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Take The American Engine Quiz!

Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
edited April 2014 in General
Let us know how you did and what tripped you up.

http://www.americantorque.com/game/engine-id/
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Comments

  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    8 of 17, and most of those were lucky guesses. I think I'd have done a lot better on a '70s-'90s Japanese version.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    I got 14 out of 17.

    I missed #3, #4, and #6. Honestly though, I wouldn't have guessed some of them if it wasn't multiple choice, so you at least know one of the four choices is correct. Fill-in-the-blank, and I would've done a lot worse.
  • fintailfintail Member Posts: 57,138
    I got the first 4 wrong, so I gave up :P :sick:

    I think I am ok at relating engine sizes to manufacturers, but when it comes to pictures, I'm not so good...many of them I have never really examined before in person.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Yeah I scored the same as you. I got the obvious ones but really I'm not into rods all that much.

    One thing I noticed. Most American engines are not that attractive. They are very agricultural and they sort of blend together in my mind.
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,704
    10/17 with several guesses - yes, a v8's a v8, unless it's a hemi...it's ironic that modern US engines, now with all the DOHC neat stuff, are covered with all those plastic sound reducers. Not much to look at.
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    The only ones I actually knew and got right were the two small-block Chevys toward the end, and only because I recognized the butterfly exhaust manifold from the LMC catalog. :P
  • lemmerlemmer Member Posts: 2,689
    Andre is clearly the winner here. Has anyone ever sent you the chest shots where you have to determine real or silicon? I am really good at that one.
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,303
    i got 11 out of 17, but like you, my score would have been lower if not multiple choice.
    over the weekend i saw a big old merc on a trailer with a y block magazine sticker on the side. if i had checked it out, i might have gotten 1 more.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • isellhondasisellhondas Member Posts: 20,342
    Just showing my age I suppose.
  • joe29001joe29001 Member Posts: 48
    16/17. Couldn't tell a 348 from a 409 (even with the dipstick clue).
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Me neither. I never liked either of those engines. They belong in trucks and I don't care if the Beach Boys wrote a song about one of them.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    I answered the 348 question correctly, purely on a hunch. They had already showed a 409 in an earlier question, and at first that one looked like another 409. So I figured it must be a trick question, and 348 was one of the answers, so I picked it.
  • joe29001joe29001 Member Posts: 48
    Not very attractive? Blend together?

    It's hard to believe, really. These engines (IMHO) have far more style than any OHC 4 cylinder covered in plastic.

    If the quiz included a bunch of modern powerplants, I think we'd see that (much like the cars) they all look quite similar, so much that (like the cars) they'd be hard to identify.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    I didn't say plastic covered engines were attractive either. American V8s look like something out of a tractor to me. Very heavy, crude castings, wiring, hoses, cabling all askew, etc. I mean, they GET THE JOB DONE, don't get me wrong, but compared to engines of that era from around the world, they seem like clumps of iron to me anyway.
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,704
    I guess my problem is, I remember hemis, small and big block Chevys, the 409/348, and a couple of Fords, but the buick/olds/pontiacs all blend together (ignoring the paint job).
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    When you're pumping out millions of engines, you don't have much time for artwork. I can't recall a truly beautiful American engine of any kind since the 1930s. I mean, you can glitz them up with chrome nuts and paint 'em pretty colors but the shapes and forms are pretty agricultural. Even a Packard straight-8 is like a log of iron. Maybe some of the Ford overhead cammers aren't too bad.
  • joe29001joe29001 Member Posts: 48
    I actually enjoy looking at agricultural engines (the old ones, anyways). Perhaps that's why I like these engines.
  • andre1969andre1969 Member Posts: 25,681
    but the buick/olds/pontiacs all blend together

    there's a couple tricks I learned with these engines, although it may not apply to older ones. For one, Buick engines tend to have the distributor up front. Olds and Pontiac engines have it in the back. The Olds V-8 has a really tall oil filler tube mounted at the front of the engine, making it easy to add oil, while the Pontiac's oil filler is in the valve cover. The Pontiac V-8 also has a reaaaally long upper radiator hose.

    One thing I can't remember...back when they used to paint the engines different colors, what color were the Olds engines? I remember Chevy engines being sort of an orange-red, Buicks more of a blood-red, and Pontiacs being light blue. I can't recall the Olds color, though. I guess at some point in the 70's they all just went to black, which is what my '76 LeMans 350 is.
  • joe29001joe29001 Member Posts: 48
    Buick distributors weren't always in the front. Check the nailhead in this quiz. Only the 'modern' Buick V-8s and the older small V-8s (215, 300) had the distributor up front.

    Olds engines have been red, blue, green, different shades of gold, black. They've been lots of colors, depending on the model and vintage. Most-recently they've been black and corporate blue. Before that they were gold (small blocks) and blue metallic (big blocks). Before that they were red, bronze, green, among other colors.
  • wevkwevk Member Posts: 179
    Yikes 15/17 (winning coin flip on 348/409) Talk about a hed full of useless knowledge!

    WVK.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Who knows? It might turn into a survival skill someday.

    "We could get off this island if someone knew the difference between the 348 and 409 engines in our boat!!"
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,303
    not the parts you can see ;)
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Yeah Yamaha engine isn't it, built by Mercury Marine for Ford? Did I get that right?
  • texasestexases Member Posts: 10,704
    I'd heard about Yamaha building the engine for the Taurus SHO, but not Mercury Marine...didn't they build the engine for the ZR-1 Corvette?
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Oh yeah...could it have been Yamaha Marine and that's why I got it mixed up?

    Anyway, doesn't sound very American to me :P
  • bumpybumpy Member Posts: 4,425
    These engines (IMHO) have far more style than any OHC 4 cylinder covered in plastic.

    Eye of the beholder, and all that.

    Okay, I'm going to make that Japanese engine quiz. Just have to find suitable pics and black out all the incriminating details. :P
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,303
    i wrote 'SEMI' american. ;) the dashboard redline was 7200 rpm. can't quite remember how i know that. honest, i never took it over 6500 in 5 gear :surprise:
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Okay okay...engineering by Yamaha, badge by Ford. Glad we settled that! :P
  • explorerx4explorerx4 Member Posts: 19,303
    maybe it is just the badge. porsche was involved in the the design of the duratec. obviously they put the rookies on the job.
    i think the tundra engine has a bunch of yamaha engineering in it.
    2023 Ford Explorer ST, 91 Mustang GT vert
  • KirksjohnsonKirksjohnson Member Posts: 11
    Got 16 out of 17, didn't get the 455 buick one right. No flatheads :(
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    YEAH, let's bring back the flathead!!! :):):)
This discussion has been closed.

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