In a flathead engine, the air-fuel mixture has to go around several corners to make its way into the combustion chamber and burned exhaust gases have a similarly circuitous route out of the cylinders. Like all other GM divisions, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar engine only in the 1990s. Performance modifications included a "hot" camshaft (in reality, just a camshaft used in various applications during the '70s with .440"/.440" lift and 196/208 duration at .050"), stiffer valve springs, a larger vibration damper (same as all '73-'79 350s, 403s, and 455s), a Y-pipe dual-outlet exhaust system, and richer secondary metering rods in the carburetor. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. Two-barrel carburetion was standard; all high performance 324s came with four-barrel carburetors. They normally expire after about one year. By late 1956, many Olds dealers learned about the problem. BMEP, IMEP), you will immediately see that bore/stroke ratio does not directly effect engine power. 1988), pp. (These cookies are not usually set for administrative users, since comments they submit while logged in are associated with their user ID number and user profile information rather than a manually entered name and email address.). 1956 Oldsmobile 88 Rocket The engine design for the Rocket 88 came from GMs chief researcher, Charles Kettering. It was generally paired with the Turbo Hydramatic 350 3-speed automatic or the Turbo Hydramatic 400 3-speed ustomatic in rear wheel drive vehicles, in the case of front-wheel drive vehicles, the Turbo Hydramatic 425 FWD 3-speed automatic. The new, mid-sized Oldsmobile Rocket 88 went on sale February 6, exactly seven weeks after the 98. Even with the standard Hydra-Matic transmission, the 88 was capable of 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) in a bit over 12 seconds and could reach an absolute top speed of 97 mph (156 km/h). 88. Your email address will not be published. Produced from 19681980, the Rocket 350 was entirely different from the other GM divisions' 350s. Did G M make a 1949-50 olds 88 or 98 4 door fastback ? Change Background Color (Note: This option sets cookies on your device to manage your color settings; see the Cookie Notice for details. Now heres the rub vis-a-vis this article: granted that the Rocket 88 gained a reputation as something of a factory hot rod in its day (helped, no doubt, by Ike Turner aka Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats little ditty of the same name), nonetheless in my research I have been hard-pressed to find anyone who used it as a performance powerplant. The super-fuels the engineers wanted would probably have added even more. Its a true barn find. Base price for the Deluxe Club Sedan was $1,982 in 1950, and 16,388 were sold. "Kelly", Jr. Baechtel, John. 12 (December 1964): 36-47; William Kovarik, Ph.D., Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 Discovery of Tetraethyl Lead In the Context of Technological Alternatives, originally presented to the Society of American Engineers Fuels & Lubricants Conference, Baltimore, MD, 1994, revised 1999, www.radford. This was the only engine offered in 1923, when the Model 47 continued alone. [12] The Oldsmobile engine was very similar to the Buick engine, but not identical: it had larger wedge combustion chambers with flat-topped (rather than domed) pistons, six bolts rather than five per cylinder, and slightly larger intake valves; the valves were actuated by shaft-mounted rocker arms like the Buick and Pontiac versions, but the shafts and rockers were unique to Oldsmobile. (Google, DoubleClick, YouTube, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. The prototypes, which first ran in November 1946, were 287 cu. The Rocket 88 would see consistent improvements over the next two decades or so. The new V8 was designed with plenty of extra room in the block for future displacement increases, but Gilbert Burrell and his team actually hoped that Oldsmobile could return to the 287 cu. Oldsmobile V8s can be grouped into five "generations.". We are known for our high quality,attention to detail and meeting our customers goals. All of this was occurring from about 1948 thru the first half of the 50s. These cookies expire in about 15 days if the user clicks "Remember Me" when logging in; if not, the cookies normally expire when the user closes their browser (or other user agent), or, failing that, within about two days. Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Mercury were the top sellers and I believe Oldsmobile would come in 5th or 6th place. Some people fit these motors into a modified classic car or muscle car because of Oldsmobile GM reliability and performance horsepower advantages. Oldsmobile used the popular LV2, a 307-cubic-inch (5.0L) engine, commonly known by the VIN code "Y", from 1980-1990. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. About . As is the case with all pre-1972 American passenger car engines, published horsepower and torque figures for those years were SAE "Gross," as opposed to 1972 and later SAE Net ratings (which are indicative of what actual production engines produce in their "as installed" state - with all engine accessories, full air cleaner assembly, and complete production exhaust system in place). Free shipping for many products! I would certainly agree that the Rocket V-8 was overshadowed pretty quickly, in part because Oldsmobile didnt pursue the competition or performance avenues to the same extent Pontiac did in the late 50s. Coincidentally, Cadillac had been working since 1936 on a very similar OHV engine to replace its familiar monoblock flathead V8. Accessing certain posts or pages on this website may require you to enter a specific password. Most of these engines were very similar, using the same bore centers and a 9.33in (237mm) deck height, raised on "big-block" versions to 10.625in (269.9mm). Required fields are marked *. The "Rocket" name disappeared from the air cleaner identification decal after 1974. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage 1949 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic Rocket Engine Magazine Print Ad W31 at the best online prices at eBay! Power was 81 hp at 3000 rpm. The 455 big block Olds V8 was replaced in 1977 with the 403cuin (6.6L) small block, which used a 4.351in (110.5mm) bore, the largest ever used in a small-block V8, with the Olds small-block standard deck and 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for For 1957 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 Battery Cable SMP 68152PP 6.1L V8 at the best online prices at eBay! Because the high-octane fuels necessary to take advantage of really high compression ratios were not yet available, Burrell ordered the displacement of the production engine (known internally as 8-90) increased to 303.7 cu. Offenhauser 3200 49-53 Olds Rocket Dual Quad Intake, Small Port $889.99 Ships Free . Many customers did not keep the reservoir filled, or had mechanical problems with the turbocharger system which resulted in many of the turbo-charger installations being removed and a conventional 4 barrel carburetor and manifold installed in its place. The bore was so wide that the cylinder walls were siamesed, as in the Chevrolet 400 V8, with no space for coolant to flow between the cylinders. . Even "modest" restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. The B-body Oldsmobiles rode a 6-inch (152mm) shorter wheelbase and were 11 inches (279 mm) shorter and 3.6 inches (91mm) narrower than the C-body 98 and weighed 250 pounds (227 kg) less. The demise of Olds is yet another dreary episode in the ongoing story of GM losing its way. Thanks, I have enjoyed reading your many excellent articles. (Ten of the 13 88s that entered that race managed to finish, itself an impressive feat.) A new Cadillac was dramatically more expensive and also heavier, and Buicks with the big straight eight engine probably had Dynaflow. (5,880 cc) engine was a massive straight eight with nine main bearings may have played a role in that!) Compression ratios of 9.0:1 at 310hp (230kW) or 10.25:1 at 360hp (270kW) were available in the U.S. A special 1965-1967 425cuin (7.0L) V8 was the Starfire engine. What these activities have most in common was that there was an awful lot of engine-swapping going on. Incidentally, the Rocket engine was not Oldsmobiles first V8. For the Rocket 88, Oldsmobile came up with a 303 cubic inch V8 capable of a maximum 135 hp and 283 lb-ft of torque. Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of 317.8cuin (5,208cc) is theoretically possible.[14]. Other American manufacturers would reach the same conclusion. The payment button in the "Support Ate Up With Motor" box (and similar payment or donation buttons that may appear on portions of the administrative dashboard, which is not normally accessible except to logged-in administrative users) contains embedded content served by PayPal services. This car has the pushbutton radio, which cost about $96. Google, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC.). $8,888 or BEST REASONABLE OFFER. 4th Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2002); Maurice Hendry, Hillbilly Genius: The Great Boss Ket,' Special Interest Autos #51 (June 1979), pp. Being ahead of your time or having a short season is not the same as being overhyped, and since the muscle car category in general is as much about hype and point of view as substance, I think thats an important consideration. 9 (September 1964), reprinted in Oldsmobile Muscle Portfolio 1964-1971, ed. . Larry Young. Raising an engines compression ratio allows the engine to extract more energy from the fuel it burns, improving both power and fuel economy. The following are turn key engines available . Most 425s were painted red, though the 1966 and 1967 Toronado units were light blue. So my question is, was there any substance to the Olds Rocket 88 legend or has nostalgia given it a bigger place in musclecar legend than it deserves, much like the original 1936 Buick Century? 18-23; Jim Richardson, Rocket Power: Oldsmobiles 1950 convertibles: The rocking 88 versus the jazzier 98, Special Interest Autos #188 (March-April 2002), pp. If the payment button is visible, it may set the third-party cookies PYPF (via paypalobjects.com, which is owned by PayPal, Inc.), which appears to check whether or not you are a logged-in PayPal user, possibly to facilitate the PayPal user login process, and/or 01A1 (via abmr.net, which is owned by Akamai Technologies), which stores certain technical information about your device and browser (or other user agent), possibly to facilitate the login and shopping cart functions. Happy to see someone that not only mentions, but appreciates the early Olds. (The basic Eighty-Eight was rarer, accounting for only about 35,000.) Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. Unlike a Mustang or a later Chevy, where theres a thriving business in replacement pieces, finding parts for an Olds of that vintage isnt necessarily easy these days. Have never been an American car guyI cut my teeth on old British roadstersbut I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed your well-written, informative article on the history of the Rocket 88. Oldsmobiles first postwar engine was born during the UAW strike that shut down GM production from November 1945 through March 1946. Deciding Burrells ideas had promise, Wolfram and Skinner organized a new advance design group to develop a new overhead-valve (OHV) V8 engine and assigned Burrell to lead it. To learn more about what information the YouTube platform and other Google services may collect through and/or in connection with embedded video players and how Google may use that information, see their "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" page and the Google Privacy Policy. Big-block and Diesel versions also increased the 2.5in (64mm) main bearing journal to 3.0in (76mm) for increased strength. The original Oldsmobile Rocket V8 soldiered on until 1964, eventually reaching 394 cu. The Oldsmobile Cutlass, Rocket 88, and other classic models remain very popular among car collectors and Oldsmobile fans. Its output of 0.45 hp per cubic inch was 7% better than the 0.42 hp per cubic inch of the popular and widely produced 100hp (75kW) 1949 Ford Flathead V8. 442 . The Super Eighty-Eight wasnt particularly rare when it was new Olds sold about 150,000 of them in 1951. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. SAE gross power was 150hp. 4-barrel models used 9.25:1 compression in 1957 and 10:1 in 1958 for 277hp (207kW) and 400lbft (540Nm) and 305hp (227kW) and 410lbft (560Nm) respectively. Crane said Bouvy was Engine/Camshaft designer of the 1949 Cadillac V-8. In a 1972 interview with Michael Lamm, then editor of Special Interest Autos, former Cadillac chief engineer Jack Gordon lamented the trend to ever bigger and thirstier engines, noting that he had tried unsuccessfully to convince oil companies to develop ultra-high-octane fuels so that Cadillac could adopt more fuel-efficient high-compression, small-displacement engines. The 1949-50 Rocket 88 was good for 15-16 miles to the gallon (15 L/100 km) overall and up to 18 mpg (13 L/100 km) if driven carefully; a 1964 Oldsmobile Starfire struggled to reach 12 mpg (20 L/100 km), a decline of around 30%. All full-size 1962 Oldsmobiles had the 394. The company produced its first V8 - an L-head design . Such cookies and/or stored data items may be set by various domains (such as, though not necessarily limited to, youtube.com; youtube-nocookie.com; googlevideo.com; ytimg.com; google.com; accounts.google.com; www.googleadservices.com; and/or doubleclick.net, which is part of the DoubleClick advertising service, also owned by Google LLC). So, its not particularly surprising that a highly tuned flathead Ford would be stronger than a stock 1950 Olds 303. hi, i have a engine with thename oldsmobile rocket on it, where can i see what sizethe engine is, 305, 394 plse i need this info as i want to rebuild this engine, thanx. The PYPF cookie normally expires in approximately four weeks, the 01A1 cookie in approximately one year. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. Original revolutionary Hydra-Matic SUPER DRIVE 3-speed automatic transmission, spare tire, and a couple of extra chrome wheel covers. One by one, every other American manufacturer brought out its own OHV V8 engine: Chrysler and Studebaker in 1951; Lincoln in 1952; Buick and Dodge in 1953; Ford and Mercury in 1954; Chevrolet, Pontiac, Plymouth, and Packard in 1955; and AMC in 1956. (If you need to review or change these settings after you accept, you can do so from the Privacy Tools page.) For anyone interested the 1950 Mexican road race where 12 Olds 88s entered and 10 finished, eight of the 10 were beaten by a flathead Nash. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. In any case, the early postwar period saw the emergence of the California customizing/hot rod scene; the advent of the fiberglass kit car body manufacturers such as Bill Tritts Glaspar (Tritt was retained briefly by GM as a consultant in 1951 when they were considering building a lightweight fiberglass-bodied sports car); and the birth of modern motorsport in the US with the founding of the SCCA and the advent of road racing as the most popular form of competition. This motor is blue which makes me think its been gone through. 98 J-2. I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. Every 307 used a four-barrel carburetor, which was a variant of the Rochester Quadrajet, usually the CCC (Computer Command Control) Quadrajet. The Rocket Engine Story by One Who Was Thereby Gibson Butler. All generation-2 small-block Olds V8s used a stroke of 3.385in (86.0mm). I will let you know soon. 10-17, 56; Richard M. Langworth, 1954 Packard Pacific: Last of the Great Straight Eights, Special Interest Autos #51 (May-June 1979), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Postwar American Independents: driveReports from Special Interest Autos Magazine, ed. As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. 96. The Rocket 88 would vacuum the chrome off V8 Fords (unless the Fords owner had made a substantial investment in aftermarket parts) and it took a semi-exotic like the new Jaguar XK-120 to soundly beat the Olds. An 88 also won the first grueling Carrera Panamericana, the 2,176-mile (3,500-km) Mexican Road Race. Oldsmobile engineers originally wanted to call this the Kettering Engine, after GM research vice president Charles Kettering, whose work on high-compression engines helped to inspire it. NASCAR held nine Grand National races in 1949, of which stock Rocket 88s won six. [19] The 403 was never featured with a manual transmission and the crank was never manufactured for a pilot bearing. However, my research has of necessity stretched back somewhat further than that and not just to the late 40s but, in tracing company histories, at least as far back as 1903 and the curved dash Oldsmobile. (Google, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. The second generation of Oldsmobile V8s was produced from 1964-1990. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). 425 motor, super rocket. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? Output for 1983-1985 was 180hp (130kW) and 245lbft (332Nm). The main distinguishing features of this engine were a slightly different camshaft profile from the standard ultra high compression engine and factory dual exhaust. The early Rocket V8 weighs a bit over 700 pounds (318 kg) and had an SAE gross rating of 135 hp (101 kW). The Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s represented the start of several major trends in American engine design. That never happened; by the fifties, the industry was far more interested in advertised horsepower than gas mileage. By 1952, the 88 was growing inexorably bigger and although Oldsmobile engineers had little trouble getting more power out of the Rocket engine by 1955, it boasted 202 gross horsepower (151 kW) newer, lighter cars soon surpassed its performance. Cadillacs OHV V8, released around the same time as the new Oldsmobiles, was itself an important and influential engine that earned Motor Trends first Car of the Year Award, but it was the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 that started an avalanche. The engine was designed by Charles L. McCuen, who later had a hand in approving the Rocket engine for production. In certain cases, multiple iterations of either or both of these cookies may be set. In1953, at seventeen years old I had a 1932 Ford 5 window coupe that with the help of two uncles that ran auto repair shops installed a 1950 Oldsmobile engine that I got out of a wrecked car, into my coupe. The placement of the valves also means that the combustion chamber has a smaller surface area and thus greater thermal efficiency some 20% better than a comparable flathead. It was offered in the Hurst/Olds version of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais and in the 4-4-2 version of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon. FOLLOW MARKET. A 1958 2-barrel version produced 265hp (198kW) and 390lbft (530Nm), but had problems with early camshaft failures due to the high preload valve spring forces. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. The 260cuin (4.3L), 307cuin (5.0L), 330cuin (5.4L), 350cuin (5.7L) and 403cuin (6.6L) engines are commonly called small-blocks. Oldsmobile Rocket 88 s by Year 1958 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. (4,705 cc) and were designed to take advantage of research that had been done by GM Research VP Charles Kettering on high-compression engines (of which well have more to say below). The 1954 88 and Super 88 V8s used an 8.25:1 compression ratio for 170 and 185hp (127 and 138kW) and 295 and 300lbft (400 and 407Nm), respectively. Cadillac used a distantly related engine which appeared in three different sizes through to the 1962 model year; though the Oldsmobile and Cadillac motors were not physically related, many lessons learned by one division were incorporated into the other's design, and the result were two engines known for their excellent power-to-weight ratio, fuel economy, and smooth, strong, reliable running. Revisions to the engine for 1986 included roller lifters with a slightly smaller camshaft (.435"/.438" lift and 194/210 duration at .050"), new heads with smaller, swirl-port intake runners, floating piston pins, and larger piston dishes for lower compression (8.0:1 v. 8.4:1). Can you point me to any information on GM camshaft design methodology? Barr believed the Oldsmobile engine was a direct derivative of Cadillacs design, although he conceded that Cadillac also benefited from some of Oldsmobiles work. in. Were Oldsmobiles ever sold in Brazil in any significant numbers? Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. By contrast, both the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s were oversquare, with a wide bore and a short stroke. Ketterings team demonstrated that the higher compression ratio boosted power and gas mileage by nearly 30%. You make a good point about the L-head lifter. You never mentioned it but the 50 Olds in the photo has the single piece windshield. Brand new 1/87 (HO) scale diecast car model of 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Coupe #22 "Overseas Motors Atlanta" Red die cast model car by Oxford Diecast. The introduction of the "Rocket 8" V-8 for the 1949 Oldsmobiles was perhaps the pinnacle of his achievements, incorporating in its overhead-valve design such features as five main bearings,. If you look up the concept of MEP (e.g. The engine proved so popular, the division's 88 models were popularly called Rocket 88s. Some L-head straight-eights were MORE powerful than early OHV V-8s, although they were getting to the limit of their potential, at least in states of tune that were still reasonably streetable. More-or-less stock Rocket 88s continued winning their classes at the drag strip well into the 1950s. I dont know what its survival rate is, though. The OHV V8 would dominate the American industry well into the 1980s, resulting in some staggeringly powerful engines whose output has only recently been surpassed. Skinner and Wolfram tried again in March 1947, having decided that alternative engine configurations were impractical, and this time managed to secure production approval from GM president Charles E. Wilson. Many modern engines deal with this problem by placing the camshaft in the cylinder head along with the valves (an overhead cam (OHC) engine), but there still has to be some way for the crank to drive the camshaft. Road tests were conducted later that year and the new V8 went into production a few days before Christmas 1948. Hours of Operation. Some things, like the Hydra-Matic, arent so bad, but trim pieces can be a major pain, and even the early Rocket engines can be challenging at this point. A flathead engine, therefore, also has poor thermal efficiency. If you correctly enter the password, the site saves this cookie on your device to allow you access to the password-protected post or page. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. Most 394s used 2-barrel carburetors, but special high-compression 4-barrel versions were available starting in 1961. [[[Chevrolet Corvair#First generation (19601964)#{{{section}}}|contradictory]]]. 50,000 cars were imported in 1952, US brands comprising some 90% of that total. They may persist for up to two years. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). 1951 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Particularly by 50s standards, the flathead Ford wasnt an outstanding engine, which I think even a lot of loyalists would have readily admitted, but you could get them by the cartload and there was a huge, well-entrenched aftermarket for them. The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. Popular price guides put Lansing's mid-1950s cars at an average of $16,500 for a four-door all the way up to $72,900 for a two-door convertible. The engine had 10.25:1 compression and a single-barrel carburetor. 26-33. During that period, Oldsmobile Motor Group draftsman Gilbert Burrell began working privately on concepts for new cars and new engines. The 303-cubic-inch (5.0L) engine had hydraulic lifters, an oversquare bore:stroke ratio, a counterweighted forged crankshaft, aluminum pistons, floating wristpins, and a dual-plane intake manifold. I forgot this on one occasion when I was attempting to jump start my 55 Olds; after getting the car rolling backwards, I was rewarded with nothing more than a ratcheting sound when I shifted from N to R. The engine did not rotate and the car did not start. . The OHV V8 was still a large engine externally, but it was shorter and lower than the straight eight and weighed quite a bit less. The Vimeo Cookie Policy also provides information about how Vimeo users can control the use of third-party analytics and/or advertising cookies in connection with embedded Vimeo video players. The first generation of Oldsmobile 88 was introduced in 1949. The 1976-1979 Cadillac Seville was equipped with a version of this engine featuring an analog Bendix/Bosch electronic port fuel injection system, making this the first American mass-produced car with EFI as standard equipment.[18]. This is a session cookie that verifies that the user has entered valid user credentials pending receipt of the correct authentication code; the cookie normally expires when the user closes their browser (or other user agent). This 1952 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight is a well-priced classic that gives you some of the best styles around. 15 results per page. Im not a mechanic, so Im afraid I cannot provide any kind of repair advice. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a wedge-head OHV engine. 1956 Oldsmobile 88 4dr St Rod, new gas tank, new brakes and tires, rebuilt front end, good body, new paint, nice patina, good original interior, rebuilt . Power increased the final Rocket was rated at 345 gross horsepower (257 kW) but fuel economy eroded. 2027; John Katz, Racing the 88, Special Interest Autos #145 (January-February 1995), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles, p. 88; Jamie Kitman, The Secret History of Lead, The Nation March 2000; Allen Hunt, Horsepower from Detroit, Part IV: Cadillac, Oldsmobile and the horsepower race, Car Life Vol.
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