As part of its marketing campaign for the Rocket V8, Oldsmobile arranged for an 88 convertible to handle the pace car duties at the Indy 500, with speedway president Wilbur Shaw at the wheel. The Rocket V8 was the subject of many first and lasts in the automotive industry. Making its debut in 1957 as standard equipment on all Olds models,[4] the 371 was produced through 1960. Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. 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. The shape of a flatheads combustion chambers also limits its maximum compression ratio (the amount the fuel mixture is compressed before burning). 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. 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. 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. 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). in. The desire to raise compression ratios had prompted Kettering and his staff to develop tetraethyl lead as an octane-boosting gasoline additive in the early twenties (as discussed in greater detail in our article on the 1970-1981 Chevrolet Camaro), but the research staff had been working to raise compression ratios even higher. When the engine is running, transmission oil pressure disengages the pawl. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). 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 first generation of Oldsmobile 88 was introduced in 1949. 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88. The wild rocket hood ornament was technically a $5 option. The 324cuin (5.3L) version was produced from 1954 until 1956. Some people fit these motors into a modified classic car or muscle car because of Oldsmobile GM reliability and performance horsepower advantages. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! It also used the .921in lifter bore size of the Toronado Rocket. A tracking pixel, sometimes known as a web beacon, is a tiny image file that loads from a remote server; it's a type of embedded content (as is the button itself, which loads from the same domain). 6 (July 1962), pp. (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. 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). 1956 Oldsmobile 88 Rocket The engine design for the Rocket 88 came from GMs chief researcher, Charles Kettering. He saw the potential in an engine design offering increased compression. The package was expensive to produce, and Oldsmobile discontinued it after 1958. Accessing certain posts or pages on this website may require you to enter a specific password. Two-barrel carburetion was standard; all high performance 324s came with four-barrel carburetors. . 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. 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]. The 307 "Y" produced 148hp (110kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1980-1984 models and 140hp (100kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1985-1990s. The 88 model remained in production for a whopping 50 years and over ten. Output for 1983-1985 was 180hp (130kW) and 245lbft (332Nm). 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 wp-donottrack_feed cookie, which controls a blog feed, was set by accessing the dashboard menu for the WP DoNotTrack plugin (which we do not currently use on this website); this cookie normally expires in about one year. 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. It shared the same compression ratio of the Toronado Rocket at 10.5:1. in. The difficulty presented by an OHV layout is finding a way to operate the valves. 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 high-compression four-barrel 394 cu. Thanks Weldon, [quote=Administrator]Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. Home / Cars for Sale / Oldsmobile / . 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. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. 1952 88 and Super 88 V8s used a 4-barrel carburetor for 160hp (120kW) and 265lbft (359Nm), while 4-barrel 1953 versions raised compression from 7.5:1 to 8.0:1 for 165hp (123kW) and 275lbft (373Nm). The Cadillac engine and the Chrysler FirePower had more power out of the box and as much or more potential. Some of the photos in our Avanti article, and those of our story on the Packard One-Twenty, were taken at the same time. Oldsmobile might be gone, but the Rocket brand hasn't been forgotten by collectors shopping for a 1950s American automotive icon. 98. Your wording in the flathead section (acts directly) suggest the valve stem tip rides the cam lobe in a flathead. . To learn more about how Google may use information collected by the Google Analytics service, see their "How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services" page, the "Information for Visitors of Sites and Apps Using Google Analytics" section of the Google Analytics "Safeguarding your data" help page, and the Google Privacy Policy. In certain cases, multiple iterations of either or both of these cookies may be set. 17, No. 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. 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. The "Rocket" name disappeared from the air cleaner identification decal after 1974. The output of the 307cuin (5.0L) wasn't particularly high in terms of horsepower. The engine built in the 1955 Super 88 and 98 models delivered 295 horsepower. The iThemes Security plugin may also set the itsec-hb-login-xx cookie, which helps to protect the site against "brute force" hacking attempts; that cookie normally expires in about one hour. (Illustration: Pushrod2 2007 IJB TA at the English Wikipedia; resized and changed file format (from PNG to JPEG) 2008 by Aaron Severson and used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license). These cookies are necessary for the site's administrative users (who wouldn't even be able to log in without them), but if you are not an administrative user, these cookies aren't normally placed on your device at all unless you somehow access the login area, which is off-limits to non-administrators. For additional information about how Google uses cookies and/or other technologies that may collect and/or process personal information, see the "Technologies" section of their Google Privacy & Terms site and the "Our advertising and measurement cookies" section of their Google Business Data Responsibility site, which includes a detailed list of cookies associated with Google advertising and measurement products. 1955 OLDSMOBILE 88 CORE ENGINE ASSEMBLY 8-324 V-8 879042. The engine had 10.25:1 compression and a single-barrel carburetor. Assuming your car has its original engine, its the version Oldsmobile called the Skyrocket, which was differentiated from the base Rocket by its four-barrel carburetor and gross ratings of 330 hp and 440 lb-ft of torque. [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. 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 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. A diagram of where the hydraulic or solid lifter fits in a flathead might be helpful to readers. 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. (. 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. Initially the paint was red, except for metallic blue in the Toronado applications; 1970-1976 versions were metallic blue at first, then nonmetallic blue. Its tempting to speculate what might have happened had the the U.S. industrys push in the fifties been for efficiency rather than the (ultimately Pyrrhic) horsepower race, although that would admittedly have been unlikely. 324 rocket v8. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). The Rocket would only get bigger, not smaller. Ike Turner, later to be half of Ike and Tina Turner, played piano on the track and was miffed that Brenstons name, not his, was on the record. Maybe just intake or vacuum leak. Most 425s were painted red, though the 1966 and 1967 Toronado units were light blue. 1985), pp. 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. The second generation of Oldsmobile V8s was produced from 1964-1990. Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. 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. The real standard of the world. 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. [22] This was the first engine to use the smaller Rochester Dualjet two-barrel carburetor, the only carburetor used on the 260. However, the cookie may remain on your device for as long as the settings of your browser (or other user agent) permit. ), If one was trying to tally how many Rocket engines were built in Olds cars in 1949-50, do you have those numbers? You never mentioned it but the 50 Olds in the photo has the single piece windshield. We'll start with Olds and return to Caddy in another article. Unlike all other 425s, this version was painted slate blue metallic. Made of diecast with some plastic parts. (Im not entirely sure why H-M did not, actually.). Earlier 50s and(I believe)all 49s had the split windshield. The following are turn key engines available . Output ranged from 160-325hp (119-242kW). They normally expire after about one year. 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. Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Mercury were the top sellers and I believe Oldsmobile would come in 5th or 6th place. Engineers today are wrestling with questions very similar to those faced by their counterparts of 70 or even 90 years ago. Bore was 3.75in (95mm) and stroke was 3.4375in (87.31mm). From 1950 until 1974, the 88 was the division's most profitable line, particularly the entry level models such as the 88 and Dynamic 88. The grilles under the headlights of this 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 are for the ventilation system, replacing the traditional pop-up cowl vent. 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. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. Nice Article thank you for preserving our history. This cars turn signals may be an aftermarket addition turn signals were originally a $15 option on this car. The cookies are not set at all unless you select that option when submitting a comment. 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). 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. Inevitably, the 88 overshadowed Oldsmobiles cheaper 76, which still used a 257 cu. The first was that Ketterings engine required fuel with a considerably higher octane rating than any contemporary pump gasoline; better fuel economy was hardly useful if you could only fill up at airports. The _gat cookie, which may appear as _gat_gtag_UA_6113964_2, was sometimes set along with the _ga and _gid cookies to control how frequently requests were sent to the Google Analytics servers; this cookie typically persisted for only a few minutes at a time. The short stroke allowed the engine to rev more freely while the wider bore provides more room for larger valves, which further improves breathing. Call me a square,[I am a square], I say you dont denigrate a proud heritage. The same year, an Olds 88 won the grueling 2000-mile-plus Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico. Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? Park is actually a parking brake that has a red light comes on when the hand brake is out. Its unclear at what point Oldsmobile engineers became aware of the Cadillac engine or how much they knew about it. Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. Skinner liked the idea, but it had to be approved by corporate management, which brought a new round of objection from Cadillac the 98 was already a close match for Cadillac in performance and a V8-powered B-body Oldsmobile would undoubtedly be faster. 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. 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 hydra matic trans was it used in both the OLds and Caddy of 49 and on.I have a 1950 series 62 Caddy. 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. Fabulous article. 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. Additionally, the 403 had windowed main webs, which reduced the internal strength of the block in the crankcase area. Richard A. Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2002), pp. 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 76 lingered for one more model year and then was dropped entirely; the division wouldnt offer a six again until 1964. 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. 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. So, its not particularly surprising that a highly tuned flathead Ford would be stronger than a stock 1950 Olds 303. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. It was rated at 215hp (160kW) at 4600rpm and 300lbft (410Nm) at 3200rpm. The popularity of the flathead Ford engines depended heavily on the first two qualities. R.M. Awesome vehicle many great high school memorys. The Oldsmobile 88 (marketed from 1989 on as the Eighty Eight) is a full-size car that was sold and produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1999. Oldsmobiles first OHV V8, dubbed the Rocket engine, had a 3.75-inch (95.3mm) bore and a 3.44-inch (87.3mm) stroke, compared to 3.25 inches (82.6mm) and 3.88 inches (98.4mm) respectively for the straight eight the Rocket replaced. The new, mid-sized Oldsmobile Rocket 88 went on sale February 6, exactly seven weeks after the 98. Even in markets where fuel is substantially more expensive than in the U.S., fuel efficiency is widely regarded in purely economic terms. Get the best deals on Complete Engines for Oldsmobile 88 when you shop the largest online selection at eBay.com. (4,213 cc) L-head six. 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. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. Millionaires would drive the few Cadillacs. It was the only GM engine to meet US emission standards using a carburetor all the way up to 1990. Shortly after the war, Ketterings engineers built an experimental 181 cu. Im not sure about the early Hydramatics but later ones, 54-56 you put in reverse to park. The first generation 88 was powered by Oldsmobile's 5.0L Rocket V8 engine,. 1948 & 1949 Cadillac Fastbacks, Special Interest Autos #11 (June-July 1972), pp. Most components and accessories are interchangeable. 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. I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. 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 company later introduced a new vehicle, the Oldsmobile Aurora, with a new generation V8. As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. It has gained popularity among young muscle car lovers. 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). For all the administrative and login cookies described here, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash while "UID" will be the administrative user's user ID number in this website's WordPress database. On that level, the Oldsmobile Rocket engine didnt make it, but thats with the benefit of hindsight. GM embarked on a vigorous campaign to persuade the major oil companies to offer higher-octane premium gasoline for civilian use. (2,969 cc) six with a compression ratio of 12.5:1, where most contemporary engines had ratios of no more than 7.0:1. Free shipping for many products! Comments may be moderated. 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&. 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. 46-52; Testing the 212 HP Packard Patrician, Science and Mechanics June 1954, reprinted in Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958, ed. The cookies normally expire in about 10 days, and are not set at all if you do not access any password-protected content. A pushrod layout is more expensive than a flatheads valve gear and the extra mass of pushrods and rocker arms hurts mechanical efficiency. 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 Powered by the rocket 2bbl. Thanks, I have enjoyed reading your many excellent articles. 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. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our. 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. Produced from 19681980, the Rocket 350 was entirely different from the other GM divisions' 350s. 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.