Ward's 10 Best Engines is an annual list of the ten "best" automobile engines available in the U.S. market, that are selected by Ward's AutoWorld magazine. The list was started in 1994, and has been drawn every year since then.

Engines must be available in regular-production vehicles on sale in the U.S. market no later than the first quarter of the year. To be eligible, the engine also must be available in a vehicle with a base price of no more than $54,000 (for 2007 list). During a 2-month testing period, Ward's editors evaluate each engine according to a number of objective and subjective criteria in everyday driving situations – there is no instrumented testing. The selection takes into account power and torque output, noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) levels, technical relevance, and basic comparative numbers. Each engine competes against all others.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward%27s_10_Best_Engines

 

Noice..

 

Following in the great tradition of the Ford 4.6 SOHC 3V!

 

Interesting that GM hasn't had a V8 in this group since the 98' LS1.

 

Also interesting that the Hyundai 5.0 and 4.6 last year made the list.

 

Still a great engine though; simple, compact, powerful, and responds to mods very well - LS7's can easily eclipse 600hp with full exhaust, a cam and tune and the LS3 are not far behind.

 

Same formula day in, day out. Just like the LT1's, great engine but the other variants weren't anything different.

I agree, it's a great engine but at this point shouldn't garner much attention. Put some crazy new technology into it and then see where it is but as for now, it's just another LSx engine. A great power plant.

 

shrug...this award means nothing. every "new" car's engine makes it. its a popularity contest, nothing more. all those problematic BMW N54 motor variants made it too. as did the M3 motor with the crank issues.

 

The N54 is a great engine, the fuel pump, is not. Audi has had their 2.0L Turbo on there for quite some time. Just making small tweaks to the same engine.

 

They do have a pushrod 3v head the could use if GM wanted to go the multi-valve route. the next gen LSx variants are supposed to get full cam phasing and GM's SIDI treatment (spark ignition direct injection)

 

6.0V8 is in there for 2008 for GM....

 

nice thread!

 

If the N54 was so great, there wouldn't be an N55 3 yrs later

And while i understand it's been labeled a pump issue, why design a motor that (to this day anyway) CANT be made to run correctly on current commercially available fuel pumps? The fact that there is no fix for this leads me to believe it's more than a defective part. BMW is not exactly known for their forthcomingness when it has to do with engineering issues. I know a couple M3 owners who had to foot the bill for crank replacements only to finally be paid back years later.

But this is off topic. The point is making Ward's engine list is akin to making that who's who list of college students they scam mothers of HS students with each year.

 

I won't disagree that BMW is not forthcoming about having issues with their cars. The M3 owners really got screwed, but BMW did put out a 100K warranty after that on the engine though. I won't even say that the N54 is perfect nor are it's fuel pumps or ghostly problems it may be plagued with. But just an FYI, the 335is still uses the N54, as does the 1 M Coupe.

The Coyote is a great engine and deserves to be on someone's 10 best list. I personally am not a fan of the highly regarded Audi 2.0T but apparently someone has love. I say it's over rated. The Coyote, underrated. Now, can we swap the Coyote into an RS4 Avant so I can get the superior fuel mileage?

 

Ah you remind me of another motor that seems to make that list consistently. The 4.2 in the S5. A motor that barely puts out 350hp and yet gets 14/17 mileage. The sound is pure bliss, but that's basically the only accomplishment.

 

Exactly. Beautiful car, great execution, but it's still an S4 with an under achieving engine. Thus the reason I can't spend money on Audi. The money it takes to get what you want is re-donk-u-lous.


Sorry, back to topic.

 

Speaking of GM and maybe hitting Ward's 10 best down the road



These were posted over at motor authority. The V8 option is the most interesting part if the specs are accurate It looks like GM might be keeping the 6.2 with full VVT and in the case of the caddy it will be SIDI allowing for a fairly high 12.3:1 compression ratio. GM has no problem sharing powertrains with Cadi and at least the Camaro so the 3.6 and 6.2 seen here could very well be future Camaro powerplants as well.

 

Id say the 4 banger and the V8 are interesting. Incredible that Cadillac will offer it. I think it's great. WAKE UP AUDI. That 2.0L is getting a proper competitor and may finally put you out of its (my) misery.

 

Unfortunately I found out the GM powerplants were pure speculation on sombody's part but got picked up pretty quickly around the web. The engine confuguration seems correct for the V8 with its dual phasing and direct injection but output, displacement and compression ratio are apparently a "well educated guess" on the part of all three engines.