As I walked the endless aisles of the 2016 Detroit Autorama at the Cobo, I passed two Ford Highboys with no hoods and two different engines. These two engines are perhaps the best looking American V8s dropped between the frame rails of anything. The first was this supercharged Buick Nailhead. For my money, the Nailhead, especially with finned valve covers, is the best looking engine ever. It looks as good in a hot rod as it does in a ’63 Riviera. Number two?
It’s just as easy–the Ford Y-Block, especially with T-Bird valve covers. The best looking V8s seem to have their distributors in the rear of the block, which eliminates most Ford and Buick V8s, Chrysler B/RB engines, AMC 390s, etc. And while the Y-Block wasn’t a great performance engine, it looks good (and likely performs just fine) with a blower on top. The headers are aesthetically spaced, and its two valve cover hold down bolts is an exercise in simplicity (if not leakiness).
Certainly the classic Flathead Ford will get some votes, but what do you think? What is the best looking American V8?
I really like the IH SV V8, with the “International” script on the valve covers.
Interesting question, something I have not thought much about. As I think it over, I realize that I have always been partial to the original Chrysler FirePower Hemi. Those big, dominating valve covers just do it for me. Whether you like the clean look of stock with the covered wires or the hotted-up versions like this, it is one good looking engine.
When it comes to OHV’s, I couldn’t agree more, JP. If one is good, aren’t two better? 😉
HaHa – good reply. But we can keep this game going all day. . . . 🙂
HA! Game, set and match.
When I was a kid, the big hemi was clearly the most compelling engine, but purely visually as well as knowing why. Which came a bit later.
Yup, right there! That FirePower is a thing of beauty!
+1 (and I’m a Ford guy). I saw Hemis first on drag/rodded cars in all the 1960s car magazines, and so never realized that they’d come stock with the plug wires hidden (DeSoto variant):
On looks alone, the iconic Ford flathead can be very attractive in it’s various forms, as you said….
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It can be, in a little roadster like this, and all dressed up. But looking down into the bowls of a 1952 Ford’s engine compartment, and seeing that little rusty lump of iron way down there was decidedly not attractive, nor impressive. It looked pathetically small, feeble, and out of date compared to all of the ohv V8s.
Sure. Nothing like a new suit and a good haircut to make even an old codger look good. 😉
I have to agree, even though inferior to newer V8’s, when dressed to kill the old flat head looks great!
It’s those finned and polished high compression heads that do it for me every time.
Wholeheartedly agree (Ford flathead). It’s gorgeous!
Triple carburettor Cadillac V8
Chevrolet 283 FI
Chrysler hemi with cross ram intake
Ford Coyote V8
GM B-Body cars (Impala SS, Fleetwood, Caprice, Roadmaster)
Boss 9, hands down!
331/354 Hemi, then Nailhead
The Ford 427 S.O.H.C. “Cammer” gets my vote!
+1 !!!!
Also +1. And, if the 427/SOHC falls into the “production” engine category, I’ll sneak in one I love equally, the 255/Indianapolis V-8. Which picture to choose–(1) show the gears, or (2) a buttoned-up engine with the “bundle of snakes” exhaust?
What about the 409/348 with those scalloped heads?
That’s a good one!
Yep, that’s what I’m talkin’ about!
Clean!
I’ve always loved Straight Eights. My two favorites are Dusenberg (of course – that gorgeous OHC in such a long block) and Buick (both the little 248 and big 320 are clean, impressive, and show off that rocker arm cover so well.
I love to see someone build a hotrod with a Buick straight 8, four side draft carburetors, and an 8 into 1 header coming out the other side.
Does this work for you, Syke? From my 35MM files…
It was in this Shafer Buick Indy car…
But the topic was bent eights, so I won’t belabor the subject.
BTW, the carbs are the legendary Winfields and it sounded GREAT through that straight pipe.
Yes! My ’53 Special has the mellowest exhaust note ever. Sometimes I’ll hit the gas in an underpass just to hear it echo off the walls. Of course, hitting the gas is more an auditory experience than an exhibition of acceleration. 🙂
Brings back memories of my ’37. And a tear to my eye.
HA! That’s a familiar experience. My ’49 Dodge behaves in a similar way.
Bingo! Yes, I’m weird, but there’s something more visually impressive about eight in line than in two banks of four.
I was preparing to say Straight Eight when I saw this post. Great idea Great looking engines.
Straight Eight
Aint it great
Just don’t worry
’bout the weight!
Buick Century at Park Street Fair, Alameda CA. Four in a row (red is the next car).
I agree with you on the 401 Buick nailhead. That was the first engine that came to mind before I even opened this article. Owned a 65 Buick 225 ragtop back in the day. it also had a THM 400 cast iron 3 speed automatic mated to the 401 which I thought was unusual for a gm product in 1965.
Of more modern engines I always felt the Modular 4.6s with DOHC were exceptionally pretty. Coyote 5.0s and VooDoo 5.2s may mop the floor with them now a days but their plastic fantastic engine covered blahness doesn’t hold a candle to this.
I’m sure ped safety advocates just loved this…
The DOHC 4.6 was a good-looking engine. The variant used in the Mark VIII had a very interesting-looking intake, which the otherwise regrettable plastic cover at least served to highlight…
Plastic covers – NVH driven
Pedestrian Protection – Gap between top of the engine and the bonnet (among many others).
That NVH benefit is great if I had K9 hearing, I don’t think most would pass the Pepsi challenge with or without one though.
Gap with the Cobra is very minuscule, there was actually a subtle bulge used in the 96-98 Cobra hoods just to fit that tall intake manifold
Buick Nailhead
Fun question. Many great comments already. Hard to pick just one.
Overall, for American V8’s, I would vote for the Chrysler Hemi (there are many great looking versions, but even just the mid ‘60’s 426 Street Hemi looks very nice).
There are many others. For modern engines, the supercharged Hellcat 6.2 looks nearly perfect in the Challenger. A little older, but the LT5 4 cam, 4 valve V8 looks very nice in the C4 Corvette. And much older, Plymouth’s SonoRamic Commando V8 with its long intake runners looks impressive; perhaps not the best looking, but it’s at least one of the most interesting. Again, there are many others as well.
The 426 Hemi. Specially in an E-Body.
“Y-Block is not great performance engine?”
We dynoed 956 hp from nonstroked and ironheaded Y-Block in last weekend.
Is that 956 horsepower naturally aspirated with anywhere near stock internals? Heck, Buick guys can make 1000 hp from a heavily boosted 350, but that doesn’t mean most people consider it a performance engine. Its durability (especially the block) means that it can take a lot of boost without scattering. Great, I’ve probably offended Buick 350 guys now.
Ford gave up on the Y-Block as a performance offering after 1957. Of course, that doesn’t mean a skilled builder/tuner can’t make it scream, but those guys can make anything scream.
With that being said, how did you get that Y-Block to make 956 horsepower? 🙂
is that 956 horsepower naturally aspirated with anywhere near stock internals? Did you have to ask? 🙂
I was just going to ask him if that was with one, two or four turbos. Or just how big of a blower. There’s no way it could approach that naturally aspirated.
Fuel?? For a few seconds?
-“With that being said, how did you get that Y-Block to make 956 horsepower? :)”
With 2 turbos, 2 kilos of boost and E85.
Just as I suspected…
Ok. It’s lousy POS. I have to find some modular or BWW engines then.
Good grief; don’t be so touchy. It’s impressive, but frankly just about any American V8 can be made to do that with enough boost and if the innards are strong enough to stay together. The heads on the Y block were known not be very good breathers, so that’s why boost is pretty much essential. Even Ford stuck a supercharger on it for that reason, although that netted them no more hp per cubic inch than Chevy’s V8 without any boost.
What heads were used? And what about the innards?
Ported and flameringed non-posted 56 heads if i remember and some circle track chevy pistons and Callies compstar rods.
Crank is forged firetruck stuff and actually main bolts are stock stuff also. 😮
In saturday dynoday there was several over 900hp pushes and that combo is raced over 100 starts in quarter mile so combo looks quite solid.
Buick Nailhead again.
No hood? Ford flathead V-8
Under hood? Chrysler’s long tube cross ram “B” engines like the
Plymouth Sonoramic Commando.
Totally agree with these two. And I while I also agree with Paul that buried under the corpulent hood of a ’49 Ford or Merc, a stock flathead is pretty dull. It’s a whole ‘nother thing to see a detailed motor, maybe with Ardun heads, peeking out the open hood sides of a ’32 roadster.
Yup. They’re pretty impressive.
The Buick 215 Aluminum V8, and the Ford 351 Cleveland are two of my fave’s
Another nomination that came to mind. Cadillac did some very nice looking V8s in the early 30s, like this 1931 model.
Yes, indeed. All that porcelain made for a very attractive finish. In case there was any question, Cadillac let you know it was “HC”.
Another question with too many answers. Personally, when I was a kid it started with the flathead V8. Following that was the sbc. I think you can make anything look good but IMO those two represent affordable performance with looks being a case of form following function. Hardly anything was ugly till they started being buried in plastic.
I’m going to pretend I didn’t read the question carefully and say any straight 8 Packard, you know, like the Good Lord intended.
I’ve always wanted to build a rod with an exposed slant 6 just for the WTF factor.
Absolutely I have seen some hot rodded Slant 6s, Triple carbs, headers,etc.
It would look awesome exposed in a hot rod.
As long as it was in a Chrysler product, of course.
In the early 70s Monogram had a model kit of a slant 6 rod, called IIRC the Horned Toad (it was green). I built almost all of the Tom Daniel designs back then, no airplanes for me…
http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/108055-monogram-tom-daniel-horn-toad-1971/
It won the title of “America’s Most Beautiful Roadster” in 1963. The XR-6 was a project of Hot Rod Magazine….
Powered by a Slant 6 with three Weber carbs and some custom long ram tube manifolds….
.
427 FE – Looks good in anything!
Another good one! Here’s one in the ’67 LeMans winning Mark IV.
Im surprised no one mentioned the 440 Six Pack! Especially in one of the ’69 A12 cars with the hood off and the air cleaner removed
I love those MOPAR Sonoramic cross rams. They look great under the hood. I have always liked the Ford FE engines with the triple carbs. No one has mentioned the OHC Pontiac 6.
Any time I go to a street rod show I am surrounded by Small Block Chevy engines to the point that I hardly ever look at the power plant. It is refreshing to see a nail head or one of the smaller Hemis occasionally. They look especially good in something like a Deuce roadster or T Bucket.
Early hemi in Imperial livery. For an Italian flavor, the Fiat 2 litre.
The Reo was certainly a looker:
http://detroitdemigod.deviantart.com/art/REO-Gold-Comet-V8-187648318
As was the LeRoi:
http://s1355.photobucket.com/user/Hamish_Petrie/media/image8_zpsf6f370d2.jpg.html
And let’s not forget the GMC 637:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BMIMEcr39Ng/maxresdefault.jpg
My, that’s a big one…..
I know the topic was American V8’s but I still think the best looking engine ever in an engine bay is the Alfa Romeo 3.0L V6.
-“With that being said, how did you get that Y-Block to make 956 horsepower? :):
-With 2 turbos, 2 kilos of boost and E85.
Wildest Ford flathead V-8 ever?
I like the simple, muscular and very handsome 385 series Fords. A 429 CJ just looks cool without the flash, gettin’ down to business 🙂 .
Hemi!