The 30-30 Camshaft vs. The LT 1

[Chuck S.]

Not In Performance...

Mike, I was talking about popularity.

To paraphrase Will Rogers, I never met a Ford flathead I liked. I have absolutely no nostalgic memories of my old Ford flatheads.

When I bought my first Chevy small block, I was amazed to discover that cars were supposed to start on cold, wintry mornings, usually on the first crank. Even in Texas, I could never get my Fords to start on hard cold mornings. I don't know how people up north lived with those flatheads in the wintertime.

Later, after I moved up north, I did hear stories of people setting their cars ablaze by building a little bonfires under the oil pans. (And they thought we transplanted Southerners were "slow". ) That must have been "learned behavior" that carried over from the old Ford flathead days (Shift/colon/D)

[Joe C.]

Re: PS

Mike:

There were a lot of versions of that tune. The one that I like was recorded by "Commander Cody And His Lost Planet Airmen" in 1972. The song dates back to, I think 1951, but Cody's version was the only one to hit #1 on the charts.

Joe

[Wayne K.]

Re: Thanks For The Memories, Clem

Mike,

Your right Mike. I remember in the early 50's my dad a new Olds with a rocket V-8. He bought it new in a small town called Sherwood,Wi. They sold Olds and Chevy. There was a long up grade hill just before Sherwood as you came from Appleton and if you floored it doing the speed limit at the bottom of the hill you could hit 80mph before braking for town. The Chev's of that period couldn't come close. I remember once on a trip to the garage I egged my dad on to try it and he did. When braking hard for town the car pulled to the right and he caught a pothole and the right front wheel cover went for a drive. It ran up into someones yard into a flower bed and cleaned off some gladiolus like a weedwhacker. My dad turned around and we drove back to the house and he made me go into the flower bed to hunt for the wheel cover. I can still see this old women standing in her front window shaking her fist with her mouth just a going. What you can't forget.

Wayne

[Joe C.]

Re: Thanks For The Memories, Clem

Chuck:

Didn't the selector read "P R N D L"? The first car that I owned was a red 1963 1/2 (2 door fastback) Galaxie 500 with black gut, 352CI engine and "Cruise - O - Matic". That was a three speed, and the selector read "P R N D 2 1". I installed duals, glasspacks, and manifold and 4BBL carb from a '58 TBird. I painted the hardtop black. She was a beauty, and I wish I had her back.

[Chuck S.]

The First Ford OHV engine...

Was actually only 239 cubic inches displacement, exactly the same as the old flathead it replaced. The 292s came out in 55. That little 239 was fine for hauling kids and groceries, but if you were racing it against Chevy small blocks, you just liked losing badly.

Once I started driving the family 54, I found the engine to be stiff, like it had some kind of built-in resistance. After about a year of my two-speed driving (pedal-to-the metal or stopped), it loosened up and ran really well. Of course, after it "loosened up", it peaked and started downhill after that. I would have "whupped" my kids good if they had been as bad as me.

[Joe C.]

Mike And Chuck

You guys are right about the flatheads. They were dogs, but they were the engine of choice for the hot rodders of the early fifties, who were running Model A's.

The Olds Rocket was the first OHV V8 from GM. Does anyone know when it was first offered? When was the Caddy OHV V8 first offered? I think it may have been 1949, or thereabouts.........so what took Chevy so long to come up with the 265 in 1955?

I also seem to remember that the Hudson Hornet was a force to be reckoned with, from 1949, to about 1952, or so.

According to Chuck Berry: ".......the Cadillac doin' up to a hundred and fow, the Ford got hot and wouldn't do no mo.........."

[Chuck S.]

Exactomundo!...

Joe, I had forgotten how the shift sector was arranged, but I think that's it. Start off in "L", up to "D" and then back down to "L", and finally shift back to "D". I think the "Cruise-o-matics" and the "P R N D 2 1" shift sector were introduced by Ford about 58.

I often wondered how in heck my friend came up with that shift technique. His dad owned a garage and may have worked on automatic transmissions, but I doubt it. I expect their place looked more like a blacksmith shop than it did an automotive garage; he would have been very unsuccessful working on automatic transmissions under those conditions. The only other way he could have discovered this shift method was...(perish the thought) TRIAL AND ERROR??!!.

Galaxie 500 "fast-back" two door hardtops were cool looking cars, but Ford's older clientele never liked them. They had three blue plastic "galaxy" star badges down the rear pillar. They were first introduced, along with a complete radical styling changeover in 1960 (at that time, I worked at a Ford dealer after school as a "parts gopher"). Like Chevy's "bubble-top" hard-tops, they only lasted a few years.

[Chuck S.]

Age Before Beauty...

I'll let Mike answer the question about those ancient Oldsmobile and Caddy engines. Shoot, there were only two Cadillacs in our town, and both of them were owned by the town doctor...His (2 door hardtop) and Hers (4 door hardtop).

To understand why it took Chevy so long to build a V8, you have to know that in those days Chevy was about economical, reliable transportation. I mean we're taking penny-wringing, buffalo-screaming economy. If they had tried to sell the public on electrically-warmed leather seats, with plush carpet, and a talking GPS directions center, they would have been laughed off the planet.

If it wasn't broke, Chevy weren't going to fix it, but ironically, it was the bigger, more powerful inline 6 that put Chevrolet on the road to dethroning King Ford and forced Ford to develop the flathead V8. Finally, the pressure of competition and evolution forced them to get with it, or get out...a position in which they very much find themselves today.

[Wayne K.]

Re: Mike And Chuck

Joe,

My dad's Olds with the Rocket V-8 was a 1950. I'm not sure if that was the first year.

Wayne

[John H.]

Re: Sacreledge! Are You Talkin' About Siamesed

Yup, they didn't run too bad with two or three 97's, a 3/8" stroker, Potvin cam, Johnson adjustable tappets, Offy heads, Kong-Jackson ignition, port & relieve, and a couple of pennies in the right holes. Built several like that, and when it wasn't enough, yanked it and stuffed a Caddy and Hydro in the old '51, set back ten inches - made a great "sleeper" in 1958

[John H.]

Re: Sacreledge! Are You Talkin' About Siamesed

And when the stock '55 Caddy started to get soft, I yanked it, and this "built" '57 Caddy went in - remember "log" manifolds for four 97's?

[Chuck R.]

Re: 312s were mean

Bought a 312 Merc. to replace a sick straight six for our 58 one ton Ford stake body truck with duel rear wheels.

It was the only stake truck in town that could smoke a set of duel wheels from a standing start. ( Of course it was the hard turn to the left/right at the start that helped a tad )

That poor ole truck took a beating !

[Mike M.]

Re: Mike And Chuck

Oldsmobile: first OHV, a 303 ci, appeared in `1949 models.became 324 ci in 54, 371 in 57, and 394 in 59 and 64(which was last year of the Kettering olds rocket).I bought a junkyard 60 394 Olds rocket in 61, put it in my 49 chevy and dusted fi vettes and wedge mopars and w-block chevys. still got the 49 but its under 454 chev power nowadays. Cadillac; first OHV, a 331ci , hit the showrooms in 1949. By 1956, the Caddy displaced 365 ci, growing to390 ci in 1959 and lasted till 1964 when a newly designed caddy mill of 429 ci hit the streets.Buick''s first OHV V-8 was installed in the 1953 and had 322 ci. Pontiac, like chevy, got its first OHV V8 in 1955. Can't remember the displacement increases for the Nailhead buicks or the Pontiacs. You all know how the mighty 265 ci chevy progressed. "There's a rocket for every pocket","See the USA in Your Chevrolet"----anybody recall pontiac, buick and caddys famous ads? mike

[Chuck S.]

The "Air-Born B-58 Buick"...

My candidate for land barge HAWG of all time. It was contemporary with and got it's name from the USAF's new FAST medium bomber. Check out this resto website.




Cool Air-Born B-58 Buick Resto

[Mike M.]

Re: The "Air-Born B-58 Buick"...

58 wasn't a banner year for the general.If it don't run chronme it--if it did run it lacked chrome . consider et's of 57 283 hp vettes versus the solid lifter fi vette in 58. mike