Thanks! R.M. Raising an engines compression ratio allows the engine to extract more energy from the fuel it burns, improving both power and fuel economy. 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. Maybe. 12 (December 1964): 36-47; William Kovarik, Ph.D., Charles F. Kettering and the 1921 Discovery of Tetraethyl Lead In the Context of Technological Alternatives, originally presented to the Society of American Engineers Fuels & Lubricants Conference, Baltimore, MD, 1994, revised 1999, www.radford. The grilles under the headlights of this 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 are for the ventilation system, replacing the traditional pop-up cowl vent. 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. They were all painted Bronze and had V and G stamped on the cylinder heads. 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. 394s were produced from 19591964 and were available on many Olds models. Most of these engines were very similar, using the same bore centers and a 9.33in (237mm) deck height, raised on "big-block" versions to 10.625in (269.9mm). 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. 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. The early Repco engines produced up to 300bhp (220kW), and featured new SOHC cylinder heads and iron cylinder liners. The original Oldsmobile Rocket V8 soldiered on until 1964, eventually reaching 394 cu. Cadillacs OHV V8, released around the same time as the new Oldsmobiles, was itself an important and influential engine that earned Motor Trends first Car of the Year Award, but it was the Oldsmobile Rocket 88 that started an avalanche. 1950 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Just didnt have any power. 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. I think current brand-management logic would probably consider Oldsmobile rather hopeless. U.S. Pat. Lakeland, FL 5 years at classiccars.com 3 28,500 1955 Oldsmobile 88 gasoline blue manual New interior paint and re-chromed bumpers. I just wanted to know if I have a rocket engine and how can I check if its a 394. (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). Theres a longstanding popular assumption that the OHV V-8s were dramatically more powerful than the older flatheads they replaced, but it sort of came down to, Well, yeah, eventually. The earliest postwar OHV V-8s didnt start out with much higher compression than the L-heads (since premium fuel capable of supporting higher compression ratios wasnt reliably available until much later) and werent THAT much more powerful. Anyway, thanks for making my visit here an enjoyable one. If not, it may be a little more difficult, short of pulling the heads. You shared that mileage ranged from 12 MPG 18 MPG depending on the year. . Lets briefly examine each of them. A very significant and, at this point, often misunderstood transmission that had a big influence on the character of the cars that used it. In a flathead engine, the air-fuel mixture has to go around several corners to make its way into the combustion chamber and burned exhaust gases have a similarly circuitous route out of the cylinders. Deciding Burrells ideas had promise, Wolfram and Skinner organized a new advance design group to develop a new overhead-valve (OHV) V8 engine and assigned Burrell to lead it. 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). 16, No. When it comes to Oldsmobiles from 1957, the hardtop was the second-most-popular body style, with 49,187 units produced. In the event we receive any compensation and/or other valuable consideration for any other content presented on this website, the nature of that compensation or consideration will be disclosed as part of the applicable content and/or otherwise adjacent to it. "Affordable Aluminum V8's [sic]", in, Turbo Hydramatic 425 FWD 3-speed automatic, "1975-79 Cadillac Electronic Fuel Injection", "Oldsmobile 403 Engine - Car Craft Magazine", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oldsmobile_V8_engine&oldid=1138357918, 1968 and 1969 400s shared the Olds big-block standard 4.25in (108mm) stroke with the 455 but used a, 19681970 Oldsmobile Toronado GT (W34), 400hp (300kW), This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 06:46. Then in 1955 Chevrolet introduced their ohv V8 (as did Packard, Plymouth and Pontiac) and changed the game again. It was rated at 215hp (160kW) at 4600rpm and 300lbft (410Nm) at 3200rpm. Liberation is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. registered in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and certain other jurisdictions. Accessing certain posts or pages on this website may require you to enter a specific password. The main distinguishing features of this engine were a slightly different camshaft profile from the standard ultra high compression engine and factory dual exhaust. On that level, the Oldsmobile Rocket engine didnt make it, but thats with the benefit of hindsight. 15 results per page. The V8 was standard in the new 1949 Oldsmobile 98, replacing the old 257 cu. Full instrumentation is standard Olds had not yet succumbed to the allure of warning lights. If you correctly enter the password, the site saves this cookie on your device to allow you access to the password-protected post or page. 1985), pp. Although Oldsmobiles official involvement in racing was limited, the Rocket 88 promptly proceeded to clean up in competition. Note the quadrant for the Hydra-Matic atop the steering column. Owned that vehicle till 1970 and traded in due to a bad dual chamber fuel pump for $350. (These cookies may not be set at all for administrative users unless they access the publicly visible portions of the website and/or update their consent settings e.g., by accepting an updated version of the Privacy Policy. Me at the age of 70 in the back seat with a 21-year-old blond. Both are well-documented, albeit relatively short-lived. 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. wider bore provides a greater surface area on which the forces of combustion can act, improving power A tracking pixel, sometimes known as a web beacon, is a tiny image file that loads from a remote server; it's a type of embedded content (as is the button itself, which loads from the same domain). 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. Hoo, boy, you better run away right now). 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. Most components and accessories are interchangeable. Concord, NC 5 years at carsforsale.com 3 27,900 1955 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight - Concord, NC sedan automatic ), 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. In 1962 and 1963 Oldsmobile built a turbocharged version of the 215, designated Turbo-Rocket. 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. Simplified diagram of the cylinder of a wedge-head OHV engine. Does not have any openings. Except as otherwise indicated, all written content and images are copyright Aaron Severson dba Ate Up With Motor. The Olds Rocket 88 engine went through modifications during the 1950's For the 1955 model year Oldsmobile increased the compression ratio which helped put out 185 horsepower for the Olds 88 model. Neither of GMs new OHV V8s had an exceptionally high compression ratio at first Oldsmobiles was 7.25:1, Cadillacs 7.5:1 but that was mostly a reflection of the low octane of the gasoline of the time. 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. "Alternative Engines: Part 2--Buick V8", in, Davis, Marlan. in. Additionally, the 403 had windowed main webs, which reduced the internal strength of the block in the crankcase area. If you look up the concept of MEP (e.g. The oil industry wasnt interested, nor was the auto industry, nor it must be said was the contemporary American public. 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. The Oldsmobile engine was then pretty new, a new 88 was expensive, and Im guessing that getting a decent crate or junkyard engine would cost almost as much as a decent Cadillac V-8. (The basic Eighty-Eight was rarer, accounting for only about 35,000.) See these additional Auto Museum Online articles on the links below *. This engine was only available in the Oldsmobile Starfire and a performance economy model called the Jetstar I. By contrast, both the Cadillac and Oldsmobile V8s were oversquare, with a wide bore and a short stroke. 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. 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. But I can block the blow by coming off the back of the block and it runs great. . However, the only badging identifying it as such was a simple "88" underneath each taillight. Every 307 used a four-barrel carburetor, which was a variant of the Rochester Quadrajet, usually the CCC (Computer Command Control) Quadrajet. (PayPal.com, PayPal, and all logos related to the PayPal services are either trademarks or registered trademarks of PayPal, Inc. or its licensors. Displacement swelled from 303 Ci or 5 liters all the way to the gargantuan 455 Ci 7.5 liter V8 in the early 70s. iThemes is one of the Liquid Web family of brands; iThemes and Liquid Web are trademarks of Liquid Web, LLC.). 1957 also offered the "J2" option, with three 2-barrel carburetors atop the 371 cubic inch V8; making this a true luxury performance . Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. The following year, 88s won 10 out of 19 Grand National races and set a new speed record at Daytona. The 324 was shared with GMC trucks. PLEASE DON'T SUBMIT COPYRIGHTED CONTENT YOU AREN'T AUTHORIZED TO USE! All other trademarks and/or service marks are the property of their respective owners. ), Diagram of a typical pushrod/rocker-arm layout of an overhead-valve engine. I will let you know soon. The cookies normally expire in about 10 days, and are not set at all if you do not access any password-protected content. I dont know what its survival rate is, though. Since the advance design group envisioned a 1949 introduction for their new engine, the project was dubbed SV-49. You never mentioned it but the 50 Olds in the photo has the single piece windshield. 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. [2] [3] In 1929, Oldsmobile installed a 90 degree monobloc flathead V8 engine in the Viking companion brand before the monobloc was used in LaSalle and Cadillac vehicles from 1929-1931. Park is actually a parking brake that has a red light comes on when the hand brake is out. Other American manufacturers would reach the same conclusion. The same year, an Olds 88 won the grueling 2000-mile-plus Carrera Panamericana road race in Mexico. The development testing, however, had been done using the smaller B-body Olds 76 as a test mule. By the time the battle reached a temporary ceasefire at decades end, the average power of the typical passenger car had (at least on paper) more than doubled. 50,000 cars were imported in 1952, US brands comprising some 90% of that total. The demise of Olds is yet another dreary episode in the ongoing story of GM losing its way. Rockets, Vikings and Your Old Man. 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. Logging in sets the wordpress_logged_in_xx, wordpress_sec_xx, and/or wordpress_xx cookies, which store the user's login credentials to allow access to the administrative dashboard and other administrative functions; there may be multiple iterations of each cookie. (For more information about our discontinuation of Google Analytics tracking on this website, see the "Online Tracking" section of the Privacy Policy. The real standard of the world. The wild rocket hood ornament was technically a $5 option. 442 . The engine was designed by Charles L. McCuen, who later had a hand in approving the Rocket engine for production. . Shop 303 Oldsmobile V8 parts and get Free Shipping on orders over $149 at Speedway Motors, the Racing and Rodding Specialists. If you use the buttons to make a payment or donation, the PayPal services will set additional cookies (not listed here) to manage your PayPal login and transaction data (and potentially also for various other purposes, e.g., user analytics and/or advertising). Those were the good old days. Yes, the Hydra-Matic had a parking pawl, which was engaged by selecting reverse with the engine off. It was generally paired with the Turbo Hydramatic 350 3-speed automatic or the Turbo Hydramatic 400 3-speed ustomatic in rear wheel drive vehicles, in the case of front-wheel drive vehicles, the Turbo Hydramatic 425 FWD 3-speed automatic. (2,969 cc) six with a compression ratio of 12.5:1, where most contemporary engines had ratios of no more than 7.0:1. 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). There will typically be several such cookies, each beginning with "gdpr" (e.g., gdpr[allowed_cookies], gdpr&5Bprivacy_bar&5D, and gdpr[consent_types]). [13] It could also be fitted with high-compression cylinder heads from the Morgan +8. 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. $8,888 or BEST REASONABLE OFFER. It was installed in the Oldsmobile Light Eight and was related to the Cadillac flathead V8 engine. . To learn more about how Google may use information collected by the Google Analytics service, 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, and the Google Privacy Policy. These cookies are necessary for the site's administrative users (who wouldn't even be able to log in without them), but if you are not an administrative user, these cookies aren't normally placed on your device at all unless you somehow access the login area, which is off-limits to non-administrators. 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. This 1955 oldsmobile deluxe 88 is a 2 door holiday coupe.. 2 tone twilight blue and polar white colors with ivory and blue interior. 1962 OLDSMOBILE 88 CORE SHORT BLOCK ENGING 8-394 860673. $200.00. A diagram of where the hydraulic or solid lifter fits in a flathead might be helpful to readers. The 425's stroke was lengthened to 4.25in (108mm) to achieve a 455cuin (7.5L) to create the Rocket 455 for 1968. Bore was up to 4.125in (104.8mm) for the largest first-generation Rocket, the 394cuin (6.5L). 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. 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. 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. I have a pretty good handle on Ford Design evolution, but not so much on GM, especially OHV. The Oldsmobile engine block formed the basis of the Repco 3-liter engine used by Brabham to win the 1966 and 1967 Formula One world championships. 770-738-7111. First, their volumetric efficiency is poor. A special 1963 10.5:1 version was also produced with 345hp (257kW). (For this cookie, "xx" will be a cryptographic hash.) The Rocket 88 would see consistent improvements over the next two decades or so. The commonest type was the Super 88 4-door sedan, Hydramatic equipped. The company produced its first V8 - an L-head design . Well, are you presuming that the 88s actual career in stock car racing or road races like the Carrera Panamericana somehow dont count? [citation needed] Production of the 260 V8 ended in 1982 when the 307 became the only gasoline V8 in Oldsmobile's line. (author diagram). The Rocket 88 would vacuum the chrome off V8 Fords (unless the Fords owner had made a substantial investment in aftermarket parts) and it took a semi-exotic like the new Jaguar XK-120 to soundly beat the Olds. SPECIFICATIONS Engine: OHV 90-degree V-8, cast-iron block and heads Displacement: 303-cu.in. (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.). Oldsmobiles first postwar engine was born during the UAW strike that shut down GM production from November 1945 through March 1946. Even still, the same design philosophy carried with it throughout its production run. (4,214 cc) L-head straight eight. [citation needed] Compared to the V6, the 260 was also smoother-running, and far more durable. Naturally, GM was extremely interested in the potential of high-compression engines for passenger cars, but there were two hold-ups. Hemmings Motor News has been serving the classic car hobby since 1954. It also used the .921in lifter bore size of the Toronado Rocket. The Oldsmobile V8, also referred to as the Rocket, is series of engines that was produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1990. A few years later, the Chevrolet engine started taking over the flathead Fords role as the cheap-and-easy hot-rodder choice. 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. 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. The Nash finished third behind two 88s. All generation-2 small-block Olds V8s used a stroke of 3.385in (86.0mm). 15-16 MPG is great even by modern standards, for a 300+ HP engine. To learn more about what information the Vimeo platform collects and how that information may be used, see the Vimeo Privacy Policy. [21] It produced 110hp (82kW) net and 205lbft (278Nm). There were 64 1st Gen sold in the last 5 years. This 1952 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight is a well-priced classic that gives you some of the best styles around. in. 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. Embedded video players for content hosted on the YouTube video platform (which is owned by Google LLC) may set these third-party cookies and/or use similar technologies to store data in your browser (or other user agent) for purposes such as (without limitation) managing video settings (e.g., tailoring the playback to your connection speed), storing video preferences, providing certain functionality (e.g., allowing you to pause a video at a particular point), showing you advertisements, associating your video viewing and other activity with your Google account (if any), ensuring proper functioning of the service, preventing abuse, and/or compiling user analytics data. Apart from the Oldsmobile Aurora, the Aurora V8 was also used in the Shelby Series 1. It was released one year earlier than the tall deck 425, and debuted the standard 3.385in (86.0mm) stroke; bore was 3.938in (100.0mm). 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. Features Power Transmission: 4 Automatic Hydra-Matic Production Figures Handling 1949 Averages Its unclear at what point Oldsmobile engineers became aware of the Cadillac engine or how much they knew about it. 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 OHV V8 was still a large engine externally, but it was shorter and lower than the straight eight and weighed quite a bit less. That July, Burrell was promoted to chief motor engineer for the division. mill or the Chrysler Firepower hemi of the same displacement. 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. [22] This was the first engine to use the smaller Rochester Dualjet two-barrel carburetor, the only carburetor used on the 260. The early Rocket V8 weighs a bit over 700 pounds (318 kg) and had an SAE gross rating of 135 hp (101 kW). Runs great. 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. 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. The placement of the valves also means that the combustion chamber has a smaller surface area and thus greater thermal efficiency some 20% better than a comparable flathead. (. The 260cuin (4.3L), 307cuin (5.0L), 330cuin (5.4L), 350cuin (5.7L) and 403cuin (6.6L) engines are commonly called small-blocks. Flory. Plus, there is a cool mix of a preserved chrome cruiser with the right upgrades to make it more enjoyable for modern times. These photos were taken outside the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California (a few blocks south of LAX). I would certainly agree that the Rocket V-8 was overshadowed pretty quickly, in part because Oldsmobile didnt pursue the competition or performance avenues to the same extent Pontiac did in the late 50s. Road tests were conducted later that year and the new V8 went into production a few days before Christmas 1948. Overhead valves did not suffer the same problem, which gave them the potential for much higher compression ratios. 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. 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). Nice Article thank you for preserving our history. Compression was up again in 1956 for 230hp (170kW) and 340lbft (460Nm) in the 88 and 240hp (180kW) and 350lbft (470Nm) in the Super 88 and 98. The Oldsmobile Rocket 88 is a full-size automobile produced and marketed by Oldsmobile from 1949 to 1999. The LG8 was a modern 307cuin (5.0L) High-Output derivative of the LV2 produced from 1983 to 1987. 2 barrel carburet . 1, 3-5; www.azoldsclub. It shared the same compression ratio of the Toronado Rocket at 10.5:1. Get a Oldsmobile crate engine for cars like the cutlass, 88, 98, or the 442.GTO. (Valve spring, spring seat / retainer placement too? The FirePower, Buick Nailhead, and Chevrolet V-8s didnt exist yet. Detailed interior, exterior. This very open and flat chamber was fuel efficient and had lower than average emissions output. Even in markets where fuel is substantially more expensive than in the U.S., fuel efficiency is widely regarded in purely economic terms. Even modest restorations can quickly get out of control, cost-wise, so be careful that a $2,000 bargain doesnt become a money pit. One or more wp-saving-post cookies may be set while creating and/or editing posts or pages, to help manage version control and the autosave feature; these cookies normally expire after about 24 hours. The prototypes, which first ran in November 1946, were 287 cu. (4,705 cc) and were designed to take advantage of research that had been done by GM Research VP Charles Kettering on high-compression engines (of which well have more to say below). It is arguably the best engine Olds made in the muscle car era, although it never made it into a "muscle car". Like the test mules, the Rocket 88 was, in the parlance of a somewhat later era, a real bomb. Since the valves of a flathead are also in the block, the camshaft can actuate the valves directly. 4 speed hydromantic transmission. Power was 81 hp at 3000 rpm. Where is the plate located? 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. 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. All Oldsmobile V8s use a 90 bank angle, and most share a common stroke dimension: 3.4375in (87.31mm) for early Rockets, 3.6875in (93.66mm) for later Generation 1 engines, and 3.385in (86.0mm) for Generation 2 starting in 1964. Email or call Mark at 217/390-8500 with questions, or to inspect or test drive.