Unique Cars Australia – September 2019

TradeUniqueCars.com.au 97

Butwillit last?
Beenreadingalltheraves
aboutthenewMercedes-
AMGA45engine;very
impressivespecs,but
watchinga videoofthe
assembly,it appearstohave
onlytwo-boltmains.I don’t
knowif thisisnormalfor
four-potsasI preferplaying
witheightsoftheV variety.
(MyGTS-Rhasjustticked
over6000kmaftertwo
years).
Butdoyoureckonthis
newhigh-techwonderwill
survivetheboostand9:1
compression?I knowthe
techisamazing,butwill
thesehigh-stressunitslast
thedistance?

PaulHamilton,

Email

SMALLCHANGE

oneverythingit touches.

Modernturbo-motors

notonlyusehigher-than-

everboostpressures

(byproduction-engine

standards)theyalso

doit withhighstatic

compressionratios.

Byandlarge,though,

I thinkmodernengines

arestrongerandmore

long-livedthantheir

grand-daddies,provided

youdon’tstartaskingtoo

muchofthemin termsof

boost,compressionand

specificoutput.Thinkback

totheoldHoldengrey

motorandthePommy

stuff(alotofit side-valve)

aroundatthesametime.

Thoseenginesroutinely

neededa valve-grindand

de-cokeevery10,000

milesorsoandeven

theHoldengrey(known

atthetimeforbeinga

toughcustomer)generally

neededringsandbearings

atabout60,000miles.I

reckontheviewofmany

peoplethatanengineis

wornoutatthe100,000km

markis a hang-overof

thesedays.It’sa trapthat

manyfallinto,thenelect

tosellperfectlygood

It seemscompletely

incredibletosomebody

in a countrywheremaybe

a millionnewcarsare

soldeachyear,butthe

world(basedon 2018

figures)is makingroughly

192,000carseachand

everyday.Thatmakes

ourconsumptionabout

fivedays’worthofglobal

production.

long-termprospectsof

newenginedesigns.But

I guessyou’dexpectthat

fromusoldcodgerswho

reckonmilkdoesn’ttaste

likemilkanymore,kids

havenorespectandthe

skywasbluerin theold

days.Nostalgiaain’twhat

it usedtobe,if youknow

whatI mean.

Personally,I’mkindof

withthetoo-strong-is-

barely-strong-enough

mob.I lovethingsthat

areover-engineeredand

oneofthethingsI really

likeabouttheLS1V8in

theMBCtow-pigis the

factthatis hassix-bolt

(count‘em)mainbearings.

Andthat’sin a relatively

low-stressbig-inchengine

thatdoesn’trevbeyond

5500rpmandisn’ttuned

tomake200-horsepower

perlitre.

However,youcan’t

ignorethefactthatmodern

enginesarecapableof

somereallyamazingfeats

in termsoftheiroutput

andhangingtogether

whilethey’reatit. I guess

thewild-cardin a lotof

thisis forcedinduction

whichplaceshugestresses

THIS HAS been an
ongoing discussion among
tappet-heads, Paul. There’s
certainly a large proportion
of UC readers that have
their doubts over the

ABOVE Should have

towed it back to the

big smoke – someone

would have restored it!