Anything new from the straight 8 hot rodders?

[39CENT]

there were some pretty fast straight 8,s in ca. in the 50,s and 60,s, turning near 100 mph in the quarter! [cars]

[charley]

This was in the TECH TIPS July 1967 Popular Hot Rodding mag. The late great Barney Navarro was the tech editor. title FORGET IT----I have a '53 Buick with a straight eight engine and stick shift. Would this basic model have a chance in the lowest stock classes on the drag strip if I did the usual tuning, exhaust headers,etc.? Answer It doesn't look encouraging. These classes are being dominated today by early Olds 88's and Studebaker v-8's and Hudson Hornets of the early 1950's. The Olds and Stude have the advantage of bigger ports and valves in relation to cylinder size than your OHV Buick engine. And the Hornet has the advantage of factory duel carbs and high compression aluminum head. Your Buick hasn't got anything special going for it. Sorry I can't be more encouraging.

[chevy6694]

yes collis, Jarvis earl [in ca.]had a 320 strt 8 dragster in the 50,s. turning around 130!i read that in one of the 'small car mags'. and he mentioned that he had a 'special fuel' that would get him over 140. it sounded like he was messing with 'nitrous oxide' !

Or maybe hydrazine?

[andy]

Hello! I dont remember if California Bill is mentioned in this thread. I bought his book here in Sweden, and it was really good reading!
I found an ad for it on the net, sold out they say... But it could probably be found elswere...
http://www.themotorbookstore.com/cabichgmcbus.html

[collis]

Thanks for the replies
I'm sorry I'm so slow in getting back
Alleycat, I'm sure your right on the money on a number of issues for 1950 tho I wasn't sure what you meant by a "high rod ratio engine".
She was originally built normally aspirated so we do have a huge hunk of metal on top of the piston, longer 9 1/4" forged rods(?now a higher rod ratio engine??),cadillac valves, and a milled head. When we put the 471 on her we returned to a stock height head and had a cam ground with a .440 lift and 264* duration and that's about it. We knew the compression was higher than optimal and the combustion capacity less than optimal, but with a colder set of plugs and easing into the boost found that she ran pretty well overdriven at 14% and 8 # of boost at 48-5200 rpm --- and she didn't come apart or leave bits of aluminum on the plugs.
What we're thinking is to see if we can mill off that dome ( or maybe have to spring for new set of pistons) and maybe improve on the cam,etc. We're hesitating as we know guys who have put a lot of bucks in the cam and valve train and haven't gotten much(anything) out of it, tho they weren't blown. We'll shorten up the headers and probably bring them right out the the side of the hood ( so much for street legal.) We're still nervous about stressing the bottom end as everyone says that's the big 8's Achielle's heel.
Thanks for your input. We appreciate any thoughts about how fast we can spin her.
Mike

[39CENT]

I can tell you what ive heard from an old time buick circle track racer. said he pulled the center main caps off his 320" at 6200 rpms. It was a bored out [356"], balanced,milled head, modified ports,with Ford 427 marine valves [potassium filled], and needle bearing rocker arms. You might be able to spin it to 5500?

[39CENT]

oh and the mystery fuel Jarvis Earl was talking about sounded alot like NOS! that was in the late 50's,

[39CENT]

A pretty quik 38 century that i have looked at, had home made headers, and intake. It was a 180 header, and ran dual pipes, looked like they ran the exhausts straight out from the port about 3 inches before turning down. The straight 8,s had pretty good exh, ports, not big but look to be clean smooth, and didnt need a lot of work. As for the intake just copy the stock one, you wont need more than 3 carbs. Run progressive linkage off the center carb. More than that means you should be running alcohol. Or you can make a log manifold which is simpler but not that good for street.

[alleycat]

Well, Mike, thats some intresting spec's. You diffinatly have a higher rod ratio now, like 2.1. This is a very nice ratio but hard to make work. There have been a number of race engines built to obtain just this sort of ratio and when they work, they work! and when they don't, they don't! One very real and very good advantage of a high ratio engine is that the higher the ratio the lower the internal loading. This is a realitive thing tho, the crank in the 320 weighs around 114 or so lbs, the entire assembly in a chevy weighs about half and with a low ratio, thus high loading, it still ends up better off. A low ratio makes a engine more flexiable in regards to intake, wheras a high ratio makes the engine far less tollerant to intake from cam to air cleaner. A high ratio engine moves the piston slower and thus gives more time per crank degree to get things done. This is most likely why most cam grinds that should work, don't. The piston as it moves toward TDC is just about not moving, cam overlap, both valves open, the exhaust wants to go back out the intake, or the flow just stops, at the best. I think that everybodys ideas about camming str8's has been wrong, including me. I think I now have the problem solved.

I don't think your engine will fly apart. Lightning up parts would help a great deal to this end as well. Is your cam spec of 264, at .050? Whats the cranking cylinder pressure? Shooting the exhaust out the side of the hood will certainly do it!! Did you really drive this baby on the street? Pistons; Do you still run the 4 ring set-up? Don't. Going to new pistons with narrow 3 rings will be worth 5 hp a hole, alone. Alleycat

[charley]

while going over the specs on pistons with bores in the neighborhood of a 320" buick I came upon the 74" & 80" harleys of course the compression height was off by about 1". The price is right on the import pistons but the aftermarket rods about 9 1/4" would probably cost a young fortune.