Chevy small block.. Unlike the ford block the car version is lightweight alluminum.
It also produces alot of bhp and is extremely reliable. One of the best examples of how keeping it simple pays off.

Chevy make the best v8 currently on the market. Race technology directly in use on the road every single hour of every single day in the LS7 :)

Ford have an extremely impressive engine in the 5.4 /330 Cubic inch engine... but seeing as that's currently only available in Iron block form from a current production car... the aluminum block is superior to the LS7 in terms of raw potential, and stock abilities.

Chrysler... 6.1 liter hemi... somehow it just feels more mass produced, and mass marketed then the aformentioned... It's an impressive motor, surely... but perhaps it's problem is the cars' in which it currently resides :(

Where is the challenger? I sure hope it still gets built.

Th Ford Windsor engines were great too. 289HiPo, 351, 302

I'm gonna have to go with GM. Personally, I think the Northstar has to be one of the best engines they have created. At 60% output it produces 300hp and is pretty small in displacement. The 32v DOHC design makes a very nice sound and has a very nice powerband. Pretty advanced in design for american motors...the starter is built right into the block. Its only flaw in my opinion is its modular design. As mentioned, the LSx series is also a brilliant motor. Its the latest in pushrod design, its fairly lightweight, has an aftermarket n/a potential of somewhere around 600hp in the 5.7l version. Get one with 7l and 800+ na hp is probably available. I also like the LTx series. These motors have an even cheaper aftermarket and the power potential is over that with the LSx series in my mind.

As far as ford, you cant beat the sound of the old 5.0l...I think the 4.6 sounds like shit...

Chrysler has the old school hemi, which as a pretty capable motor for its time. I dont know why they call the new ones that.

Also, I cant believe nobody said anything about a AMC..they set a number of world speed records on the late 60's and the 390 V8 offered at the time made 350hp...

The Northstar series V-8 are probably the most underrated engine you can fine. The power output would be immense out of those engines if tuners weren't so scared of them. And the Chevy 350 is probably the most mass produced motor ever made, they have a lot under there belt to back up there engines and they are supposedly easier to tune then the 4.6's from ford, something to do with the way the computer learns or resets itself....i dunno. Chevy 350 for me.

i say the older v8s Ford, new v8s i would lean towards GM, with northstar and LSx engines.

The Chevy engine for sure. The Ford modular is a good engine, yes the engine was designed in the mid 1980's as a passenger car power-plant, if Ford would have designed the engine with a little more cubic inches...

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with both BlacktransWS6 and you gobs3z... Its fairly reliable, surely... but there isn't the built in eztra 40% that you said there is, it isn't high revving; and it doesn't particularly sound that great (well, luxury car)

A friend who is/was a GM designer built the Heldo... he has every bit of extra ability out of the engine that is possible w/out paying for high dollar cams, exhaust (it does have headers), intake/injection etc. ... he thought he was running in excess of 400-450 hp, but as it turns out, he only cranks out about 320 rwhp... his car is just extremely light weight stripped out and made for one thing... going fast, and the visual"wow" factor.

Chevrolet, end of story. The old small blocks and new LS motors are just so easy to make power with.

However, Fords tend to have the best sound for some reason.

I think Chevy has had the strongest motors of the big 3. Seems like all they've changed on the lot is the type of materials used to make them. Design is as basic as you can get, and the power has always been there and the sound has always been amazing.

Ford has never really impressed me with the power or the sound and Chrysler has been out of the game for too long.

Ford doesn't do so badly and the new "hemi's" aren't exactly lacklusters.

Just about any V8 Mustang sounds wonderful, especially with aftermarket exhaust . . . like Saleen ones.

Well, if you pull a northstar out of a caddy and retune it, port and polish the heads and put larger valves in it, redo the exhaust, and slap a larger intake on there, ive got to believe the motor would be capable of 450+ crank hp. Its still pretty high revving when compared the the LSx series, seems like a stock redline of 6000rpm..maybe slightly higher... Gm supposidly can get 420hp out of the motor before they detuned it for luxury mode. And you cant forget about the race version. Seems like they raced the northstar before the CTS came out.

BlackTransWs6, Show me one properly tuned 4.6 DOHC Northstar V8 with more then 400 hp... no porting/polishing/valves/rods/headers/heads etc. It simply isnt at 60%... its internals may be able to handle more power, but the engine isn't able to do an additional 40% itself.... and also, the internals needed severe work in the STS V/XLR-V and a drop in displacement to give stronger cylinder walls. I'm sorry, but the engine is "Tech for Tech's sake" not "Tech because it's better"

Im gonna assume that nobody has just retuned their northstar without doing anything else. Though ive never really looked for it, i did see a program on maybe speed vision where this dude put a northstar in his dune buggy with nitrous. However, I will do some research a bit later and see if I can come up with some numbers. I believe the northstar is capable of 420 crank hp with exaust, intake, and a retune... In the STS, DTS, and ETC version of the motor its watered down to provide that quiet "sports sedan" performance its older target market requires.