> the facts are well known, great for originality, but has reliability issues
Apparently the "facts" aren't that well known.
Beside the initial CNC programming errors in the 1977 production, the
actual issue was basically oil breakdown.
The turbo cars all had a big fat sticker drawing attention to the fact
that the turbo and the engine shared the same oil and that attention
must be paid to regular changes. They even went to the unusual extent
to call for straight 30 weight oil (other than cold climates).
Lesser known was the need for proper cool down/shutdown on this design.
It is necessary to sit at idle a couple of minutes before shutting
down each and every time. This allowed cooler oil to flush through
the turbo and was a deterrent to oil coking.
For the NA engines, a design rpm limit existed of 4500 due to the
lightweight 2 counter weight design. It'll actually run maybe 5K fairly
safe, but the engineers figured it as solid at 4500 all day long.
Since Pontiac V-8's make their power low to mid range, there's no
good reason to be over-revving it anyway. The crank is the exact same
armasteel that was used to make all the other crankshafts.
So, the engine is reliable, but some of it's owners weren't.
Joe
