Outer Limits 4x4 Board

My 83 Sierra is just about to pass 200,000km. How long should you expect an engine to last? At the moment it doesn't really use much oil or blow much smoke. When they go, can you feel they're on their way out for a while or can it be really sudden?

When i was shopping for a sierra a while back a fellow i called up had one for sale with 298,000 clicks on it... he reckoned it was still going a treat.

On the other hand, my previous engine starting smoking a lot and it only had 170 thou on it... That engine was still running like that for a long time (i.e. i got a few months out of it when it was a bit smokey), so it cetainly wasn't a sudden stop.

Droopy Pete had a piston (correct me on terminology here pete) punch through the block of his 1600 Vitara engine. But it would still drive (roughly) to get him back to civilization..

Hope that gives you an few ideas.

Cheers

Courtancer wrote:My 83 Sierra is just about to pass 200,000km. How long should you expect an engine to last? At the moment it doesn't really use much oil or blow much smoke. When they go, can you feel they're on their way out for a while or can it be really sudden?

How many of the 200,000 have you put on it, generally if you treat a piston engine with TLC and keep it tuned, lubricated and drive it gently (Normally) most engines should do 300,000 IMO
(Except anything made in europe)

Thanks for the quick replies. Thats exactly what I wanted to hear.

Courtancer wrote:Thanks for the quick replies. Thats exactly what I wanted to hear.

Another happy customer

Courtancer wrote:Thanks for the quick replies. Thats exactly what I wanted to hear.

My engine had 210 thousand and was still going strong when I sold it.

bigsteve wrote:My engine had 210 thousand and was still going strong when I sold it.

and at least 10 of those 210,000kms were spent driving on its side

greg wrote:

bigsteve wrote:My engine had 210 thousand and was still going strong when I sold it.

and at least 10 of those 210,000kms were spent driving on its side

Thats corret, and it never missed a beat (Or a hole to fall in)

bigsteve wrote:Thats corret, and it never missed a beat (Or a hole to fall in)

Or log to climb

A mate of mine hit 320K before his started getting smokey, so if you look after it, you should get a while yet.

And i'd imagine that you will clock up more k's if you are only using the car for on-road driving... i.e. taking it offroad and filling the engine with dust, mud, water etc will surely shorten its life.

my first motor in my 1litre lwb didnt smoke, use oil or rattle. but it was very low on compression, and slowly got more and more gutless. was still drivable when I changed it, but only on the flat ) christover.

Any engine if maintained properly should wear gradually. It won't go BANG all of a sudden unless you do something to make it fail Like rev its ring off cold or cook it.

It will get gutless and use oil as rings wear and compression goes down and get to the point where it don't have the balls to push the rig along anymore. Then you put in a bigger one

greg wrote:When i was shopping for a sierra a while back a fellow i called up had one for sale with 298,000 clicks on it... he reckoned it was still going a treat.

On the other hand, my previous engine starting smoking a lot and it only had 170 thou on it... That engine was still running like that for a long time (i.e. i got a few months out of it when it was a bit smokey), so it cetainly wasn't a sudden stop.

Droopy Pete had a piston (correct me on terminology here pete) punch through the block of his 1600 Vitara engine. But it would still drive (roughly) to get him back to civilization..

Hope that gives you an few ideas.

Cheers

The main reason my 1600 spat a rod is S3 rockhopper and 5.125 diff ratio's, 100 KM's @ 4500 RPM is not good for longevity
I need twin cases/Thorax/KluneV4.1, something.
Peter.

droopypete wrote:I need twin cases/Thorax/KluneV4.1, something.
Peter.

Sure you do pete

I think we all need those things too