Compression ratios never approached the 12.5:1 level that Kettering had proposed, peaking at about 10.5:1. in. This was much flatter than the 23 of the small-block Chevrolet and 20 of the Ford small-block wedge heads. 1988), pp. Put the petal to the metal and go man go! The 76 lingered for one more model year and then was dropped entirely; the division wouldnt offer a six again until 1964. Oldsmobiles first postwar engine was born during the UAW strike that shut down GM production from November 1945 through March 1946. Happy to see someone that not only mentions, but appreciates the early Olds. 4 speed hydromantic transmission. 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. Raising an engines compression ratio allows the engine to extract more energy from the fuel it burns, improving both power and fuel economy. More-or-less stock Rocket 88s continued winning their classes at the drag strip well into the 1950s. Some Oldsmobile employees detested that name, but it remained strongly associated with Oldsmobile well into the 1960s. 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. The main distinguishing features of this engine were a slightly different camshaft profile from the standard ultra high compression engine and factory dual exhaust. At the risk of shameless self promotion, you might also be interested in the recently revamped article on the early Hydra-Matic, which most Oldsmobiles of that vintage had. Until 1951, Oldsmobile offered a choice of fastback and notchback body styles, as well as the convertible. (We have now DISCONTINUED our use of Google Analytics tracking on this website; see the "Online Tracking" section of the Privacy Policy for more information.) Shortly after the war, Ketterings engineers built an experimental 181 cu. The following year, 88s won 10 out of 19 Grand National races and set a new speed record at Daytona. Many were shared among other divisions, but each design was unique: GM later standardized on the later generations of the Chevrolet design: Northway sourced Oldsmobile Flathead V8 (1916-1923). That July, Burrell was promoted to chief motor engineer for the division. He saw the potential in an engine design offering increased compression. The LG8 was a modern 307cuin (5.0L) High-Output derivative of the LV2 produced from 1983 to 1987. The engine is also known for its reliability, smoothness and quietness. California residents also have the Right to Opt-Out of the sale of their personal information see the Do Not Sell My Personal Information page. It was rated at 350 horsepower (261kW) and 440lbft (597Nm) of torque with a Rochester 4-barrel, and 360hp (268kW) with the L69 tri 2-barrel option in 1966. With an overall length of 202 inches (5,131 mm) and an overall width of 75.2 inches (1,910 mm) on a 119.5-inch (3,035mm) wheelbase, the 88 was hardly a small car even by American standards and it tipped the scales (in this body style) at almost 3,800 lb (1,717 kg) with Hydra-Matic, but its Rocket V8 would leave Pontiacs elderly straight eight or Chevrolets Stovebolt Six for dead and the Oldsmobile name carried more prestige than Pontiac or Chevrolet. The standard 1965-1967 425cuin (7.0L) was called the Super Rocket, and was the most powerful engine option for the Oldsmobile 88 and 98 of 1965-1967. Me at the age of 70 in the back seat with a 21-year-old blond. The early Rocket V8 weighs a bit over 700 pounds (318 kg) and had an SAE gross rating of 135 hp (101 kW). The engine had 10.25:1 compression and a single-barrel carburetor. (. 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. Although production of the 455 ended in 1976, a small number were produced through 1978 for power equipment use, such as motorhomes, boats and irrigation equipment.[15]. Millionaires would drive the few Cadillacs. Liberation is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. Each of those engines had its own peculiarities, but they were all in the mold of the Oldsmobile Rocket engine. During that period, Oldsmobile Motor Group draftsman Gilbert Burrell began working privately on concepts for new cars and new engines. Trim Rocket 88 1951 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic 88 Rocket 303 V8 Hydramatic custom $16,900 It was the only GM engine to meet US emission standards using a carburetor all the way up to 1990. The 303 was produced from 1949-1953. Not a lot of people collect or preserve those cars anymore, and many succumbed to rust or the crusher a long time ago. The Buick version of the 215 V8 went on to become the well known Rover V8, which still remains in limited production, utilizing the Buick-style pistons, heads, and valve train gear. Bore was 3.75in (95mm) and stroke was 3.4375in (87.31mm). Still, the same quandary exists that faced Gordon Burrell and Jack Gordon in the late forties: New technologies in this case, direct injection, turbocharging, and even hybrid powertrains can benefit both performance or fuel economy and emissions, but one still almost always wins out over the other. The original Oldsmobile V8 was to have been marketed as "Kettering Power" after chief engineer Charles Kettering, but company policy prohibited the use of his name. . (The idea of Olds as the import-fighter brand obviously had its own problems.) For engines built during the first part of 1955, the 324 skirted pistons had a reputation for failing due to the cast aluminum skirt separating from its steel interior brace. Following the Automobile Manufacturer Association ban on factory supported racing, power ratings went down for the 1959 and 1960 88 models: 270hp (200kW) and 390lbft (530Nm) for 1959 and 240hp (180kW) and 375lbft (508Nm) for 1960. They were all painted Bronze and had V and G stamped on the cylinder heads. You make a good point about the L-head lifter. 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. Some competitors were a bit faster all-out and a few could beat the Olds off the line, but the 88 was one of the fastest cars in America in 1949. The Chevrolet Corvair Spyder Turbo, likewise a forced induction i.e turbo-powered car, predated the Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo, however by only a few weeks[citation needed], thus being the world's very first turbocharged commercially sold vehicle. Rocket Racing & Performance is a custom engine building facility that specializes in Oldsmobile Performance.We offer a full machine shop, in house engine dyno, and parts supplier serving the local Wisconsin area and worldwide. Sending my 53 olds to Dallas for overhaul. (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.) The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. These limitations hurt both power and fuel economy. Theyll also be able to suggest sources for parts, which can be a big issue. The oil industry wasnt interested, nor was the auto industry, nor it must be said was the contemporary American public. It has gained popularity among young muscle car lovers. But it DID have a fairly illustrious season on the track and in road racing. As the diagram below illustrates, an L-head engine has its valves in the side(s) of the block. Particularly enjoyed your succinct descriptions of the engineering factors behind certain design choices. Get a Oldsmobile crate engine for cars like the cutlass, 88, 98, or the 442.GTO. (Author diagram). Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. Runs great. In a flathead engine, the camshaft is in the block, driven directly by the engines crankshaft. 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. Some auction action surrounding 1956 Oldsmobiles tells a similar story: 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 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88s were considerably cheaper than the 49s, although that was largely because Hydra-Matic, which had been standard equipment on all 1949 V8-powered cars, reverted to being a $185 option. From 1949 until 1951, the 2-barrel carburetor 303 produced 135hp (101kW) and 253lbft (343Nm). ), Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. There may be more than one of these cookies, particularly if you access several password-protected posts with different passwords. The 260cuin (4.3L), 307cuin (5.0L), 330cuin (5.4L), 350cuin (5.7L) and 403cuin (6.6L) engines are commonly called small-blocks. Original revolutionary Hydra-Matic SUPER DRIVE 3-speed automatic transmission, spare tire, and a couple of extra chrome wheel covers. The engine was designed by Charles L. McCuen, who later had a hand in approving the Rocket engine for production. BMEP, IMEP), you will immediately see that bore/stroke ratio does not directly effect engine power. [20] Parts peculiar to this system include a toothed disc between the harmonic balancer and the crank pulley, the "adjacent sensor" (an early form of crankshaft position sensor), a special distributor, an engine temperature sensor, and a rudimentary computer mounted inside the car, under the dashboard. Power increased the final Rocket was rated at 345 gross horsepower (257 kW) but fuel economy eroded. If the engine is thrashed and you just plan to swap in a later crate motor and a modern transmission, it may not matter, but if you want to restore, thats another matter. This was not an official assignment; he was simply exploring ideas for his own interest and amusement. Call 800.979.0122, 7am-10pm, everyday. Its true Oldsmobile didnt really maintain that position for long and didnt try again to go for the performance market until the 60s, but having a short season isnt the same as being overhyped. Your wording in the flathead section (acts directly) suggest the valve stem tip rides the cam lobe in a flathead. After logging in, the wp-settings-UID cookies store the logged-in user's configuration settings, while the wp-settings-time-UID cookies record the time those configuration settings were last set; again, there may be multiple iterations of each of these cookies, which normally expire after about one year. These photos were taken outside the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California (a few blocks south of LAX). They normally expire after about one year. The new V8 was also more powerful: Rated output climbed from 110 to 135 gross horsepower (82 to 101 kW) while torque increased from 213 to 283 lb-ft (289 to 383 N-m), allowing an Oldsmobile 98 with Hydra-Matic to reach 60 mph (97 km/h) in a brisk (for 1949) 13.5 seconds, with a top speed of 96 mph (155 km/h). com/ newsletter/ 2004-10_OCAZ_Newsletter.pdf, accessed 15 June 2015; Helen Jones Earley and James R. Walkinshaw, Setting the Pace: Oldsmobiles First 100 Years (Lansing, MI: Oldsmobile Division of General Motors Corporation, 1996); John Gunnell, ed., Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946-1975, Rev. Google, AdSense, Google AdSense, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. The super-fuels the engineers wanted would probably have added even more. With an 8.75:1 compression ratio and a 2-barrel carburetor, the Olds 215 had the same ratedhp, 155hp (116kW) at 4800rpm, as the Buick 215, with 220ftlbf (300Nm) of torque at 2400rpm. The 425's stroke was lengthened to 4.25in (108mm) to achieve a 455cuin (7.5L) to create the Rocket 455 for 1968. From your research, do you have any information on Bouvy? 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 Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. I might have to find or make some kind of diagram of that. The other members may be able to help you decide whether a price is fair, and in some cases, they may even know the specific car (Ikes 53? For more information about Google advertising, see the "Advertising" section of their Google Privacy & Terms site. Classifieds for Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88. For more information about what data PayPal services collect and how that data may be used, visit the "Legal Agreements for PayPal Services" page to review the PayPal Privacy Statement and Statement on Cookies and Tracking Technologies that apply in your location (the Statement on Cookies and Tracking Technologies that applies to each region is linked from within the applicable PayPal Privacy Statement). [13] It could also be fitted with high-compression cylinder heads from the Morgan +8. This car has the pushbutton radio, which cost about $96. Initially the paint was red, except for metallic blue in the Toronado applications; 1970-1976 versions were metallic blue at first, then nonmetallic blue. (For this cookie, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) mill or the Chrysler Firepower hemi of the same displacement. 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual This is a 1955 Olds 88 with its original 324 V-8, automatic, power steering and brakes, tinted glass (all windows), factory wheel covers, wide whitewalls and&. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). But I can block the blow by coming off the back of the block and it runs great. Any interest in better fuel economy was quickly forgotten; gasoline was cheap and speed sold more cars than parsimony. Oldsmobile 1949 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight History Gallery Valuation Rocket 88 (1949 - 1953) 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 These are standard specifications - not necessarily specifications for the vehicle (s) in the photo (s). 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. All 425 engines were fitted with forged steel crankshafts with harmonic balancers. 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! 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. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. 1948 & 1949 Cadillac Fastbacks, Special Interest Autos #11 (June-July 1972), pp. ), If one was trying to tally how many Rocket engines were built in Olds cars in 1949-50, do you have those numbers? Akamai is a registered trademark or service mark of Akamai Technologies, Inc. in the United States (Reg. These changes increased torque to 250lbft (340Nm) but lowered power to 170hp (130kW), while lowering the RPM at which peak power and torque was achieved. 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! wider bore provides a greater surface area on which the forces of combustion can act, improving power I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. 1968-1974 350s were painted gold; 1975-1976 350s were metallic blue like the 455; 1977-1980 models were painted GM Corporate Blue. Oldsmobile might be gone, but the Rocket brand hasn't been forgotten by collectors shopping for a 1950s American automotive icon. 9 (September 1964), reprinted in Oldsmobile Muscle Portfolio 1964-1971, ed. 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). (Vimeo and the Vimeo logos are trademarks of Vimeo.com, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. 330s were painted gold and had forged steel crankshafts. Detailed interior, exterior. I have read and accepted the Privacy Policy Depending on carburetion or use of turbocharger. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. Yes, the Hydra-Matic had a parking pawl, which was engaged by selecting reverse with the engine off. 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). Although Oldsmobiles official involvement in racing was limited, the Rocket 88 promptly proceeded to clean up in competition. The 303 was available from 1949 until 1953. We are known for our high quality,attention to detail and meeting our customers goals. For additional technical information about the cookies used by the analytics service, see their "Google Analytics Cookie Usage on Websites" page; for your reference when reviewing that page, we did not use Google Analytics 4. 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]. Maybe just intake or vacuum leak. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a wedge-head OHV engine. Most 425s were painted red, though the 1966 and 1967 Toronado units were light blue. Ketterings team demonstrated that the higher compression ratio boosted power and gas mileage by nearly 30%. It was no longer available in cars in 1961. An 88 also won the first grueling Carrera Panamericana, the 2,176-mile (3,500-km) Mexican Road Race. You are correct its even a Studebaker Avanti, not the later Avanti II. Im wondering how many weeks of informative evening reading I can enjoy from your articles. The output of the 307cuin (5.0L) wasn't particularly high in terms of horsepower. Flory, J. Barr believed the Oldsmobile engine was a direct derivative of Cadillacs design, although he conceded that Cadillac also benefited from some of Oldsmobiles work. 5 vehicles matched Now showing page 1 of 1. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. 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). Unlike the 76, powered by a straight-six engine, the 88 came with a V8 under the. 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 heavily domed hood would continue through 1953. Bore was up to 4.125in (104.8mm) for the largest first-generation Rocket, the 394cuin (6.5L). [21] It produced 110hp (82kW) net and 205lbft (278Nm). From 1916 through 1922, the only Oldsmobile V8 was a 246.7 cid L-head of Model 47 with a 233.7 cid V8 that made 60 hp. Oh, and lets not forget the Bonneville speed merchants. Crazy Egg is a trademark of Crazy Egg, Inc. Optimizely is a registered trademark of Optimizely, Inc. in the United States, EU, and elsewhere. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by General Motors. The package was expensive to produce, and Oldsmobile discontinued it after 1958. 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). 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. Powered by the rocket 2bbl. Base price for the Deluxe Club Sedan was $1,982 in 1950, and 16,388 were sold. The Olds 403 was used by Buick and Pontiac in addition to Oldsmobile until its discontinuation after 1979. Just didnt have any power. The Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s represented the start of several major trends in American engine design. Free shipping for many products! New brakes, wide Whitewall tires and classic stereo and speaker. . Presumably this says something about the cars place in the culture. If not, it may be a little more difficult, short of pulling the heads. Larry Young. The top brass equivocated, but Skinner finally got the green light. The turbocharger fitted to the V8 engine was a small-diameter Garrett T5 model with integral wastegate, manufactured by Garrett AiResearch, and produced a maximum of 5psi (34kPa) boost at 2200rpm. 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. Concern about diminishing oil reserves is nothing new in the twenties, some engineers feared the U.S. would be out of oil within 30 years but it was not until the seventies that those fears entered the public consciousness. The first second-generation Oldmobile V8 330cuin (5.4L) "Jetfire Rocket" introduced in 1964 and produced through 1967. edu/~wkovarik/ papers/fuel.html, accessed 30 May 2008, and Henry Ford, Charles Kettering, and the Fuel of the Future,' Automotive History Review #32 (Spring 1998), pp. 26-33. 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. Both are well-documented, albeit relatively short-lived. When the engine is running, transmission oil pressure disengages the pawl. Incidentally, the Rocket engine was not Oldsmobiles first V8. Features Power Transmission: 4 Automatic Hydra-Matic Production Figures Handling 1949 Averages 6 (July 1962), pp. 1, 3-5; www.azoldsclub. 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. Thanks Weldon, [quote=Administrator]Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. Oldsmobiles reign as the hottest performer in the land proved to be short-lived. Bore was increased to 3.875in (98.4mm) (same as the later 283 Chevy) and stroke remained the same at 3.4375in (87.31mm). Made of diecast with some plastic parts. (If you need to review or change these settings after you accept, you can do so from the Privacy Tools page.) 46-52; Testing the 212 HP Packard Patrician, Science and Mechanics June 1954, reprinted in Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958, ed. 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. 88. The wahFontColor and wahBgColor cookies, which are set if you alter the site's color scheme, normally expire after about 14 days, but you can remove them immediately by clicking the "Restore Defaults" button on the sidebar. 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. The cylinder head is little more than a cover for the top of the cylinder, which is why L-head engines are commonly called flatheads. A special 1963 10.5:1 version was also produced with 345hp (257kW). 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). Ate Up With Motor, its logo, and other associated icons and graphics are trademarks and/or service marks of Aaron Severson dba Ate Up With Motor. Im currently writing a book on Yankee iron of the 1955-1973 period (the true golden age of the American Car in the modern era.) 15-16 MPG is great even by modern standards, for a 300+ HP engine. [citation needed] The 1977-1980 350s have lighter castings, including a thinner block with large "windows" in the main bearing bulkheads,[citation needed] and have crack-prone cylinder head castings[citation needed] manufactured by Pontiac Motor Division (castings are marked "PMD"; these heads were also used on the 260),[citation needed] and a lightened crankshaft. Make: Oldsmobile Model: 88 Year: 1956 Engine: 455 Rocket Engine - Turbo 400 - Foose Mags - Airbags Suspension. in. In development, the high compression ratio combined with the charged load created problems with spark knock on hard throttle applications, which led Olds to develop and utilize a novel water-injection system that sprayed metered amounts of distilled water and methyl alcohol (dubbed "Turbo-Rocket Fluid") into the intake manifold air-stream to cool the intake charge. Instead, influenced by the Space Race between the United States and the USSR, the legendary Rocket was born, available in Oldsmobile's 88, Super 88, and 98 models. spark ignition engine for high-compression studies. (Im not entirely sure why H-M did not, actually.).
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