The Iron Duke was a European design, not a US one, which may have had
something to do with the longevity (along with new, rather than 50
year old, manufacturing equipment).
GM was well known for sloppy manufacture and "nickel and dimeing" a
good design into junk by saving miniscule amounts of money in stupid
places by using low quality materials. On top of that, the management
structure allowed high level people to screw with things after the
engineering was done (Ed Cole was famous for this, including the
disaster of the aluminum block used in the Vega -- he personally
removed the cooling passage between cylinder pairs to "save money",
resulting in self-destructing engines).
Emissions warranty requirements fixed all that, with the manufacturer
responsible for the car passing emissions testing at 50,000 miles with
only normal maintenance. Suddenly GM discovered that all their engine
manufacturing equipment was junk -- on the 350, it was common for the
crankpins on the crank to be up to 0.030" off center in ANY direction,
different for each crankpin, lifter bores were up to 0.100" off
center and up to 10 degrees off true, valve seats and guides were
machined directly into the soft cast iron head (1920's cheap junk
manufacture that wasn't used in Europe after the 30's in decent
engines), and so forth. Cylinder bores are better, pistons fit
better, and rings seal better with less wear. And everything has an
oil filter -- I can remember when oil filters were optional equipment!
I'm sure Chrysler and Ford were only slightly better -- Ford was
selling that 250 straight six with the intake cast into the head up to
the mid 80's, a real piece of junk. Chrysler was probably the best of
the bunch because they had real engineers doing real research work up
to the late 60's, but none of them used any real SPC system to make
quality parts and hence the engines (and everything else) were highly
variable in finish and fit.
Things are much better now, if you don't get 250,000 miles out of a
vehicle you haven't changed the oil or done something else foolish.
Oil is vastly better as well, and makes a big contribution to engine
life.
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