The sub 200hp 80s turd can leak out all it's coolant and overheat. Chances are it will be just fine after the leak is fixed and the system is refilled. The same can't be said for most more modern things. When one part of the system craps out there's likely to be more carnage elsewhere, it's just part of the nature of a more refined system.
Take some random engine, now engineer a oiling system that depends on having three different jets at each cylinder to ensure reasonable longevity. Now make the operation of those jets highly dependent on a maximum oil viscosity (small jet, low volume, thick oil would just dribble) and spec'ing the rest of the system for thicker oil (using bigger jets and so on) would be a needless waste of fuel (pumping around lots of thick oil takes more energy than the same amount of thin oil). Now tack on a heat exchanger so you can use the coolant system to bring the oil up to temp ASAP. Wash rinse repeat until the entire system is designed to have every part working together. Now you've got really long chain where any screw up by any supplier results in the whole system breaking down and a bunch of crap engines (or whatever major system you're designing) that wind up getting replaced under warranty at 75k (costing money, damaging reputation, etc., etc.).
The Nissan engine in the article is very much subject to this. Unless they want to leave a lot of performance on the table they've basically got two rotating assemblies they have to get right. That should be easy but for awhile every Hyundai dealership had pallets stacked up with v6 short blocks indicating that it's not that easy.
> The sub 200hp 80s turd can leak out all it's coolant and overheat. Chances are it will be just fine after the leak is fixed and the system is refilled.
Oh, most definitely this. My first car, '86 Volvo 240 with the B230E engine, had a coolant leak about two years before we scrapped it (in 2012). When the engine started overheating, you'd turn the coupe heater to max (and open windows all the way), since that tapped into the lowest part of the cooling system, so you got the temp down and could keep going for ~10 miles before refilling with water. Then as winter approached I bought a bottle of radiator fixer (about $20) which fixed the leak, did a full coolant change to get proper antifreeze, no problems afterwards.
Take some random engine, now engineer a oiling system that depends on having three different jets at each cylinder to ensure reasonable longevity. Now make the operation of those jets highly dependent on a maximum oil viscosity (small jet, low volume, thick oil would just dribble) and spec'ing the rest of the system for thicker oil (using bigger jets and so on) would be a needless waste of fuel (pumping around lots of thick oil takes more energy than the same amount of thin oil). Now tack on a heat exchanger so you can use the coolant system to bring the oil up to temp ASAP. Wash rinse repeat until the entire system is designed to have every part working together. Now you've got really long chain where any screw up by any supplier results in the whole system breaking down and a bunch of crap engines (or whatever major system you're designing) that wind up getting replaced under warranty at 75k (costing money, damaging reputation, etc., etc.).
The Nissan engine in the article is very much subject to this. Unless they want to leave a lot of performance on the table they've basically got two rotating assemblies they have to get right. That should be easy but for awhile every Hyundai dealership had pallets stacked up with v6 short blocks indicating that it's not that easy.