1955 Oldsmobile 88. From 1950 through 1974, the 88 was by far the most lucrative line throughout the division, largely due to the entry-level versions like the 88 and the Dynamic 88. Two-barrel carburetion was standard; all high performance 324s came with four-barrel carburetors. The 400cuin (6.6L) version was the second tall-deck "big-block" Olds. Thanks, I have enjoyed reading your many excellent articles. Ketterings team demonstrated that the higher compression ratio boosted power and gas mileage by nearly 30%. Get a Oldsmobile crate engine for cars like the cutlass, 88, 98, or the 442.GTO. U.S. Pat. Owned that vehicle till 1970 and traded in due to a bad dual chamber fuel pump for $350. 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]. A cheaper solution (pioneered by Buick back in the days before General Motors was formed) was to leave the camshaft in the block, as in a flathead engine, but add long metal pushrods to allow the camshaft to actuate the valves remotely. I am almost 79 now and remember that like it was yesterday. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! Until well into the 1950s, most engines were undersquare, with a narrow cylinder bore and a long piston stroke. Still, the same quandary exists that faced Gordon Burrell and Jack Gordon in the late forties: New technologies in this case, direct injection, turbocharging, and even hybrid powertrains can benefit both performance or fuel economy and emissions, but one still almost always wins out over the other. Powered by the rocket 2bbl. Internal combustion engines are essentially air pumps, so their power depends greatly on how much air-fuel mixture can flow into the cylinders to burn. Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. From the 1950s through the late 1970s, each GM division had its own V8 engine family. Flory, J. Oldsmobiles engineering staff already knew what the Rocket could do in the B-body cars and there was no question that it fit, so Harold Metzel, then Oldsmobiles chief transmission engineer, asked Sherry Skinner if Oldsmobile could offer that combination in production. Just didnt have any power. Revisions to the engine for 1986 included roller lifters with a slightly smaller camshaft (.435"/.438" lift and 194/210 duration at .050"), new heads with smaller, swirl-port intake runners, floating piston pins, and larger piston dishes for lower compression (8.0:1 v. 8.4:1). Displacement swelled from 303 Ci or 5 liters all the way to the gargantuan 455 Ci 7.5 liter V8 in the early 70s. 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. Depending on carburetion or use of turbocharger. 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. 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. The Olds 403 was used by Buick and Pontiac in addition to Oldsmobile until its discontinuation after 1979. Since the valves of a flathead are also in the block, the camshaft can actuate the valves directly. (Google, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. . Get the best deals on Complete Engines for Oldsmobile 88 when you shop the largest online selection at eBay.com. Call me a square,[I am a square], I say you dont denigrate a proud heritage. Ate Up With Motor and its embedded content providers may use cookies and/or similar technologies and collect personal information about site visitors as described in the Privacy Policy and Cookie Notice. Contact. The engine had 10.25:1 compression and a single-barrel carburetor. Submitting a comment signifies your acceptance of our Comment Policy please read it first! 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 Vimeo Cookie Policy does not currently disclose the normal durations of the cookies and similar technologies the Vimeo platform uses, but it appears that some may remain in your browser (or other user agent) for as long as your settings permit. The Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s represented the start of several major trends in American engine design. The bore was so wide that the cylinder walls were siamesed, as in the Chevrolet 400 V8, with no space for coolant to flow between the cylinders. The short stroke allowed the engine to rev more freely while the wider bore provides more room for larger valves, which further improves breathing. 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. 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. They had long since lost genuine autonomy anyhow. Flory. See these additional Auto Museum Online articles on the links below 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. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. Except as otherwise indicated, all written content and images are copyright Aaron Severson dba Ate Up With Motor. SPECIFICATIONS Engine: OHV 90-degree V-8, cast-iron block and heads Displacement: 303-cu.in. For more information about Google advertising, see the "Advertising" section of their Google Privacy & Terms site. Unlike the 76, powered by a straight-six engine, the 88 came with a V8 under the. I received some information from Harvey Crane. 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. Its unclear at what point Oldsmobile engineers became aware of the Cadillac engine or how much they knew about it. 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. [1] 400cuin (6.6L), 425cuin (7.0L), and 455cuin (7.5L)[1] V8s have a higher deck height (10.625in (27.0cm) versus 9.33in (23.7cm)) to accommodate a 4.25in (108mm) stroke crank to increase displacement. Additionally, the 403 had windowed main webs, which reduced the internal strength of the block in the crankcase area. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. Some Oldsmobile employees detested that name, but it remained strongly associated with Oldsmobile well into the 1960s. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. However, former Cadillac engineer Harry Barr, who led the development of Cadillacs first OHV V8, later asserted that Charles L. McCuen, then GMs vice president of engineering (and the former general manager of Oldsmobile) had ordered Cadillac chief engineer Jack Gordon to show Cadillacs OHV design to Oldsmobile carburetor engineer Tony Wauters. The first second-generation Oldmobile V8 330cuin (5.4L) "Jetfire Rocket" introduced in 1964 and produced through 1967. All other trademarks and/or service marks are the property of their respective owners. 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. In a flathead engine, the camshaft is in the block, driven directly by the engines crankshaft. (6,460 cc), which was about the limit of the original block design. Ate Up With Motor, its logo, and other associated icons and graphics are trademarks and/or service marks of Aaron Severson dba Ate Up With Motor. Oldsmobile's own L34 350-cubic-inch (5.7L) V8 was used in the 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass "S", 1979 Hurst/Olds models and 1980 "4-4-2". Off.).) This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. From 1916 through 1922, the only Oldsmobile V8 was a 246.7 cid L-head of Model 47 with a 233.7 cid V8 that made 60 hp. Apart from the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Aurora V8 was also used in the Shelby Series 1. 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. These carburetors did not open progressively; they were either open or closed. Unless youre building a rod, its often worth it to spend more upfront for a car thats in better condition. Inevitably, the 88 overshadowed Oldsmobiles cheaper 76, which still used a 257 cu. Im not a mechanic, so Im afraid I cannot provide any kind of repair advice. 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. 17, No. 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. in. 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. in. 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.