We may sometimes present an alternative version of the sidebar offering different options, which may set the a11y-desaturated, a11y-high-contrast, and/or a11y-larger-fontsize cookies if you change those settings. As far as I know, the transmission was not harmed. 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. It was used in most Oldsmobile models, as well as those from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. All Oldsmobile V8s were manufactured at plants in Lansing, Michigan while the engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations. 324 rocket v8. (Thats a lesson that many Jaguar and Porsche owners have learned the hard way.). When you submit a comment, you may have the option save your information for future comments, storing the info in these cookies. The 303 was available from 1949 until 1953. Until 1951, Oldsmobile offered a choice of fastback and notchback body styles, as well as the convertible. (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. If better fuels became available, both the Cadillac and Olds engines had the theoretical potential for compression ratios as high as 12:1. This setting is stored in your browser (or other user agent) in the gdpr[consent_types] cookie described in "Privacy and Cookie Preferences" above, so if you delete that cookie or access the Ate Up With Motor website from a different device, browser, or user agent, you will need to adjust this setting again if you still wish to hide the box. "Affordable Aluminum V8's [sic]", in, Turbo Hydramatic 425 FWD 3-speed automatic, "1975-79 Cadillac Electronic Fuel Injection", "Oldsmobile 403 Engine - Car Craft Magazine", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oldsmobile_V8_engine&oldid=1138357918, 1968 and 1969 400s shared the Olds big-block standard 4.25in (108mm) stroke with the 455 but used a, 19681970 Oldsmobile Toronado GT (W34), 400hp (300kW), This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 06:46. What these activities have most in common was that there was an awful lot of engine-swapping going on. 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. The popularity of the flathead Ford engines depended heavily on the first two qualities. $22,000 (OBO) The 260 was designed for economy, and was the first engine option above the 4.1 ChevroletI-6, then later the 3.8L Buick V6, which was standard fitment in many Oldsmobile models by the late 1970s. All full-size 1962 Oldsmobiles had the 394. Im not a mechanic, so Im afraid I cannot provide any kind of repair advice. ), These cookies were previously used by the Google Analytics service to collect information about visitors and their use of the Ate Up With Motor website. Power increased the final Rocket was rated at 345 gross horsepower (257 kW) but fuel economy eroded. 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. Bore was 3.75in (95mm) and stroke was 3.4375in (87.31mm). It has gained popularity among young muscle car lovers. The Cadillac engine and the Chrysler FirePower had more power out of the box and as much or more potential. 46-52; Testing the 212 HP Packard Patrician, Science and Mechanics June 1954, reprinted in Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958, ed. As far as Im aware, it was basically similar to the parking pawls of Dynaflow or Ultramatic, although those transmissions had a separate position on the quadrant for it. Learn more. 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". It was used by every domestic GM automobile marque except for GMC and Saturn. The final 1990 configuration was rated at 140hp (100kW) at 3200 rpm and 255lbft (346Nm) of torque at 2000 rpm. Concord, NC 5 years at carsforsale.com 3 27,900 1955 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight - Concord, NC sedan automatic 1, 3-5; www.azoldsclub. They were all painted Bronze and had V and G stamped on the cylinder heads. Oldsmobile might be gone, but the Rocket brand hasn't been forgotten by collectors shopping for a 1950s American automotive icon. 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,. This 1955 oldsmobile deluxe 88 is a 2 door holiday coupe.. 2 tone twilight blue and polar white colors with ivory and blue interior. I came here to pick up some information for a book Im writing and was pleasantly surprised to find more than I bargained for. A nominal 360 hp was claimed in 1967 when equipped with a W30 camshaft, 4-barrel, and outside air induction, 502 of which were factory produced. 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. 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. I have read several histories of the 1949 Oldsmobile and Cadillac V-8s, but never seen Bouvy mentioned. These cookies manage your cookie and privacy preferences. Not a lot of people collect or preserve those cars anymore, and many succumbed to rust or the crusher a long time ago. in. (WordPress and the WordPress logos are registered trademarks of the WordPress Foundation in the United States and other countries. You are correct its even a Studebaker Avanti, not the later Avanti II. 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. See these additional Auto Museum Online articles on the links below (The basic Eighty-Eight was rarer, accounting for only about 35,000.) 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. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. Although Oldsmobiles official involvement in racing was limited, the Rocket 88 promptly proceeded to clean up in competition. Email: [email protected] Address: 7400 E Monte Cristo Ave . . 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]. 16, No. It was the first mass-produced OHV V8, in 1949. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. It depends on your goals. The overhead valve engine concept offered both power and efficiency, with an improvement in fuel economy (estimated at about 10 percent better than prior engine designs). The 88 model remained in production for a whopping 50 years and over ten. Get a Oldsmobile crate engine for cars like the cutlass, 88, 98, or the 442.GTO. Man! 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. If the fluid reservoir was empty, a complex double-float and valve assembly in the Turbo-Rocket Fluid path would set a second butterfly (positioned between the throttle butterfly and the turbocharger) into the closed position, limiting the amount of boost pressure. The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. The Generation II V8 ended production in 1990. The Vimeo Cookie Policy does not currently disclose the normal durations of the cookies and similar technologies the Vimeo platform uses, but it appears that some may remain in your browser (or other user agent) for as long as your settings permit. Features Power Transmission: 4 Automatic Hydra-Matic Production Figures Handling 1949 Averages It shared the same compression ratio of the Toronado Rocket at 10.5:1. 1951 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. $8,888 or BEST REASONABLE OFFER. Its a true barn find. 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. 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). 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. 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88. Oldsmobiles companion make, the Viking had a horizontal-valve V8 with two-plane crankshaft in the early thirties. The Olds Rocket 88 engine went through modifications during the 1950's For the 1955 model year Oldsmobile increased the compression ratio which helped put out 185 horsepower for the Olds 88 model. Presumably this says something about the cars place in the culture. Like the test mules, the Rocket 88 was, in the parlance of a somewhat later era, a real bomb. 7-27; Michael Lamm, Two Very Important Cars! The first second-generation Oldmobile V8 330cuin (5.4L) "Jetfire Rocket" introduced in 1964 and produced through 1967. Other American manufacturers would reach the same conclusion. So, its not particularly surprising that a highly tuned flathead Ford would be stronger than a stock 1950 Olds 303. Unlike all other 425s, this version was painted slate blue metallic. 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. 8-9; Arch Brown, Similar But Different: 1949 Cadillac vs. 1949 Oldsmobile 98, Special Interest Autos #149 (September-October 1995), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles: driveReports from Special Interest Autos magazine, eds. I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. In the mid-1950s, American automakers were engaged in a ferocious horsepower race. This engine was only available in the Oldsmobile Starfire and a performance economy model called the Jetstar I. Some Oldsmobile employees detested that name, but it remained strongly associated with Oldsmobile well into the 1960s. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. Get the best deals on Complete Engines for Oldsmobile 88 when you shop the largest online selection at eBay.com. Big block Oldsmobile Rocket 442 crate engines are also available. 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. BMEP, IMEP), you will immediately see that bore/stroke ratio does not directly effect engine power. 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. 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. 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. (Valve spring, spring seat / retainer placement too? The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. 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. 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. We think it was probably just as well that the proposed ultra-premium fuels never materialized; as it was, increasing the octane rating of pump gasoline from the 70 RON of typical mid-forties regular fuel to the 98 RON level of later super-premium fuel increased the amount of lead in each gallon by more than 40%, with significant public health consequences. 50,000 cars were imported in 1952, US brands comprising some 90% of that total. Home / Cars for Sale / Oldsmobile / . 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). 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. (This cant be viewed as an entirely altruistic effort, since GM still owned a major stake in the Ethyl Corporation, the principle producer of the tetraethyl lead additive that was the primary octane booster used in contemporary gasoline.) All LV2s feature a 4-barrel carburetor. The early Rocket V8 weighs a bit over 700 pounds (318 kg) and had an SAE gross rating of 135 hp (101 kW). 1955 Oldsmobile Super 88, 324-V8, 4 bbl carburetor, engine free, I have owned this since 1973, good 4-speed hydramatic transmission, interior useable, nice dash. This is incorrect, in the context of wider vs. narrower bore sizes with the same displacement. Free shipping for many products! An Ultra High Compression Toronado Rocket version of the 425cuin (7.0L) V8 was made for the 1966 Toronado. Change Background Color (Note: This option sets cookies on your device to manage your color settings; see the Cookie Notice for details. Output ranged from 160-325hp (119-242kW). 425 motor, super rocket. Richard A. Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2002), pp. R.M. All of this was occurring from about 1948 thru the first half of the 50s. Your wording in the flathead section (acts directly) suggest the valve stem tip rides the cam lobe in a flathead. 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.