The Rocket would only get bigger, not smaller. In the mid-1950s, American automakers were engaged in a ferocious horsepower race. The icing on the cake was that fuel consumption was reduced by about 10% compared to the old L-head engine. 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). Thanks Weldon, [quote=Administrator]Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. 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. 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. Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? Cookies whose names begin with "optimizely" are associated with the Optimizely digital experience platform (which is subject to the Optimizely Privacy Policy; the "Privacy" section of the Optimizely Trust Center provides additional information about Optimizely privacy practices, including a link to the Data Processing Agreement that applies to personal data the Optimizely services process on customers' behalf that may be subject to certain regional privacy and/or data protection laws, while their "Cookies and localStorage in the Optimizely snippet" help page provides additional technical information about the cookies and/or similar technologies used by that platform). OHV engines can also support much higher compression ratios. In the spirit of trying to improve a fantastic article. wider bore provides a greater surface area on which the forces of combustion can act, improving power Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. "Alternative Engines: Part 2--Buick V8", in, Davis, Marlan. Power increased the final Rocket was rated at 345 gross horsepower (257 kW) but fuel economy eroded. The LG8 was a modern 307cuin (5.0L) High-Output derivative of the LV2 produced from 1983 to 1987. The wahFontColor and wahBgColor cookies, which are set if you alter the site's color scheme, normally expire after about 14 days, but you can remove them immediately by clicking the "Restore Defaults" button on the sidebar. This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. The 303 was available from 1949 until 1953. In shape and size, the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 is not much different from the Pontiac Streamline and Chevrolet Fleetline whose body shell it shares. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. The wild rocket hood ornament was technically a $5 option. The 260cuin (4.3L), 307cuin (5.0L), 330cuin (5.4L), 350cuin (5.7L) and 403cuin (6.6L) engines are commonly called small-blocks. Total Oldsmobile sales for the 1949 model year, including exports and Canadian production, were almost 294,000, a 64% improvement from the year before. The Nash finished third behind two 88s. Google, AdSense, Google AdSense, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. The grilles under the headlights of this 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 are for the ventilation system, replacing the traditional pop-up cowl vent. All full-size 1962 Oldsmobiles had the 394. R. V. Hutchinson, who was an Oldsmobile engineer prior to transferring to Product Studies #5 when C. L. McCuen was appointed 1st Vice President in charge of engineering, designed and build a heavy in-line 6-cylinder (850 lbs.) Barr believed the Oldsmobile engine was a direct derivative of Cadillacs design, although he conceded that Cadillac also benefited from some of Oldsmobiles work. The heavily domed hood would continue through 1953. Now that we have DISCONTINUED our use of Google Analytics tracking on this website, this cookie no longer functions no additional analytics data will be collected, with or without the cookie. 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. 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 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. The real standard of the world. I am almost 79 now and remember that like it was yesterday. 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. It also used the .921in lifter bore size of the Toronado Rocket. 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. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). The Nash was driven by Roy Graham a wrestling referee at Dallas Sportatorium who also had the Nash dealership in Corsicana TX. 46-52; Testing the 212 HP Packard Patrician, Science and Mechanics June 1954, reprinted in Packard Gold Portfolio 1946-1958, ed. Phone: 480-285-1600. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. Those were the good old days. About six weeks after he started work, Burrell showed his designs to Oldsmobiles chief engineer Jack Wolfram and Oldsmobile general manager Sherrod Skinner. It was used in most Oldsmobile models, as well as those from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. 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. You see, this 1957 Golden Rocket 88 Holiday two-door hardtop, with the J-2 setup and only a few more than 30,000 actual miles, is owned by his daughter and son-in-law, Jan and Tom Hummer. (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). Flathead engines are easy and cheap to manufacture, but they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to performance. Engineers today are wrestling with questions very similar to those faced by their counterparts of 70 or even 90 years ago. Concern about diminishing oil reserves is nothing new in the twenties, some engineers feared the U.S. would be out of oil within 30 years but it was not until the seventies that those fears entered the public consciousness. Concord, NC 5 years at carsforsale.com 3 27,900 1955 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight - Concord, NC sedan automatic 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). 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. Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Owned that vehicle till 1970 and traded in due to a bad dual chamber fuel pump for $350. If we have enabled multi-factor authentication (which requires an authentication code as well as a password to log into the administrative dashboard), the iThemes Security plugin may also set the itsec_interstitial_browser cookie during the login process. (Google, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. The first generation of Oldsmobile 88 was introduced in 1949. Presumably this says something about the cars place in the culture. 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. Unfortunately, they were also thirsty and a pain to tune, which was not at all what wartime buyers wanted, and after the war there was a gradually increasing array of cheaper alternatives. Many customers did not keep the reservoir filled, or had mechanical problems with the turbocharger system which resulted in many of the turbo-charger installations being removed and a conventional 4 barrel carburetor and manifold installed in its place. All Oldsmobile V8s were manufactured at plants in Lansing, Michigan while the engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations. So, its not particularly surprising that a highly tuned flathead Ford would be stronger than a stock 1950 Olds 303. A flathead engine, therefore, also has poor thermal efficiency. Home / Cars for Sale / Oldsmobile / . The new, mid-sized Oldsmobile Rocket 88 went on sale February 6, exactly seven weeks after the 98. 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. $22,000 (OBO) Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. 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. 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88. BMEP, IMEP), you will immediately see that bore/stroke ratio does not directly effect engine power. ), When you list the OHV Detroit engines that came along after the Rocket, the DeSoto Hemi of 1952 and Plymouth Poly of 1956 may merit mentioncant recall if the 1955 Packard V8 got its curtain call. In the mid-1980s, hot rodders discovered the 215 could be stretched to as much as 305cuin (5L), using the Buick 300 crankshaft, new cylinder sleeves, and an assortment of non-GM parts. We are largest vintage car website with the. 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. Offenhauser 3200 49-53 Olds Rocket Dual Quad Intake, Small Port $889.99 Ships Free . In a flathead engine, the camshaft is in the block, driven directly by the engines crankshaft. 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. Now 70 years old and giving a lot of thought to building me a 1950 Olds casket. Biggest mistake I still think about that automobile. Even in markets where fuel is substantially more expensive than in the U.S., fuel efficiency is widely regarded in purely economic terms. Its a true barn find. 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). Since the valves of a flathead are also in the block, the camshaft can actuate the valves directly. 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. This cars turn signals may be an aftermarket addition turn signals were originally a $15 option on this car. Were Oldsmobiles ever sold in Brazil in any significant numbers? It has gained popularity among young muscle car lovers. The original Oldsmobile Rocket V8 soldiered on until 1964, eventually reaching 394 cu. They may persist for up to two years. Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. 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. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. The "Rocket" name disappeared from the air cleaner identification decal after 1974. 330s were painted gold and had forged steel crankshafts. The cookies normally expire in about 10 days, and are not set at all if you do not access any password-protected content. 78-79; and Josiah Work, 1949 Rocket 88: This Is Not Your Grandpas Oldsmobile, Special Interest Autos #139 (January-February 1994), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles, pp. Most contemporary road tests at least mentioned fuel consumption. Most components and accessories are interchangeable. While the 260s were not very powerful compared to the larger 350 and 403 V8s, fuel economy was almost as good as the base V6. [21] It produced 110hp (82kW) net and 205lbft (278Nm). This was much flatter than the 23 of the small-block Chevrolet and 20 of the Ford small-block wedge heads. All the chrome is perfect interior all original all the glass is good.all the gauges work. Overhead valves did not suffer the same problem, which gave them the potential for much higher compression ratios. 98 J-2. The same year, an Olds 88 won the grueling 2000-mile-plus Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico. By contrast, both the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s were oversquare, with a wide bore and a short stroke. I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. The 4 barrel versions had a larger diameter harmonic damper, the 2 barrel only a balancer hub without the rubberized outer ring. 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]. Olds were very popular in Brazil but I can t give you any numbers. If you correctly enter the password, the site saves this cookie on your device to allow you access to the password-protected post or page. These carburetors did not open progressively; they were either open or closed. (4,213 cc) L-head six. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our Comment Policy please read it first! The 10:1 compression 1961 model produced 325hp (242kW) and 435lbft (590Nm), while the 10.25:1 1962-1964 version upped power to 330hp (250kW) and 440lbft (600Nm). 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Displacement was 259.5 cubic inches, with almost square bore and stroke. 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. 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. . The difficulty presented by an OHV layout is finding a way to operate the valves. 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. Its unclear at what point Oldsmobile engineers became aware of the Cadillac engine or how much they knew about it. Hours of Operation. Contact. Accessing certain posts or pages on this website may require you to enter a specific password. This is not an official website of any automaker or automotive brand! Two distinct versions of the 400 CID engine were made: The 1966-1967 4-4-2 400cuin (6.6L) V8 was a short stroke engine which featured B and C cast large-valve cylinder heads and hydraulic lifters of larger diameter, as well as push-rods of different length and diameter than the standard Olds Rocket V8. ), This cookie was set if you clicked the "Disable Google Analytics Tracking" link to prevent the Google Analytics service from tracking your use of the Ate Up With Motor website. By the time the battle reached a temporary ceasefire at decades end, the average power of the typical passenger car had (at least on paper) more than doubled. 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. 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. Oldsmobile used the popular LV2, a 307-cubic-inch (5.0L) engine, commonly known by the VIN code "Y", from 1980-1990. Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. The other members may be able to help you decide whether a price is fair, and in some cases, they may even know the specific car (Ikes 53? 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). I would assume a postwar Olds V-8 would have been a real high-rollers car.