I've been wondering this for months now and decided to see if I could get a list to drool over for when I win the lottery. Basically, what would the perfect engine have?

Here is a list of things it should be capable of in the end:

[*]No EGT issues, be it from low temps or high temp resistant materials (both if possible, cost is no object here)

[*]As good of MPG as possible. This means high quality everything, exotic parts, I'm talking the same crap the F1 cars use. This is where most of the list should be categorized

[*]High HP. This engine shouldn't be aimed at 1000000HP, but rather the most HP you can reliably make with all the other components, keeping it street legal and driveable and last 500k miles doing so.

[*]High reliability. This thing should never be on the side of the road...ever. This means we could get into water pumps, radiators, anything and everything that is a possible weakness even if it's very slight.

I hope this gets my point across as to what I want to talk about. Just things that you think the beast should have if cost is no object. It isn't gonna be a sled puller... Just an everyday truck that can have as much power as you want when you step on it, not have to worry about EGT's, get incredible mileage when you're not on the pedal, and last a long time...

So here is my list of things to start. The reason I want to see what you guys say is because there are things I just learned about a few months ago and I wonder what other things I don't know about.

[*]Ceramic Coated Everything...(is there something better?)

[*]Pistons, there are fancy 2 piece ones and many other types, I don't know which are best.

[*]Extrude Hone injectors

[*]Extrude Hone everything else (I think this replaces port and polish? Haven't read enough)

[*]Twin Turboes

[*]Water Injection?

[*]Propane Injection?

[*]Better Intake Horn

[*]3 piece exhaust manifold (ATS?)

[*]Fire Rings (or o rings, heard some bad luck out of crappy fire ring installations)

[*]ARP Head Studs

[*]ARP Exhaust Manifold Studs

[*]What Else!

Interesting as usual ISX. In my humble opinion:

I would say performance parts rated for high power, but not straying too far from stock in strength. Performance parts that are too darn light aren't in the cards.

One restraint I would make. Stock RPM. I think you would lose a lot of reliability and a LOT of longevity with high piston speed and surface speed on the bearings. Hence why nascar runs small diameter bearings, less drag with lower surface speed, at the cost of a shorter crank life.

I would also say you can get exotic to get rid of heat. Sodium filled valves. Heavily ported and extrude honed head and exhaust to allow the most flow with the least heat created by pressure drop and friction. Also to make the most power at the least boost. Iron head, to eliminate the eventual head gasket failure that aluminum gets.

Twins. With the goal of keeping lots of cool air and keep almost all smoke away. High efficiency and high heat transfer intercooler.

Fuel? P7100. Hands down, unless you go higher RPM, then go with a high pressure common rail setup with custom software. Though I own two 24v trucks, the VP44 can go die in a fire when you are talking that sort of reliability. I am sure there are some tweaks that could be done to the pump, but I have no idea what that is.

Oiling. I would tweak the oiling system to a full dry sump, with lots of great little squirters to keep pistons cool, and put oil right where its needed without causing excess drag. I would also have a good oil cooler.

Cam and valve train? Custom grind. Stout pushrods. Some sort of valve spring... but not sure what. I would probably spend years fine tuning the cam grind to the rest of the setup. I would also sync the fueling, the static compression ratio, and the dynamic compression ratio with the turbos. As mentioned, proven yet simple things like sodium filled valves, etc. Nothing too crazy, just $$$ and lots and lots of tuning.

I would stay away from methanol or water injection, as they suck for efficiency and are a band-aid for crap materials or poorly engineered setup.

Another interesting thing I've learned about researching engines... All the major groundbreaking spark ignition recip engine technology stopped in the late 1940s. (Except variable valve timing!) Diesels have kept growing, but not in the same leaps and bounds that they used too. There is so much cool stuff out there from the 1940s and 50s in the aviation and marine engine technology. R-4360 details that are amazing... and my favorite diesel for neatness, the Napier Deltic.

- - - Updated - - -

You may note I am not going to too many odd or exotic things in the hypothetical build. One reason is I know gas race motors much better than diesel. The other reason is that these engines will last 500k stock. I like simple.

I know some of the high end coatings are good... but I am not confident they will last long enough. I would need more research is needed in that area, as some of the coatings are VERY good... And some are kinda crap.

- - - Updated - - -

Thinking on the drive to work... I would also have a custom intake and exhaust made. The runners on the intake aren't really as necessary to be "tuned" like a naturally aspirated engine, but I would tune the hell out of the exhaust to get the cylinders equalized with temps/backpressure.

Things like EGT probes at each port would be important.

- - - Updated - - -

With the tuning of cam/exhaust/compression/fuel and turbo, I think that the goal of great power, great efficiency, and low temps can be achieved. The longevity will be achieved by having good parts and not getting too crazy RPM wise. You probably noticed that I don't have any specific parts listed. As I said, I know spark engines better than diesel. But this is fun. Hopefully this makes sense.

The only other pipe dream thing I can think of would be to get some sort of dual overhead cam variable valve timing setup working... That way we could play with dynamic compression, overlap, and advance/retard on the fly. This last bit is where modern engines will really outstrip the old tried and true designs.