This problem did not appear until the engine had over 50,000 miles (80,000km) on it. It also used the .921in lifter bore size of the Toronado Rocket. $22,000 (OBO) A smaller 260cuin (4.3L) V8 was created for the new Oldsmobile Omega in 1975 by decreasing the bore to 3.5in (89mm). 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. The 1961 through 1963 Sky Rocket (and 1964 Rocket) was a high-compression, four-barrel 394cuin (6.5L) engine. The early Repco engines produced up to 300bhp (220kW), and featured new SOHC cylinder heads and iron cylinder liners. Have a 47 98 custom cruiser. There were 64 1st Gen sold in the last 5 years. 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. A diagram of where the hydraulic or solid lifter fits in a flathead might be helpful to readers. Were Oldsmobiles ever sold in Brazil in any significant numbers? ), If one was trying to tally how many Rocket engines were built in Olds cars in 1949-50, do you have those numbers? 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 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. In MY1950, total production was 407,889, of which only 33,257 were the 76, so 374,632 (91.8%) had V-8 power. Phone: 480-285-1600. The shape of a flatheads combustion chambers also limits its maximum compression ratio (the amount the fuel mixture is compressed before burning). The B-body Oldsmobiles rode a 6-inch (152mm) shorter wheelbase and were 11 inches (279 mm) shorter and 3.6 inches (91mm) narrower than the C-body 98 and weighed 250 pounds (227 kg) less. These carburetors did not open progressively; they were either open or closed. 1750 Enterprise Way Suite 109 Marietta, GA 30067. The immediate prewar Compound Carburetion cars were legitimately quick for 1941 you might get that kind of performance out of a flathead Ford, but not without a lot of non-factory help. Comments may be moderated. The 324cuin (5.3L) version was produced from 1954 until 1956. Free shipping on many items | Browse your favorite brands | affordable prices. Every 307 used a four-barrel carburetor, which was a variant of the Rochester Quadrajet, usually the CCC (Computer Command Control) Quadrajet. 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. 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. Your wording in the flathead section (acts directly) suggest the valve stem tip rides the cam lobe in a flathead. I was aghast at the ad campaign, This is not your Fathers Oldsmobile. Maybe. Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. A flathead engine, therefore, also has poor thermal efficiency. Hemmings Motor News has been serving the classic car hobby since 1954. [22] This was the first engine to use the smaller Rochester Dualjet two-barrel carburetor, the only carburetor used on the 260. The image file itself contains no personally identifiable information, but the loading of that file may be used to help identify and/or track you. Power was 81 hp at 3000 rpm. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our. Oldsmobile charged $83 for the J-2 option with the three-speed manual (or in the 98),[7] $314 dollars with the automatic.[8]. It didnt have an actual Park position until the advent of the controlled-coupling Hydra-Matic in MY1956. 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. In 1985, roller lifters, floating piston wrist pins, and swirl port intake runners were added. (Valve spring, spring seat / retainer placement too? The engine built in the 1955 Super 88 and 98 models delivered 295 horsepower. (For this cookie, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) . Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. 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 324 was shared with GMC trucks. Crazy Egg is a trademark of Crazy Egg, Inc. Optimizely is a registered trademark of Optimizely, Inc. in the United States, EU, and elsewhere. FOLLOW MARKET. 1955 Oldsmobile 88. 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. in. 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. (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.). The heavily domed hood would continue through 1953. 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. In 1949, your main alternative new car choices were the bug-ridden 49 Ford and Mercury, whose engines would need a lot of hopping up to get anywhere near the level of the 88. In a 1972 interview with Michael Lamm, then editor of Special Interest Autos, former Cadillac chief engineer Jack Gordon lamented the trend to ever bigger and thirstier engines, noting that he had tried unsuccessfully to convince oil companies to develop ultra-high-octane fuels so that Cadillac could adopt more fuel-efficient high-compression, small-displacement engines. "Kelly", Jr. Baechtel, John. The 307 "Y" produced 148hp (110kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1980-1984 models and 140hp (100kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1985-1990s. Did G M make a 1949-50 olds 88 or 98 4 door fastback ? Oldsmobiles companion make, the Viking had a horizontal-valve V8 with two-plane crankshaft in the early thirties. Around the end of that year, the project nearly ground to a halt due to objections from Cadillac. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. R.M. Whether you are looking for a Rocket 455, a 350, or maybe an Oldsmobile 403 engine for sale, we have the ideal replacements ready . The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. 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. The top brass equivocated, but Skinner finally got the green light. I have an interest in the history of Camshaft design tildentechnologies.com. Moreover, correct tuning was a continual headache. 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. ), 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. 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. 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. Theyll also be able to suggest sources for parts, which can be a big issue. 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. Some auction action surrounding 1956 Oldsmobiles tells a similar story: Even the flathead Ford held up well (courtesy of the Ardun hop-up parts mail order catalogue.) 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. 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. 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). But I can block the blow by coming off the back of the block and it runs great. The 400cuin (6.6L) version was the second tall-deck "big-block" Olds. The real standard of the world. Oldsmobiles first postwar engine was born during the UAW strike that shut down GM production from November 1945 through March 1946. The engine had 10.25:1 compression and a single-barrel carburetor. The oil industry wasnt interested, nor was the auto industry, nor it must be said was the contemporary American public. Inevitably, the 88 overshadowed Oldsmobiles cheaper 76, which still used a 257 cu. SPECIFICATIONS Engine: OHV 90-degree V-8, cast-iron block and heads Displacement: 303-cu.in. It kept the retired 425's 4.126in (104.8mm) bore to produce between 275 and 400hp (205 and 298kW; 279 and 406PS). See these additional Auto Museum Online articles on the links below The Super Eighty-Eight wasnt particularly rare when it was new Olds sold about 150,000 of them in 1951. 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). If not, it may be a little more difficult, short of pulling the heads. 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.) 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. 1999), pp. Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. However, the only badging identifying it as such was a simple "88" underneath each taillight. These were wedge-head engines with a unique combustion chamber that resulted from a valve angle of only 6. Presumably this says something about the cars place in the culture. In an OHV engine, by contrast, the valves are a fair distance away from the crankshaft, which makes operating them far more complicated. Nice Article thank you for preserving our history. 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. 1968-1974 350s were painted gold; 1975-1976 350s were metallic blue like the 455; 1977-1980 models were painted GM Corporate Blue. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. Features Power Transmission: 4 Automatic Hydra-Matic Production Figures Handling 1949 Averages 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. 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. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a wedge-head OHV engine. This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. Until well into the 1950s, most engines were undersquare, with a narrow cylinder bore and a long piston stroke. Since the valves of a flathead are also in the block, the camshaft can actuate the valves directly. As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. By late 1956, many Olds dealers learned about the problem. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! 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 Nash was driven by Roy Graham a wrestling referee at Dallas Sportatorium who also had the Nash dealership in Corsicana TX.