a ramp to do anything!

My Dad, who used to be a mechnaic, always the Fiat 127 was the hardest car he ever worked on due to the compact rear engine, and I'm sure our Toyota Estima Lucida minivan wouldn't be too easy to work on either, with the engine under the front seats ...

http://www.auto-italia.com/FiatLanc/images/1273.jpg

The 127 was a front engined, front wheel drive car. I think your dad meant the 126, which was rear engined.

Lotus Elise - hard to get close to the engine bay and no space around the engine, you have to put it on a ramp to do anything!
Just as the MGF as I said - but then, they are the same engine, lol

toyoda minivans with the mid rear comfiguration you have to take out the seats to even do anything with it its also a huge pain in the ass to redo the master cyl you habe to take apart the entire dash

I have worked on tons of cars vans and trucks.
at #3 the Porsche 928SC
at #2 the Maserati Biturbo
and the number one PITA car to work on in my book is the
Jaguar XJ12 :banghead:

As far as which car is the hardest to work on it depends on what you know and which car you are used to working on. For instance you take a Jag to a Mercedes tech he would say it's hard becasue he dosn't know how all the systems work and same goes for the otherway around. SO what it all depends on it what you see the most. AS far as off the street do it yourselfer trying to diag why there navigation dosn't work correctly that could be any car so you really have to be more specific than such a broad question.

Jaguar XJS...why didn't they design the front clip like the E type (where the whole clip flips forward). Heck even Chevy figured that one by 1984 for the vette.

I bet the 6cyl is easier but man did they shoehorn that 12 in there. no room at all!