early chevy engines

[luxeryvic]

ok, everyone has heard of the early ford flatheads, but what 8 cylinder engine did chevy put in thier cars before the OHV sbc???

[777stickman]

Originally Posted by luxeryvic

ok, everyone has heard of the early ford flatheads, but what 8 cylinder engine did chevy put in thier cars before the OHV sbc???

NONE

[Blue Bowtie]

Stickman is right. Chevrolet never had anything but an overhead valve V-8. Their first one (and the first central cam OHV V-8 ever made) was sold in 1917, more than 15 years before Ford "invented" it, but conveniently forgot about overhead valves and anything technologically advanced. Ford has been trying to catch up ever since.

Most people forget about the early Chevy V-8s, since the public didn't buy them.

[luxeryvic]

lol ok thats why ive never heard of them just wanted to clafify that, but wat other divisions of GM made a flathead???

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by luxeryvic

lol ok thats why ive never heard of them just wanted to clafify that, but wat other divisions of GM made a flathead???

You mean flathead V8's?

Cadillac made a flathead V8 from the 1920's through to 1948.
In the early 1930's Cadillac made OHV V12's and V16's, but were changed to flathead designs by the mid-1930's.

All other GM divisions made in-line engines.

At the time (1932) Henry Ford's idea of placing a V8 engine into a low-priced car was revolutionary and gave V8 power, smoothness and sophistication to a low price market which until then had never seen anything like it.

This was made possible by the engineering of the Ford V8; it was made to be as simple, basic and easy to manufacture as possible.
In stock form, the flathead was no faster (but was less efficient) than the Chevy inline OHV 6.
When modded, of course the V8 had much more potential.

Chevrolet's 6 cyl car stayed competitive to Ford's V8 through more sophisticated engineering elsewhere, such the use of independent front suspension, instead of Fords solid front axle, and the earlier use of hydraulic brakes instead of Fords cables.

[luxeryvic]

oh, then why are flathead fords so popular among hot rodders?