Man! We'll start with Olds and return to Caddy in another article. 1964 Starfire produced 345hp (257kW) and 440lbft (600Nm) for the 1963-4 Starfire and 98 Custom-Sports Coupe. Outlawed by NASCAR: - 1957 Oldsmobile J-2 | Hemmings Were Oldsmobiles ever sold in Brazil in any significant numbers? Oldsmobile Rocket 88 s by Year 1958 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. 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. Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a flathead (L-head) engine. The idea of keeping the brand names on a model-specific basis is not illogical (although again its contrary to current brand management philosophy), but it would present all manner of practical problems, not least that it would invite the ire of people who had previously paid money for a sales franchise for that brand. Im not sure about the early Hydramatics but later ones, 54-56 you put in reverse to park. 46-52; Testing the 212 HP Packard Patrician, Science and Mechanics June 1954, reprinted in Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958, ed. 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. 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. 98. They were criticized at the time as being unsafe in city traffic because they picked up their air too close to the tail pipes of cars ahead. Although I often wondered why GM needed three mid-level brands, since you already have them, why not preserve them, especially since it is embarrassing and demoralizing to lose one, now two. 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. Base price for the Deluxe Club Sedan was $1,982 in 1950, and 16,388 were sold. The first Oldsmobile V8 was of a flathead design that was developed by Northway Engine Works before GM assumed operations. Unfortunately, it also creates more friction and means that the average piston speeds are very high, particularly at high RPM, which is detrimental to engine longevity. [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. (For each of these cookies, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) 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. Note the stylized rocket chrome trim on the front fender. 1959 and 1960 371s used green painted valve covers. 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. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our. 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. When you submit a comment, you may have the option save your information for future comments, storing the info in these cookies. 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. The Olds 403 was used by Buick and Pontiac in addition to Oldsmobile until its discontinuation after 1979. In practice, owners who did not regularly drive hard enough to engage the front and rear carburetors experienced problems with the linkage and carburetor throats becoming clogged, and some J-2-equipped cars had the front and rear carburetors removed and blocked off. To learn more about the specific cookies used and/or to fine-tune your available choices, click "Privacy Preferences" at the right. 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. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. Accessing certain posts or pages on this website may require you to enter a specific password. Some of the photos in our Avanti article, and those of our story on the Packard One-Twenty, were taken at the same time. Logging in sets the wordpress_logged_in_xx, wordpress_sec_xx, and/or wordpress_xx cookies, which store the user's login credentials to allow access to the administrative dashboard and other administrative functions; there may be multiple iterations of each cookie. If you delete or disable these cookies, your existing preferences will be lost and you may not be able to save your privacy settings for this website. Additionally, the 403 had windowed main webs, which reduced the internal strength of the block in the crankcase area. Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Cars for sale - SmartMotorGuide.com 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. The effective dates of the current versions are: Paid advertisements and/or sponsored links on Ate Up With Motor will be identified with words such as "Sponsor," "Sponsors," "Sponsored Link(s)," "Sponsored Content," "Ad," "Advertisement," "Advertisement(s)," or "Paid Promotion" (and/or by images or icons containing such words). (5,880 cc) engine was a massive straight eight with nine main bearings may have played a role in that!) 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. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by General Motors. With a 4-barrel carburetor and 10.75:1 compression, the Olds 215 made 195hp (145kW) at 4800rpm and 235lbft (319Nm) at 3200rpm with an automatic. Oldsmobile V8 Engines - Street Rodder Magazine - MotorTrend Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. 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. 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. Sending my 53 olds to Dallas for overhaul. Coincidentally, Cadillac had been working since 1936 on a very similar OHV engine to replace its familiar monoblock flathead V8. Horsepower: 135 hp at 3,600 RPM Torque: 263-lb.ft. The cookies are not set at all unless you select that option when submitting a comment. Some people fit these motors into a modified classic car or muscle car because of Oldsmobile GM reliability and performance horsepower advantages. The company later introduced a new vehicle, the Oldsmobile Aurora, with a new generation V8. 49 rocket 88 was my first car back in 1964. So this sedan was delivering big torque with a healthy dose of Streetside Classics - Atlanta (877) 828-8754 Lithia Springs, GA 30122 (406 miles away) 6 Most 425s were painted red, though the 1966 and 1967 Toronado units were light blue. 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). 1955 Oldsmobile 88 Classic Cars for Sale - Autotrader Classics Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. (At present, this setting does NOT affect the payment or donation buttons that may appear on portions of the site's administrative dashboard, nor does hiding the box affect any cookies that may have already been set). 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! It shared the same compression ratio of the Toronado Rocket at 10.5:1. The real standard of the world. The PYPF cookie normally expires in approximately four weeks, the 01A1 cookie in approximately one year. The difference is that many of the things earlier generations feared (such as heavy dependence on foreign oil and its associated political ramifications) are now familiar reality rather than speculation. Offenhauser 3200 49-53 Olds Rocket Dual Quad Intake, Small Port $889.99 Ships Free . The J-2 engine also had a slightly thinner head gasket, raising compression to 10.0:1. [2] [3] In 1929, Oldsmobile installed a 90 degree monobloc flathead V8 engine in the Viking companion brand before the monobloc was used in LaSalle and Cadillac vehicles from 1929-1931. A new Cadillac was dramatically more expensive and also heavier, and Buicks with the big straight eight engine probably had Dynaflow. Liberation is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. You are correct its even a Studebaker Avanti, not the later Avanti II. Its a super 88 sedan 4 door. All other trademarks and/or service marks are the property of their respective owners. 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. 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. This was much flatter than the 23 of the small-block Chevrolet and 20 of the Ford small-block wedge heads. Around the end of that year, the project nearly ground to a halt due to objections from Cadillac. In shape and size, the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 is not much different from the Pontiac Streamline and Chevrolet Fleetline whose body shell it shares. (The idea of Olds as the import-fighter brand obviously had its own problems.) 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. Thanks for the great write up on the history of one of the most influential engines in the automobile industry! A few years later, the Chevrolet engine started taking over the flathead Fords role as the cheap-and-easy hot-rodder choice. When it comes to Oldsmobiles from 1957, the hardtop was the second-most-popular body style, with 49,187 units produced. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. 1948 & 1949 Cadillac Fastbacks, Special Interest Autos #11 (June-July 1972), pp. Its taken economic downturns, the occasional oil embargo, and mounting signs of environmental calamity to get Americans to take a real interest in how much fuel they use; even then, that interest never seems to last for long after the latest crisis has passed. A long piston stroke gives more torque, which means better engine response at low speeds. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons, and scripts related to the PayPal services are service marks, trademarks, and/or trade dress of PayPal. The Nash was driven by Roy Graham a wrestling referee at Dallas Sportatorium who also had the Nash dealership in Corsicana TX. The short stroke allowed the engine to rev more freely while the wider bore provides more room for larger valves, which further improves breathing. 1985), pp. 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]. Not a lot of people collect or preserve those cars anymore, and many succumbed to rust or the crusher a long time ago. The Olds engine performed well and was very smooth running but didnt have as much scat as the modified flat head. Some Oldsmobile employees detested that name, but it remained strongly associated with Oldsmobile well into the 1960s. Its a true barn find. The Rocket-powered 98 was already a very respectable performer, so installing the new engine in the lighter body made for quite a hot number. It has been noted to go up to $100,000 at some auctions. More-or-less stock Rocket 88s continued winning their classes at the drag strip well into the 1950s. The cookieconsent_status cookie recorded whether or not you consented to analytics tracking and told the website to hide the notification banner; this cookie normally expires after about one year. The Oldsmobile engine was then pretty new, a new 88 was expensive, and Im guessing that getting a decent crate or junkyard engine would cost almost as much as a decent Cadillac V-8. The 1967 and later versions of the Repco engine had proprietary engine blocks. The Rocket Engine History - 1957 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 Some auction action surrounding 1956 Oldsmobiles tells a similar story: An 88 also won the first grueling Carrera Panamericana, the 2,176-mile (3,500-km) Mexican Road Race. The oil industry wasnt interested, nor was the auto industry, nor it must be said was the contemporary American public. Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of 317.8cuin (5,208cc) is theoretically possible.[14]. It had the same 0.921in (23.4mm)-diameter lifters of the first-generation Oldsmobile engines, rather than the standard 0.842in (21.4mm), which let engineers increase the camshaft's ramp speed for more power, 385hp (287kW), without sacrificing idle or reliability. If you change certain aspects of the site's appearance using the accessibility sidebar, it may set these cookies to manage and remember your settings. Detailed interior, exterior. The 324cuin (5.3L) version was produced from 1954 until 1956. We are largest vintage car website with the. Well, Oldsmobile had had a hard time finding its way once GM started trying to define the identities of each of its brands as the _______ brand (which, it must be said, was fast becoming the most meaningful distinction between them. Comes in plastic display showcase. Oldsmobile Crate Engines:Eddies Performance Motors-High Performance Any interest in better fuel economy was quickly forgotten; gasoline was cheap and speed sold more cars than parsimony. Until 1951, Oldsmobile offered a choice of fastback and notchback body styles, as well as the convertible. If anyone at GM had had doubts about offering the big engine in the smaller body, the sales alone would have been enough to convince them. (Google, DoubleClick, YouTube, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. Oldsmobiles reign as the hottest performer in the land proved to be short-lived.
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