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Flory. Im not a mechanic, so Im afraid I cannot provide any kind of repair advice. 303 Oldsmobile V8 parts in-stock with same-day shipping. You shared that mileage ranged from 12 MPG 18 MPG depending on the year. 1999), pp. 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. Based on the Cadillac Northstar engine, this 4.0-liter engine, called Aurora, was a DOHC design with four valves per cylinder. in. In the mid-1950s, American automakers were engaged in a ferocious horsepower race. This motor is blue which makes me think its been gone through. The Rocket Engine Story by One Who Was Thereby Gibson Butler. The engine built in the 1955 Super 88 and 98 models delivered 295 horsepower. Larry Young. 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. Collectible Motor Car of Atlanta. All 425 engines were fitted with forged steel crankshafts with harmonic balancers. 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. Skinner liked the idea, but it had to be approved by corporate management, which brought a new round of objection from Cadillac the 98 was already a close match for Cadillac in performance and a V8-powered B-body Oldsmobile would undoubtedly be faster. 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. 15-16 MPG is great even by modern standards, for a 300+ HP engine. 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). $22,000 (OBO) The present mindset (with which I dont necessarily agree, mind you) is that all brands must either be Youthful or Aspirational or if possible both, so a brand whose name begins with Old and which is best known for decades of middle-of-the-road respectability isnt off to a good start on either front. The idea of keeping the brand names on a model-specific basis is not illogical (although again its contrary to current brand management philosophy), but it would present all manner of practical problems, not least that it would invite the ire of people who had previously paid money for a sales franchise for that brand. Set an alert to be notified of new listings. [5], This engine was used in GMC heavy trucks as the "370" of 232 gross HP at 4200 RPM and torque 355 gross lbs-ft at 2600 RPM from 1957 to 1959.It had hardened valve seats and other features for heavy duty usage. 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). 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. The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. Oldsmobile charged $83 for the J-2 option with the three-speed manual (or in the 98),[7] $314 dollars with the automatic.[8]. Richard A. Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2002), pp. The early Repco engines produced up to 300bhp (220kW), and featured new SOHC cylinder heads and iron cylinder liners. Now 70 years old and giving a lot of thought to building me a 1950 Olds casket. The Rocket 88 won six of nine NASCAR late-model division races in the 1949 season and 10 of 19 races in 1950. U.S. Pat. Every 307 used a four-barrel carburetor, which was a variant of the Rochester Quadrajet, usually the CCC (Computer Command Control) Quadrajet. Anyway, thanks for making my visit here an enjoyable one. 76. They call mine the black ace and they have a club division in the oldsmobile club of america. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. You must be at least 18 to comment. 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. These cookies manage your cookie and privacy preferences. The Oldsmobile 88 (marketed from 1989 on as the Eighty Eight) is a full-size car that was sold and produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1999. Will drop by again. The Cadillac engine and the Chrysler FirePower had more power out of the box and as much or more potential. Each of those engines had its own peculiarities, but they were all in the mold of the Oldsmobile Rocket engine. The original Oldsmobile Rocket V8 soldiered on until 1964, eventually reaching 394 cu. Initially the paint was red, except for metallic blue in the Toronado applications; 1970-1976 versions were metallic blue at first, then nonmetallic blue. These a11y cookies normally expire after about seven days, but are removed immediately if you restore the applicable settings to their default values. I have read several histories of the 1949 Oldsmobile and Cadillac V-8s, but never seen Bouvy mentioned. 6 (July 1962), pp. Model: 1949 - 1960 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 Engine/Motor: V8 Horsepower: 135 Torque: 283 Pros Cons Design Let's try and forget the full-size Oldsmobile 88 models that were produced all the. Output was 185hp (138kW) and 320lbft (430Nm). The 455 big block Olds V8 was replaced in 1977 with the 403cuin (6.6L) small block, which used a 4.351in (110.5mm) bore, the largest ever used in a small-block V8, with the Olds small-block standard deck and 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke. The end of the Korean conflict sent the country in a foreign exchange crisis that lasted until the middle 90s, cutting imports and providing the basis for national production. 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. It is arguably the best engine Olds made in the muscle car era, although it never made it into a "muscle car". 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. By 1952, the 88 was growing inexorably bigger and although Oldsmobile engineers had little trouble getting more power out of the Rocket engine by 1955, it boasted 202 gross horsepower (151 kW) newer, lighter cars soon surpassed its performance. 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). Its a true barn find. Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. There will typically be several such cookies, each beginning with "gdpr" (e.g., gdpr[allowed_cookies], gdpr&5Bprivacy_bar&5D, and gdpr[consent_types]). I would assume a postwar Olds V-8 would have been a real high-rollers car. A smaller 260cuin (4.3L) V8 was created for the new Oldsmobile Omega in 1975 by decreasing the bore to 3.5in (89mm). The 4 barrel versions had a larger diameter harmonic damper, the 2 barrel only a balancer hub without the rubberized outer ring. You make a good point about the L-head lifter. or is that not an Avanti peeking into the frame on the right side of the last photo? Required fields are marked *. Output for 1983-1985 was 180hp (130kW) and 245lbft (332Nm). Im not sure where you stop4 more new engines in 1958 (Chevy W, Mopar B, FoMoCo FE, Lincoln M.E.L. Even still, the same design philosophy carried with it throughout its production run. 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. 1962 OLDSMOBILE 88 CORE SHORT BLOCK ENGING 8-394 860673. They had long since lost genuine autonomy anyhow. 425 motor, super rocket. (4,214 cc) L-head straight eight. NASCAR held nine Grand National races in 1949, of which stock Rocket 88s won six. R.M. When it comes to Oldsmobiles from 1957, the hardtop was the second-most-popular body style, with 49,187 units produced. Akamai is a registered trademark or service mark of Akamai Technologies, Inc. in the United States (Reg. However, the only badging identifying it as such was a simple "88" underneath each taillight. Home / Cars for Sale / Oldsmobile / . 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". Since the valves of a flathead are also in the block, the camshaft can actuate the valves directly. 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. Ketterings team demonstrated that the higher compression ratio boosted power and gas mileage by nearly 30%. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. *. The 1961 through 1963 Sky Rocket (and 1964 Rocket) was a high-compression, four-barrel 394cuin (6.5L) engine. Around the end of that year, the project nearly ground to a halt due to objections from Cadillac. 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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. [19] The 403 was never featured with a manual transmission and the crank was never manufactured for a pilot bearing. Oldsmobiles first postwar engine was born during the UAW strike that shut down GM production from November 1945 through March 1946. Phone: 480-285-1600. During those few brief years, both the hot rodder and the racers weapon of choice was either the Cadillac 331 c.i. To learn more about the specific cookies used and/or to fine-tune your available choices, click "Privacy Preferences" at the right. He saw the potential in an engine design offering increased compression. Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. Only the center carburetor was mechanically connected to the throttle pedal, and it was the only one equipped with a choke. 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. This 1955 oldsmobile deluxe 88 is a 2 door holiday coupe.. 2 tone twilight blue and polar white colors with ivory and blue interior. (If you need to review or change these settings after you accept, you can do so from the Privacy Tools page.) For consignment a Rocket design Oldsmobile 88. 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. Your wording in the flathead section (acts directly) suggest the valve stem tip rides the cam lobe in a flathead. Displacement swelled from 303 Ci or 5 liters all the way to the gargantuan 455 Ci 7.5 liter V8 in the early 70s. Sorry! [12] The Oldsmobile engine was very similar to the Buick engine, but not identical: it had larger wedge combustion chambers with flat-topped (rather than domed) pistons, six bolts rather than five per cylinder, and slightly larger intake valves; the valves were actuated by shaft-mounted rocker arms like the Buick and Pontiac versions, but the shafts and rockers were unique to Oldsmobile. Fabulous article. C. G. Its tempting to speculate what might have happened had the the U.S. industrys push in the fifties been for efficiency rather than the (ultimately Pyrrhic) horsepower race, although that would admittedly have been unlikely. I would have said, Your Father knew cars and I would have played up that heritage. In MY1950, total production was 407,889, of which only 33,257 were the 76, so 374,632 (91.8%) had V-8 power. in. The second generation of Oldsmobile V8s was produced from 1964-1990. Shop 303 Oldsmobile V8 parts and get Free Shipping on orders over $149 at Speedway Motors, the Racing and Rodding Specialists. Liberation is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. 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. 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&. It was used by every domestic GM automobile marque except for GMC and Saturn. 98. 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. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Vintage 1949 Oldsmobile 88 Futuramic Rocket Engine Magazine Print Ad W31 at the best online prices at eBay! (Google, DoubleClick, YouTube, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. However, the cookie may remain on your device for as long as the settings of your browser (or other user agent) permit. In certain cases, multiple iterations of either or both of these cookies may be set. Ike Turner, later to be half of Ike and Tina Turner, played piano on the track and was miffed that Brenstons name, not his, was on the record. The L34 used a 4-barrel carburetor and produced 160170hp (120130kW) and 275ftlbf (373Nm). All Oldsmobile V8s were manufactured at plants in Lansing, Michigan while the engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations. It uses a 3.8in (97mm) bore (in common with the Buick 231 V6 and 350 V8) with a 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke. The difficulty presented by an OHV layout is finding a way to operate the valves. 88. spark ignition engine for high-compression studies. From 1949 until 1951, the 2-barrel carburetor 303 produced 135hp (101kW) and 253lbft (343Nm). I might have to find or make some kind of diagram of that. Im wondering how many weeks of informative evening reading I can enjoy from your articles. There may be more than one of these cookies, particularly if you access several password-protected posts with different passwords. From your research, do you have any information on Bouvy? It also used the .921in lifter bore size of the Toronado Rocket. I have a 62 olds super 88. Sending my 53 olds to Dallas for overhaul. (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 means exist to do the same work while burning less fuel; the question is whether a meaningful number of American consumers will accept those means while theres still fuel left to burn. Each PayPal payment or donation button may also incorporate a tracking pixel called "pixel.gif" (which loads from paypalobjects.com). That never happened; by the fifties, the industry was far more interested in advertised horsepower than gas mileage. Crane said Bouvy was Engine/Camshaft designer of the 1949 Cadillac V-8. 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). Make: Oldsmobile Model: 88 Year: 1956 Engine: 455 Rocket Engine - Turbo 400 - Foose Mags - Airbags Suspension. Moreover, correct tuning was a continual headache. 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. $410.00 shipping. Hemmings Motor News has been serving the classic car hobby since 1954. Base price for the Deluxe Club Sedan was $1,982 in 1950, and 16,388 were sold. The PYPF cookie normally expires in approximately four weeks, the 01A1 cookie in approximately one year. (. 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. The 1976-1979 Cadillac Seville was equipped with a version of this engine featuring an analog Bendix/Bosch electronic port fuel injection system, making this the first American mass-produced car with EFI as standard equipment.[18]. It kept the retired 425's 4.126in (104.8mm) bore to produce between 275 and 400hp (205 and 298kW; 279 and 406PS). 1957 also offered the "J2" option, with three 2-barrel carburetors atop the 371 cubic inch V8; making this a true luxury performance . The following year, 88s won 10 out of 19 Grand National races and set a new speed record at Daytona. It was offered in the Hurst/Olds version of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais and in the 4-4-2 version of the Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon. 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. in. 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. Happy to see someone that not only mentions, but appreciates the early Olds. All generation-2 small-block Olds V8s used a stroke of 3.385in (86.0mm). They normally expire after about one year. 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. 18-23; Jim Richardson, Rocket Power: Oldsmobiles 1950 convertibles: The rocking 88 versus the jazzier 98, Special Interest Autos #188 (March-April 2002), pp. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). However not practical to drive around pittsburgh, pa. To many hills for that single chamber master cylinder. This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. 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. The "Rocket" name disappeared from the air cleaner decal in 1975, the same year that the catalytic converter was added to the emissions control system. 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 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. Google, AdSense, Google AdSense, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. ), These first-party cookies are used to manage user logins and certain other administrative functions of the WordPress content management system, e.g., post editing. I dont know what its survival rate is, though. Yup Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Pontiac plus some GMC vehicles, some 1954-on Chevrolet pickups, 19501954 Lincolns, a bunch of independents (Hudson, Kaiser, Nash), Rolls-Royce, and Bentley, among others! Talk to the experts. An outstanding 350 Oldsmobile engine for sale would be perfect in a Cutlass convertible. All LV2s feature a 4-barrel carburetor. 330s were painted gold and had forged steel crankshafts. The 303 was available from 1949 until 1953. 442 . The cookies normally expire in about 10 days, and are not set at all if you do not access any password-protected content. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! Total Oldsmobile sales for the 1949 model year, including exports and Canadian production, were almost 294,000, a 64% improvement from the year before. (4,213 cc) L-head six. The same year, an Olds 88 won the grueling 2000-mile-plus Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico. 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. About . Classifieds for Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88. R.M. Most commonly available premium fuels had an octane rating of only 80 RON, not nearly enough for the ultra-high compression ratios Kettering proposed. Most 425s were painted red, though the 1966 and 1967 Toronado units were light blue. the hydra matic trans was it used in both the OLds and Caddy of 49 and on.I have a 1950 series 62 Caddy. 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. 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. The 394 replaced the 371 in Super 88 and 98 cars for 1959 and 1960 and a detuned version was used in the 88 for 1961 and the Dynamic 88 for 1962-1964. 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 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. Vintage lovers are ready to spend any amount of money to get hold of a Rocket 88 of 1949. in. Even "modest" restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. 1956 Oldsmobile 88 4dr St Rod, new gas tank, new brakes and tires, rebuilt front end, good body, new paint, nice patina, good original interior, rebuilt . Being ahead of your time or having a short season is not the same as being overhyped, and since the muscle car category in general is as much about hype and point of view as substance, I think thats an important consideration. When the center carburetor was opened to 60 or more engine vacuum drawn from the windshield wiper pump would simultaneously open the front and rear carburetors. [22] The 260 V8 received VIN code "F" and had a sales code of LV8. 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 Buick version was rated at 200hp with an 11:1 compression ratio. The first Oldsmobile V8 was of a flathead design that was developed by Northway Engine Works before GM assumed operations. The engine proved so popular, the division's 88 models were popularly called Rocket 88s. Known variously as the Rockette, Cutlass, and Turbo-Rocket by Oldsmobile (and as Fireball and Skylark by Buick),[10] it was a compact, lightweight engine measuring 28in (71cm) long, 26in (66cm) wide, and 27in (69cm) high (same as the small-block Chevy),[11] with a dry weight of only 320lb (150kg). Then in 1955 Chevrolet introduced their ohv V8 (as did Packard, Plymouth and Pontiac) and changed the game again. Burrell examined a wide range of configurations, but the one to which he continually returned was a 90-degree V8, which he judged as offering the best compromise between power potential and physical size. (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. Inevitably, the 88 overshadowed Oldsmobiles cheaper 76, which still used a 257 cu. Displacement was 259.5 cubic inches, with almost square bore and stroke.