This was the all the buzz...
This was the all the buzz in 1949, the first mass-produced OHV V-8, and it offered real performance. As equipped here in Steve Brooks' restored Futuramic 98 it was cool, but when factory engineers suggested offering the same power in the 350-pounds-lighter 88, they fulfilled the promise of the Rocket appellation on the street and track.
Hot Rodders And Rockets
With some 5 million Rockets produced from '49-63, they were relatively plentiful for '50s hot rodders to pick up in wrecking yards, and perhaps cheaper that the other hot powerplant choices of the day, such as Hemis, Buicks and Cadillacs, which a wrecking yard might hold aside for the "premium" buyers. Not only was the entry fee reasonable, but the trail of Oldsmobile performance was inevitably smoothed out by the inventive men of the aftermarket speed equipment industry.
Every major camgrinding house had a range of Olds bumpsticks to choose from, in part because the cylinder heads on early Olds were on the low-flow side, and a new cam for $25 was much easier than saving up for head porting at a shop. Although stock four-barrel intakes could be used for a hot rod, the Southern California manifold barons produced every kind of carb setup possible, and their use of aluminum helped trim some ferric cellulite from the Rocket, which usually tipped the scales at 700-725 pounds. Between all the usual suspects, Ansen, Weiand, Trans-Dapt, Wilcap, Cragar, Almquist, Newhouse, and Hildebrandt, cast-aluminum engine-to-trans adapters were offered that simplified exchanging an old flathead for OHV Rocket power in your early Ford.
Back in the '50s, the shop's slogan at hot rodding pioneer Ak Miller's Whittier garage was "Power and Speed Equipment for Oldsmobile and Cadillac." Ak tweaked his '49 Olds coupe up from 135 horsepower stock to 265, setting a record of 123-mph at the Salt in 1952, and on 85-octane pump gas, too. He installed one in his street roadster and cleaned up by putting all of his flathead buddies on the trailer. Of course, a few years later his famous El Caballo '27 roadster ran a hopped Rocket powerplant and placed 5th in the 1955 Mexican Road race against a variety of well-heeled entries.
The Rockets were hot in the...
The Rockets were hot in the production 88s, but rodders and racers wasted no time in buying them up as they came into wrecking yards, discovering they could be hopped up readily and also withstand the punishment of racing. Blowers were very popular and compensated for somewhat small ports. Longtime Olds fan Rod Seeman built this one for his roadster with a homemade blower manifold, GMC lung and trio of 97s. It's been driven everywhere.
Dragsters and lakes cars also found the Olds a competitive candidate for records. The period of interest in Rocket motors for drag racing reached its peak in the early '60s, when Tony Nancy drove his Top Gas dragster with a Rocket in front, while KS Pittman took on all comers in the gasser ranks with his Olds-powered A/GS, and Hugh Tucker had his blown 480-incher pounding the troops in A/SR. An Olds was also the lightning behind the big thunder of the famous Speed Sport roadster. Perhaps the most well-known dragster using Olds Rocket motorvation was the team of Safford-Gaide-Ratican, also known as the "Sour Sisters," who campaigned their Top Fueler very successfully from '61-64. One year they won 12 successive Top Eliminator titles at Lions dragstrip, in a time when Top Fuel had 32-car fields!
If the Rocket engines were heavier than almost all their competition, at least the excess iron was in the right places, evidenced by how well they stood up to supercharging, nitro, and stroker crankshafts. A case in point is that big-armed 480-inch motor used by Hugh Tucker for several seasons in his drag roadster. That engine later went into the '29 street roadster of Sam Conrad, who drove it on the street for years with a log manifold and six 97s. The '29 later racked up many more reliable street miles by the next owner, Bob Gorby. On L.A Roadster club trips, Sam claimed to have achieved 13 mpg, which at the time wasn't much different than contemporary passenger cars equipped with only one carburetor.
By the mid-'60s, the superior breathing of the Hemis (old and new-school) had become the de facto standard for rails with a few SOHC Fords and new big-block Chevys thrown in. The drags had become more serious and less experimentation was in evidence, plus the aftermarket manufacturers slowed down on speed equipment for Oldsmobiles and turned to the more popular engines. Alas, the classic Rocket engines were no longer competitive. The company engineers wanted a lighter engine with better lung capacity, and the room for future displacement increases with a taller deck and stroker cranks. The resultant "new" designs were the 330 and 425-cubic-inch engines of 1964, which share some design similarities with the old Rockets, but very few parts that interchange.
Hot Rodding The Olds Today
These may be the "best of times" for injecting some classic Rocket power into your next project vehicle, whether it be a truck, car, rod, custom, or even a vintage ski boat. These engines are rugged, loaded with torque, and there is a considerable amount of speed and appearance equipment out there in the new/used marketplace. There's a certain cachet about running an engine that was the subject of what music experts highlight as the first rock'n'roll song ever. Today's factory crate motors, as practical as they may be, will never be fodder for the Top 40 list. The Oldsmobile history with hot rodding lends these engines a significance that can put a modern-built, traditional-style hot rod "in tune" far better than a pair of "Rocket" valve covers adapted to a 350 SBC.
Olds engines are a little less available today than some other vintage engines. It may take you some time to find a rebuildable one, so make finding an engine the first thing on the list for your next project. Check local classified ad papers, eBay, internet groups such as the Jalopy Journal, and swap meets. You'll find parts more readily than complete engines, so get a long-block first and have it checked out thoroughly by a machine shop before spending all your savings collecting cool exterior components.