Let's Get to Know Big Bob!

[GTOguy]

Originally Posted by Bruze

Ok, Olds. I've posted this before, but my third(?) car was a '63 Cutlass, auto on the floor, with the tiny aluminum V8 with a four-barrel.

Not fast, but faster than the base Corvair and Chevy II 6-banger I had previously.

Sometime in the late 1950s to maybe 1960 I was at my buddy's house; his uncle from out of town was there visiting and he had a Buick with a straight-8 in it. I don't remember anything else about that day except popping the hood and seeing that engine.


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Aerovette just blew my doors off with Antfarmer. Man.

In the '70's and early '80's used to tune a lot of the 215 aluminum Buick engines. Many had aluminum foil wrapped around the spark plugs because the heads were stripped out. So the foil tightened things up. Very weak, but light, engine. Rover used the design for another 50-odd years. The Buick Dynaflash straight 8 was one of the few overhead valve straight 8's of the era. Most were flatheads. In 1941, it put out the same HP as the flathead Caddy V8. 1941 also was one of the few years (maybe the only one, IIRC) that had Compound Carburetion (dual carbs). I have serviced and driven Buick straight 8's of this era, and they are smooth as glass and have enough torque to idle down to a walk in third gear and take off without stumbling. Babbit bearings, too.