rsmith2786

Im not a GM guy by any means but i do have some respect for them. Im a honda owner and i used to trash talk GM like almost every other Honda owner until i actually worked with some GM products. I did an internship for Mercury Marine where i primarily worked on supercharged 4 and 6 cylinder outboards but i was also involved with the competitive analysis and testing of many other engines. I tore down and tested dozens of marine and automotive engines including Suzuki's, Honda's(both marine and auto), Yamaha's Tihatsu's Mercury's Audi's / VW's, GM's and many others.

In a marine application the engine is under high load throughout the majority of its use unlike an automotive engine. In a car you may hammer on it to get up to speed but then there is very little load when your cruising. In a boat you hammer on it to get up to speed and then run it wide open for sometimes HOURS. GM engines may be a bitch to work on (i haven't worked on many to know) but i do know from experience that they build a damn tough and reliable engine. These things went through hell and back with no complaints. I'm talking testing 600 hours at WIDE OPEN THROTTLE AND FULL LOAD with only oil changes. Any idea how much fuel that consumes? Well, thats a different story(Its unrelated to this discussion but with the supercharged high output V8's the $100k price tag of the engine was nothing compared to the fuel cost over its life) . For comparison lets say a Chevy 350 gets 20 miles to the gallon in a half ton truck...just an estimate....in a boat it might get 2 miles per gallon. That gives you an idea of the load on the engine. I think most people who trash talk GM are just jumping on the bandwagon although I'm sure a few might have actual bad experiences.

Also when doing tear downs i was always impressed with the newer GM engines. I worked with an LS6 for an extended period of time and i really like that engine. I also did a tear down on a new Chevy Colorado 4 cylinder and was really impressed with the quality of design and construction. I have no idea how fun it was to drive or anything but it was a well thought out piece featuring a lost foam head and block.



Ill say it again....I'm no GM lover but after working with them I've got respect. Im not saying GM is great but i think they get a lot more abuse than they really deserve. Just my opinion which is based purely off of the engine, not the vehicle as a whole.

BigD

Yeah they had it on the news a little bit ago. Said he has done like 300 oil changes, 5 transmissions, and some other crap. Said the motor is original though.

t_cel_t

i work in the delivery/courier business and its not that rare for our trucks to get to 700,000mi+ and then they sell them off to the public. granted they were dodges and the motors had like no compression left, somehow they rode smooth as glass. the key is to make long trips without shutting them off, just like tractor trailers, they may run for months strait between service

crxcess

tractor trailers do that all the time.

45psi

confucious say: cold motor < warmed up motor

89shithatch

i agree. any vehicle that takes long trips instead of inner city driving always seems to last longer. constant stop and go is hard on engines in the long run. my s10 is about to hit 200k. and its been almost all interstate driving. i expect 300,000 out of it.

nascarfan

yea who cares how old it is its a gm......
gay post

J-SMITH69

ricer

hotrex

our 85 f350 mason dump at work has 617k on it, 6.9l non turbo diesel

and almost every site truck has over 300k all fords.

we beat the ------- ---- out of them too

turbo dave

woah hotrex your alive? i thought you were a legend when i joined...