I have been searching around trying to find the value of a 1950 Pontiac straight 8. Not having much luck. Want to know if it is justifiable to spend the amount of money for a solid rebuild or just go a different route. Needs crank ground, oversized pistons, rings, bearings, block and head milled, cylinders bored, seats and guides. Probably something else. It all adds up pretty quick. Parts and very reasonable either. Don't want to throw a ton of money at it if ill never get it back or these motors just aren't worth the effort. Any help?
I wouldn't know from experience, but I know that even with a popular engine your not going to make a profit unless your the machine shop. The Pontiac has, IMHO, no chance. Few if any want one. How many have you seen in Hot Rods? There is a good and very apparent reason for this for those willing to look.
If it is a running straight eight it will fetch some fair money. There are many still who like that engine along with the Olds straight eight. Both, when built up correctly were no slouches for power. In my High School days (1951) there was one at school in a fast back with triple dueces, headers, cam and modified head. It was a good runner and had a lot of torque too. I'd say the engine should be worth $400.-600 bucks. Normbc9
My Dad had one in running condition, with the transmission, for sale for 200 bucks. He had it at that price for a while with no takers. When he finally offered it for free, numerous people said they would take it but nobody showed up to get it. One fellow had the nerve to ask him to deliver the free engine to a location 150 miles away, without wanting to even cover the gas.
If your are doing a nice restoration of a stock Pontiac and authenticity is important, and you plan to keep the car and use it. then rebuilding it may be a reasonable thing to do. Otherwise, the heavier it is the more value it will have going across the scale. Ray
I am confused. Do you have the car (what body style, condition) and are you asking about rebuilding the engine? Do you have just the engine and you are asking about rebuilding it for resale (bad idea)? Charlie Stephens
I put mine up for ~150 bucks and it was running. It sold in a day or two. Could've probably gotten more but I needed it outta here. IMHO, the motor wasn't worth the time and money.
Plan to spend some real money to have it rebuilt. Below is a picture of my Pontiac 6, (I know yours is an 8). It ran pretty close to 8k to get it done, all in. Machining for the six was $2900, included, decking, milled head, bored over .060, grinding the crank, rebuilding the oil pump, relieving, valve guides, grinding valves, hardened valve seats, basically everything not including parts but it did include assembly. Parts ran around, $3700, including carbs, intake, wires, distributor rebuilt, generator, starter, etc. Does not include exhaust. Rebuilding the balancer was another $400, grrrrrr! Anyhow, it now makes just over 200 hp so 7k / 200 = $35 per pony. If you decide you don't want to mess with it I may be interested. Not right this minute, maybe early next year. If you decide you want to mess with it let me know and I can give you the names of the places I found parts, purchased parts, etc. One last thing, I have a vid thread of the first start on here somewhere, first start 38 GMC maybe. If I can find it I will post the link. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=591976
i have one with the tranny also sittin in the floor. aint gonna rebuild it.never heard it run but the guy i got it from said it run good they just pulled it for a sbc.i thought about gettin it runnin and putting it in a s10 frame . maybe build a wood style c cab on the frame.BUT if any one in my area that wants to do some trading on it let me know.ill let it go.oh and back to the ? , i have been told to scrap it, use it for a boat anchor or just use it for decoration.aint worth shit to most people. but i like it.dont see many of them anymore.
1950 pontiac siverstreak. the car is in really nice shape except for inside the rocker panels. not worried about resale of the motor. but macine work alone is close to 3k. i bought the car for $1500. just seems like alot of money to me . i coud be wrong . thats y i ask. dont know how desirable they are. the motor or the car. i like it though. question for goose em. what did u have done to gain hp? my machinist is telling me im not gonna gain anything out of that motor no matter what i do. i know u can bump the compression by milling the head. can u or did u get a cam for it? if so where?
You can buy a stock cam if yours is too damaged to grind. If yours is okay it can be ground to make some hp. I had Egge machine shop do mine, just told them what I wanted and it was done. My cam was pretty pitted but they fixed her up like new for $126 bucks including shipping from LA to Louisiana. Back in the day one of these was hotrodded and run on the lakes, made around 250 hp I think. I found a copy of Hot Rod Your Car by Hot Rod Mag, as they had some info in there. I then took my engine to a race engine builder, a very good one although he was SLOOOOOOOOOOOW. In the end this is what we did: The crank is like a boat anchor, we removed 40 pounds, balanced and all that crap. I would assume the eight is even heavier. Milled the head .080 the head could have .125 or 1/8th milled but decided to..... Mill the deck .023 if I remember correctly. This jumped the compression from 6:1 to 7.5:1. Could have gone to 8:1 comp but would have required moving the plugs to prevent detonation Relived the block, you will need someone who knows how to do this. The piston actually sits about .250 lower than the top of the cylinder so this really makes a difference. Did not change the stroke but you could, If you do I would suggest shortening it, stock it has 4 inches or so. Threw out the cast pistons and had Egge make up some nice modern alumin jobs with heavier wrist pins. Throw your stock wrist pins away. The builder did some things with bearing tolerances and some other junk that he considers proprietary and wouldn't tell me. From other's who drag race they tell me they can have the same engine built by someone else and not get the horsepower that this guy can get. Not sure what he does but I have heard it has to do with tolerances. Ground the cam, three choices here, stock, 3/4, or full race. I went with 3/4 as the full race would almost make it undrivable. Changed out the valve springs, can't remember what I went with but I have a few left as they are interchangeable with the 8. They are stiffer than stock to accommodate the cam. I found an original Edmunds intake, pricey and rare, I know of only one, the one I have. Running two Stromberg 97 Custom made header and exhaust. I made mine but have a shop full of tools. It is tuned for the motor. (I am an engineer so I bought a couple of books and did a little math and they worked). Switched to an HEI distributor. It is actually the original distributor converted. This makes a giant difference as you can open up the plug gap and get a better burn. Put it this way, original plug gap, .020, new plug gap, .045, for now. And of course everything was ported and polished. Thats about it as far as I can remember. Have not yet driven her but will do so in about 7 weeks, or maybe sooner. That 8 would have around 100 to 116 hp stock. With performance mods they can easily make 250 - 300. Also, a nitrous shot is not out of the question, the bottom end of those motors is hella stout. The rods were used a lot in Ford B model engines. My builder really wanted me to shoot it but I didn't like the idea on a trad hot rod. And one day I plan to put a supercharger on it. Hope that helps.
The stock stroke on a Pontiac straight 8 from 1937 to '54 was 3.75 inches, just like the 326, 350, 389 and 400 V8's. The main limiting factors of a Pontiac Straight 8 are the side valve architecture, and the sheer length of the crankshaft. Because the thing is about four feet long they tend to bend at high RPMs, eventually they will snap. Still, you can get a hell of a lot of torque at very low speed.
The 54 straight eight (My dad bought a new one and I damned near ran him over with it) had 268 CID and 127 hp advertised. So that is a fairly small engine, displacement wise, fairly large in space it takes up. The idea of 250-300 hp is ludicrous at best. It would be hard to think of an engine with less potential for hopping up, than the Pontiac eight. It's claim to fame when being produced was that it was the cheapest eight in production. My Dad's cracked between an exhaust valve and the cylinder. He bought a new 318 Plymouth in '58. His first and last V8 and also OHV engine.
You might check around with the local fishermen to see if anyone's looking for a boat anchor.... I had a 49 pontiac a year or so ago and the flathead was the first thing to go.... Although it ran...I knew the car would be better off without it.... We hauled it over to the scrap yard to get it out of the way.
shop around, your est is very high for shop work. i rebuilt my 53 straight 8 recently and with parts and labor it ran around $1600.00. i found a lot of parts on the auction sites and by running wanted on the hamb too. these motors aren't for racing they are for cruising and for having something different. please don't replace it with another sbc or something so ordinary.
I've got a 46' Poncho fastback w/ a straight 8 and 72,000 miles been in storage 15 years, its a jewel and only paid a grand for her.
I dont think the flat head 8 is worth it. I drive my Pontiac daily and it just doesnt keep up. A slow motor AND bad gas mileage? C'mon.. it just doesnt make sense.. Id love to drop in a OHV V8 of any kind, just for efficiency, because i have to drive my car daily, or else i get anxious...... but i dont have the resources at the moment to do that. besides.. pour tons of money to have the stright 8 hopped up, and youll get the same HP as a stock V8 probably..
What's it worth? .... Every 200 lbs of it is worth $25 at the scrap yard. You can probably sell the manifolds if they're nice, the starter, the carb, the generator, a few other pieces. Early Hydro may be sellable too. Rebuilt, painted and ready for a show car I still can't picture you turning a profit. Just not enough demand. I've seen a couple go to scrap myself. On the other hand a '50 Pontiac is fairly easy to drop a Pontiac V8 into, lots of room to let you work around the steering, already open drive (although a lot of rearends are pretty easy to swap in).
Hey.. Im looking for pontiac straight eight engine and hydramatic project for my pontiac 51. So if you have one and dont need it anymore, send me a private message. Im interested to buy a project engine and transmission. I have friend in california so you can send those in california, because im from cold north....
I did a valve job on a '54 in the winter of '60-'61 with the motor in the car. Wasn't one of my favorite projects. Car started somewhat hard when hot [before and after the valve job] and the more door Chieftan cruised nice once you got it rolling as I recall. Still not worth much to me, just my 2 cent experience. Ed
I paid $400 for the '52 Straight 8 and Hydra-Matic I just bought. It have seen these engines with asking prices from a few hundred up to a few thousand. When I had my '53 Straight 8 rebuilt around 18 years ago, it was around $5,000. That is about what just parts and machining (not labor) ran on my MG TD four cylinder. And you can buy nearly all the MG parts right out of the Moss Motors Ltd. catalog. There ain't no catalog for Pontiac "flatties." I also had my '36 Pontiac 6 rebuilt around 14 years ago. A friend did the machining and labor for $900 but the parts cost me $1600. I was able to resell a few parts that were in excess of my needs so the total rebuild was in the $2200 range, but it took over a year. Anyway, I'll take any straight 8 that someone wants to sell me for $100. I'll stock up on them at that price. Rodders may not want them, but restorers will.
Siamesing intake ports together didn't help breathing, either. Even this modification could have been done much better: http://www.stationwagonforums.com/f...3b4b3-a600-478a-b630-47dbb463953a-jpeg.58173/ I just sent you a PM
So i know this is a super old post but im finally starting on my 50 silver streak (hydro) and the ole straight 8 stuck so im looking for a non stuck straight 8......dont need trans intake ect due to haveing it all with my car....mid ks area
What transmission is behind it? If an automatic you will probably have to rebuild it also. Now you have some really big money in the car with an engine and trans rebuild. I'd find a good running GM V8 with an auto trans that was still in the car, so I could drive it first to check it out. That would be the cheapest way to go.
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