While I was gone, Ralf K. (Don Kincl) uploaded a motherlode of shots at the Cohort, and it’s going to take me a while to catch up with them. Here’s one that turns my crank: a shot of a Buick straight eight in a hot rod. I bet that pipe makes some sweet music.
Ford flathead V8s are the stereotypical engine in vintage hot rods, but that’s far from an accurate representation. Buick straight eights and GMC sixes were quite common, because of their overhead valves and big displacements. We’ve covered the GMC six in hot rod form here, but not the Buick. These long and heavy engines had eight exhaust ports, but only four siamesed intake ports, hence the log intake manifold with three carbs. But there were other variations on the theme.
Here’s another one from the web that has no less than six carbs feeding those eight hungry cylinders. And quite the exhaust header.
Buick eights came in three sizes: 248, 263 and the big block 320 incher. A vintage article about how to get more power out of them is here.
So now the question is what engine is that in the other hot rod in the background? I’m stumped, but one of you will know.
Interesting engines. Not sure what that inline six is, but does it have oxygen or temperature sensors in the exhaust manifolds?
I’m not really a fan of big inlines in hot rods, the resultant long nose looks too weird. But that’s hot rodding, use whatever is available.
Back in the late 60s the Rod & Custom guys were running experiments with smaller motors, Chevy II fours, and Datsun 510 and VW running gear.
Comment on this photo says it’s a 250 out of a Camaro. Intake manifold looks mighty similar, that bump on the bottom in the middle:
Chevy Stove Bolt
Paul,
Here’s a couple of shots of the blue car that i didn’t post
They do make for great sounding rods. I did come across a video of one being driven with a Buick 8. Unique to say the least.
I’d dearly love to hear that Buick in action (and to hear at all afterwards, so with earplugs, but you get the drift). I’ve got a real soft spot for straight eights, and had no idea people put huge and dignified Buick 8’s into rods. How very CC that I should now know this. Undoubtedly, I am better for it.
I’ve attached a video that actually lives up to it’s title for those who’d like to waste some time enjoying the great eights at full noise, including a Packard eight all hopped up.
Btw, does a straight 8 have the same firing order as a “normal” offset-plane(?) crank V8, because when they’re in high-stress form, they sound nearly the same, or is it just the “eightness”?
I think it’s the “eightness”, valvetrain arrangements and rotating mass. I noticed a few of the race cars were pretty close to the flatplane V8 sound(albiet more similar to the GT350 than a Ferrari V8). I’m unconvinced that firing order makes any audible difference.
Great video!
I remember in the summer of 1969 I went to Fremont Dragstrip with a couple of friends. One of the dragsters that day had a Buick straight 8 that sounded wonderful each time it made a pass – so smooth. It sounded so much better than the ’50 Buick Super we’d had when I was in grade school; but by that time, maybe it was the engine out of that particular car – anything is possible.
I’ll bet the dragster didn’t have a Dynaflow.
Back when I was in the 8th grade (winter/spring of 1965) I was diagnosed as having rheumatic fever. At that time the course of action was complete and total bed rest; I spent three weeks in the hospital and then another 6 or 7 weeks in bed at home. My school work didn’t take up much of my time and I was bored out of my mind. My cousin’s husband brought me, among other car books, some seven or eight years of back issues of Hot Rod magazine. I was already interested in cars so this was literally manna from heaven, I read each issue from cover to cover. Anyway, the late fifties/early sixties was probably the high water mark of hot rodding, at least as far as people using what they had available instead of just writing a check for someone else’s labors. At that time it seemed that someone, somewhere was willing to explore the performance possibilities of every engine made. Cars such as this Buick powered hot rod above were featured in nearly every issue of the magazine; much different from now when the ubiquitous SBC gets dropped into everything with wheels. This was a much needed breath of fresh air for me this morning.
Definitely a Chevy Stove Bolt Six in the other car.
I wish I could hear that Buick 8, theres something really sexy about a Straight 8
If you view “Rain Man” with a good quality home theater system; one can hear the Buick’s straight 8 exhaust note a couple of times as the car passes by the camera.
https://youtu.be/cdoFmTDv_MI
https://youtu.be/_BJHsoVRVMs
Oh, the memories of the Buick straight eight. The only eight cylinder motor vehicle I’ve ever owned.
There is a guy who shows up to the Antique Nationals in Fontana most years with a full bodied Buick sporting a small centrifugal supercharger on the inline. It sounds fantastic and turns some decent 1/4 mile times.
my grandma’s last car was a 53 Buick special and as dad always said “the last
straight eight” No dynaflow here I used to watch her shift those gears
Love Straight 8s I have been running a buick for 6 years now in a 27 steel T rat rod