Engine-"millionaire" - what does it mean? What cars is it on?

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:42

At least once, every motorist has heard such a term as a “millionaire” engine. Pretty sonorous name, of course, has a sensible definition. What is it, and on what cars is it more common? These and other questions will be discussed in this article.

Since the issue of "millionaires" is closely related to the issue of the reliability of cars, these topics will also be touched upon. A particularly interesting point, which manufacturer of cars with such engines will also not be bypassed.

Definition of concept

So, what does "millionaire engine" mean? In fact, everything is very simple: this is the power unit of a car with a mileage of 1 million km or more. Many may not believe. Some may argue that this is just a "myth". But in fact it is a real fact. There are cars that have an engine with a mileage of one million or more kilometers. At the same time, such cars are on the move and are operated, and are not in the museum.

The concept of "millionaire" has clarifications. There are opinions that cars that have run 1 million km without opening the engine are worthy of this title. For carsdevices is a real legend. Most often, a "millionaire" engine is a resource of a power unit that the manufacturer puts into it.

What needs to be done so that the engine can run for 1,000,000 km? It should be said right away that not all manufacturers lay such a margin of safety. For example, the Russian AvtoVAZ gives an engine resource of 170,000 km, and even less for Niv - 80,000 km. This is due to more severe operating conditions. Highway trucks operate in a more gentle mode and more easily hit long runs. For American truck engines, cases of 2 and even 3 million miles are real.

What cars can travel a million kilometers?

Among the leaders (according to polls and reviews of the population of the global network) are:

• American cars;
• Japanese cars;
• German concerns Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, BMW.

There are also references from other manufacturers, but this is more an exception to the rule than a trend. There are cars with a mileage of about half a million kilometers. And there are really few such that there is an “honest” million on the speedometer. Among Russian manufacturers there are none. The export versions of AvtoVAZ came closest to the big limits. Their reliability was an order of magnitude higher than that of models for the domestic market.

Not all engines that are designed to run a million kilometers can achieve it. It is very important how the operation and maintenance takes place. Many units do not survive andup to half of their due date. The blame for this is the difficult environmental conditions and untimely troubleshooting.

How engine reliability is determined

Many are interested in the question, which engine is the most reliable? There is no single correct answer to be found. To begin with, it is worth understanding what the concept of reliability is made up of.

If you understand it in a simple way, then the concept of reliability includes:

• durability;
• repairability;
• reliability.

The first item determines the wear rate of engine parts during operation. Here, the quality of the factory assembly and the quality of the engine oil used play a big role. There is no point in explaining the possibility of repair. As for reliability, this concept indicates the ability of the unit to perform its functions under any impact. An example of such work is the easy start of a car engine after an accident that has stood outside for the winter. This happens on well-built engines.

When considering reliability, it is important to understand that a car engine does not operate in a vacuum. Fuel equipment, a cooling system and a mass of electronics are necessarily connected to it. Based on this, it is easy to determine that the simpler the design, the higher the reliability. The lower the load on the engine, the longer it will run. Such a unit will also be more reliable. That's why slow-revving diesels without a turbine are reliable. But what about petrol options? Consider thisquestion more details.

Gasoline or diesel millionaire?

On the question of who is better or cooler, you can argue for a long time and most often to no avail. Facts and statistics are the best help in such cases. So it turns out that the “millionaire” engine most often runs on diesel fuel. Among the leaders in long mileage, there are both American cars, as well as Japanese and European ones. And there are a lot of them among the old models of Mercedes, WV, Toyota, Nissan. Previously, there was less electronic component, which has less fault tolerance.

The reliability of a particular product directly depends on the quality of its components or blocks. Contrary to the opinion that everything simple is more reliable, BMW creates the most complex units of the highest quality. The resource of many engines of this company is more than a million kilometers.

Among the most reliable petrol options, quietly passing a million in good conditions, is the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota. Nissan and Mitsubishi power units are at a high level. Consider Japanese engines in more detail.

Japanese engines in a million kilometers

As mentioned earlier, among the Japanese "perpetual" engines, Toyota has distinguished itself the most. This is the 4-row 3S-FE unit known at the time. Its volume is 2 liters. There are 16 valves and simple fuel injection. This wonderful unit was produced until 2000 and had the best reliability indicators. A belt was involved in the gas distribution mechanism, which did not worsen the overall picture.

The engine didn't hit bigpower. His performance was in the range of 128-140 liters. With. Interestingly, as soon as the unit was modified with a turbocharger (3S-GTE), its resource immediately fell significantly below the bar of a million kilometers.

Another 2 engines from Toyota - 6-row 1JZ-GE and 2JZ-GE - had a resource of "millionaires". These motors were produced in various modifications for 17 years until 2007. The volumes of these "beauties" are 2.5 and 3.0 liters, respectively. Millionaire engines (Toyota) of this size, together with the build quality, gave an excellent option.

For turbocharged versions, reliability was also at its best, but it fell short of a million.

One more Japanese unit - 4G63 from Mitsubishi deserved a million resource. If the first version of such an engine was released in 1982, then modernized models leave the assembly lines of automakers today.

German variants of "millionaires"

Among German car manufacturers, Mercedes Benz holds the palm for reliability. At the same time, the company does not prescribe the official "million" mileage on its cars, there is only a slogan. But in fact, it is Mercedes with a margin of 1,000,000 km.

There is a well-known story on the Internet about a Greek taxi driver who traveled a million kilometers in his Mercedes car. After that, the manufacturer replaced his car with a new one.

Cars from Mercedes differ primarily in their build quality. It is so good that, with proper maintenance, enginesMercedes Benz pass 700,000 or more even without repair.

Besides Mercedes, among German companies, firms such as BMW, Porsche and Volkswagen stand out in terms of reliability. Among them, it is Porsche that has recently been gaining momentum in terms of the quality and reliability of its cars and, most likely, will become a leader. In 2010, this brand was already recognized as the best in terms of reliability among German cars.

BMW of yesteryear has the most significant example of a reliable car - in the body of the E39, which was manufactured in 1997. Its owner Johannes Rutten has driven almost 1,000,000 km. The operation of the car was tough, but with regular oil changes. It's amazing that a car with such mileage easily reached speeds of up to 200 km per hour on the autobahn, and its automatic transmission did not even know how to change the oil.

High mileage car

It's about an extraordinary car made in Sweden by Volvo. Its mileage was more than 5,000,000 kilometers. This device under the name Volvo P1800S was purchased back in 1966. American Irv Gordon has driven over 3 million miles on it. And if he acquired the first 800 thousand in 10 years, then in 32 years more than 2,700,000 miles of mileage flaunted on the speedometer. This case was listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

How is this possible? The engine is a "millionaire", and even several times in a row. When asked how the car can last so long, the owner of the legendary Volvo liked to repeat: "The first thing to do is to read the instruction manual." Already based onof this, you can guess that car care was of high quality. The owner was just crazy about his car. After all, it was his dream come true, with which he traveled almost all of America, Canada and almost all of Europe.

Car manufacturer Volvo has since sold the rights to manufacture passenger cars to Ford in 1999. Today, Jeely is the owner of the Volvo brand for passenger cars. Whether this affected the reliability of cars and their quality, time will tell.

Million-plus cars from America

American cars have always been famous for their power and reliability. The possibility of long-term operation of vehicles in a variety of harsh conditions forces designers to develop high-quality products. Ford, our most famous concern, produces the highest quality vehicles.

Reliability leaders in the 2000s range include the Ford Mustang and Ford Fusion. As for other American car manufacturers (like Dodge, Chevrolet, Jeep, Hummer and Cadillac), there may be potential "millionaires" among them.

The question of which engines are "millionaires" among American cars will be best answered by statistics. Among cars, any manufacturer can have these.

And here the American concerns have advantages.

• First of all, these are large-volume motors. This allows you to use only part of the reserves and not overstress the engine.
• Second, the workmanship thatboasts both Ford and Cadillac.
• Thirdly, these are diesel engines, which themselves run much longer than gasoline counterparts.

Cost of high mileage engines

Are there any advantages to a used engine over a brand new one? Of course there is. This is, first of all, the running-in of all components and parts. That is, the engine has already been run-in and is working in the optimal mode for itself. In addition, a used version is always cheaper than a new one. Exceptions can only be real engines - "millionaires", which are valued exclusively as rarities. Most often, they are taken back by manufacturers for comprehensive research.

The cost of the engine depends on its power. If a 150-horsepower unit can be purchased for 50,000-100,000 rubles on average, then 300 "horses" will cost 150,000-250,000 rubles. Units with a reserve of work for a million kilometers are less often designed today. Most often, their resource does not exceed 300 thousand kilometers. But in practice, few reach such figures. The reason for this is not only cheap and not timely service. The main thing is the strong wear of parts at high speeds and during overloads. In this matter, American cars are in a better position than domestic ones.

How to get a "million" mileage out of your car?

It's worth starting to find out if your car's engine is designed for a million kilometers? Let the engines be "millionaires", a list of which,maybe not a myth, they still exist, it is important to know specifically about yours.

And then comes simple school physics. Why do engine components and parts wear out if there are no breakdowns and initial defects? There is only one answer: only because of friction. Indeed, in the process of operation of the power unit, all components are in high voltage at high temperatures. Lubrication in an engine plays a huge role. Therefore, the first conclusion to increase the service life is the timely replacement of engine oil. Moreover, it is necessary to fill in only the oil recommended by the manufacturer.

The second conclusion for prolonging the life of the engine is uniform operation without jumps and overloads, and in no case overheating! Each extreme mode of operation dramatically reduces the overall resource of the power unit. This is clearly evidenced by the difference in the service life of turbocharged and simple engines.

And now a few words about the school myth - "perpetual" motion machine. That is, when there is no friction at all. If you achieve a minimum friction in the system, you can get the longest possible life. In the conditions of automobile engines, there are similar methods. This is the use of special Suprotec additives. Thanks to their use, an additional thin layer of protection against friction appears on the nodes and parts of the engine.

Conclusion

Summing up, we see that in fact there is a "millionaire" engine. On what cars it can stand, they also found out. It turned out that among Japanese, and among European and American manufacturersmet and there are such instances. Whether it's a German Mercedes or a Japanese Toyota - with proper care, the engine can easily walk up to a million kilometers on the instrument.

In the history of cars with more than a million kilometers, build quality and regular oil changes figured. In addition, in all cases, the real interest of the manufacturers themselves is noticeable. Cars with such mileage are either redeemed or exchanged for a new one.