Why no Buick OHV straight 8s?

You miss the MOST important development in engine design of the period around 1949 or so --- THE ONE THING that allowed the short stroke, compact , smaller and lighter , stronger ,more powerful engines of that era. No--- it was not Overhead valves the real breakthru was the SLIPPER Piston! Bet that won't help many of you understand why or what it is or meant to engine design. Can some one fill in the details?

 

? Never heard that one before, because some of the taller OHV8s didn't use the slipper piston, but kept the full skirts. The slipper skirt piston was a necessity, not necessarily a virtue. A shorter block deck height design required pistons to coexist with crankshaft counterweights. The designers decided how tall the engine had to be, how long the stroke had to be, then just cut away the piston skirt until it cleared and then learned how to make them live.

Your opinions may vary.

jack vines

 

Stock valve cover just plated,I guess I'll try a video, each pipe exits in front of each rear tire so has a little different sound.

 

Here my '38 ,I'm very alone with my fast Str.8 here in Germany (under the V 8's). It's hard to get Parts for.
That is the Salt in the Soup for me.



Guys told its look like a Cathedral .

 

Jenz car looks good, do you run with the hood sides off your was you working on it

 

The main thing concerning Buick straight 8,s is that they were a performance car from the very beginning. Starting with overhead or as they were first known as 'valve in head' engines with hot little 4 cyl jobs to begin with. The first time I got interested in them was in the 50's seeing a 39 Century coupe tear up the F stock class at Colton drag strip. Basically the Buick engine is similar to the GMC six in many ways. In the early drags the GMC was just getting a rep as one of the fastest hot rod engines, that is till an new engine from Chrysler showed up. but I recall guys had stock body '40 to '47 stick shift Roadmasters, showing tailites on the street [my 40 did]. Simply get a 41 dual intake exhaust setup, mill the head .125 or more and you were even faster. Today there are still some Buick strt 8,s going fast and breaking recordse, one that I know about is Gerry Duttweiler,s blown 38 Century coupe, who has turned 117 in low 11's, [and now has to put in roll bars to run], also Salt Cat guys are over 200 mph at Bonneville with thier race car, what more needs to be said. seems like a lotta guys that lost thier 'boat anchors' missed the boat. As far as the argument about flathead vs. overhead jobs GM used both types but seems the OHV,s were most succesful in racing, ie chevy ohv 4, broke landspeed records at 140 mph, and GMC,s and Buicks still setting records in thier class.

 

Ive Got a HA/GR runnin 248 Stocker, And i mean bog stock '39 smelly fummey hi-milage engine (all i could find when first built the car) Done a 15.9 quater and thort that was ok. Got a fairly fresh 41 248 with dual carbs now and even a low milage '50 320 and the cream on the cake a NOS Howard 6X2! Just lost motivation sence every every1 turns a blind eye unless ya run like sub 8's (not many GET it over Here!)

 

As long as you get it, screw the rest!

 

I'm getting close to putting mine on the road. Fired it up for the first time before Christmas an it runs like a top. It's a 48 convertable with a 248 and 4 speed with a 9" rear end.

 

Really nice !
I suppose the intake and exhaust are home made ?
I also hope you ll make a video to hear the dual exhaust
Which trans did you use ?

Edit : found your topic about the trans.

 

are these the two cars i used to see in davenport at the mississippi valley fairgrounds when they ran the old cars there?

if so i remember spending a lot of time looking at them; & being a little jealous of the driver(s).

 

Hell's Gate Hot Rods made the intake manifold and the exhaust flanges. I did the headers.
My transmission is a A-833 New Proccess 4 speed from a 82 C-10 Chev pickup. It has fairly low gears on 1-3 and a overdrive ratio on 4th (.75:1). Hopefully it will keep the rpms down at freeway speeds.
I'm not too good at videos but I will try and post one.

 

Just curious, what gas millage to expect when driving daily a 248 / 263 / 320 ?
I understand it won t be the same on a big 4 doors 1950 or a 1940 Coupé ...

 

Gas mileage...Good question. I'm hoping that is will be somewhat economical. I'm using Stromberg 97's jetted fairly low with progressive linkage so I think that will help. The motor is a 248 bored .30 over. No power house but I hope a good driver.
Do you know what kind of mileage that they got new?? That would be great to know as a base line.
The bad thing with a convertable is that it is so darn heavy @ 4250 lbs.

 

Not sure if this is a Buick or not but looks big enough to be.

 

My '53 Buick Special was not a racer or a custom. I pretty much just restored it because it was so cool & beautiful as it was. Really loved that car !

AND, it had a 263 Straight Eight in it (which had been in the '52 Supers, but was in the '53 Specials then as '53 was the year that Buick introduced the V-8 Nailhead used in Supers & Roadmasters.) That was one some running mutha' ! With as much torque as you would need !

What some forget is that, in many areas of the Country, the Buick Straight Eight was used for Industrial purposes: sawmills, construction sites, etc.

And, yes, as shown in some of the pix posted here, there were some in racers...but, as has been stated earlier, they were long & heavy which was a deterrent to many.

Jonnie www.legends.thewwbc.net

 

That engine looks FANTASTIC! keep us up to date with your progress!

 

I've known two guys that had '48 Buick convertibles. They both had big block Chevys.

 

My '50 Buick Sedanette is not known for gas mileage but that is not why I bought it!!! Like others, let's hear that -8 run.

 

I second this one!!

 

Talk about industrial uses. I worked in a paper mill 25 years ago that had a Buick st8 engine powering a backup flood pump.

 

This is my Dad's 1952 Roadmaster.
They just drove it from Phoenix, Arizona to Mt. Vernon, Washington here a few weeks ago. It was about 1550 miles, and it took them 3 days. It has the 320 with the Dynaflow. The 320 has the stock 1952 only 4bbl intake with the stock Rochester. Dad said he averaged about 12mpg.

 

12 mpg with a 320 ... Thanks for the info.

 

They're smooooth and quiet. I actually got bumped into by an old man driving one at a car show. No idea there was a car creepin' up behind me. Think it was a 48 or 49 fastback.

 

Nice looking ride. I bet it rides smooth. 12 miles per gallon...I've had cars that have done worse. Thanks for the info !!

 

I hope to fix my gas millage with some custom headers , I have been threw 3 sets of exhaust manifolds on my 248 compound carb straight eight . I drive it often and sometimes an hour one way to car shows . Now I have the header kit coming and ordered hells gate hotrods flanges too .

 

Quick question,

Anyone got any tips on easily identifying the 320 VS. the 263. I have a chance to pick up a Buick inline for fairly cheap, but, am 1600 miles away and would like to make it easy on the guy that would be looking at it for me. I'm wondering how to externally identify if it's the later non babbit motor, and if it would be a 320. Thanks.

 

Easy.
A 248 or 263 head is about 32 " long.
A 320 is about 36 " long.

A 263 will have some external vertical ribs against the cylinder wall on the intake/exhaust side, while the 248 is smooth.

There s a lot of information here :
http://www.teambuick.com/reference/contents.php

But you have to register.
There s even a chart to know the exact model year with the # number stamped on the block near the distributor, but I can t find it for now.

 

Thank you

 

There seems to be a market for Buick straight 8 to Chevy manual and automatic transmissions.

http://www.transmissionadapters.com/Buick_straight_eight_263_320.htm