End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

[Joe L.]

Well, another historic GM engine has finally "bit-the-dust". The 60 degree, OHV V-6 which first appeared in the 1980 Chevrolet Citation will be gone for the 2012 model year. Once an engine used widely across all of the GM car lines, it's last bastion of use was for the Chevrolet Impala which it exclusively powered for the last several years in both 3.5L and 3.9L versions. The 3.9L version was also used as the base engine for the Buick Lucerne for the last few years. The 2012 Impala will be powered exclusively by the 60 degree, DOHC V-6 and the Lucerne is GONE for the 2012 model year.

The 60 degree, OHV V-6 was produced in a variety of displacements over the years including 2.8L, 3.1L, 3.4L, 3.5L and 3.9L. There was even a relatively short-lived, 3.4L DOHC version of it which GM called the "Twin Dual Cam". This was one of GM's few forays into converting an engine designed for in-block camshaft to overhead cam.

While most other GM engines changed at some point to aluminum block, the 60 degree OHV was always cast iron for PRODUCTION applications although a SERVICE-only aluminum block was/is available for racing use. Most versions did use aluminum heads, though, except early 2.8L engines and all those once used in Camaros.

So, does the demise of this engine family spell the end of cast iron engine construction for GM? Not really. It seems that cast iron blocks using advanced technology, lightweight castings are creeping back in. In fact, the 1.4L 4 cylinder engine used in the Chevrolet Volt has a cast iron block. Could this be the beginning of "back to the future"?

I expect that SERVICE 60 degree, OHV V-6 engines will continue to be produced, probably in Mexico but, otherwise, it's RIP for this engine family.

So, now, as far as cars are concerned, GM has only one family of V-8 (the Gen IV small block), one family of V-6 (the 60 degree DOHC V-6), and one family of I-4 (the Ecotec family).

For trucks it's almost the same except the V-6 is not used and a truck-only family of inline engines of 4 and 5 cylinders (the Atlas engines) is used. Of course, trucks also have available the V-8 Duramax diesels, too.

[Stuart F.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

Thanks for the info Joe. I'm sure over the years we old timers have lived an experience with one version or another. Believe mine was a Corsica back in about 1988 - one of many employee PEP cars purchased off the back lot at EMD. It was a peppy little car with a lot of advanced features for it's time, like windshield washers on the wipers that froze up at exactly 31*. Believe my son's banged that one up at college, as I recall. Not bad, but a lot of plastic pieces under the hood made it hard to service.

Stu Fox

[Chris H.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

I had the 2.8 version in my '86 Fiero. I tkink it was rated for 140hp which was a lot for back then. I thought it was the balls as the revs climbed. Kind of sounded like a Porsche 911. My first new car, just out college, promptly stolen 2 months later.

[George C.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

Bean counters are busy at GM.

[Duke W.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

I system engineered one of those engines in an '88 Fiero for a buddy who ran it at Bonneville. In OE trim it made 119 MPH.

Dick had a very limited budget, but he's a superb fabricator and wanted to do 130, which required about a one-third increase in power. (The power requirement increases with the cube of speed.)

Modifications included full race porting of the heads and replacing the upper manifold segment with an airbox to shorten effective runner length. Space is very limited, but Dick did a great job fabricating a six into two into one racing exhaust system with a quick take off muffler for road use.

We tried a couple of aftermarket cams (the choice is very limited) in Engine Analyzer, but they didn't do any better than retarding the OE cam four degrees. Other than retarding the cam, the block was untouched retaining the low (about 8.5:1) compression, which only requires unleaded regular.

Chassis dyno testing showed that the required increase in top end power was met and correlated very well to EA's predictions, but there was the expected significant loss of low end torque. In OE trim the very long inlet runners yield excellent low end torque.

Although Dick didn't come close to the 150 MPH class record held by a Ferrari 308, he did manage a two way average of 131 MPH, and we figure he has the world's fastest Fiero. Oh, and he drove the car to and from Bonneville on the highway.

He retired and moved back to his old home state of Wisconsin three years ago and now runs the Fiero in club events at Road America.

Back in the mid-nineties for a couple of years we had a drag strip near the LA harbor - Brotherhood Raceway. One Friday night I took my '91 MR2 (with just the 130 HP 2.2L Camry engine) down and ran into a cute 20-something chick who was running a V6-automatic Fiero, so I challenged her to a race. Her father who was about my age and running a souped-up '72 Corvette was decidedly unhappy that I appeared to be hitting on his daughter (Yes, I was.).

We raced three times. I got the hole shot all three times, and she was gaining on me at the end, but never quite made up the distance, so I took my three victories home and never saw them again.

Duke

[Joe L.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

The 60 degree, OHV V-6 was quite a peppy engine in most of the applications it was used for. I had many of them in rental cars over the years. I always try to rent cars with at least a V-6 engine (which is going to get more challenging as time goes on). I had a 3.1L in a Pontiac 6000 that was my city-owned work car for several years and I loved it. It performed very well. The one dud I had was a 2.8L in a 1988 Camaro I once factory-ordered and drove for a few years. While I thought the engine was going to be OK based upon my experience with it in a few Camaro rental cars, driving it day-to-day proved otherwise. 135 hp and 165 lb/ft of torque just didn't get it in a 3,500 pound Gen III Camaro. It didn't get very good gas mileage, either.

One of the things I did like about this V-6 engine family, though, was the smoothness. It was a very smooth running and accelerating engine.

While GM never did offer much in the way of high performance parts for this engine family, they did offer one rather interesting piece. This was an aluminum block that I mentioned earlier. Complete with steel bearing caps and cast iron cylinder liners it weighed in at just 59 pounds. Coupled with easily available aluminum cylinder heads and the fact that the 60 degree engine was a VERY compact engine, one could build up a very light and dimensionally small powerplant. Of course, few did. The block was once available under GM #10051141 but, alas, is no longer available.

[Clem Z.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

nice little engine as i owned a X-11 citation and several celebrity's with the engine. they had a problem with the aluminum oil pumps coming apart and parts being hit by the crankshaft and knocking the oil pump off of the engine.

[Dick W.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

I had the unfortunate experience of being the Service Manager at the local Pontiac dealer when those engines came out. We replaced the engines in probably 5%+ of the cars we sold. They were greatly improved over the years, but in my mind, they qualified as a POS when they were first introduced.

[Clem Z.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

For trucks it's almost the same except the V-6 is not used and a truck-only family of inline engines of 4 and 5 cylinders (the Atlas engines) is used. Of course, trucks also have available the V-8 Duramax diesels, too.[/quote]
i believe the full size pickups still used the saw off V-6,3/4 of a V-8 350.

[Dick W.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

For trucks it's almost the same except the V-6 is not used and a truck-only family of inline engines of 4 and 5 cylinders (the Atlas engines) is used. Of course, trucks also have available the V-8 Duramax diesels, too.

i believe the full size pickups still used the saw off V-6,3/4 of a V-8 350.[/quote]
4.3 Clemster

[Joe L.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

For trucks it's almost the same except the V-6 is not used and a truck-only family of inline engines of 4 and 5 cylinders (the Atlas engines) is used. Of course, trucks also have available the V-8 Duramax diesels, too.

i believe the full size pickups still used the saw off V-6,3/4 of a V-8 350.[/quote]


clem and Dick-----


Yes, I thought that the 4.3 V-6 had been dropped for the 2011 model year but I see it's still around. I'm not sure if it will still be around for the 2012 model year. It is only available as the base engine in the 1500 WT series light trucks.

This is the last all cast iron engine that GM manufactures. I thought that it was GM's intention several years ago to drop this engine in favor of the I-6 "Atlas" series engine. However, the I-6 engine went out-of-production a few years ago and the "old-timer" 4.3 V-6 survived. The only reason that I can see that GM has kept this engine around is because it's probably extremely cheap to manufacture.

[Ray G.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

Back in the mid-nineties for a couple of years we had a drag strip near the LA harbor - Brotherhood Raceway. One Friday night I took my '91 MR2 (with just the 130 HP 2.2L Camry engine) down and ran into a cute 20-something chick who was running a V6-automatic Fiero, so I challenged her to a race. Her father who was about my age and running a souped-up '72 Corvette was decidedly unhappy that I appeared to be hitting on his daughter (Yes, I was.).

We raced three times. I got the hole shot all three times, and she was gaining on me at the end, but never quite made up the distance, so I took my three victories home and never saw them again.

Duke

Hello Duke;
Any chance you could have taken her home?
Ray

[Jim T.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

I am still driving one of these histortic V6's in my 96 Monte Carlo. 132K miles on it now. Bought it with 70K miles about 6 years ago from a co-worker that bought it new.
Only problem when bought was loss of engine coolant but none found on the ground under the car. I changed the oil before I bought it and found no coolant in the oil.
Reviewing the supplied Monte's service records the coolant had been changed by our local Chev dealership. No charges indicated for the GM Engine Coolant Supplement (sealer) GM part # 3634621 mentioned in the owners manual to be used with a coolant change. I visited the Chevy dealership where the Monte was bought new and where the coolant was changed. I questioned the service representive about the supplement being used with a coolant change. He did not know of the supplement mentioned in the owners manual.
I changed the coolant and added the above supplement (sealer). The loss of coolant stopped.
In DEC 2010 my Monte started loosing coolant again and it was evident in the oil. Reviewing posts on the internet I knew now that I had to replace the intake gaskets sealing the intake to the aluminum heads. I was not looking forward to the work involved. Improved gaskets are now available and I used Fel-Pro's. I bought and used a Lisle tool #48500 that compresses the rocker arms to remove the pushrods to make less work for this job. My replacement of intake gaskets curred the problem and the 3.1 V6 engine is performing great.
One thing I noticed doing the gasket change was the water passage in the aluminum heads at the drive belt end of the engine has a opening in the gasket for coolant to go into the intake, but there is no passage at this end of the intake for coolant flow.

[Paul J.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

I had these engines in several early 90's A-Body wagons that I had, and I never had any engine issues at all. I owned them between 90k and 150k miles.

However, the 4T60E transmissions were an entirely different experience.

[Duke W.]

Re: End-of-the-Line For the 60 Degree, OHV V-6

Hello Duke;
Any chance you could have taken her home?
Ray

Not with her father breathing down my neck. I did consider asking her for a phone number, but then figured that since she was young enough to be my daughter, I was probably better off just taking the three race victories home and continue to search for well preserved forty-year olds.

Duke