The Largest 4 Bangers Ever Made

"Mailbox Cancer" (mailboxcancer) 08/29/2013 at 16:21 • Filed to: I4, Porsche, 944, 968

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I like small V8s. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! But I'm curious if there's anything on the other end of the spectrum. You know ... a large-displacement I4. Anything out there you can point to?

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My stepdad had a one-owner Porsche 944 when I was in high school. He bought the car off my relatives who have had it since they handed a check to the dealer in 1986 ... factory red paint and cracked black leather on the inside. I had such a ball in that car when he'd let me take it out, but certain things would go REALLY REALLY BAD with it once it hit certain mileage points on the odometer. That said, the memory that stood out to me was the engine – a 2.5L I believe. It wasn't super smooth, but I remember it having enough low-end power to do some really fun stuff.

The 968 of the 90's is an even more interesting animal to me, basically a carried-over 944 with some reworked components and a nice update to the front and rear facias. But that had a 3.0L I4 in it ... and although I don't obsess over all details of smaller engines, that's the largest one I've ever heard of.

What am I missing? What's the largest displacement (yes, used for an automobile) you've seen in a 4-pot from the factory?

HammerheadFistpunch > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:25

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diesel count? there are lots of big inline 4 diesels. Toyota makes a 4.1 liter 4 pot turbo diesel that they use in their version of the hummer, the 15b-fte

Mailbox Cancer > HammerheadFistpunch 08/29/2013 at 16:26

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That's awesome, ever drive one?

Cloud81918 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:26

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The Mitsubishi Starion and other Mitsu and Chysler products used a 2.6L 4 cylinder.

Cloud81918 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:27

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Mazda currently offers a 2.5L 4 in many of their vehicles.

HammerheadFistpunch > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:28

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no, they are VERY rare in civilian guise. The megacruiser. I did a post on one a while back....can't find it though.

Mailbox Cancer > Cloud81918 08/29/2013 at 16:29

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Right, I think they have been for a while now. It seems like that's as big as they get across most manufacturers nowadays.

HammerheadFistpunch > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:30

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Toyota makes a 2.7 4 gas engine too, the 1ar-fe for use in the highlander, venza, sienna and RX

Cloud81918 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:30

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Porsche's 3.0L is the biggest 4 I know of though. It didn't come until after they got rid of the Turbo though. I know there are folks that build hybrids out of the 3.0 and the turbo to make what people report as a killer combo.

CobraJoe > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:31

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Not a 4 cyl, but there is a 300 CID (That's 4.9L) I6 from Ford back in the late 80's and early 90s. It was a great truck engine, lots of torque but not a lot of revs.

But for argument's sake, cut two cylinders off of it and it would be a 3.27L I4.

NaturallyAspirated > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:31

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It's not an inline engine, but Subaru sold a number of vehicles with 2.5L horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engines. I believe this was the largest engine that would physically fit between the frame rails.

-Amateur > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:31

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Th biggest I've ever seen was from the GM family.

2.5L Iron Duke (horribly underpowered but rock solid)

2.4L Twin Cam (Neutered version of the 2.3 H.O.)

2.3L Quad 4

and finally a 2.2L (my engine bay)

Mikeado > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:32

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There are some that have gone bigger. The IH Scout had a 3.2, it seems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inline-fo…

Mailbox Cancer > Cloud81918 08/29/2013 at 16:33

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Was the purpose of the 3.0L to give customers the Turbo power without the lag and turbine problems? A hybrid monster sounds like a great project, if only I can find a good 3L 968 for sale. Everyone's getting rid of their 944's otherwise.

Mailbox Cancer > Mikeado 08/29/2013 at 16:36

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I saw that too on that same Wiki page before posting, looks like one of the only ones that goes north of 3 liters. It also looks like there are a lot of marine 4 cylinder engines that go into the 3's and 4's in displacement. That's, like, Jaguar V6 territory.

sloPro > NaturallyAspirated 08/29/2013 at 16:42

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they had a few 3.0 H6's. unless you're referring to something else.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/subaru…

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:43

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If I remember correctly the 1912 Benz 82/200 had a 21.5 litre 4 cylinder engine. I'll see if I can find more info.

Edit: more info found.

"The base model for the road-going series was the 10/18 HP which was powered by a four-cylinder engine displacing 2.4 liters. A larger 7.4-liter version was offered, the 29/60 HP, at a considerably higher price tag. These vehicles were followed by the '39/100 HP' and the '82/200 HP' models in 1912. The 39/100HP was powered by a 10-liter engine, while the 82/200HP had a 21-liter engine that produced 200 horsepower. "

http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z13499…

Mailbox Cancer > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh 08/29/2013 at 16:47

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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mailbox Cancer > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh 08/29/2013 at 16:48

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Those must have been cylinders the size of paint buckets.

Seitz > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:48

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Oh well, here is your 28.3L Fiat 4 Cylinder

Mailbox Cancer > Seitz 08/29/2013 at 16:50

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I knew there'd be one of these monstrosities out there.

DO YOU EVEN DISPLACE, BRO?

davedave1111 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:50

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Remember this thing?

It's a Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C marine engine, which can be ordered with various numbers of cylinders, including in an I4 configuration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W%C3%A4rt…

Mailbox Cancer > davedave1111 08/29/2013 at 16:52

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Can your Toyota Venza sound like a cargo tanker?

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:53

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Well, fiat did at one time make a racecar/land speed car with a 28 litre R6, and they said a grown man could put his head into the cylinders on that one, since this is a 21,5 litre R4 I'd say the cylinders are like rather large paint buckets.

Edit: i did something wrong when I googled the fiat, turns out that was a R4 as well.

Cloud81918 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:53

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I don't know, but I would imagine that was partially the case. Perhaps someone else will chime in.

But I'd guess that the platform had aged and sales were slowing, rather than offer 2 levels of a car that wasn't moving as fast as it once was they just made a simpler car to sell before the Boxster arrived.

The 944 was also a really potent car. They couldn't take it very much further without seriously threatening the 911, so perhaps they figured bigger engine with some more torque and skim some all out performance off the top.

Mailbox Cancer > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh 08/29/2013 at 16:57

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You think it idles at about 300 rpm? Moving that metal around must take a lot more effort. Amazing either way.

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Seitz 08/29/2013 at 16:58

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Are you sure that car had a 4 cylinder? I thought so too, but after some light google-fu I'm not so sure anymore, some sources claim it's a R6.

Edit: Ahh.. I cocked something up during the gooogling, You are correct :)

davedave1111 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 16:58

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I'm guessing not :)

NaturallyAspirated > sloPro 08/29/2013 at 17:03

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I said largest but I meant widest :).

Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 17:03

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They probably never exceeded much more than 1000rpm at full speed I'd guess, but can't say for sure.

PS9 > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 17:16

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So, you're looking for a huge gang bang limited to 4 participants. Is that what you're asking for, or did I read you wrong?

Mailbox Cancer > PS9 08/29/2013 at 17:19

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The plumper the better. Let's get to it, chubbs.

Patrick Frawley > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 17:23

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Somewhere between the paint-can pistons of the very early racers and the modern stuff that tops out around three liters you get the Ford Model A, which put millions of 3.3L four-cylinders on roads around the world.

The Model T's motor was a bit smaller, but the same idea.

Mikeado > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 17:38

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Yeah. I was going to make more of an effort to find some crazy old pre-war car, but once the one I'd thought of wasn't a 4-cylinder I kinda gave up =/

GhostZ > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 17:43

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If you mean conventionally made (not just one-offs, rarities, or non-automotive engines) Offenhauser made a 4.1l (250ci) 4-cylinder with about 450 n/a HP for Indycar usage. Some supercharged versions were making 700+HP too back in the day.

Of course, they had a monoblock head with 15:1 compression, but hey, that's the cost of not having the top of the engine blow off.

I wonder what an 8.2l V8 made out of that would be like...

Benzed92 > Laird Andrew Neby Bradleigh 08/29/2013 at 18:00

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This looks oddly similar to the 18th Fairway of Pebble Beach :P

Mailbox Cancer > GhostZ 08/29/2013 at 18:49

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I guess I was looking for conventional in production cars, but holy shit: 700hp is awesome

Mailbox Cancer > Mikeado 08/29/2013 at 18:51

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There were a couple here in the replies that are old prewar cars ... pretty neat stuff. Check out the guy with the Merc' with something like TWENTY LITERS

GhostZ > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 19:05

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While they were primarily race engines, they made them ("them" being less powerful versions of course) for nearly 60 years and enough were built it wouldn't surprise me if some of them ended up in some street cars.

BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires > Mailbox Cancer 08/29/2013 at 19:20

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The Mitsubishi Starion used 2.6l I4s in both NA and turbocharged variations.

The kickass Pontiac Tempest also had a 3.2l I4 that was essentially half of a Pontiac 389 V8. They had rear transaxles too, adapted from the Corvair 'box and giving 50/50 weight distribution.

http://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-class…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_T…

Foxtrotzed - Internet Sensation of 2010 > Mailbox Cancer 08/30/2013 at 02:43

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There are some extreme examples, and even a Toyota diesel that sounds more like a non-us commercial offering (especially considering most outsiders don't like to bring their diesels here). As far as common homegrown diesels are concerned, the Cummins 4bt is 3.9l. It's mostly a commercial engine, but a popular swap in smaller, and even full sized trucks. It tends to fit where a v8 used to be, where as the more popular 6bt (12v 6 cyl 5.9l cummins available in most Dodge heavy dutys, late 90's early 00's) would be too long. Furthermore, the two are only different in their cylinder count. Decent power with a good enough turbo and pump, and mega torque. Same torque as a stock gas v8 with nearly twice the fuel millage in stockish turbo form (4bt vs 5.2l or 5.9l magnum) That's nearly 1l a cylinder in a somewhat common commercial engine. Mostly found in delivery trucks, it's closest competition is probably a 4cyl mitsubishi in small commercial cabovers.

Mikeado > Mailbox Cancer 08/30/2013 at 06:21

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This is what I was looking for! Insane.

JasonStern911 > BiTurbo228 - Dr Frankenstein of Spitfires 08/30/2013 at 11:37

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Fun fact: The 2.5L 944 and 3.0L 968 Porsche motors licensed their balancing shafts from Mitsubishi, which used them to make the 2.6L G54B run without excessive vibration.