General Motors 54 degree V6 engine

The General Motors 54 degree V6 engine is a compact six-cylinder engine that Opel, then a General Motors subsidiary, designed in Europe in the early 1990s to replace its aging straight-six range. Its unusual 54 degree vee angle kept the engine short enough for both front-wheel-drive and rear-wheel-drive cars. It is a dual overhead camshaft, four valves per cylinder design with an iron block and aluminum heads, a timing belt, sequential fuel injection and distributorless ignition, and every unit was assembled at Ellesmere Port in England. It was sold as a 2.5 and 3.0 litre engine, then reworked in 2000 into 2.6 and 3.2 litre versions to meet tighter emissions rules. It powered the Opel Omega, Vectra, Calibra, Signum and Sintra, the Cadillac Catera and CTS, and Saab and Saturn models, and the 3.0 litre Catera engines were recalled for timing belt tensioner bearing failures.