Were there ever inline 8's?
- Thread starter SteveD2
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Yes there were straight 8's, a great engine too almost all used a side valve.
MolaKule
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Oh yea.
GM had an inline 8 for sure in their Olds, Pontiacs, and Buicks back in the late 40's early fifties. Don't know about the other carmakers since dad and my uncles were all GM types.
When I was a wee lad I helped my dad rebuild (well, displaced his tools was more like it) the inline 8 in his '51 Buick. It had like 270,000 miles on it before it started using oil past the rings. What a mass of steel. The Underhead Cam (UHC) system had vertical pushrods going up to the head and the rocker arms, and they appeared as long as bamboo fishing poles. Can't remember if the valve system had hydraulic lifters or not. The valves removed looked almost as large as aircraft engine valves. I remember him lapping the valves with lapping compound. He had to use the backyard hoist to remove the head and did the rebuild with engine still on the chassis.
It was a torqy engine coupled to an early Dynaflow. He kept it for another 50,000 miles and I don't ever recall any transmission problems. I know he adjusted the bands about every 30,000 miles and changed fluids.
He was a stickler for oil changes and changed oil every 2,000 miles on average. I think he used 10W40 QS in the old metal cans.
GM had an inline 8 for sure in their Olds, Pontiacs, and Buicks back in the late 40's early fifties. Don't know about the other carmakers since dad and my uncles were all GM types.
When I was a wee lad I helped my dad rebuild (well, displaced his tools was more like it) the inline 8 in his '51 Buick. It had like 270,000 miles on it before it started using oil past the rings. What a mass of steel. The Underhead Cam (UHC) system had vertical pushrods going up to the head and the rocker arms, and they appeared as long as bamboo fishing poles. Can't remember if the valve system had hydraulic lifters or not. The valves removed looked almost as large as aircraft engine valves. I remember him lapping the valves with lapping compound. He had to use the backyard hoist to remove the head and did the rebuild with engine still on the chassis.
It was a torqy engine coupled to an early Dynaflow. He kept it for another 50,000 miles and I don't ever recall any transmission problems. I know he adjusted the bands about every 30,000 miles and changed fluids.
He was a stickler for oil changes and changed oil every 2,000 miles on average. I think he used 10W40 QS in the old metal cans.
Yes. The first car I ever drove was a 48 Oldsmoble with a flathead straight 8. There was a reason for those loooooong hoods. Pop the hood, and there was a row of 8 spark plugs right on top where you could see them. You could have even taken them out with a Crescent wrench.
My friends father bought it for him the summer before we turned 16 and could legally get learner's permits. I don't think the street where he lived was a public street, and the public street we had to use to drive around the block was a dead end with apparently neighbors as tolerant as his father. Round and round we drove all summer. His father took it in town to put gas in it as needed.
The first thing I drove legally was my fathers Nash. It had what would have been a rather ordinary OHV 6 except that it had 327 CID. Big sucker. They put them in Healeys and ran them at LeMans.
There is hardly anything you can imagine somebody didn't do some time. Olds also perpetrated a longitudinal V-8 FWD. How about a stock, from the factory, Rambler with a 327 V-8 and a Holly 4 barrel? A twenties OHV 6 with the push rods out where you could see them?
My friends father bought it for him the summer before we turned 16 and could legally get learner's permits. I don't think the street where he lived was a public street, and the public street we had to use to drive around the block was a dead end with apparently neighbors as tolerant as his father. Round and round we drove all summer. His father took it in town to put gas in it as needed.
The first thing I drove legally was my fathers Nash. It had what would have been a rather ordinary OHV 6 except that it had 327 CID. Big sucker. They put them in Healeys and ran them at LeMans.
There is hardly anything you can imagine somebody didn't do some time. Olds also perpetrated a longitudinal V-8 FWD. How about a stock, from the factory, Rambler with a 327 V-8 and a Holly 4 barrel? A twenties OHV 6 with the push rods out where you could see them?
Dad used to have a Buick straight 8, and a guy at work sold two of them only recently.
As to the comment that anything that can be imagined can (and has been) done.
Lincoln used to make a flat headed V-12 that looked like a very long Ford Flathead.
Other U.S. manufacturers had V-12s and V-16s in their luxury models.
My former neighbour found a Motor Maintenance Manual in the back of a Datsun 1200 we were doing up. They had all sorts of amazing stuff.
Like the winches that were available to lower the cast iron powerglide transmissions......big warning not to lie under powerglides.
As to the comment that anything that can be imagined can (and has been) done.
Lincoln used to make a flat headed V-12 that looked like a very long Ford Flathead.
Other U.S. manufacturers had V-12s and V-16s in their luxury models.
My former neighbour found a Motor Maintenance Manual in the back of a Datsun 1200 we were doing up. They had all sorts of amazing stuff.
Like the winches that were available to lower the cast iron powerglide transmissions......big warning not to lie under powerglides.
Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Packard, Hudson and Chrysler all had straight 8 flatheads available.
I remember when my Dad and me visited a place where a club had old cars. There was a straight eight block sitting on the floor. I had never seen a straight eight before and I did not realize until then that there had been straight eight engines.
Fast straight eight!
I believe that the crank was of the built-up variety; the conrods didn't come apart at the big end!
I believe that the crank was of the built-up variety; the conrods didn't come apart at the big end!
I don't know about 8's, but it was a sad day when Jeep replaced the Cherokee with the Liberty, and the 4.0 I-6 with the 3.7 V-6.
Luckily, they still put 'em in TJ's, so it's not dead yet.
I will keep mine until nothing short of a miracle will keep it alive.
Luckily, they still put 'em in TJ's, so it's not dead yet.
I will keep mine until nothing short of a miracle will keep it alive.
1952 Pontiac had a straight 8.
Parents had one. Push button start.
Parents had one. Push button start.
My 1953 Pontiac had a straight 8 with no oil filter.
I think Pontiac used the str8 8 thru model year 1954 when they phased it out in favor of the OHV V-motor. Your 53 probably had an oil filter - it was just stuck on top of the carb!quote:
Originally posted by David:
My 1953 Pontiac had a straight 8 with no oil filter.
Mercedes cheated a bit on that one. The power was taken off the middle of the crank instead of the end. It was technically a straight 8, but as far as loads and power flow, it was more like two 4's end to end. A very nice machine.
Sad day indeed. What the hell was chrysler thinking. It's slower and gets worse mileage.
I've ridden in many Buicks and Pontiacs with straight 8s. I remember them as very, very smooth. And the torque!
Back in 1951 when I was just a little larvae, my father bought a 1951 Buick Special with a small ohv straight eight. I say "small" because it was 263 c.i. and I think the one used in the full sized Buicks was over 300 c.i. My father kept this car, and 13 years later when I first got a drivers license, I more or less was given this car to use. It had a three speed manual transmission on the column.
The engine had loads of torque. It was almost impossible to stall at a traffic light. You could put it in top gear, take your foot off the gas pedal, and the car would eventually slow down to around 5 mph, and just smoothly pull. I used to call it a funeral procession car (it was black).
All that torque also made it possible to drive around slowly in 3rd, accelerating as necessary without downshifting. This, in a way, was not good because it put a lot of stress on the transmission, which was a design left over from the late 1930s.
The engine had only one carb, located midpoint along the cylinder head. This meant that the end cylinders ran lean, and it was rough on the exhaust valves. Also, I remember my father suffered a cracked exhaust manifold, and I suspect this also had something to do with uneven exhaust temperatures out of the cylinders. My father was mechanically inclined, so he did his own valve job with the block remaining in the engine bay. When he took the head off, all the piston tops and cylinder head were a bluish color. This was due to the fact that he used "blue Sunoco" gasoline almost exclusively (it was typically 2 cents a gallon cheaper than the other brands back when gas was 22 cents a gallon). When he saw that blue residue, he became upset and never used Sunoco again. However, he loved to buy gas at the "unbranded" stations to save a couple of pennies per gallon.
I remember, with all that torque, the car was almost like an SUV in that it could be driven slowly over all kinds of uneven terrain.
When I was driving that car at age 17 and 18, I felt a little self concious in that all of my friends had newer cars. I eventually outdid them, buying a used 1964 Corvette at age 19 that went like a bat out of **** . But I still drove the old Buick to my commuter college as it was in a very bad neighborhood and I used to park it on a very uneven vacant lot.
Thanks for the memories.
The engine had loads of torque. It was almost impossible to stall at a traffic light. You could put it in top gear, take your foot off the gas pedal, and the car would eventually slow down to around 5 mph, and just smoothly pull. I used to call it a funeral procession car (it was black).
All that torque also made it possible to drive around slowly in 3rd, accelerating as necessary without downshifting. This, in a way, was not good because it put a lot of stress on the transmission, which was a design left over from the late 1930s.
The engine had only one carb, located midpoint along the cylinder head. This meant that the end cylinders ran lean, and it was rough on the exhaust valves. Also, I remember my father suffered a cracked exhaust manifold, and I suspect this also had something to do with uneven exhaust temperatures out of the cylinders. My father was mechanically inclined, so he did his own valve job with the block remaining in the engine bay. When he took the head off, all the piston tops and cylinder head were a bluish color. This was due to the fact that he used "blue Sunoco" gasoline almost exclusively (it was typically 2 cents a gallon cheaper than the other brands back when gas was 22 cents a gallon). When he saw that blue residue, he became upset and never used Sunoco again. However, he loved to buy gas at the "unbranded" stations to save a couple of pennies per gallon.
I remember, with all that torque, the car was almost like an SUV in that it could be driven slowly over all kinds of uneven terrain.
When I was driving that car at age 17 and 18, I felt a little self concious in that all of my friends had newer cars. I eventually outdid them, buying a used 1964 Corvette at age 19 that went like a bat out of **** . But I still drove the old Buick to my commuter college as it was in a very bad neighborhood and I used to park it on a very uneven vacant lot.
Thanks for the memories.
Now you're talkin'!quote:
Originally posted by ZmOz:
Sad day indeed. What the **** was chrysler thinking. It's slower and gets worse mileage.They did, however, just announce that they will now be making the 4.0 from aluminum! I'm thinking a stroked aluminum 4.7L straight 6 is just the thing my 200k mile cherokee needs...
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