Thought I would share a little research and information I got with the rocketeers. When olds kicked off the v-8 in 1949, the engine plant was new and state of the art with 246000 square feet. First the casting was very high nickel content compared to any other manufacturer. This is why two bolt main caps do not walk in old rockets, I have never seen one that needed line bored unless it had a dubious history. Four bolt mains in mush is still four bolts in mush. Milling was automated and checked after every operation for tolerance on all dimensions. Boring was accurate to four ten thousands between all cyclinders in each block. Every block was code stamped on vally pan rail as to what bore size was on each cyclinder. Rods and crank are forged units and rods were matched for equal weight. Cranks were finished to one ten thousands on mains and three ten thousands on rod throws. Dudes,this is not you super builder custom machine shop doing this, we are talking production line run engines coming out the door in 1949 on up! All cranks had bob weights hung and spun balanced and pistons were sized to bores. Heads were held to close tolerance so all chambers had equal cubic centimeters of volume. All-right, pretty impressive so far, compared to what you can find today in onel-half size rod bearings, crooked lifter bores, new blocks that the line bore is whacked, and heads way out in left field. They just don't make them like they did 55 years ago. Check this out, dyno testing!, olds run dyno time of fourty minutes at RPM;S up to 4000. Not one engine out of hundred, not one in fifty, not one in twenty-five, but every DAMN ONE!!! Kinda made brake-in redunant, when your grandfather picked up his shiney 98. WILDING PICTURE PRODUCTIONS is were this olds film ( TRAIL of the ROCKET) had information and tour of plant, showing all steps of production and facts. BE PROUD ROCKETEERS.
I'd have to agree, the 49-50 Olds was the first muscle car. They had it ... in spades. Good motor, good rear suspension, good trans and the low geared hydro in a stock Olds would kill just about anybody off the line as far as the stoplight Gran Prix goes. Here's a 335" Rocket in a 50 Ford coupe. I've posted this pic before, but usually in conjunction with my 50 Ford. Perhaps the Rocketeers will enjoy....
thanksdon.just wondering i am going to fire my olds up in the next couple of months.what can i expect having about 11.5-1 to 12.0-1 compression.have 6-97 carbs and camed to run o-8500rpm.oh its a 57 371 punched out 40thou.anyway thanks again any info would be great.ie.is it going to be easy to start and how many starters should i have on hand also how big of a battery? thanks again.
Glad to read about the high standards my engine was produced with. That's probably why she still runs so damn strong without a complete overhaul.
Great read Don. A guy would have to spend a ton of money at a machine shop today to duplicate that! Forgive my ignorance but I can't remember. Are they internally or externally balanced?
I've also heard that the cyl. walls were really thick on the first ones. a .125 over was a no brainer and there were many that were taken out nearly .250. Maybe someone here can confirm that. Frank
12 pack: That's whole lot of compression for today's pump gas....are you planning on running Av gas, race gas, or using octane boosters. I'm thinking maybe you could get away with 10 or 10.5 compression with today's high test, but more than that could be trouble. Are you running a hot ignition? You might want to wire the starter and ignition separately so you can get it spinning a bit before you give it spark, otherwise it may "fight" you a bit when you try to start it up. If starting is a problem the HAMBs own Blownolds can get (or knows where to get) mini type high torque starters all set up for the early rocket engines.
I too love the 49 Olds and Cad as well , but I would have to disagree with the first muscle car statement and go with the 1941 Buick Century. Biggest engine ( Roadmaster 320 ), small car , multiple carbs ,fast as hell all from the factory. All in 1941.
High nickel block....that's it. When I had my 55 Olds built about 25 years ago, the machinist said it took 4 times as long to bore the block .030 over, as it did for any other engine.
And here you can find the film. http://www.archive.org/movies/searchresults.php?searchAll=yes&collection=&submit=main&search=TRAIL%20of%20the%20ROCKET%20&limit=100&start=0
thanks kartsa,i'll check that out when the DSL gets hooked up later this week.speaking of tough high-nickel blocks,i told that to the machinist when i brought mine in,but he fried the motor on his boring bar all the same! BTW did you know they did a study that showed leaded fuels actually accelerate bore wear? considering that my rocket had been running that long and still only had .008 taper is pretty amazing-george
Howdy 12 pack Taking a chance of sounding like a smart ass here. Tell you what to do, go out and ask your 371 what it's compression is, then ask the nearest diesel, ford, mopar, or any other engine what it's compression is, bet none of them will tell you. Truth is a engine doesn't know or give a shit, all it does is react to how well the burn takes place. Sorry for the rant but this subject hit a soft spot. Maybe to late for you, if your already together with you build up, but 12-1 is cool with right combo. I have a 52 303 bored to four inches for a 346 displacement with 56 number 10 heads. JAHN'S pop-up bistons rated at 12.5-1. Head mods and gasket, it cc's out to 59cc. Bingo 13.2 compression. Has pushed a four thousand pound car having no spark knock on 92 octane for years. Baby it and it will run cross-country on 89.....no sweat. Bullshit some might say, O.K. heres the deal, check deck height plus gasket compressed thickenes, get total down to .025 quench distance. This is one of the worse mistakes, not having tight enough quench. Use shim gasket @ .017 to get in the ball park. Next thing is to get combustion chamber polished as close to perfect as you can, no sharp edges on piston valve reliefs but not shiney.Head doesn't like to see it's reflection in piston top. Granted spark plug position sucks and no heart shape like new high zoot heads, have to work with what we have. With some careful work with porting tool, swirl can be brought into olds heads by the intake seat. Now cam will have to be more than 230 @ .050 to get this home. I run a 236 @ .050 on 108 center. Trouble here is stock torus in hydro will pull down at idle, use cut torus ---stick--- or late trans with stall. Play with advance and keep total around 32-34. Use passive ---only under vaccume water injection, this keeps carbon deposits out and combustion area spotless. Side note, back off timing four degrees, jet for 125-150 shot, turn on bottle and just try and keep from smirking. At 378 inches with right tune and head work you'll be styleing. Good spark, stock starter, spin and then lite, group 24 or bigger. Don't know it all, but messing with these old boats for a day or two, I have found a few things that work and a bunch that did not jell. Just glad to pass along a little fire before the flame goes out. GOOD LUCK.
Hi Don. This is great stuff!! I need more. How does one go about becoming a Rocketeer? I've got 3 of these Kettering engines, and my daily driver '56 never lets me down. Thanx, Phil
chili phil, once you send pictures of your car to me you automaticly become a rocketeer. great info as usual mr. wow!! btw i think it would depend on what trans your using whether or not you can use one of them there hi tork starters.i belive there only being produced for the 54-56.could be used with the 49-56 converted to 12v i think.or 57-64 converted to hydro.otherwise there was higher tork version starters from the factory.mabye thats what don wow was talking about.i dont know what they where called.later, eric
I can get them for the '49-53 145 toother's and the '54-60 176 toother's (178? I forgot again) flywheels. I can't yet get them for the '61-4 166 toother's.
Thanks for the great head mods info DON. Most of the guys I know around here, who had high compression Rocket engines, eventually went to lower compression pistons. For some reason, most of them will not consider water injection (though they will admit it works), and too many of them had stories about going on some multi state New England rod run, and having to buy "supposedly" high test gas at some off brand gas station (which turned out to be some crappy real low octane junk), and then having the engine badly detonante going up the big hills on the smaller windy state highways across the Northeast. When I go to rod runs and see the guys still running big compression, it smells like the drag strip when they start their cars as most are using race gas or Av gas. I remember in the 70's guys trying to find Sunoco stations (to get the 260 high test) on rod runs, then when the 260 was "downgraded in octane" it was looking for Unocal or some station with a name like that for their "gold" brand gas. Now, there are a few stations around here with Cam2 race gas, where most of it is sold to the Harley guys with hot twin engines. I had an oldtimer at an auto electric shop "soup up" a stock 59 Olds starter years ago, and it definitely would spin an engine faster that it did stock. I'm not really sure what he did (he told me then but I forget...balanced? blueprinted? dewound?), but a lot of guys with high comp engines used his services. He's gone now, and I wonder if there are any guys who "hop up" stocker starters. I guess most just buy one of the mini hi torque starters (which I would guess are a bit lighter than the stock Olds starter).
HI BIG JIM I never had a mini hi torque in my life. Used 6volt motors with correct tail housing and gear to interface with whatever flywheel count was on motor. Be careful not to miss match lower cover. On throw away build up, later starter can be mounted upside down to early block to keep from having interference with side of block.
If you're gonna use the super-heavy stock starters on an aluminum crossover housing, then be prepared for cracks and stripped threads in the aluminum housing-- that is if you don't make up some sort of support strap that bolts to the oil pan rail. Going over bumps with that heavy thing cantilevered off the aluminum housing is not good. The mini-hi-tork starters are only 8.2 Lbs total, less than half the weight of the stock starters I think.But yeah, the old hot-rod trick was to run a 6-volt starter on 12 volts, making sure that the starter gear and flywheel teeth are compatible.
i justgot a 50 303 short block fresh from the shop(in a bag for 15 yrs) what the hot heads and what parts cross over water pump dist tranny ring anyone make a pan andall the other dun questions that a none rocket guy will ask thanks
the heads everyone wants are the "10" from '56,mostly because of the bigger ex.valve size,1 9/16" vs. 1 1/2" for the '49-'55s.however '54-'55 have the same big ports,so you could install hardened ex.seats and grind'em out to fit the larger valves.'49-'55 use the same distributor,but i'm using the '56,which is the first year for the "window" type.this uses tune-up parts common to any GM V-8 distributor that are usually listed as "'57-'73" they usually forget Olds had'em first.these can use the Pertronix kit if you want,also Crane makes an adjustable vacuum advance kit which is pretty handy for fine tuning.water pumps are the same for '49 all the way up to '62 pretty much,some have heavy duty bearings for A/C which needed an extra belt.i think the other guys can fill you in on anything i haven't,hope it helps-george
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