16V or 8V - whats best

WobblyDog

I've just replaced a 13-year-old Fiesta (8-valves, 1.3 litre petrol, 59PS Endura-E) with a new Fiesta (16-valves, 1.25 litre petrol, 82PS Duratec).

I'd agree with most of what has been said. The 8-valve engine had better low-end torque than the 16-valve one. The old car would accelerate at very low engine revs, albeit slowly. The new car won't. The 16-valve engine produces much more power at high revs and is quieter than the 8-valve engine.

Although the new 16-valve car has much better official fuel consumption figures, so far it is using more fuel than the old car. In retrospect, the 8-valve Endura-E has a lot of good qualities, apart from the tendency of the spark plugs to seize in the cylinder head.

Stigy

WobblyDog wrote: »

I've just replaced a 13-year-old Fiesta (8-valves, 1.3 litre petrol, 59PS Endura-E) with a new Fiesta (16-valves, 1.25 litre petrol, 82PS Duratec).

I'd agree with most of what has been said. The 8-valve engine had better low-end torque than the 16-valve one. The old car would accelerate at very low engine revs, albeit slowly. The new car won't. The 16-valve engine produces much more power at high revs and is quieter than the 8-valve engine.

Although the new 16-valve car has much better official fuel consumption figures, so far it is using more fuel than the old car. In retrospect, the 8-valve Endura-E has a lot of good qualities, apart from the tendency of the spark plugs to seize in the cylinder head.

8-valves in general are reasonable quiet, but the 8-valve push rod engine in the Fiesta is in a league of its own! (in that it's extremely tappety!).

The spark plug issue was a huge one, in that you often had to get a 1/2 inch breaker bar on them with a spark plug socket on the end to unscrew them. By this very need, it meant that they'd often snap in the head....I always put copper grease on any plugs I replaced for this very reason.

mutley74

thanks for replies. Apparently Citroen made the cars before last summer with 16V as option, but now all the new ones are 8V.