Where did the nickname rat motor come from?

Huh ? ?

 

Better look again

 

lmfao!!

 

Umm.. what??? That's one's pretty far "out there"- even for the HAMB LOL
Better lay off the disco biscuits

 

*Note to myself ... everything I read on the internet is not always true!

 

From Popular Hot Rod

"When Chevrolet introduced the mystery engine, it looked (with its then less-than-orthodox canted-valve heads) like a pretty exciting deal. Shortly after its intro, it became known as Chevrolet's "porcupine-headed" engine, and subsequently, because a porcupine is sort of a member of the rat family, it was known as the Rat Motor. With its canted valves, "

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/tech/0906phr_10_questions_chevy_big_block/viewall.html

 

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But you said it with such authority, in such an uncommonly knowledgeable tone, even with an exclamation point. Like this >>>!

 

Yeah, I know, it made since to me (wikedelphia I think). My primary experience has been with small block chevs and they qualify as being "at or within the plane of the oil pan deck." But the statement is false, I agree, ... my foot tastes like ****!

 

don't forget the jam with that peanut ****er!

 

First, second, or a hundred and thirteenth on the band wagon I couldn't tell you....... but "CHEVY RAT MOTOR" was also billboard lettered on the Nunez and Dillon Willys. Porcupine I've heard and seen printed on the 348-409,The Rat and the experimental aluminum head canted valve SBC which if I remember correctly was planned for Trans Am.

While known for the Hemi and this may be reginal but many of the guys I know in their 70's will refer to any large engine as an "Elephant motor". As such Olds guys may remember when the good Doctor teamed up with "Elephant Engine Ernie" and his bore and stroke shop. My grandfather was the only person I can think of calling a 392 a "whale" so it is cool to hear that.

I'm also in the mouse came first camp..... Mighty or otherwise it was the small V-8 until the 221's and 215's showed up. Randomly naming the BBC a Rat for no reason and then calling a SBC after the fact mouse just doesn't ring the bell.

 

in the song SS396 about a chevelle they call it a porcupine thats the first place i ever heard a BBC called anything but a rat

ive allways heard the pre 426 hemis called whales

 

I can't believe we've had 72 responses to the question!

 

this is the story I've always known.

 

That's the version I've always remembered!!!

 

Rat ... Mouse ..... Hmmm, nothing but Vermin to me.
Big Block Ford Power!!!!

 

OK, here's the real deal. I was at the Englishtown summer NHRA event in 1967 or 68, standing next to Roland Leong while he was talking to someone about tuning changes he'd made to his new 426 Top Fuel car. His exact words were...'I did (so and so... blah blah blah) and the old elephant finally came to life.' He was talking both about the performance increase and the physical size of the heads, compared to the 392s. I told a racer named John Garrison (West Coast guy that knew Roland) about what I'd overheard. John remarked that Roland would make comments such as I'd heard. Pretty soon, Garlits was calling his 'elephant motor' Trantor or Tantor, names for elephants in Edgar Rice Burroughs novels. Anyway, Roland called the 26s elephants, and the name stuck. Big-block Chevrolets were rat motors, 392s were whales, 426s were elephants.

 

Anybody remember the "Calliope" engine?

Ford's 3 valve experimental some where back in the 60's..

 

Derived from the Latin word " pile of **** that shouldn't be on the road"

 

1965

 

Now listen up fellas I'm gonna tell you the tale of the Rat motor name and how it evolved..There was a local guy here in the center of CT who had a '55 chevy, in the mid to late 60's..Lived to street race, real p***ionate and hated to lose, maybe a left over soul from the big street racing bust on the Berlin Turnpike in '62..I don't know what his day job was but night time it was racing..The car didn't look like much; especially in the dark of night, real close to a field car..Charcoal primer of different shades and a few scratches to add some usage look and greasy finger prints all over the fender tops and hood edges and where ever else one may rest a hand..Because it had a hinged hood with inner structure no one suspected that the hood, front fenders, doors, and trunk lid were fibergl***..There was no side gl*** except for a thin strip glued in at the bottom of the opening in the doors and pieces of old yellowed and bubbled gl*** in the quarter windows to simulate them being rolled down and of course no gl*** guts in the doors or quarters except for the handles..I don't know how the heck he kept the doors closed..Interior upholstery was minimal, no floor covering, no head liner, no rear seat, no front seat...A chair swiped from a Bowling Alley for a driver's seat! Front bumper was fibergl***, surface roughened and pitted/painted to simulate rust then some chrome glued on that was peeled off the rear bumper.. Front tires were fair on some cruddy steel wheels and the rear tires may have been some Marsh recaps on Knight Welding widened steel wheels..Anything that could be duplicated in aluminum was; anything that could be lightened and hidden by grunge was; anything that could be lightened internally was..I think Olds rear with traction bars tucked way up, rear bumper was steel with some lead added inside and natural peeling front bumper chrome..Engine was a 396 or 427 [maybe more] with dual quad manifold and the carbs were on spacer blocks, miss matched valve covers and air cleaners with the same greasy paw prints all over them..Headers looked like what the guys on Road Kill tested, all beat up looking like they were made to fit with a large hammer and finger prints were on them too..All in all the car looked like a rat trap; you know real ratty and at a maybe a half way safe 2600#..By midnight or so the guy would drive down to the highway looking for a race and he himself would be looking about the same as the car..Greasy finger prints all over his t-shirt, grease smudged all over his jeans and his hands and arms up to his elbows I would guess from working on the car or maybe his day job? Well he looked as ratty as his car so he got the name of, you guess it? Rat Man..Now his car runs really strong; strong enough that other guys have him build engines for them....So Rat car, Rat Man, Engine by Rat Man..Simple it down, when asked what you got for an engine, A Rat......

 

I've also heard them referred to as the "shotgun" motor, because the head ports seemed to resemble a shotgun barrel.

 

As a kid, I had a Roth t shirt with a reference to ''rats nest''. Similar to this one. The jumbled look of the BBC with the valve cover off resembles a rats nest, I thought that's what it was saying.

 

ajmopar I think you are right that engine is what I always heard called the semi-hemi

 

Righteous
Automotive
Technology

 

This is the only semi-hemi I'm aware of and sure isn't like any rat motor Iv'e ever seen.

 

The story I've always heard the early Buick V8 the heads were designed to keep the engine narrow so it would fit in engine bays that were made for inline engines. This put both valves in one half of the combustion chamber limiting the valve size, valves that looked like nails.