A slightly larger 307cuin (5.0L) version was introduced in 1980. in. The present mindset (with which I dont necessarily agree, mind you) is that all brands must either be Youthful or Aspirational or if possible both, so a brand whose name begins with Old and which is best known for decades of middle-of-the-road respectability isnt off to a good start on either front. The 425cuin (7.0L) big-block was the first tall-deck "big block," produced from 1965 through 1967. I would assume a postwar Olds V-8 would have been a real high-rollers car. Ate Up With Motor and its embedded content providers may use cookies and/or similar technologies and collect personal information about site visitors as described in the Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice. The Nash finished third behind two 88s. In certain cases, multiple iterations of either or both of these cookies may be set. The grilles under the headlights of this 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 are for the ventilation system, replacing the traditional pop-up cowl vent. 1985), pp. These limitations hurt both power and fuel economy. Your email address will not be published. 1957 also offered the "J2" option, with three 2-barrel carburetors atop the 371 cubic inch V8; making this a true luxury performance . 12 (December 1964):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. The shape of a flatheads combustion chambers also limits its maximum compression ratio (the amount the fuel mixture is compressed before burning). 1959 and 1960 371s used green painted valve covers. In the spirit of trying to improve a fantastic article. I had been running a very healthy flat head that had several modifications such as a stroker crank, racing cam an two stromberg 97 carburetors. Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. 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. Regarding production tallies, in MY1949, Oldsmobile built 288,310 cars, of which 95,556 were the 76, meaning the remaining 192,754 (66.9% of production) were 88s and 98s with the new Rocket engine. The 76 lingered for one more model year and then was dropped entirely; the division wouldnt offer a six again until 1964. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. Big block Oldsmobile Rocket 442 crate engines are also available. 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. The 10:1 compression 1961 model produced 325hp (242kW) and 435lbft (590Nm), while the 10.25:1 1962-1964 version upped power to 330hp (250kW) and 440lbft (600Nm). All of this was occurring from about 1948 thru the first half of the 50s. The Buick version was rated at 200hp with an 11:1 compression ratio. Sunday - Closed. Both the Cadillac and Oldsmobile design teams were strongly influenced by the work of GM research chief Boss Charles Kettering, who had been working on high-compression engines since the end of World War I. Barr believed the Oldsmobile engine was a direct derivative of Cadillacs design, although he conceded that Cadillac also benefited from some of Oldsmobiles work. Shop 303 Oldsmobile V8 parts and get Free Shipping on orders over $149 at Speedway Motors, the Racing and Rodding Specialists. I will let you know soon. Both of the practical options available in the 1930s and 1940s a train of gears or a metal chain drive were complex, expensive, and noisy. The top brass equivocated, but Skinner finally got the green light. The original Oldsmobile Rocket V8 soldiered on until 1964, eventually reaching 394 cu. 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! 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. $8,888 or BEST REASONABLE OFFER. The cookies normally expire in about 10 days, and are not set at all if you do not access any password-protected content. Power for the base engine was up to 315hp (235kW), even though compression was down a quarter point, to 9.75:1.[9]. The early Repco engines produced up to 300bhp (220kW), and featured new SOHC cylinder heads and iron cylinder liners. The 1955 model upped the compression to 8.5:1 for 185hp (138kW) and 320lbft (430Nm) in the 88 and 202hp (151kW) and 332lbft (450Nm) in the Super 88 and 98. I have an interest in the history of Camshaft design tildentechnologies.com. 16, No. Trim Rocket 88 1951 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic 88 Rocket 303 V8 Hydramatic custom $16,900 Embedded video players for content hosted on the YouTube video platform (which is owned by Google LLC) may set these third-party cookies and/or use similar technologies to store data in your browser (or other user agent) for purposes such as (without limitation) managing video settings (e.g., tailoring the playback to your connection speed), storing video preferences, providing certain functionality (e.g., allowing you to pause a video at a particular point), showing you advertisements, associating your video viewing and other activity with your Google account (if any), ensuring proper functioning of the service, preventing abuse, and/or compiling user analytics data. Brand new box. 26-33. ), When you list the OHV Detroit engines that came along after the Rocket, the DeSoto Hemi of 1952 and Plymouth Poly of 1956 may merit mentioncant recall if the 1955 Packard V8 got its curtain call. [citation needed], Introduced in the middle of the 1957 model year,[6] the 1957 and 1958 J-2 Golden Rocket had three two-barrel (twin choke) carburetors with a vacuum-operated linkage. 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. 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. in. [citation needed] Compared to the V6, the 260 was also smoother-running, and far more durable. It kept the retired 425's 4.126in (104.8mm) bore to produce between 275 and 400hp (205 and 298kW; 279 and 406PS). The Ford/Mercury flathead V8 was of course a popular choice up until the early part of the decade (and had been since its introduction in 1932) but the introduction of the new overhead valve V8s Cadillac and Oldsmobile in 1949 and Chrysler and Studebaker in 1951 were a game-changer for the performance crowd. I was aghast at the ad campaign, This is not your Fathers Oldsmobile. The Nash was driven by Roy Graham a wrestling referee at Dallas Sportatorium who also had the Nash dealership in Corsicana TX. The 324 was shared with GMC trucks. Produced from 19681980, the Rocket 350 was entirely different from the other GM divisions' 350s. in. Oldsmobile Rocket 88/98 GM General Motors, which remains the world's largest producer of pushrod OHV engines, started the revolution when Oldsmobile and Cadillac began developing their OHV engines in 1945. 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. (Ten of the 13 88s that entered that race managed to finish, itself an impressive feat.) Comments may be moderated. If better fuels became available, both the Cadillac and Olds engines had the theoretical potential for compression ratios as high as 12:1. Cookies whose names begin with "_ceg" are associated with the Crazy Egg web analytics service (which is subject to the Crazy Egg Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy). Even the flathead Ford held up well (courtesy of the Ardun hop-up parts mail order catalogue.) Call 800.979.0122, 7am-10pm, everyday. Comes in plastic display showcase. These were wedge-head engines with a unique combustion chamber that resulted from a valve angle of only 6. It has been purported that there is a 403 Oldsmobile block and cast that has solid main webs that may have been equipped in vehicles such as the Pontiac Firebird equipped with a towing package, but there are currently no clearly documented surviving examples. 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. The big-block engines initially used a forged crankshaft with a stroke of 3.975" for the 1965-1967 425 and 400 CID versions; starting in 1968, both the 400cuin (6.6L) and the 455cuin (7.5L) big blocks used a stroke of 4.25in (108mm), with crankshaft material changed to cast iron except in a few rare cases. (For each of these cookies, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) 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. Around the end of that year, the project nearly ground to a halt due to objections from Cadillac. The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. Even in markets where fuel is substantially more expensive than in the U.S., fuel efficiency is widely regarded in purely economic terms. Making its debut in 1957 as standard equipment on all Olds models,[4] the 371 was produced through 1960. Maybe. Millionaires would drive the few Cadillacs. Thanks! What I would recommend that I actually suggest for anyone considering a collector car is that you join a club for that marque in your area, if you havent already. The factory painted "small-blocks" gold or blue (flat black on the late model 307cuin (5.0L)),[1] while "big-blocks" could be red, green, blue, or bronze.[1]. 770-738-7111. Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? The first generation of Oldsmobile V8s ranged from 1949-1964. 5 vehicles matched Now showing page 1 of 1. 1955 Oldsmobile 88. 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. The Oldsmobile 350s made from 1968-1976 have heavy castings, beefier crankshafts, and better flowing heads. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. Im not sure about the early Hydramatics but later ones, 54-56 you put in reverse to park. All Oldsmobile V8s use a 90 bank angle, and most share a common stroke dimension: 3.4375in (87.31mm) for early Rockets, 3.6875in (93.66mm) for later Generation 1 engines, and 3.385in (86.0mm) for Generation 2 starting in 1964. They call mine the black ace and they have a club division in the oldsmobile club of america. From 1961-1963, Oldsmobile manufactured its own version of the Buick-designed, all-aluminum 215 cubic inch (3.5L) V8 engine for the F-85 compact. One or more wp-saving-post cookies may be set while creating and/or editing posts or pages, to help manage version control and the autosave feature; these cookies normally expire after about 24 hours. Overhead valves did not suffer the same problem, which gave them the potential for much higher compression ratios. The _ga and _gid cookies, which were only placed if you clicked "Accept/Enable" in the notification banner, enabled the Google Analytics service to track your activity on the site. Note the stylized rocket chrome trim on the front fender. Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Mercury were the top sellers and I believe Oldsmobile would come in 5th or 6th place. Those were the good old days. Sorry! Now that we have DISCONTINUED our use of Google Analytics tracking on this website, this cookie no longer functions no additional analytics data will be collected, with or without the cookie. Oldsmobile's own L34 350-cubic-inch (5.7L) V8 was used in the 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass "S", 1979 Hurst/Olds models and 1980 "4-4-2". 7-27; Michael Lamm, Two Very Important Cars! The early Rocket V8 weighs a bit over 700 pounds (318 kg) and had an SAE gross rating of 135 hp (101 kW). In an OHV engine, by contrast, the valves are a fair distance away from the crankshaft, which makes operating them far more complicated. 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. Liberation is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. From your research, do you have any information on Bouvy? It was released one year earlier than the tall deck 425, and debuted the standard 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke; bore was 3.938in (100.0mm). It was a sliding gear like a manual and held in some fashion I cant remember because it couldnt lock to the engine through the torus member. (PayPal.com, PayPal, and all logos related to the PayPal services are either trademarks or registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc. or its licensors. 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This very open and flat chamber was fuel efficient and had lower than average emissions output. Incidentally, the Rocket engine was not Oldsmobiles first V8. The second issue was that the practical limit for L-head engines was a compression ratio of about 7.0:1; above that threshold, it became difficult to control combustion roughness. 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. (These cookies may not be set at all for administrative users unless they access the publicly visible portions of the website and/or update their consent settings e.g., by accepting an updated version of the Privacy Policy. The 1967 and later versions of the Repco engine had proprietary engine blocks. The engine built in the 1955 Super 88 and 98 models delivered 295 horsepower. A BRILLIANTLY written article! Accessing the login page sets the wordpress_test_cookie, a session cookie that tests whether the user's browser (or other user agent) will allow the cookies needed to log in to the administrative dashboard; this cookie normally expires when the user closes their browser (or other user agent). However, former Cadillac engineer Harry Barr, who led the development of Cadillacs first OHV V8, later asserted that Charles L. McCuen, then GMs vice president of engineering (and the former general manager of Oldsmobile) had ordered Cadillac chief engineer Jack Gordon to show Cadillacs OHV design to Oldsmobile carburetor engineer Tony Wauters. 49 rocket 88 was my first car back in 1964. 1968-1974 350s were painted gold; 1975-1976 350s were metallic blue like the 455; 1977-1980 models were painted GM Corporate Blue. The output of the 307cuin (5.0L) wasn't particularly high in terms of horsepower. . R.M. Of those sales, 100,273 were the Rocket 88. This engine was only available in the Oldsmobile Starfire and a performance economy model called the Jetstar I. As part of this I ran across a very interesting 1934 paper by a GM engineer Chris H. Bouvy and would like to know more about him and whether his design method was used within GM. The practice of keeping model names alive even though applied to a vehicle with little in common with the original seems to annoy no one but me, [example Impala], why not keep division names alive and apply them to selected models. An outstanding 350 Oldsmobile engine for sale would be perfect in a Cutlass convertible. This 1952 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight is a well-priced classic that gives you some of the best styles around. 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. The main qualities that make an engine attractive to hot-rodders are how much it costs, how easily it can be hopped up, and how much power you can get out of it without blowing it up. The means exist to do the same work while burning less fuel; the question is whether a meaningful number of American consumers will accept those means while theres still fuel left to burn. Unfortunately, they were also thirsty and a pain to tune, which was not at all what wartime buyers wanted, and after the war there was a gradually increasing array of cheaper alternatives. The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. The 425's stroke was lengthened to 4.25in (108mm) to achieve a 455cuin (7.5L) to create the Rocket 455 for 1968. 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. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. Oldsmobile might be gone, but the Rocket brand hasn't been forgotten by collectors shopping for a 1950s American automotive icon. A flathead engine, therefore, also has poor thermal efficiency. This problem did not appear until the engine had over 50,000 miles (80,000km) on it. R. V. Hutchinson, who was an Oldsmobile engineer prior to transferring to Product Studies #5 when C. L. McCuen was appointed 1st Vice President in charge of engineering, designed and build a heavy in-line 6-cylinder (850 lbs.) Flory. 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. As the diagram below illustrates, an L-head engine has its valves in the side(s) of the block. Although Oldsmobile (as well as Buick and Pontiac) had used eight-cylinder engines for more than a decade, Cadillac was not happy about the idea of Oldsmobile offering an OHV V8 and convinced corporate management to deny Oldsmobiles request for development funds. (I quess that would be total Olds minus Olds 76 model.). The new, mid-sized Oldsmobile Rocket 88 went on sale February 6, exactly seven weeks after the 98. However, the only badging identifying it as such was a simple "88" underneath each taillight. Park is actually a parking brake that has a red light comes on when the hand brake is out. in. (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.). Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. Some persist for only a few minutes, or until you close your browser (or other user agent); others may remain in your browser (or other user agent) as long as your individual settings permit. The starting gun of that race was sounded by Oldsmobile, with its advanced new overhead-valve V8 and the new mid-size model that shared its name: the 1949-1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. 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. Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. All full-size 1962 Oldsmobiles had the 394. Oldsmobile charged $83 for the J-2 option with the three-speed manual (or in the 98),[7] $314 dollars with the automatic.[8]. Offenhauser 3200 49-53 Olds Rocket Dual Quad Intake, Small Port $889.99 Ships Free . Can you point me to any information on GM camshaft design methodology? The Rocket V8 was the subject of many first and lasts in the automotive industry. You make a good point about the L-head lifter. Hemmings Motor News has been serving the classic car hobby since 1954. The first Oldsmobile V8 was of a flathead design that was developed by Northway Engine Works before GM assumed operations. It used a 4.126in (104.8mm) bore and 3.975in (101.0mm) stroke. ), These first-party cookies are used to manage user logins and certain other administrative functions of the WordPress content management system, e.g., post editing. (Those pages do not currently discuss the storage of data in your browser (or other user agent) using technologies other than cookies, e.g., in web storage.)