Before you light your torches, I looked in search. I really don't want to start a fight here, but my old geezer brain won't remember back that far. We were all setting around consuming m*** quan***ies of liquid refreshment the other night when someone came up with the question," Before the big block came along, what did we call the small block?" Well, of course to make everyone believe I had all the answers, I says, "We refered to engines by their cubic inch designations." I got jumped on! One of the guys says" The small block has been called a small block since day one" I disagree. Any thoughts? Thanks, Mike
We always just called 'em "Chevies" or 265s, 283s, 301s, 327s, etc. As I remember, when the 396s and 427s first came out they were also just referred to by c.i. Seems like it took a few years for the big block/small block tags to come about. (But sometimes memory betrays me.)
I don't ever remember calling a 265, 283, 327 an "SBC"...it was usually by cubic inch designation... And BTW, 'terminology' is spelled correctly...thank you...!!! R-
No idea what they were called as i wasn't even a thought then, but i can't imagine the sb being call "small block" when the only other option when it was introduced was the inline.. Maybe shortly after the 348 came along..but in 55, it makes no sense.. But i guess stranger thing's have happened.. I know when my dad, or most guy's i know his age, talk about the 'old' days they always reference ci.
The V8 was a new thing...quite different from the 6....so it was called the Chev V8, right? (I wasn't around yet either, I just read a lot)
I thought we might have some fun with this.... The young ones are probably scratching their heads wondering what the hell difference it makes!
Yea !!!! I spelled something right!! I'm too lazy to go somewhere else to find out if I spelled something correctly, and most of you don't care. Thanks, Mike
I was there and the cubic inch designation was used mostly when the small blocks came out. We also called them shakers, which was just a carryover name for a Chevrolet. Because the Chevy V8's were small, they were called Mickey Mouse motors by guys running Caddies and Olds'. Then when the bigger blocks came out, they naturally became Rat motors. Mostly, they were just called big blocks and small blocks. This was in the Detroit area, so it may have been different in other parts of the country.
Mike...don't feel the need to apologize for the systemic negativity that the vocal few on this forum promulgate. Besides, anonymous internet catfights are half the fun Here is my experience: I grew up in Northern California. I recall an emerald green '55 Chevy in HS auto shop that had a steel flip front end, radiused wheel wells, and "427" badges on the front fenders...and another '55 in town that had "327" badges on it. As time went on, I too started to refer to engines as "small" or "big" block, but the truth is I never forgot how the phrase(s) "four twenty seven" or "three twenty seven" sounded so...smooth and powerful and...righteous? Being a Chevy guy, although I have owned lots of different displacement engines, the ones I have built have always been 427's or 327's...I just built another 327, in fact. And, as much as I love saying "327", I love saying "small journal crank" and "11/16" rod bolts just as much. Anyway, in my memory? The terminology was always displacement.
Yeah, it was about the same for us. If someone was talking about a 312, we knew he was talking about a Y motor. A '92 was an early hemi, A 409 was, well...you get the idea.
I would think it would have been like calling the Great War WWI before WWII happened. But what the hell do I know?
Only too true...the majority of HAMBers ain't got a spelling clue...but there are those that do CARE...I'm one of them. R-
It was just Chevy far as the engine went. Most of us didn't realize its small size allowed it to fit anywhere. We didn't appreciate its light weight either. The little fact that it made lots of horsepower wasn't lost on us though. With no big block to compare it against why would we call it a small block? Seems like it took over a decade for the engines to be noted as big block or small block. CID designations were commonly used and sometimes the big block was called "The Big Chevy." SBC et all didn't come to be until the Internet had been around a while.
I don't believe SBCs were called SBCs until the 60s when the BBCs came along. For many years engines a**** the car crowd were simply referred to by cubic inch displacement often with even the mention of brand name since so few ever shared the same displacement. I get a kick out of these guys today who refer to engines by CID of standard overbores. Back then it was "I've got a .030(etc etc etc) over 283 (etc etc etc)". You used the CID on BIG overbores like a 283 to a 292 to a 301.
Yeah...early day designations, stock and common aftermarket, were 265, 283, 301, and 352. The 352 was usually an outright lie, as normal people could not afford the crank, but at any rebuild bore went to safe max, 283 for a 265 or 301 for a 283. No rodder ever bored an early Chevy .030 when it needed rings! Rebuilder type bore jobs were never noted as a displacement change...an .030 over 283 was referred to as a 283, because the change was insignificant. Stuff like calling a rebuilt 350 a 355 only came along when thinwall casting technology introduced V-8s that were too shaky to race after .030... Remember the line from the old Arin Cee cartoon, in R&C in the early sixties??? Something like "but this is PERSONAL, man! We're punching out a 283 today!"
Flathead Fords weren't called Flatheads until Ford brought out The Y-block Overhead valver. Till then they were just refered to as V-8s or Ford V-8s. They didn't call the first World War, World War 1 until there had been a second World War and a need to differentiate between the two. There was no reason to call a Chevy a small or big block until there were two different engines to refer to. Prior to at least 1958 and the 348 the V-8 was not called a small block, it was just a Chevy V-8.
We never even mentioned it being a Chevy. It was just a 265, 283, 348 or 327. The 3 fiddy 3 fiddy is a new billet piece isn't it??? I've heard about them but I've never seen one that I liked.
Proudly saying it's a 283 when most guys with 55-56-57's were still running the 265. But if that 55 had the nose on the ground, it might have a 348 in it.
I never saw anything except the number designation before the mid 60's and some Magazine writer referred to the engine as a mouse motor when comparing it to a "rat" motor. Around my home area they were always 265's or 283's or a the same "punched" to 283, 292 or 301.
Back in the 50's & early-60's, we just called a particular engine by the cubic inch. Didn't bother saying a Chevy 327 or a Ford 312 or whatever - we KNEW what engine you were talking about.
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