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QCGoose

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Honorable mention is the Dodge Viper engine in the 4th gen (2008) for having VVT on an OHV engine. And then again in 2013 for the 5th gen when they had VVT on both the exhaust and intake lobes. It took a few more years for GM to pull it off with the LT1.
Actually GM pulled it off first with the old 3.9L OHV V6 used in the Pontiac G6 GTP (and maybe a couple other FWD cars, I can't remember) before replacing it with the DOHC 3.6L that they eventually put in everything.

As far as I recall, that 3.9 was the first cam-in-block engine with variable valve timing.
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CrashOverride

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I stand corrected, thank you QCGoose. Perhaps it was the first non V8, not sure. I seem to remember Dodge making a pretty big deal about it. In Dodge's case though, they really just used Mechadyne to make the magic happen.
 

CrashOverride

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I dug into it a bit more, and I think it was a bit of marketing spin on Dodge's part because they did advertise it as being first. Here's what I found out:

More significant, however, is that it is also the first production pushrod-valve engine with truly variable valve timing (VVT)—on the exhaust valves. Using a phaser on a camshaft-within-a-camshaft design (Mahle's CamInCam), the V10 can change exhaust valve timing up to 45° vs. intake valve timing, although only 36° actually are used.

This compares with General Motors' simpler VCT (variable cam timing) on 3.5- and 3.9-L V6 engines, in which a phaser on a single solid shaft changes timing equally on both intake and exhaust lobes.
Link

Note they call out Mahle, but I had read from Dick Winkles, the Viper Powertrain Engineer, that it was MechaDyne. I might be mistaken, and Mechadyne might have only been for the 5th gen. Here is their blurb about it.
 

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I loved the willingness of the S65 in my M3. 8400+ RPMs out of a screaming V8 is glorious. On the other spectrum, dropping the clutch and letting hamsters go in my 2.0L WRX was hysterical. It would pull off the line like no other car I've owned, with a simple tune and 3" exhaust.
 

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Actually GM pulled it off first with the old 3.9L OHV V6 used in the Pontiac G6 GTP (and maybe a couple other FWD cars, I can't remember) before replacing it with the DOHC 3.6L that they eventually put in everything.

As far as I recall, that 3.9 was the first cam-in-block engine with variable valve timing.
My 2013 Camaro SS with the L99 motor had VVT since it was introduced in 2010. I'm not sure if that was the first GM V8 to have it but it might have been. Stock the motor sucked due to the AFM cylinder deactivation. Tuned it was a nasty beast and some folks did just SS1 VVT CAM and it put the car into the 11's.

I tuned mine and it became a different animal so I'll rate it number 2 behind the glorious Coyote. :)
 

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CrashOverride

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I looked into it and as far as I can see, GM had VVT in the L76 (Vortec Max 6000) which could be had as early as 2007 in their trucks. I'm not sure if it was the 1500's, 1500HD or 2500's though. According to Summit Racing, it had a phaser that advanced or retarded the entire cam up to 62 degrees. The LT1 and I think the gen-4 viper engine did this the same way. The 5th gen viper engine actually had a cam in a cam, so not only could you phase the entire cam as with earlier systems, but you can also change the duration. I think that is the big deal that Dodge was making.

My Ram/Hemi has AFM/DOD/MDS (Whatever you want to call it) and it's terrible, aftermarket exhaust sounds terrible. Some guys pay a tuner to turn it off, or pull the intake manifold and run MDS eliminators.

I think the Coyote and LS are both amazing engines, but in different ways. The Coyote for pushing tech pretty much to the limit, and the LS for putting about as much tech as you can, into a small/light/smart/cheap package.
 

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1) Coyote 5.0 V8 (Ford Mustang) - Impressive rev range, good exhaust sounds, decent mileage for what it is, good aftermarket support.
2) 1.9 ALH I4 (VW Jetta and Golf) I've never seen a motor have the durability of this little diesel engine. VW hit a homerun with this motor. Some of these cars made it 600k+ miles on the original motor. Oh, they are also capable of 50 mpg+.
3) 4.0 I6 (Jeep XJ and ZJ) - Stout motor with high durability. Huge aftermarket support and easy to work on.
4) 4.3 V6 (Chevy Blazer) - Stout motor with high durability. I guess that's because it's basically a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off.
 

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1. 3.5 VQ. This gem was in my 2002 Nissan Altima SE, and combined with a 5-speed, it was a tire shredder. Too much engine for FWD and MT, unless you have TREMENDOUS restraint, which I didn't.
2. 2.3 Ecoboost - In my '18 Mustang. Astounding power for a 4-cylinder.
3. 2.0 Ecoboost - Makes a Ford Focus really entertaining. I'm on my 3rd ST.
4. 3.0 Mitsubishi - Had this smooth operator in my '93 Plymouth Sundance 5-speed. Not a powerhouse by today's standards, but loved to rev, and surprised a lot of people at stoplights. Never a problem in 4 years / 74,000 miles.
 

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CrashOverride

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1. 3.5 VQ. This gem was in my 2002 Nissan Altima SE, and combined with a 5-speed, it was a tire shredder. Too much engine for FWD and MT, unless you have TREMENDOUS restraint, which I didn't.
2. 2.3 Ecoboost - In my '18 Mustang. Astounding power for a 4-cylinder.
3. 2.0 Ecoboost - Makes a Ford Focus really entertaining. I'm on my 3rd ST.
4. 3.0 Mitsubishi - Had this smooth operator in my '93 Plymouth Sundance 5-speed. Not a powerhouse by today's standards, but loved to rev, and surprised a lot of people at stoplights. Never a problem in 4 years / 74,000 miles.
Yeah the VQ engine has probably been in Ward's 10 Best engines longer than most engines out there. It was a great design for sure. I had one in a 350z a long time ago. Probably the most exotic-sounding engine I've ever owned. Nissan actually placed aural quality into the design for the engine. I know that once they pushed it up to 3.7 (And higher) sizes, magazines started to complain about it being rough sounding though. I know with my 350z, because of the hood, they had to angle the intake manifold so the plenum volume near the front two cylinders was less than the plenum volume near the rear two cylinders (Yes they all shared the same plenum though). People got a decent bump in performance simply by using a spacer between the plenum halves to give the front two cylinders more room to breathe. I'm not positive on this, but Nissan made a big deal when the VQ came out about the micropolished bores. I'm not sure if it was the first engine to have that or not. To be honest, I had always heard that you wanted the bores to be rough on purpose to help break-in the rings, but perhaps that wasn't needed with the VQ. I had the VQDE engine, not the VHR, which was even better and revved more. But it was a nice engine.

3L Mitsu...I remember going to a dealer back then in the late 80's/early 90's and the salesman wanted to show how smooth the engine was. With it running, he took a nickel, turned it on it's side and balanced it between the ridges on the intake manifold and it just sit there. Today, that's no big deal, but back then that was an impressive feat. Not all cars had PFI at the time...
 

CrashOverride

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1) Coyote 5.0 V8 (Ford Mustang) - Impressive rev range, good exhaust sounds, decent mileage for what it is, good aftermarket support.
2) 1.9 ALH I4 (VW Jetta and Golf) I've never seen a motor have the durability of this little diesel engine. VW hit a homerun with this motor. Some of these cars made it 600k+ miles on the original motor. Oh, they are also capable of 50 mpg+.
3) 4.0 I6 (Jeep XJ and ZJ) - Stout motor with high durability. Huge aftermarket support and easy to work on.
4) 4.3 V6 (Chevy Blazer) - Stout motor with high durability. I guess that's because it's basically a 350 with 2 cylinders chopped off.
The 4.3L is also used by Mercury Marine and Volvo as well I believe for their I/O drives. While not the most technologically advanced engines out there, they are quite reliable. I had one in a blazer, I think we got about 160k miles out of it. At some point though we started to get some "glitter" with the oil so it found a new home. Used it to ironically pull a boat with a Mercruiser 5L v-8 in it.

A buddy and I were out being dumb with his XJ with the 4.0L engine. We flipped it 3 times, landing on the drivers side. I'll be darn, the engine was still happily running even though we were sideways. Not even sure how it kept getting gas. I just remember after the world stopped turning, looking over at my buddy and saying "Yeah, you should probably turn that off" LOL. Seat belts save lives in this case. Walking out through a windshield we kicked out was definitely a different experience...I had a different blazer with a 2.8L v6, which wasn't great in the S10 blazer TBI configuration. It couldn't come anywhere near the 4L I-6. The Commanche's with that engine were quick little buggers!
 
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Ebm

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The 4.3L is also used by Mercury Marine and Volvo as well I believe for their I/O drives. While not the most technologically advanced engines out there, they are quite reliable. I had one in a blazer, I think we got about 160k miles out of it. At some point though we started to get some "glitter" with the oil so it found a new home. Used it to ironically pull a boat with a Mercruiser 5L v-8 in it.

A buddy and I were out being dumb with his XJ with the 4.0L engine. We flipped it 3 times, landing on the drivers side. I'll be darn, the engine was still happily running even though we were sideways. Not even sure how it kept getting gas. I just remember after the world stopped turning, looking over at my buddy and saying "Yeah, you should probably turn that off" LOL. Seat belts save lives in this case. Walking out through a windshield we kicked out was definitely a different experience...I had a different blazer with a 2.8L v6, which wasn't great in the S10 blazer TBI configuration. It couldn't come anywhere near the 4L I-6. The Commanche's with that engine were quick little buggers!
I had a Blazer with just a little over 200k miles and it was still chugging along. I didn't have many issues from the 4.3 out of the Blazer. I had lots of suspension issues out of the Blazer though.

I currently own an XJ with the 4.0 with about 220k miles on the thing. They just keep on running. Only downside is I've had to fix a few leaks, nothing too serious though. During Cash for Clunkers, I believe they fill er up with liquid glass to kill the engine permanently. Well the 4.0 ran for an impressive amount of time on liquid glass before it met its demise. A testament that these engines can take lots of abuse before they die. Your story as well of course.
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