There where earlier production motors that had forged rods . The 55 to 59 motors and the 63 to 65 421 HO motors. Unfortunately these specific rods in the 421 motors where not even as good as the 67 and up cast rods.
Kind of.... IH made farm tractors and small trucks along with big highway Simi trucks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_trucks
The cast Pontiac rods were Armasteel.....maybe similar to nodular cranks that are cast but better than regular cast?
I worked on plenty of 307s that had cracked cylinder heads. Something with the ultra lean burn and chamber heat.
no...260 Olds in a 77 Skylark worse dog. 4 guys in it floor it and beer didn't even move. Lots of noise from downshift but speedo barely moving.
Lolol, like the 307 in my Dads ‘90 Estate Wagon, it had the towing package…. 3.23 posi rear, floor it to first gear RAAAAAAHHHHHH needle barely moved HAHAHA
Depends on how you define best. From the original question in regards to V8 longivity I think I know. Worked at a garage that serviced groups of guys commuter cars that drove a long ways to work and back every day. Five guys only had to drive once a week, pay one-fifth for regular oil change service etc. They all choose Big Buicks with big blocks under the hood as good gas was under .50 cents a gallon and oil always under .69 cents a quart back then. Never wore the engines out, the cars would get hit, crashed, slid off a icy canyon road etc. between 450, 000 to 550,000 miles, then buy a used replacement with their car pool fund savings. Never late from breakdown was important, lateness ruined their bonus checks. Oft times a two hour 80 to 90 MPH dash was required to beat the time clock, Indy crues would be jealous seeing them change a flat in record time, the jack guy, the star wrench guy, the spare guy etc. . Timing chains / gears, waterpumps, wheel bearings, fan belts etc. were changed about every 100,000 miles though before their possible impending failures. When the pulled from salvage engines were torn apart, I could get lots of way used engines cheap this way, the cylinder bores usually didn't have enough ridge to catch your finger nails on and you could see some factory hone crosshatching, cranks were rarely ground, I was sure it was from my legondary 17 year olds superior servicing savey skill set, ever get to use bearing shims? Perfect Circle used to sell them, pain the ars plastigaging for-ev-er. Chev's and Ramblers had to use the ridge reamer after 70,000 miles. Pontiac seemed to always have held the 24 hour indurance / mileage competitions back then though, look it up and confirm my senillity level asumptions. I know the first lier always gets out lied but that's how it was, I think.
Y'know the best part? Designed and produced by GM (Buick and sort-of Oldsmobile) for three model years, '61, '62, '63. Eventually sold to Rover, re-designed and produced by Rover for decades. England's automotive production (British Leyland, etc.) gets "rationalized" essentially under threats and force of England's government. Government being about the same all over the world when it comes to interfering with the free market, this results in bankruptcy, and various tie ins, and ownership deals with Honda and BMW. Rover becomes a subset of Ford Premier Automotive Group, in Y2K. So the final three years of production of the Buick/Rover aluminum V8 which ended production in 2003, was under the direction of...FORD. (Ford authorized production of the engine for as many model years as GM did.) But that's OK, the last "Ford" flathead V8s sold "new" in the USA in a production automobile went out the doors of Mopar dealerships from '58 to approx. '61. Mopar imported cars with "Ford" flatheads produced in Brazil as a subsidiary of Simca of France...of which Mopar owned a majority stake years after Simca took over French Ford operations. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/aut...flathead-v8-v8-60-part-three-the-simca-years/
My first car as a teen was a 1974 Pontiac Catalina with the 400 2bbl (esentially the same engine design from 1967 but smogged out by '74) . In the family for about 6 years and then I got my hands on it at 145K in 1990. Never rebuilt and withstood my crazy teenage driving and revving it way past the intended red line hundreds of times. Burned a very small amount of oil but no ticking or knocking. Valve seals were worn so a small puff at start up. Wiped the trans out due to terrible driving, but the engine was rock solid and ran strong. So, imo from the abuse I gave it, it is the Pontiac 400. Went to the scrapper due to severe rust at about 165K. Durimg my ownership it got oil changes every 3000 miles or less. Oil and filters were stupid cheap at .79 a quart of oil and 3.00 for a good filter. That car, nor I, should have survived my first 2 years of driving. We bought from an old man that was the original owner at 50K. I assume he was an oil changer.
Sounds nice. I actually was thinking about these models, (for sale in Europe at the moment): https://www.classic-trader.com/nl/oldtimer/zoeken/rover/3500 P.S. Rover V8 engine Also called Buick 215 V8 Production General Motors: 1960–1963 Rover, Land Rover and other British makers: 1967–2006
Ya, it makes a huge difference.. the average American back in the day changed oil twice a year.. spring and fall.. regardless of how many miles they drove between those two time frames.. I saw it many times when I was working at the service station that I started my career in. In about 1988, I came across a want ad in the Sunday paper.. for sale, 73 Buick Electra.. south of the metro area in farm country.. Knowing that in general farmers are much more aware of importance of maintenance than the general public, I decided to take a ride out there with a buddy that Sunday to look at it.. It was cheap, 4 or 500 bucks I think. We get out there, the car is super nice, but starting to show a little rust..I was looking at it for something to run around it for a while, and then grab the motor/trans out of it. We did the deal with the farmer, nice older guy, original owner, car had 90k on it.. I get into the car to leave, he opens the driver door, and looks at the oil change sticker.. and said " Looks like you will be OK to get her home, she will need the oil changed just about then".. I smiled, and told the guy " I will take care of her".. which he seemed to appreciate. On the way home I noticed that it was considerably stronger than the 73 Centurion 455 that was my first car, even in the bigger Electra. That was the best used engine I have ever seen, hands down.. clean as the day it was built inside, perfect ring seal, didn't make a sound.. drove it around in the electra for a while, before we needed the shortblock after we split the block right down the middle from the number 3 cam bearing, to the number 3 main in the race car.. Hated to take it apart, but I wanted to go racing even more, so we did.. Was shocked at how nice that thing was. Took my ported iron heads (260cfm) SP-1 and the custom solid cam I was running at the time ( my own variation of the KB Mrk 4) and threw them on that low compression shortblock.. Our 4100 lbs GS went out and ran 11.90 with it, just about half a second slower than the high compression race motor. Ran it for the rest of the season in that car, and then it was used as the backup engine for another half dozen years.. It did run low 11's in our 3100 lbs Regal.. After that, I used that untouched shortblock, with a 113KB cam, a B4b and a set of stock 70 heads, to throw together something for the 3/4 ton Chev PU I was prepping to use for towing duty. Threw a VP TH 400 behind it with my original KB149 converter, and proceeded to drag our 26' enclosed trailer all over the upper Midwest for the next several years.. It finally started to use oil toward the end of it's towing life, but that was one hell of an engine. The block went on to make a very nice 600 Hp street build for a buddy of mine. That engine came back to me a 15 years later, and the block is sitting out in the shop, waiting for it's next assignment. I toyed with the idea of putting it in my latest tow vehicle, but since that truck is really nice, I decided to stick with a factory option motor for it.. so I went on the Hunt for the elusive 8.1L.. and found one about 75 miles from the shop.. In any event.. oil changes made a huge difference on 60's vintage engines.. because they contaminated the oil with combustion by-products much more than modern gasoline engines do. JW
Yeah Jim....with a choke starting and moving a car around hard on it. Almost bought an ex race 69 Stage 1 that was at dealer with a fresh motor. But....for a couple years they would start it every day and move it out of shop when back in end of day. 1 min of running a day. Figured no good for motor so didn't buy it but should have anyway...... Now with direct fuel injection way less issue....
My vote would be a Ford 427 side-oiler. Professionally raced in circle track, sprint car, drag and endurance racing, as well as used in marine applications, the FE (Ford-Edsel) engines got continuously upgraded. If something broke in racing, it was analyzed and fixed. Oiling system, connecting rods, crankshafts, pistons, blocks, heads and distributors were all upgraded along the way. Forged steel cross-drilled crankshaft, forged steel "LeMans" capscrew rods, forged pistons, cross-bolted mains, internally balanced, larger harmonic damper, skirted block with thicker deck, reinforced and cross-boled mains, cloverleaf bores, higher nickle content iron, improved oiling system (priority main crankshaft), windage tray, one piece pan gasket, screw in core plugs, dual point distributor, etc. Ford was serious about making the 427 a race-ready production engine which made them very durable in ordinary use.
> Now for the BEST USA made V8 made in the 60's Is the 215 Buick/Olds Aluminum V8... The End Most of the issues I see with with those are internal coolant passage corrosion due to people not using the correct coolant which isn't the engine's fault. The oiling system wasn't the best but can be easily improved. One drawback is the very small diameter base circle of the camshafts which tends to wear faster than a SBF or Mopar. The aluminum rockers also wear on the rockershafts. The timing chains could have benefited from a tension block like the Buick V6 got. Unlike the Rover version, GM cast the blocks around ribbed sleeves so they never slipped.
I was speaking from a design perspective. If everything is designed and made correctly they do have perfect primary and secondary balance. What you are referring to is a manufacturing issue. For example if one balances the components perfectly on a V6, you will still have higher vibration than with a straight 6. That's why some manufacturers use balance shafts, to make the engine run smoother.
For me, longevity means a car that runs trouble free for over 150,000 miles. All that needs to be done is regular maintenance. No major engine rebuilds or transmission rebuilds. Just oil and fluid changes, replacing tires, windshield wipers, fan belts a once in a time water pump and batteries. Front end alignment comes with new tires unless you hit a curb or big chuck hole. Tune-up when they come due. I want a car that the body rusts off the frame, but it still runs great and doesn't smoke. To me, that's longevity. Vet
