Classifieds for Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88. The 403 Oldsmobile was generally painted "Corporate GM Blue" on every model line it was equipped in. Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? A special 1963 10.5:1 version was also produced with 345hp (257kW). Olds were very popular in Brazil but I can t give you any numbers. [20] Parts peculiar to this system include a toothed disc between the harmonic balancer and the crank pulley, the "adjacent sensor" (an early form of crankshaft position sensor), a special distributor, an engine temperature sensor, and a rudimentary computer mounted inside the car, under the dashboard. 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. Crazy Egg is a trademark of Crazy Egg, Inc. Optimizely is a registered trademark of Optimizely, Inc. in the United States, EU, and elsewhere. Output was 185hp (138kW) and 320lbft (430Nm). Have a 47 98 custom cruiser. I am almost 79 now and remember that like it was yesterday. Concord, NC 5 years at carsforsale.com 3 27,900 1955 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight - Concord, NC sedan automatic About six weeks after he started work, Burrell showed his designs to Oldsmobiles chief engineer Jack Wolfram and Oldsmobile general manager Sherrod Skinner. More Oldsmobile Classics 44. The immediate prewar Compound Carburetion cars were legitimately quick for 1941 you might get that kind of performance out of a flathead Ford, but not without a lot of non-factory help. And just where is this crazy car heaven where Rocket 88 Oldsmobiles and Avantis are parallel parked on the street side by side? mill or the Chrysler Firepower hemi of the same displacement. 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. the hydra matic trans was it used in both the OLds and Caddy of 49 and on.I have a 1950 series 62 Caddy. Engineers today are wrestling with questions very similar to those faced by their counterparts of 70 or even 90 years ago. Bore was increased to 3.875in (98.4mm) (same as the later 283 Chevy) and stroke remained the same at 3.4375in (87.31mm). The 403 is fundamentally the exact same block as an Oldsmobile 350 V8, however it features a larger bore. The company later introduced a new vehicle, the Oldsmobile Aurora, with a new generation V8. (Author diagram). The Super Eighty-Eight wasnt particularly rare when it was new Olds sold about 150,000 of them in 1951. 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. It was no longer available in cars in 1961. Learn more. Most 394s used 2-barrel carburetors, but special high-compression 4-barrel versions were available starting in 1961. The development testing, however, had been done using the smaller B-body Olds 76 as a test mule. (4,214 cc) L-head straight eight. The factory painted "small-blocks" gold or blue (flat black on the late model 307cuin (5.0L)),[1] while "big-blocks" could be red, green, blue, or bronze.[1]. At the risk of shameless self promotion, you might also be interested in the recently revamped article on the early Hydra-Matic, which most Oldsmobiles of that vintage had. ), 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. All LV2s feature a 4-barrel carburetor. (4,977 cc). (At present, this setting does NOT affect the payment or donation buttons that may appear on portions of the site's administrative dashboard, nor does hiding the box affect any cookies that may have already been set). Cadillac used a distantly related engine which appeared in three different sizes through to the 1962 model year; though the Oldsmobile and Cadillac motors were not physically related, many lessons learned by one division were incorporated into the other's design, and the result were two engines known for their excellent power-to-weight ratio, fuel economy, and smooth, strong, reliable running. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. It has gained popularity among young muscle car lovers. A pushrod layout is more expensive than a flatheads valve gear and the extra mass of pushrods and rocker arms hurts mechanical efficiency. For additional information about how Google uses cookies and/or other technologies that may collect and/or process personal information, see the "Technologies" section of their Google Privacy & Terms site and the "Our advertising and measurement cookies" section of their Google Business Data Responsibility site, which includes a detailed list of cookies associated with Google advertising and measurement products. Each of those engines had its own peculiarities, but they were all in the mold of the Oldsmobile Rocket engine. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. Some consider Rocket 88, recorded by Jackie Brenston in 1951, to be the first rock and roll song. 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, Google Analytics, and other related marks and logos are trademarks of Google LLC. Apart from the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Aurora V8 was also used in the Shelby Series 1. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. Your email address will not be published. 98. 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. 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. By late 1956, many Olds dealers learned about the problem. (For more information about our discontinuation of Google Analytics tracking on this website, see the "Online Tracking" section of the Privacy Policy. (I quess that would be total Olds minus Olds 76 model.). The 1954 88 and Super 88 V8s used an 8.25:1 compression ratio for 170 and 185hp (127 and 138kW) and 295 and 300lbft (400 and 407Nm), respectively. 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 overhead valve engine concept offered both power and efficiency, with an improvement in fuel economy (estimated at about 10 percent better than prior engine designs). The original Oldsmobile V8 was to have been marketed as "Kettering Power" after chief engineer Charles Kettering, but company policy prohibited the use of his name. [[[Chevrolet Corvair#First generation (19601964)#{{{section}}}|contradictory]]]. The first generation of Oldsmobile 88 was introduced in 1949. Big-block and Diesel versions also increased the 2.5in (64mm) main bearing journal to 3.0in (76mm) for increased strength. 8-9; Arch Brown, Similar But Different: 1949 Cadillac vs. 1949 Oldsmobile 98, Special Interest Autos #149 (September-October 1995), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles: driveReports from Special Interest Autos magazine, eds. Motor Trend (July 1950) mentioned getting 18.8 mpg at a steady 50 mph and a 1950 Olds entered in the Mobilgas Economy Run bettered 20 mpg. For the Rocket 88, Oldsmobile came up with a 303 cubic inch V8 capable of a maximum 135 hp and 283 lb-ft of torque. During that period, Oldsmobile Motor Group draftsman Gilbert Burrell began working privately on concepts for new cars and new engines. The typeface used for the labels in the author-created diagrams is Liberation Sans, one of the Liberation Fonts (version 2.00.1 or later), which are copyright 2012 Red Hat, Inc., used under the SIL Open Font License, Version 1.1. Complete Engines for Oldsmobile Delta 88, Motor Mounts for Oldsmobile 88, Fuel Injectors for Oldsmobile 88; Additional site navigation. The Rocket 88 model name was dropped after 1957. [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. 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! Thank you! The V8 was standard in the new 1949 Oldsmobile 98, replacing the old 257 cu. 324 rocket v8. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by General Motors. The engine proved so popular, the division's 88 models were popularly called Rocket 88s. 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. 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). Now 70 years old and giving a lot of thought to building me a 1950 Olds casket. Even modest restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. Our sources for this article included the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Encyclopedia of American Cars: Over 65 Years of Automotive History (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, 1996); John R. Bond, Car of the Year: The 1949 Cadillac, Motor Trend November 1949, reprinted in Cadillac Automobiles 1949-1959, ed. These taller-deck models are commonly called "big-blocks", and are 1in (2.5cm) taller and 1.5in (3.8cm) wider than their "small-block" counterparts.[1]. 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. Unlike a Mustang or a later Chevy, where theres a thriving business in replacement pieces, finding parts for an Olds of that vintage isnt necessarily easy these days. But it DID have a fairly illustrious season on the track and in road racing. Flathead engines are easy and cheap to manufacture, but they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to performance. This was the only engine offered in 1923, when the Model 47 continued alone. 34-41; Arch Brown, Richard Langworth, and the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide, Great Cars of the 20th Century (Lincolnwood, IL: Publications International, Ltd., 1998); F. Gibson Butler, History of the Rocket Engine, originally written 15 November 1977 and excerpted in Desert Rocket Report: Newsletter of the Oldsmobile Club of Arizona October 2004, pp. This 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 has the Deluxe trim with a dashboard clock; Deluxe models cost $78 more than the standard-trim version. The early Repco engines produced up to 300bhp (220kW), and featured new SOHC cylinder heads and iron cylinder liners. Cookies whose names begin with "_ceg" are associated with the Crazy Egg web analytics service (which is subject to the Crazy Egg Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy). 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. in. 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. Two-barrel carburetion was standard; all high performance 324s came with four-barrel carburetors. 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. 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. It has been noted to go up to $100,000 at some auctions. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a flathead (L-head) engine. Presumably this says something about the cars place in the culture. This 1952 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight is a well-priced classic that gives you some of the best styles around. [13] It could also be fitted with high-compression cylinder heads from the Morgan +8. Will drop by again. I just wanted to know if I have a rocket engine and how can I check if its a 394. Until well into the 1950s, most engines were undersquare, with a narrow cylinder bore and a long piston stroke. 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). 7-27; Michael Lamm, Two Very Important Cars! I have an interest in the history of Camshaft design tildentechnologies.com. It didnt have an actual Park position until the advent of the controlled-coupling Hydra-Matic in MY1956. [21] It produced 110hp (82kW) net and 205lbft (278Nm). All of this was occurring from about 1948 thru the first half of the 50s. Most components and accessories are interchangeable. You must be at least 18 to comment. 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). 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. Like all other GM divisions, Olds continued building its own V8 engine family for decades, adopting the corporate Chevrolet 350 small-block and Cadillac Northstar engine only in the 1990s. During those few brief years, both the hot rodder and the racers weapon of choice was either the Cadillac 331 c.i. From the 1950s through the late 1970s, each GM division had its own V8 engine family. Required fields are marked *. 49 rocket 88 was my first car back in 1964. The Olds 403 was used by Buick and Pontiac in addition to Oldsmobile until its discontinuation after 1979. wider bore provides a greater surface area on which the forces of combustion can act, improving power 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 Rocket would only get bigger, not smaller. This is incorrect, in the context of wider vs. narrower bore sizes with the same displacement. The payment button in the "Support Ate Up With Motor" box (and similar payment or donation buttons that may appear on portions of the administrative dashboard, which is not normally accessible except to logged-in administrative users) contains embedded content served by PayPal services. Horsepower: 135 hp at 3,600 RPM Torque: 263-lb.ft. . [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. 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. The cookieconsent_status cookie recorded whether or not you consented to analytics tracking and told the website to hide the notification banner; this cookie normally expires after about one year. Awesome vehicle many great high school memorys. Phone: 480-285-1600. Such cookies and/or stored data items may be set by various domains (such as, though not necessarily limited to, youtube.com; youtube-nocookie.com; googlevideo.com; ytimg.com; google.com; accounts.google.com; www.googleadservices.com; and/or doubleclick.net, which is part of the DoubleClick advertising service, also owned by Google LLC). An 88 also won the first grueling Carrera Panamericana, the 2,176-mile (3,500-km) Mexican Road Race. in. 98 J-2. . Unlike all other 425s, this version was painted slate blue metallic. Depending on carburetion or use of turbocharger. The effective dates of the current versions are: Paid advertisements and/or sponsored links on Ate Up With Motor will be identified with words such as "Sponsor," "Sponsors," "Sponsored Link(s)," "Sponsored Content," "Ad," "Advertisement," "Advertisement(s)," or "Paid Promotion" (and/or by images or icons containing such words). The 4 barrel versions had a larger diameter harmonic damper, the 2 barrel only a balancer hub without the rubberized outer ring. Until 1951, Oldsmobile offered a choice of fastback and notchback body styles, as well as the convertible. Theyll also be able to suggest sources for parts, which can be a big issue. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). 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. But I can block the blow by coming off the back of the block and it runs great. Vintage lovers are ready to spend any amount of money to get hold of a Rocket 88 of 1949. (For this cookie, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) 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. Not all the listed cookies and/or data items are necessarily set in all instances, and there may sometimes be others not listed above, particularly if you are logged into a Google account. (6,460 cc), which was about the limit of the original block design. The "Rocket" name disappeared from the air cleaner identification decal after 1974. The 1961 through 1963 Sky Rocket (and 1964 Rocket) was a high-compression, four-barrel 394cuin (6.5L) engine. It was a sliding gear like a manual and held in some fashion I cant remember because it couldnt lock to the engine through the torus member. 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. 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. Put the petal to the metal and go man go! 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. 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 I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. It depends on your goals. As mentioned earlier, the Rocket V8 was initially offered only in Oldsmobiles flagship 98, a big luxury car that gave away little to Cadillac in size or appointments. 18-23; Jim Richardson, Rocket Power: Oldsmobiles 1950 convertibles: The rocking 88 versus the jazzier 98, Special Interest Autos #188 (March-April 2002), pp. 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. It uses a 3.8in (97mm) bore (in common with the Buick 231 V6 and 350 V8) with a 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke. Change Background Color (Note: This option sets cookies on your device to manage your color settings; see the Cookie Notice for details. Email: [email protected] Address: 7400 E Monte Cristo Ave . 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. Powered by the rocket 2bbl. Classic Oldsmobile Rocket 88 for Sale. 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). Clarke (Cobham, England: Brooklands Books Ltd., ca. New brakes, wide Whitewall tires and classic stereo and speaker. They were all painted Bronze and had V and G stamped on the cylinder heads. 2027; John Katz, Racing the 88, Special Interest Autos #145 (January-February 1995), reprinted in The Hemmings Book of Oldsmobiles, p. 88; Jamie Kitman, The Secret History of Lead, The Nation March 2000; Allen Hunt, Horsepower from Detroit, Part IV: Cadillac, Oldsmobile and the horsepower race, Car Life Vol. Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. The Rocket 88 would see consistent improvements over the next two decades or so. Sunday - Closed. $300.00. 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. (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). Sending my 53 olds to Dallas for overhaul. All the chrome is perfect interior all original all the glass is good.all the gauges work. 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. Total Oldsmobile sales for the 1949 model year, including exports and Canadian production, were almost 294,000, a 64% improvement from the year before. Does not have any openings. Home / Cars for Sale / Oldsmobile / . Displacement swelled from 303 Ci or 5 liters all the way to the gargantuan 455 Ci 7.5 liter V8 in the early 70s. 6 (July 1962), pp. 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. 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. Off.).) 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. The heavily domed hood would continue through 1953. Richard A. Lentinello (Bennington, VT: Hemmings Motor News, 2002), pp. Its a super 88 sedan 4 door. 50,000 cars were imported in 1952, US brands comprising some 90% of that total. . Now heres the rub vis-a-vis this article: granted that the Rocket 88 gained a reputation as something of a factory hot rod in its day (helped, no doubt, by Ike Turner aka Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats little ditty of the same name), nonetheless in my research I have been hard-pressed to find anyone who used it as a performance powerplant. 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). Oldsmobile engineers originally wanted to call this the Kettering Engine, after GM research vice president Charles Kettering, whose work on high-compression engines helped to inspire it. 303CI ROCKET V8, 4SPD AUTO, COOL, ICONIC 50S STYLING, 4-DOOR CONVENIENCE, CLASSY. 1750 Enterprise Way Suite 109 Marietta, GA 30067. Even "modest" restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. Using the 5 liter Rover block and crankshaft, a maximum displacement of 317.8cuin (5,208cc) is theoretically possible.[14].