1948 & 1949 Cadillac Fastbacks, Special Interest Autos #11 (June-July 1972), pp. Thanks for the great write up on the history of one of the most influential engines in the automobile industry! 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. . (Thats a lesson that many Jaguar and Porsche owners have learned the hard way.). Contact. It didnt have an actual Park position until the advent of the controlled-coupling Hydra-Matic in MY1956. Oldsmobile used the popular LV2, a 307-cubic-inch (5.0L) engine, commonly known by the VIN code "Y", from 1980-1990. On that level, the Oldsmobile Rocket engine didnt make it, but thats with the benefit of hindsight. R.M. The 76 lingered for one more model year and then was dropped entirely; the division wouldnt offer a six again until 1964. About six weeks after he started work, Burrell showed his designs to Oldsmobiles chief engineer Jack Wolfram and Oldsmobile general manager Sherrod Skinner. 1964 Starfire produced 345hp (257kW) and 440lbft (600Nm) for the 1963-4 Starfire and 98 Custom-Sports Coupe. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. This is a session cookie that verifies that the user has entered valid user credentials pending receipt of the correct authentication code; the cookie normally expires when the user closes their browser (or other user agent). For sale 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 custom, 2 door hardtop. 5 vehicles matched Now showing page 1 of 1. Fabulous article. Our sources for this article included the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Encyclopedia of American Cars: Over 65 Years of Automotive History (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 1996); John R. Bond, Car of the Year: The 1949 Cadillac, Motor Trend November 1949, reprinted in Cadillac Automobiles 1949-1959, ed. (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. The Olds 403 was used by Buick and Pontiac in addition to Oldsmobile until its discontinuation after 1979. Cant wait to get my Wool Fedora and get it back on the road. The shape of a flatheads combustion chambers also limits its maximum compression ratio (the amount the fuel mixture is compressed before burning). 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. For more information about how Akamai may collect, process, and/or use personal data, visit the Akamai "Privacy and Policies" page and Privacy Trust Center. To learn more about the specific cookies used and/or to fine-tune your available choices, click "Privacy Preferences" at the right. 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. Power for the base engine was up to 315hp (235kW), even though compression was down a quarter point, to 9.75:1.[9]. The Rocket 88 won six of nine NASCAR late-model division races in the 1949 season and 10 of 19 races in 1950. The cookies are not set at all unless you select that option when submitting a comment. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. [19] The 403 was never featured with a manual transmission and the crank was never manufactured for a pilot bearing. It used a very oversquare 4.057in (103.0mm) bore and Oldsmobile small-block standard 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke for 350cuin (5.7L). Talk to the experts. Man! Oh, and lets not forget the Bonneville speed merchants. Free shipping for many products! (If you need to review or change these settings after you accept, you can do so from the Privacy Tools page.) 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). 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. . A pushrod layout is more expensive than a flatheads valve gear and the extra mass of pushrods and rocker arms hurts mechanical efficiency. ), If one was trying to tally how many Rocket engines were built in Olds cars in 1949-50, do you have those numbers? Bore was increased to 3.875in (98.4mm) (same as the later 283 Chevy) and stroke remained the same at 3.4375in (87.31mm). Its a super 88 sedan 4 door. Just didnt have any power. 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. [13] It could also be fitted with high-compression cylinder heads from the Morgan +8. It was no longer available in cars in 1961. The demise of Olds is yet another dreary episode in the ongoing story of GM losing its way. 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. 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.) They had long since lost genuine autonomy anyhow. Can you point me to any information on GM camshaft design methodology? Thank you so much for further refining my understanding of my 52 Super 88 Holiday Coupe.I love this car for its rich history, and the fact that I inherited it from a dear, tragically taken friend. It was the first mass-produced OHV V8, in 1949. Im not a mechanic, so Im afraid I cannot provide any kind of repair advice. Compression was up again in 1956 for 230hp (170kW) and 340lbft (460Nm) in the 88 and 240hp (180kW) and 350lbft (470Nm) in the Super 88 and 98. 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]. To learn more about what information the Vimeo platform collects and how that information may be used, see the Vimeo Privacy Policy. In short, the flatheads breathing ability is only mediocre. Bore was up to 4.0in (100mm) and stroke was increased to 3.6875in (93.66mm) for 371cuin (6.1L). The difficulty presented by an OHV layout is finding a way to operate the valves. Maybe just intake or vacuum leak. 1988), pp. All of this was occurring from about 1948 thru the first half of the 50s. 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. I came here to pick up some information for a book Im writing and was pleasantly surprised to find more than I bargained for. The Vimeo Cookie Policy also provides information about how Vimeo users can control the use of third-party analytics and/or advertising cookies in connection with embedded Vimeo video players. 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. 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. 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). Email or call Mark at 217/390-8500 with questions, or to inspect or test drive. 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). As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. Lets briefly examine each of them. 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. I think current brand-management logic would probably consider Oldsmobile rather hopeless. GM embarked on a vigorous campaign to persuade the major oil companies to offer higher-octane premium gasoline for civilian use. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). They call mine the black ace and they have a club division in the oldsmobile club of america. 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. (WordPress and the WordPress logos are registered trademarks of the WordPress Foundation in the United States and other countries. Hours of Operation. in. Runs great. Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. As mentioned earlier, the Rocket V8 was initially offered only in Oldsmobiles flagship 98, a big luxury car that gave away little to Cadillac in size or appointments. The first Oldsmobile V8 was of a flathead design that was developed by Northway Engine Works before GM assumed operations. Prior to the advent of the 1949 Cadillac and Olds engines, many (though by no means all) U.S. engines were L-head, or side-valve, design. Output ranged from 160-325hp (119-242kW). [citation needed]. 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. Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. Now heres the rub vis-a-vis this article: granted that the Rocket 88 gained a reputation as something of a factory hot rod in its day (helped, no doubt, by Ike Turner aka Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats little ditty of the same name), nonetheless in my research I have been hard-pressed to find anyone who used it as a performance powerplant. Ford, Chevy, Dodge and Mercury were the top sellers and I believe Oldsmobile would come in 5th or 6th place. Most components and accessories are interchangeable. 4th Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2002); Maurice Hendry, Hillbilly Genius: The Great Boss Ket,' Special Interest Autos #51 (June 1979), pp. Second, the combustion chambers of a flathead engine have a lot of surface area; more surface area means more opportunities for the heat of combustion to escape (which engineers call heat rejection) before its had the chance to do any useful work. However, my research has of necessity stretched back somewhat further than that and not just to the late 40s but, in tracing company histories, at least as far back as 1903 and the curved dash Oldsmobile. The company later introduced a new vehicle, the Oldsmobile Aurora, with a new generation V8. To mitigate these problems, both Oldsmobile and Cadillac adopted an overhead-valve (OHV) layout. Theres a longstanding popular assumption that the OHV V-8s were dramatically more powerful than the older flatheads they replaced, but it sort of came down to, Well, yeah, eventually. The earliest postwar OHV V-8s didnt start out with much higher compression than the L-heads (since premium fuel capable of supporting higher compression ratios wasnt reliably available until much later) and werent THAT much more powerful. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. Made of diecast with some plastic parts. 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. A long piston stroke gives more torque, which means better engine response at low speeds. 15-16 MPG is great even by modern standards, for a 300+ HP engine. in. 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! 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. That July, Burrell was promoted to chief motor engineer for the division. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. It has been purported that there is a 403 Oldsmobile block and cast that has solid main webs that may have been equipped in vehicles such as the Pontiac Firebird equipped with a towing package, but there are currently no clearly documented surviving examples. 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. The Cadillac engine and the Chrysler FirePower had more power out of the box and as much or more potential.
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