(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.). Total Oldsmobile sales for the 1949 model year, including exports and Canadian production, were almost 294,000, a 64% improvement from the year before. Raising an engines compression ratio allows the engine to extract more energy from the fuel it burns, improving both power and fuel economy. Until well into the 1950s, most engines were undersquare, with a narrow cylinder bore and a long piston stroke. Vintage 1949 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic Rocket Engine Magazine Print Ad 1988), pp. 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. Skinner and Wolfram tried again in March 1947, having decided that alternative engine configurations were impractical, and this time managed to secure production approval from GM president Charles E. Wilson. [citation needed] The 1977-1980 350s have lighter castings, including a thinner block with large "windows" in the main bearing bulkheads,[citation needed] and have crack-prone cylinder head castings[citation needed] manufactured by Pontiac Motor Division (castings are marked "PMD"; these heads were also used on the 260),[citation needed] and a lightened crankshaft. See these additional Auto Museum Online articles on the links below If you delete or disable these cookies, your existing preferences will be lost and you may not be able to save your privacy settings for this website. Its output of 0.45 hp per cubic inch was 7% better than the 0.42 hp per cubic inch of the popular and widely produced 100hp (75kW) 1949 Ford Flathead V8. ), These third-party cookies may be set in connection with embedded video players for content hosted on the Vimeo video platform, for purposes such as (without limitation) managing video settings, storing video preferences, providing certain functionality (e.g., allowing you to pause a video at a particular point), associating your video viewing and other activity with your Vimeo account (if you have one), showing you advertising, ensuring proper functioning of the service, preventing abuse, and/or compiling user analytics data. You must be at least 18 to comment. Road tests were conducted later that year and the new V8 went into production a few days before Christmas 1948. 5 vehicles matched Now showing page 1 of 1. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. (PayPal.com, PayPal, and all logos related to the PayPal services are either trademarks or registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc. or its licensors. (For each of these cookies, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) As an aside, the Oldsmobile was bought by doctors, lawyers, bank managers, shop owners, construction entrepreneurs and the like. Until 1951, Oldsmobile offered a choice of fastback and notchback body styles, as well as the convertible. 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,. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our. Even a heavier 55 Super 88 with the later 324 (like the one tested by both Motor Trend and Motor Life it looks to be the same car) could manage up to 19 mpg at a steady 60 mph, dropping to 1213 mpg in mixed use. Trim Rocket 88 1951 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic 88 Rocket 303 V8 Hydramatic custom $16,900 Many of the other listed cookies are associated with the Google Analytics service, the Google AdSense advertising service, and/or other Google advertising and measurement products, which are subject to the Google Privacy Policy; 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, the "Technologies" section of their Google Privacy & Terms site, and the "Our advertising and measurement cookies" section of the Google Business Data Responsibility site (which includes a detailed list of cookies associated with Google advertising and measurement products) for more information. 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. All other trademarks and/or service marks are the property of their respective owners. Sending my 53 olds to Dallas for overhaul. The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. Terry Ehrich and Richard Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2001), pp. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. in. A very significant and, at this point, often misunderstood transmission that had a big influence on the character of the cars that used it. 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. 4th Edition (Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2002); Maurice Hendry, Hillbilly Genius: The Great Boss Ket,' Special Interest Autos #51 (June 1979), pp. The J-2 engine also had a slightly thinner head gasket, raising compression to 10.0:1. 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. 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. Larry Young. 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. Does not have any openings. It shared the same compression ratio of the Toronado Rocket at 10.5:1. Monday - Saturday: 9-5. ), Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. [13] It could also be fitted with high-compression cylinder heads from the Morgan +8. By late 1956, many Olds dealers learned about the problem. The standard 1965-1967 425cuin (7.0L) was called the Super Rocket, and was the most powerful engine option for the Oldsmobile 88 and 98 of 1965-1967. 98 J-2. Just didnt have any power. 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. 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. Contact. Set an alert to be notified of new listings. Unfortunately, it also creates more friction and means that the average piston speeds are very high, particularly at high RPM, which is detrimental to engine longevity. 74-81; Bob McVay, Oldsmobile Starfire Road Test, Motor Trend Vol. Apart from the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Aurora V8 was also used in the Shelby Series 1. 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). A new Cadillac was dramatically more expensive and also heavier, and Buicks with the big straight eight engine probably had Dynaflow. The Oldsmobile V8, also referred to as the Rocket, is series of engines that was produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1990. Two-barrel carburetion was standard; all high performance 324s came with four-barrel carburetors. Thank you! Oldsmobile used the popular LV2, a 307-cubic-inch (5.0L) engine, commonly known by the VIN code "Y", from 1980-1990. 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. Have a 47 98 custom cruiser. Classic Car Deals (844) 676-0714. 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. From 1949 until 1951, the 2-barrel carburetor 303 produced 135hp (101kW) and 253lbft (343Nm). (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). The 307 "Y" produced 148hp (110kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1980-1984 models and 140hp (100kW) and 250lbft (340Nm) in 1985-1990s. 1957 also offered the "J2" option, with three 2-barrel carburetors atop the 371 cubic inch V8; making this a true luxury performance . in. 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. ), If one was trying to tally how many Rocket engines were built in Olds cars in 1949-50, do you have those numbers? The oil industry wasnt interested, nor was the auto industry, nor it must be said was the contemporary American public. I dont know what its survival rate is, though. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. The package was expensive to produce, and Oldsmobile discontinued it after 1958. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. [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 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. 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 The Oldsmobile 88 was introduced in 1949 as a replacement for the 70 series. The Olds 88 was also one of the fastest automobiles in America at the dawn of the 1950s, and it was the car to beat in NASCAR racing, winning 10 out of 19 races in the 1950 season. Early Hydra-Matics had no Park position (although there was a parking pawl if you engaged reverse), and unlike later versions, theres no way to keep the transmission in third gear, which can be inconvenient. In MY1950, total production was 407,889, of which only 33,257 were the 76, so 374,632 (91.8%) had V-8 power. The Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s represented the start of several major trends in American engine design. 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. Crazy Egg is a trademark of Crazy Egg, Inc. Optimizely is a registered trademark of Optimizely, Inc. in the United States, EU, and elsewhere. Flory, J. 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&. Depending on carburetion or use of turbocharger. Game Changer: The 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket V-8 - Mac's Motor City Garage 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. They may persist for up to two years. 1959 and 1960 371s used green painted valve covers. 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. at 1,800 RPM Transmission: Three-speed manual standard, Hydra-Matic optional Wheelbase: 119.5 inches Nice Article thank you for preserving our history. It was used in most Oldsmobile models, as well as those from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. The development testing, however, had been done using the smaller B-body Olds 76 as a test mule. These changes increased torque to 250lbft (340Nm) but lowered power to 170hp (130kW), while lowering the RPM at which peak power and torque was achieved. In any case, the early postwar period saw the emergence of the California customizing/hot rod scene; the advent of the fiberglass kit car body manufacturers such as Bill Tritts Glaspar (Tritt was retained briefly by GM as a consultant in 1951 when they were considering building a lightweight fiberglass-bodied sports car); and the birth of modern motorsport in the US with the founding of the SCCA and the advent of road racing as the most popular form of competition. Your email address will not be published. 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). Each of those engines had its own peculiarities, but they were all in the mold of the Oldsmobile Rocket engine. Oldsmobile like mine are real popular in australia. The same year, an Olds 88 won the grueling 2000-mile-plus Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico. 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. He saw the potential in an engine design offering increased compression. For 1957, the basic 88 was officially named Golden Rocket 88, taken from Olds' 1956 Motorama two-passenger show car. 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. The other Nash driver was Robert Owen, the Dad of my best friend, also from Corsicana and my neighbor on S. 16th ST. Been an Olds man a long time. New brakes, wide Whitewall tires and classic stereo and speaker. The Ford/Mercury flathead V8 was of course a popular choice up until the early part of the decade (and had been since its introduction in 1932) but the introduction of the new overhead valve V8s Cadillac and Oldsmobile in 1949 and Chrysler and Studebaker in 1951 were a game-changer for the performance crowd. 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. 26-31; Roger Huntington, 1965 Engines, Motor Trend Vol. 303CI ROCKET V8, 4SPD AUTO, COOL, ICONIC 50S STYLING, 4-DOOR CONVENIENCE, CLASSY. 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. It used a very oversquare 4.057in (103.0mm) bore and Oldsmobile small-block standard 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke for 350cuin (5.7L). 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. I have a 62 olds super 88. The Rocket Engine History - 1957 Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88 You are correct its even a Studebaker Avanti, not the later Avanti II. Get a Oldsmobile crate engine for cars like the cutlass, 88, 98, or the 442.GTO. This problem did not appear until the engine had over 50,000 miles (80,000km) on it. These cookies manage your cookie and privacy preferences. 1951 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. A Detailed Look Back At The Oldsmobile Rocket 88 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. I never had one apart to that extent, but my understanding from the theory of operation is that there is a pivoting pawl that will engage a toothed wheel when the engine is stopped with reverse selected. It was the first mass-produced OHV V8, in 1949. We'll start with Olds and return to Caddy in another article. 1960 to 1967 Oldsmobile Delta 88 for Sale on ClassicCars.com Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. The new V8 was also more powerful: Rated output climbed from 110 to 135 gross horsepower (82 to 101 kW) while torque increased from 213 to 283 lb-ft (289 to 383 N-m), allowing an Oldsmobile 98 with Hydra-Matic to reach 60 mph (97 km/h) in a brisk (for 1949) 13.5 seconds, with a top speed of 96 mph (155 km/h). If anyone at GM had had doubts about offering the big engine in the smaller body, the sales alone would have been enough to convince them. Many believe it was deliberately underrated to avoid offending Cadillac, which was concerned about its sister division outmatching the new Cadillac V8. Power for the base engine was up to 315hp (235kW), even though compression was down a quarter point, to 9.75:1.[9]. 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. In a flathead engine, the camshaft is in the block, driven directly by the engines crankshaft. The heavily domed hood would continue through 1953. 1962 OLDSMOBILE 88 CORE SHORT BLOCK ENGING 8-394 860673. This is not an official website of any automaker or automotive brand! In an OHV engine, by contrast, the valves are a fair distance away from the crankshaft, which makes operating them far more complicated. In addition, all page headers, custom graphics, button icons, and scripts related to the PayPal services are service marks, trademarks, and/or trade dress of PayPal. Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of 317.8cuin (5,208cc) is theoretically possible.[14]. The output of the 307cuin (5.0L) wasn't particularly high in terms of horsepower. Thanks, I have enjoyed reading your many excellent articles. Call me a square,[I am a square], I say you dont denigrate a proud heritage. SPECIFICATIONS Engine: OHV 90-degree V-8, cast-iron block and heads Displacement: 303-cu.in. The new, mid-sized Oldsmobile Rocket 88 went on sale February 6, exactly seven weeks after the 98. Oldsmobile V8s can be grouped into five "generations.". 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. 1950 Oldsmobile 88 | Hemmings 442 . Each engine in this generation is quite similar with the same size block and heads. But it DID have a fairly illustrious season on the track and in road racing. 6 (July 1962), pp. I will let you know soon. Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale - ClassicCars.com The new V8 was designed with plenty of extra room in the block for future displacement increases, but Gilbert Burrell and his team actually hoped that Oldsmobile could return to the 287 cu. 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. The following year, 88s won 10 out of 19 Grand National races and set a new speed record at Daytona. In1953, at seventeen years old I had a 1932 Ford 5 window coupe that with the help of two uncles that ran auto repair shops installed a 1950 Oldsmobile engine that I got out of a wrecked car, into my coupe. 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! It uses a 3.8in (97mm) bore (in common with the Buick 231 V6 and 350 V8) with a 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke. Inevitably, the 88 overshadowed Oldsmobiles cheaper 76, which still used a 257 cu. A smaller 260cuin (4.3L) V8 was created for the new Oldsmobile Omega in 1975 by decreasing the bore to 3.5in (89mm). 1956 - OLDSMOBILE 88 - 455 ROCKET ENGINE ! - cars & trucks - by dealer 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. In Brazil, OHV V8 engines are commonly known as motores roquete (rocket motors), no matter which producer. 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. Lets briefly examine each of them. The 303 was produced from 1949-1953. 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. About . 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. (Valve spring, spring seat / retainer placement too? Every 307 used a four-barrel carburetor, which was a variant of the Rochester Quadrajet, usually the CCC (Computer Command Control) Quadrajet. 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. Completely restored it, all original. They call mine the black ace and they have a club division in the oldsmobile club of america. 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. 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. 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. 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. (4,705 cc) displacement of the original prototypes once higher-octane fuels became widely available, raising compression ratios to maintain the same output with lower fuel consumption. 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). 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. Some auction action surrounding 1956 Oldsmobiles tells a similar story: Millionaires would drive the few Cadillacs. Your email address will not be published. Oldsmobiles reign as the hottest performer in the land proved to be short-lived. A special 1963 10.5:1 version was also produced with 345hp (257kW). Overhead valves did not suffer the same problem, which gave them the potential for much higher compression ratios. Raises and Lowers - 4 Leg Suspension - New Paint Job 2 Tone Black & Copper - New Starter - New A/C - Cloth Bench Seating - New Battery - New Flowmaster Exhaust - MSD Ignition - Headers - $5000 of Mechanical Work Just Done The 1967 and later versions of the Repco engine had proprietary engine blocks. (6,460 cc), which was about the limit of the original block design. 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. . Both the Cadillac and Oldsmobile design teams were strongly influenced by the work of GM research chief Boss Charles Kettering, who had been working on high-compression engines since the end of World War I. 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. Have never been an American car guyI cut my teeth on old British roadstersbut I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed your well-written, informative article on the history of the Rocket 88. 1949 - 1960 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 - Top Speed 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. (Ten of the 13 88s that entered that race managed to finish, itself an impressive feat.) Kettering had retired in 1947, but since he was still alive (and active as a GM consultant), naming the engine after him was against GMs corporate policy, so Sherrod Skinner suggested the Rocket name instead.
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