Cutaway View of V8 Engines

1965 AMC Rambler Marlin Performance Information For Gearheads and Thinkers Cutaway View of V8 Engines

US V8 engine history at a glance

Following WW2 where many alternative engine designs had been proven in battle, the automotive industry began replacing its inline eight engines with vee eight designs in the late forties and during the fifties as those factories resumed their full time automobile production. Other manufacturers of respectable vee eight engines include Cadillac, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Packard, Pontiac, Studebaker, Continental (owned by Kaiser, not a division of Ford) and Lycoming. The latter two were both legendary manufacturers of industrial engines who were not limited to the automotive industry, but rather supplied engines to a variety of industries from aircraft to commercial trucks to farm equipment and construction tractors to forklifts. Not having the critical dates for absolute proof, in my estimation it was about the time Nash and Hudson merged when Kaiser sold it's Continental engine manufacturing subsidiary and purchased Willys Overland. Continental engineers were displaced. Dave Potter from (Kaiser) Continental to AMC is currently credited for the design of the Rambler V8 however the Nash style valvetrain and Hudson "X" style crankcase gallery designs are easily seen and undeniable. See http://www.uncommonengineering.com/ to view a Hudson crankcase gallery... The expertise of Continental engineering easily accounts for AMC's ready acceptance of Mr Potter's V8 design. See also http://www.prime-mover.org/Engines/Pictures.html. The Ford "FE V8" apparently alludes to the Cord Lycoming 's FB V8, using the subliminal word picture to catch the higher technology airplane engine charisma. Lycoming/Continental pre-war technology also helps to explain the Buick "Nailhead" V8's otherwise bizzare head design.

'49 Oldsmobile 288/303 "Rocket V8", see also http://www.442.com/oldsfaq/ofe303.htm#E303%20303CIDEngineDetail

'53 264/322 Buick "Nailhead V8" 625 lbs. See also http://www.buicks.net/shop/reference/blown_buick.html

'56 250/327 AMC "Rambler V8" 601 lbs. Not a performance engine? (hogwash!) -Obviously the design Ford copied for their legendary "FE" V8s. See also http://wps.com/AMC/Rambler-327/The%20New%20American%20Motors%20V-8%20Engine%20(SAE%20Paper%20details).htm

'58 332/390 Ford "FE V8" 650 lbs. Notice roof of ex. port is not water cooled. This is to improve scavenging; hot air moves faster than cold. This is also an argument for cast iron exhaust manifolds, making use of thermal efficiency, where steel tube headers tend to shed heat too rapidly.