History School me: What engines did they drop in hot rods from 1948-1953

Rember the song HOT ROD LINCOLN

 

Here is a Chevy Six

 

Very nice !!! I wonder if he drove it around on the street with those good looks and so complete.
Looks like a licence plate at the back.
The Fisher head must have been a 12 port.

 

The key phrase was "to my knowledge"
I just had never heard of a 4 cylinder Chevy from those years. (1948-1953)

 

They could use what ever engine they could get ahold of unlike today. There was no Traditional then, it hadn't been invented.

 

The flat ford was king until the 49 olds came along

 

Enjoying it a lot,and it and other pics are saved for my nephew(youngrodder1929) for inspiration.He's 17 yrs old and building a Caddy flathead powered 29 Chevy. No import drifter for this cool kid.

 

Do you want to count Marmon V16's and Caddilac V-16's used on Dry Lakes cars?

 

Most of what I have seen was the Olds and Caddy were cutting edge. 53 was about the beginning of the 2-3 year run for the jimmy 6 but the sbc pretty much nailed it's coffin shut.
Look in magazines of the day, yeah there were still a lot of flattys but a bone stock 303 could trounce a built flatty. You see a lot of "Fordillacs", Studillacs and such in that period.
Thanks to the likes of Smoky Y. the Hudson was a force to be reconned with for a couple years in there too.

 

well if you had a stick shift Buick Century/Roadmaster, you could probably stay with or beat most other cars during that period, [Specially 1941,s].not that I,m biased. However built flatheads.ruled till the overheads showed up.

 

I wish some old guys that lived it could chime in...

I'm thinking that in 1948-1953, the OHV Caddys and Olds engines were out of reach for the average guy. After all, these were NEW in this time period. Think back to the late-90s. The LS1 was introduced in 1997, and you only saw them going in the mega-dollar show cars from 1998-2000. Wasn't until about 2003-2005, when they started popping up all over the place.

Maybe things were different back then, but I doubt it. Olds and Caddy were probably the mega-buck engines of the 49-53 period. Can anyone verify?

 

Back then new cars weren't a third the cost of a house, so junk motors were cheaper, I'd venture.

 

There are some great Hudson racing and hot rod pictures here, since someone mentioned the 308.

http://www.classiccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13312

 

It was basically the same, cept the Olds were more plentiful they had 303 cubes. The Cads had 331 cubes and the starter was on the right. An adaptor had to be used on the Olds to move the starter I beleive,[as did Buicks]. yea overheads were pretty expensive for the times, but they were excellent for the street, they had tons of TORQ which is what street is all about. You install a ohv in your rod and you ruled. However a hot roadster with a full flatty would still be as fast or faster [with a rolling start]. I came into rodding in the mid 50,s so I was right in the middle of the changing times, but then i wuz young n' dumb, an didnt realize what was happening, and my circle of buds with similar acuteness were buying up old used flatty,s an parts. I bought a 56' chevy 265" engine for $325 in 56' an that was a bunch!

 

If you want power for the time period the early hemis would be a good pick. If you like hi rpm shifts the chevy 265ci in 1955 & 1956 had a 3 inch stroke. I had a hj in 60,s was 283 bored .125 made 301. I red lined my tack at 9500 rpm ,just dont miss a shift. Takes 30 minuites to clean the track up. In my day nail head buick (v8 with the valve covers pointing straight up. I just built a 28 ford roaster and i used a 1957 392 blown hemi since i am still a young man of 70.See you the 22nd, my car is yellow suicide front end. go cat, go

 

If you are talking about local boys they did what they could.Around 1949 my dad had a 1936 buick 8 coupe with a milled head.It blew up from racing it.He also raced a 1932 Chev coupe on the oval track.Course it was also his dailey driver.He talked of his friend who had a built flatty in a 1936 Ford coupe with mech brakes.He said that thing would fly but you better have a long shutdown.There were a few major cars being built but most were doing with what they had or could afford.

 

Then ... as now
Some folks had MONEY. In my area of the South, the moonshiners always had MONEY and the best stuff under the hood. If they could not find a wrecked Cadillac for a engine ... they bought a new Cadillac engine over the counter and installed it. Some ran the Oldsmobiles. By 57 - 58 , the SBC in 40 Fords were the norm. The SBC did not make the absolute power the Cadillac and Oldsmobile could but they were lighter and handled much better ... without giving up much horsepower.

Honest Charlie's was the Summit Racing of the 40's and 50's.