Back when I was a kid, I worked at a place in Ft Lauderdale called the Z car Center. (3 guesses what they specialized in) I was driving a '79 280ZX at the time. I had just picked up my son from daycare and dropped him off at home, and was on my way back to the shop to finish up a few more hours of work. It was raining cats and dogs, and there was plenty of water in the road. I came to a flooded section, and the water came up to the bottom of the doors, but I was young and fearless so I decided that I could make it through. (I was like 21 or 22, so still 'technically' retarded) I was ... not correct. The water got up to the hood, there was a hell of a bang, and the engine stopped dead. I slogged the rest of the way to the shop, Jeff got the truck, and we dragged her into the shop, where we pulled the plugs out and turned the engine over. Water shot across the shop from all 6 cylinders, and Jeff told me that I'd probably need to rebuild it. I was sad. The next morning I got a ride in to the shop, put the plugs back in, and tried to start her up. I remember that she sounded like a steam engine, and flames were shooting out the side of the block from Numbers 5 and six, where 2 chunks of head gasket had been blown out the side of the block... but she ran. At the time,. it was the most badass thing I'd ever seen. For the next few days, until we replaced the head gasket (which was all the repair she needed) she was driven in and out of the shop daily. That's when I fell in love, and decided it was the only kind of car I wanted to own. ... So the short version is that yeah, I'd say the L28 is absolutely one of the toughest engine ever made.