Buick OHV in-line eight engine family 

Sledge hammer peter Gabriel

Straight eights were some of the smoothest sounding engines that I have ever seen.

Buick offered what they called *Compound Carburetion* in '41/42 (two 2-barrels in a progressive-linkage) which made the highest HP in the GM family; even more than Cadillac (in fact the Buick limousine of that time is often called _"a better Cadillac than Cadillac")._ Buick also offered America's first 4bbl carb in 1952, a Carter WCFB.

I inherited my grandparents '48 Roadmaster, still the finest car that I ever owned.

Gotta go with the Packard cause it's the Packard!

Friend in college had a 1937 Buick with a straight 8. This was 1975, I honestly don't remember which model. I do remember two things 1) his nickname for the car was "Busty Betsy" which made us all laugh and 2) that straight-8 was so incredibly smooth that you could not hear it running. Scary thing for me is it was 38 years old at the time, which is like having a 1985 car today. I am getting old!!

That was a really great summary of the Buick straight 8s, Jay. I had no idea there were so many variations. It is always good to learn something new.

Scott from Cold War Motors, in Alberta, Canada has experience with Buick, and Packard engines, he and his "Agents" did a Summer Showdown a few years ago.

0:14 "Buick was exclusively overhead valve after 1904" DANG, that's AMAZING. I remember Ramblers in the early '60s still with flat-heads. I saw a Buick straight-8 head one time (but I was young, like 11) and remember how LONG it seemed to me, and HEAVY.

I had both a '34 Series 40 rumble seat coupe and a '35 Series 40 sedan. Worked on the engines of both with ease. Was able to order parts from Sears and J.C. Whitney ( it was the 1960's). I enjoyed my experiences with them. Neither engine ever let me down. Both vehicles had cable-operated mechanical brakes. Them was the days !

I have a 1951 Buick Roadmaster Riviera 4dr. which was Buicks top of line model. She has the big 320 cid. 150 horse engine in her which is good 'cause she is a beast! I've never been a high performance how fast can you go kind of guy and basically, Buick at that time was never about performance. It was about smoothness and ride. If you wanted performance at that time from GM you went to Oldsmobile. I always wanted a "straight 8" Buick and I finally found one a couple of years ago. It has about 100K miles and I don't think it's ever been rebuilt. It starts right up, doesn't smoke or use oil. Oil pressure is still right in the middle of the gauge. It runs like a fine watch and has the best sounding exhaust I've ever heard! I love just watching and hearing it run! I also have a 1949 Packard with the 327 cid flathead 8. Another great engine but I haven't gotten mine to the point of running yet, maybe one day!

Very nice. Thank you. (of course..the Packard...)

Worked on a Packard 8 years ago for an old guy that had it forever. It's was a pleasure, and a smooth running ol girl.....loved it.

I pick the OHV Buick straight eights every time. Had both '49 and '52 Series 50's. Could balance a nickle on the flat top of the carburetor air horn at idle and it would sit there indefinitely.

when i was in high school in the 60s a family friend had a 38 buick coupe wjth the straight 8 with a 3 on the floor, great looking car and alot of fun to drive, it was all original he paid $400.00 for it.

The coolest thing about the straight 8 is it required a longer front end that looked better and it's interesting that an American 53 Buick Had a shorter front end, had a V8 and was 12 volt

Buick's straight 8 is one of the many reasons I❤ my most favorite GM division my father had a dark green sedan and a candy apple red convertible both with straight 8,s 53 was the last year nailhead V8,s replaced it in 1954

My 48 Buick automatic was like a electric motor. Very smooth cruising vessel for So. California , this was in 1970 I was 23yrs old.

Packard till the end of time 😉 Another great episode Motor comparison is great 👏👏👏👏👏 Happy Motoring 🤠✌️

Definitely Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. Awesome music from the best muso's of that era. 👍

Packard straight 8's also had 9 main bearings. My pick as well. Really enjoying your engine series! Take care.

I'm really fond of both Buick and Packard, but I also know that Packards are virtually indestructible. The 1954 packard panther had a 359 straight 8 flathead (9 mains), to which a McCulloch supercharger was mated, and that made 275 horses. Imagine the same engine with 4 carbs, bigger valves, larger ports...it would easily get to 350 hp

I had a 1947 Buick straight eight babbit pounder.Starter on the gas pedal activated a solenoid. Use to start by itself in the winter .Wondered why it was out of gas when I got up to go to work. Carried a 5 Gal. jerry can in trunk. Caught it in the act of self starting.Solenoid changed,problem solved. It had air oil shocks,rode like sitting on a cloud. My first 50$ car in 1964.

My father had 1937-1954 Buicks he loved them all and raced them all so I pick the 1940 Buick he worked on them and he ran shine in all of them he had two spotlights on them in case some one followed him at night

Because of the torque and the readily available parts these engines were very popular with builders of Chesapeake Bay fishing boats through the early 60's.

Cheers!

My dad owned a 1950 Pontiac flathead straight 8. At idle it was so quiet that I, a young kid about 10 or 12 years old had to get very close to the car to hear it. Yes, my ears were young and had perfect hearing. Buicks with OHV were a bit noisier.

"He's driving a ACME straight 8, with overhead valves, with a California license plate"!! - Bugs bunny

Great video. Thank you for sharing 😊👋🐿

Drove a 38 century deluxe back in 2007. 2nd owner(Dad&son), garaged, original. 400k documented miles. Smooth car

My father had a 36 Buick with a one of three experi😅mental straight 8 in it. The engine had a much longer stroke than the normal 8. He had to rebuild the rods because the were considerably shorter than the normal 8 for 1936. The engine ran well but it was very hard on the drive line if you used the torque that was on tap. In 1936 the rods were not fitted with insert bearings and had to have new babit poured and be fitted to the crankshaft. This was emeadiatly after WW II and cars were not easy to find.

Great vid!!! 👍👍

Never knew there was such a variety. My second cousin ran moonshine and had a Buick straight-8 until he brought the first Olds Rocket 88 to these parts. Can't remember much of what he said about the Buick other that it was fast but wouldn't stop. Wish he were still here to ask him more about those days...

Buick motor. Wow , I think they changed the displacement every couple of weeks. That almost zero compression ratio. The gas must have been poor back then. Interesting vid,thx.

Had a '53 Buick Special, last year of the straight 8's, only in the special. Standard transmission, wonderful engine.......only drawback is that the engine had a maximum top rpm that it it wouldn't exceed. 40 mph in low , 90 in high, down hill or flat running no difference. A guy raced one on a circle track raceway. against flathead Fords, Hudson twin H powered sixes, and most other makes. He would be the firts one out of the turn, but by the time he got to the next turn almost everyone else had passed him. Shows the result of the max top rpm of the engine. I'd take the Hudson 8.

Peter Gabriel Sledgehammer

The 1948 Buick Roadmaster was first with hydraulic lifters.

Love the straight 8s. Dad had one in his 37 Buick convertible & one in a 1948 Olds Woody Wagon. Those cars were so cool. Great sound with Cherry Bombs too. The Olds was a flathead type.

I would pick the second (the yellow one)one.

I do like your going over these engine families. Keep up the good work

Excellent, hugely informative.

Gotta go with Hudsonand Packard for powerhouse for mileage and dusey and cord for real racing power!

9 main bearings and boost? yup!

You said you'd do a straight eight video at some point, and here it is. Anyway, I'd take the Packard engine because it would come with the Packard.

Just bought a 53 Buick Special convertible and up pops your video about OHV straight eights. Liked and subscribed. Also had a 49 Packard with the 327. It was smooth.

My dad had 5 straight eight buic specials and they would not die

1952 at 320 in.³ straight eight used in the roadmaster produced 180 hp because they put on a Rochester four barrel carburetor Jerry Mcdonogh

The hood on the Buick opens from the front. The Packard opened the way you described, from either side.

I've seen some videos of hot rodders that bored out the Buick 8 and added in some hot engine components and they really go fast once they are done up!

Probably Buick but I like them all.

i would take the nash, 9 main bearings you could turn this motor into a powerhouse and it would hold up.

Outstanding as always! So much good information has already been shared; I have nothing left to add but a huge - Thank you! ~ Chuck

Cool video, I have several straight 8 Buicks myself. It's my experience and understanding that insert bearings weren't used in the big ends of these engines until 1950. Before that they used babbit bearings in the con rod big ends (which interestingly enough could be adjusted somewhat by removing shims from under the caps).. Also forgot to mention the new piston and cylinder head design for the 1953 263 engine. (probably a list ditch effort by Buick to squeeze some more power out of the straight 8 before completely defaulting to the Nailhead for all models in 54)

Many decades ago, I read an article about inline 8's which said that Detroit had experimented with an inline 9 which was smoother but never used due to expected consumer resistance to an odd cylinder count. Have never seen any other info about this. I wondered about the torsional rigidity of that long crankshaft.

MY dad had a 1940 Buick Super with straight 8. He owned it from 1940 to 1958. It seemed to me that it always needed repairs (he repaired).

Of the engines the 32 Nash would be my choice, when I heard those straight 8's with 5 bearing made my skin crawl, yes you could make it with 3 bearings but you are going to have to make an oversized crank to keep it from flexing, If ford thinks that there big six needs 7 bearings, then a straight 8 needs 9.

They were good motors gut the physical size WAS a drawback for hot rodders. Pontiac made a large straight 8 as well, but the Buicks had more horsepower and torque.

Hi Jay!: That was a nice informative run through of the inline 8 Buick engines! I learned a lot! THANKS! Have to go Packard on the engine, as they were SO SMOOTH!!!

I think these engines are the ones that are suppose to be in the Hot Wheels car named "Crazy Eights".

Long stroke engines that wore out fast.

sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel

#1 choice would be the Packard, being as it would also be in a Packard car which were excellent. #2 being the Buick, as I've worked on a few of them and really loved the car and engine as well. And hard to miss "Sledgehammer' by Peter Gabriel from his album So.

Used to power (Flxible?) buses in the 40s or 50s.

A video going over ether the wisconsin v4 or the ford taunus v4 would be cool

Thank you for this wonderful presentation - I always wondered why Packard stuck with the flat head straight 8's for sooo long . In view of the fact that they produced the Merlins for the P-51 they certainly were not lacking in engineering ability. I owned a 1954 Buick Roadmaster Coupe with the nail head - it was a wonderful engine very quiet and very smooth.

A great presentation about the Buick in-line 8 OHV engine Jay. I had no idea that there were so many variations of that engine during its time span. I myself just recently finished reading about the Pontiac in-line flat head Straight 8 engine. It was nicked named the "Silver Steak" which soon became the name of their most popular model. Maybe you will do a video presentation on that Pontiac 8 engine which was around from 1933-1954 and was popular with public right up until the end of its long run. As for the choice of motors. I'll take that Packard by a mile. With a top speed of 90mph and over 100mph on their Super 8 160-80 horse power engine that was quiet and smooth all around it was a tough one to top for its overall performance. 😊

Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer.

I have heard that most GM cars had OHV engines and never went with the flathead style engine. Great presentation. Do you think that one of your videos could be featuring the indestructible Dodge slant six? When I was young, some of my friends had a car with this engine. We beat that poor car using it to enjoy car, Motor Cross. The engine never faltered one bit but the bodywork did not do as well. I think the only way to kill a slant six would be to run it without oil. It may even still be operable.

I had a 53 and with the dynaflow it could barely pull itself around

9 main bearings !! Sledge hammer?

4.6 compression is a fucking waste of gas,on the other hand the V8 nailhead was magnificent

Do you know the bore spacing of the 320

I've heard that Rolls Royce used the Buick I8 as the basis for their I8s. True?

PCV has Nothing to do with Vapor lock!!

A inline six would be a better choice, because, it is naturally balanced, the inline 8 is not.

40 Buick

Nash straight 8.

Simply replacing the fuel and ignition system these motors live....

5 main bearings or 9 main bearings. Hmmmmmm 9 any day of the week.....

Hudson 8

This was the NAZIs favorite engine. In world war 2 GM's Opel division put a derivative of this engine in ever so many trucks they made for the army.

@0:58 "the engineers wanted to make this look like a Chevy six" BS . Buick engineers were'nt influenced by Chevrolet. I gave thumbs down and stopped watching.