Bad Engine design

[55chevr]

I vote for the Vega aluminum engine ... that was a real design set back for GM ... If you had an iron sleeve engine you could name your price.

[entropy]

..
MY 1980 CBX was BY FAR the worst POS i've owned.
Nightmare to work on

Sorry to hear you had difficulties working on it.
What particular part of working on it did you find being a "hightmare" ?

it sat in storage for a few years while i was overseas, crudded up carbs when i got back.  synching carbs was a pita.
but thinking it over, it was no worse than my ole Zx12.

[Seldom Seen Slim]

I agree -- synching the carbs on a ZX12 is a true bugger.

[octane]

..
MY 1980 CBX was BY FAR the worst POS i've owned.
Nightmare to work on

Sorry to hear you had difficulties working on it.
What particular part of working on it did you find being a "hightmare" ?

it sat in storage for a few years while i was overseas, crudded up carbs when i got back..

Sorry, no offence .... but if the owner neglects his machine to a point where he leaves it
for several years with gas in the carbs, it's hardly due to "bad engine design",
or the machine being a "..BY FAR the worst POS.." if the carbs crud up.

..synching carbs was a pita...

Yeah it's somewhat challenging to synch six carbs, but by no means is it a 'pita'
or a 'nightmare', and certainly no difficulties in it caused by any 'bad engine design'.
There really isn't much to it, just takes a bit of patience, just like it does with any other multi-carb engine.

Remove tank
Hook up longer fuel tube
Hook up vacuum gauge and adaptors
Run at idle and adjust so differencies in vacuum readings are within 1,6 inHg
using ( the non-adjustable ) cylinder 4, as fix point.
Recheck
...and recheck idle speed........job done


Again: no offence, but if one find that to be a "nightmare"
 on this "pos", "bad engine design'ed" machine it is due to
the self-inflicted crud'ing of the carbs not being adressed properly.

[floydjer]

How about "odd" design? The British built Lanchester used a horizontal opposed 2 cyl. with two counter rotating crankshafts and SIX connecting rods.

[RichFox]

Never had a six cylinder Honda. Thought they were very impressive looking. Never considered magazine test rides to be worth much.
No magazine ever tested a major advertisers new bike and didn't love it. But for loser engine designs, I have always been puzzled by any "F" head engine. Why didn't Willys just go to an OHV? Anyone here who can stand up and explane the "F" head to me?

[jimmy six]

I agree with you Rich, Car and Bike "testers" just love everything and are still doing it. The new Motor Trend show is a perfect example. They seem to love every $40-50K European car and in 5 years they are the biggest POS on the road and can be bought for a buck. Go figure

IMO F-head had to be $$ there is no other answer

[Bob Drury]

  Hey Rich, take it easy on Willy's, before the F head they used a reed valve design............. or was it a slide valve?
 At least they built the best Gasser body ever, the 1933-34 Willy's ( and not a bad follow up with the 40- 41 coupes............)  Bob

[entropy]

..
MY 1980 CBX was BY FAR the worst POS i've owned.
Nightmare to work on

Sorry to hear you had difficulties working on it.
What particular part of working on it did you find being a "hightmare" ?

it sat in storage for a few years while i was overseas, crudded up carbs when i got back..

Sorry, no offence .... but if the owner neglects his machine to a point where he leaves it
for several years with gas in the carbs, it's hardly due to "bad engine design",
or the machine being a "..BY FAR the worst POS.." if the carbs crud up.

..synching carbs was a pita...

Yeah it's somewhat challenging to synch six carbs, but by no means is it a 'pita'
or a 'nightmare', and certainly no difficulties in it caused by any 'bad engine design'.
There really isn't much to it, just takes a bit of patience, just like it does with any other multi-carb engine.

Remove tank
Hook up longer fuel tube
Hook up vacuum gauge and adaptors
Run at idle and adjust so differencies in vacuum readings are within 1,6 inHg
using ( the non-adjustable ) cylinder 4, as fix point.
Recheck
...and recheck idle speed........job done


Again: no offence, but if one find that to be a "nightmare"
 on this "pos", "bad engine design'ed" machine it is due to
the self-inflicted crud'ing of the carbs not being adressed properly.

I've been pissing off CBX owners regularly for years, looks like i'm still good at it.

I owned one for 12 years, put many, many miles on it, tried to like it, even thought i liked it for a while, but in retrospect hated it. 

Leaving it in storage was not my choice, went on a 2 mo assignment in Portugal that turned into 2 years.

In those days my MC love was twisties, but that POS with its spindly forks and bicycle sized rear tire put me on my ass 3 times, low sided it.

It looked cool, i'll give it that.

[octane]

I've been pissing off CBX owners regularly for years, looks like i'm still good at it.

LOL , no you aren't .
It's all cool.
Takes slightly more to p'ss me off.

Just giving the bike the credit
that it wasn't because it was a 'badly designed engine'
that you had troubles with the bike.

[MidTNJasonF.]

For the CBX Folks

[Milwaukee Midget]

Don't know that it was necessarily a bad design, but the 230 Jeep Tornado OHC 6 was, at best, an oddball.  Common lobes for both intake and exhaust, and a timing chain long enough to drive a Harley Hillclimber.

Yet another clever idea that fell away because the manufacturer lacked the resources to properly execute and support the product.

[fastman614]

Bad engine designs..... yes.... the intake design on the 50s Ford Y Blocks.... what would be the best flow rares that a good cylinder head porter could get from those?

And how about the siamesed exhaust ports on the center cylinders of Ford Flathead engines.... or all of the exhaust ports for that matter.... snaking around through the water jackets to the low side of the block..... and the amount of heat that got transferred into the cooling system.... they needed HUGE radiators and two water pumps.... (of course, a guy called Zora Arkus-Duntov came along and showed everyone a better way....)

As far as the Vega engines - they were something!.... I had picked up a 1975 Monza that had the inline 4 standard Vega engine a way back when.... the engine was junk and the car was cheap..... I had a 153 inch Chevy 4 cylinder from a 1964 Chev Handi-Van (and yes they DID use the Chevy II 4 bangers in the early Handi-Vans)... It was a real easy install... and, of course in 1977/1978 the Pontiac Astre's got a modern version of the same engine, the Vega/Astre names then disappeared. the Monza station wagons looked like Vegas, and the "NEW" 4 cylinder powerplant was the 1960s design Chevy 4 banger....

[4-barrel Mike]

Bad engine designs..... yes.... the intake design on the 50s Ford Y Blocks.... what would be the best flow rares that a good cylinder head porter could get from those?

Actually, I think you can get pretty good flow out of a head that went into production in 1954:

http://www.ford-y-block.com/porting.htm

It's the simple stuff that drives me crazy, like the fuel pump in an early SBC, or having the shim the starter to get proper mesh on the same engine.

Mike

[johnneilson]

It's the simple stuff that drives me crazy, like the fuel pump in an early SBC, or having the shim the starter to get proper mesh on the same engine.

Mike

Mike wasn't this caused by having different ring gears on flexplates and flywheels? I remember my Ex's pre-runner, she broke two Turbo 400 short tail transmissions. I then put in a 4 speed from a 5 ton truck. Then she tried to break my bank account.

John