"She's over fendered right now. She's got too much of everything except motor. I'm gonna strip her down the way the Indians do down in Oklahoma" - John Steinbeck
Great thread. I'm surprised nobody's brought up Ak Miller's car from the '40s: a Chevy roadster with later IFS and a Buick Dynaflash 8.
Not a lot of people think about the McMeekin Bros X0/GAlt when they think of Buicks. But 167.416 is not shabby.
I have a 1928 Buick with a 276 straight 6 and a 1949 Buick with a 248 straight 8. Both run very smooth. Other car companies (with flatheads) outproduced Buick in the early years, but more Buicks survived by far and I thinnk that is because of their engines. I've seen a few straight 8's on hot rods and the long motor looks very cool. They usually have very creative home made manifolds.
Jim As I recall they were long too. Ya gotta have room for one if you are going to use one I suppose.
Re: Why no Buick OHV straight 8s? same reason so many Chevy V8's and so few ford flatheads. Cost vs performance. Not many willing to spent the time and effort to be different.
I totally understand your point about overhead valves on production cars being primarily a marketing gimmick before the high-compression, high-rpm engines of the postwar era, so I mean no disrespect, but werent Buicks still sixes in 1927? I thought Buick went from sixes to eights about the same time Chevrolet went from fours to sixes (1929). As a total aside, count Harley-Davidson among the producers who chose to go from overhead valves (F-heads, actually) to flatheads in the 22-48 period - 29 IIRC; but ended up making an about face and introducing a full OHV engine in 1936. Why? Probably marketing again. Without overhead valves, what distinguished a Harley from an Indian?
The OHV Buick's (242, 263 and 320) are strong runners they are not a high RPM engine. But the torque is astounding. I saw where the Packard flat head eights were mentions. There is a 327 straight eight flat head Packard from the Central Valley in a modified Roadster chassis that does raise some eyebrows at both 1,320 and 1,000 ft Drag Strips. It is a strong runner and I hear it is now using multiple throttle bodies. I can't confirm that but I know those engines. The Chrysler, Pontiac and Olds straight eights weren't slouches either but really tough to find parts for. Normbc9
Here's a modified I saw on eBay a few years ago with a 263 Buick Straight 8-it looks great. I want one just like it. I just guess I wouldnt fit though (6'5" & 260lbs). Ho hum. View attachment 1779876
On an earlier post somebody said that the Buick 8 was doomed because of a weak crank. We're still testing our first crank, and so far with 20 pounds of boost [no juice] on gasoline, we've only gone 242 MPH on the Salt. We'll continue to test it next year. No we're not using the iron pistons or the babbit rods. Doug
Two buys of mine, ran a Buick stright 8 in a comp. roadster back in the early 60s, called Bloody Mary, on the east coast, that was a record holder. They clamed it had more power that the flat head ford they had in it first. The car is on display right now at the America On Wheels Museum in Allentown Pa.
With the pump gas available in the twenties, thirties and forties, the difference between a flathead and a pushrod OHV with the valves all in a row, was very small in terms of horsepower. A full blown hemi was a different story. The hemi head was featured on race cars all over the world from 1912 on. Everyone knew it was the best engine design for power and performance, but too expensive and complicated for every day use. Harley Davidson, being no fools, went to the flathead engine when it proved better than their F head. The flathead was their bread and butter engine, especially for police and military sales which were the backbone of their business. After 7 years of flatheads they added a hemi head OHV to the line. This motor was definitely faster than the flatheads, as it should have been, with its head design derived from aircraft and racing engines. The hemi head OHV is different from and superior to a conventional OHV head. But they kept the flathead for another 20 years. They only went to an all OHV program when the flathead was obsolete. Even then they kept a flathead racer in production because of a quirk in the AMA rules. You may have a point about Harley introducing the knucklehead to compete with Indian. At that time Indian's top of the line was the 4 cylinder model. Harley never built a 4 cylinder but maybe the knuck was an attempt to offer a premium, high performance model at minimal tooling cost that could be built on their existing assembly line.
Back in the early 60's and our little air strip drag strip the hottest thing before the 409 Chevy's was a straight 8 rail out of Broken Bow Nebraska.. Guy by the name of Warren Meeks pretty much ruled the roost until the big Chevys and a 427 Ford came to play. Old's, SBCs and Flatheads didn't have a prayer.
My funny story. I hope it s "on topic". No matters the power. I have a rusty Buick 38 which came with a dead 248 engine. My first plan was to swap a V8 in it, I even bought an Olds Delta 88 1979 for the engine/trans ( running for 80 $ ! It was going to scrap ). This Olds was my girl s grand father car since 79, I m the third owner. I lately realized I don t care power . So I found a nice 263 from a guy who swapped a 350 sbc in his perfect Buick. Results : the Buick 38 will be updated to a 1951 engine, and the Delta is now my daily It won t be the fastest car, will not sound like a V8, it s heavy ( the crankcase by itself weight 180 lbs, the crank about 45 and the cam 17 IIRC, I ve used a scale for real to know this ), but under a hood, it s more fun to see than a LT1. We all love pix . i ve already posted those, but .... The beast : The goal, after many months of brainstorming and help with the Gimp :
Here are a few in modifieds from the Mansfield, Ohio area. Late '50's, from Jimmies Old Time Racing. Not hot rods, but definitely racing cars.
Great thread and I love the Bomb Shell Betty car and the Salt Cat but mention should be made of Mel Tull too. His '32 roadster has held the record since 1991 in the street roadster class at B'ville. 169.591 with a Buick straight 8.
The ford flathead's only advantage was the rather compact size. In 1941, when my Buick Special was built, it had 165 hp in a vehicle that weighed 3800 (about the same weight as a comparable Mercury) The Ford Flathead of that time had a whopping 95 HP!
A 248 / 263 / 320 is an unique part. Don t care about power. The WOW effect is enough. Nothing much to do with this Jirky makes the R&D .
GMC changed from the Olds and Pontiac Flathead sixes to the new GMC OHV in 1939.I know GMC is not a "car" but GMC OHV 6s found their way into many cars. Many flatheads were removed and replaced by them.
There s nothing much to answer. Buick are best because they are Buick The rest is just mass production cars for cheap You can have 10 Chevy, owning a BOP is something special
Somewhere I have a photo shop my son did of a '50s GMC with Buick grill and headlight trim. It's low, chopped, ports in the hood, Buick hub caps. Our plan was to use a Buick straight 8. It would be a long bed with skirts. I'll see if I can find it.
The Hudsons OHV competition was mainly the Olds. And with NASCAR rules back then the Olds hydraulic lifters seriously limited RPM and HP on the track.I believe Yunick was able to get over 200 hp from the Hudson flattie and still supposedly be legal.And yes,better handling. Harley's competition was British.500 cc singles and the very successful Triumph 500 twin.The best Triumph 500's made about 48 HP with less weight.Harley's racing budget was 10 times what the competition spent.And the odd firing order gave V twin a traction advantage on dirt.
Heres mine in a 37 buis coupe,with a 700R trans behind it.Sorry for the embarassing dirt in the one photo but it was covered up outside for quite awhile as I had no room.It is now back inside where it belongs.
rowdyauto, Is this the same '37 Buick that use to run the drags that the Inliners International club use to put on back in the 80's? I had to go look up the name in some of my old 12 port news, G. Gerberick? I remember Bo Jones use to run one back then too.
There is a really cool 39 Buick 4 dr sedan around Sacramento,...with a later (not certain what year) str8- 8 in it. 4 speed, shifted by the original cloumn linkage, with reverse being activated by a seperate "pull cable" unit under the dash. 9" rear, and a clean 2.25" dual exhaust system......NICE !! 4TTRUK
Nice engine ! Is it the stock valve cover ? I though they had the small "ribs", but not the long one going from front to rear. Do you have a video to listen to it with the dual exhaust ?
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