History Why is the flathead V8 so popular but the straight 8's not?

There is a lot of lore around the Ford flathead V8. People pour money into them, mild stock rebuilds to wild crazy rebuilds. It is 239 Cui, 90-250 Hp is what can be expected while keeping it reliable. Has decent torque especially down low.

At the same time people ditch straight eights, you seldom see people having big interest in straight eights. Outside of Duesenbergs people do not care much. Packards, and Buick, Pontiacs straight eights are replaced with LS (vomit), or 350 (yawn) or Nailheads.

A Buick 320 has 150-168 Hp, great torque, a really interesting sound. A 248 is more nimble, still 124 Hp stock.

But you do not see a lot of build or interest.

 

Nostalgia, an abundance of speed parts (new and used), and packaging. They fit is relatively small spaces.

 

You have to put it in retrospect,,,,,they literally made millions and millions of Flathead V8s .
Parts were everywhere at one time,,,,,millions of parts.
There are probably a million still left,,,,if an actual count was taken ?
Maybe not on the road,,,,but still around .

Tommy

 

Length and girth...ladies...what the issue.

 

I 8's were in expensive cars BITD.

Not only expensive cars, lower production, which also relates to availability.

Long I8 cranks and cams are prone to flex and whip when hopped up. Following from this, racing type engines from Miller etc. were not 'production' engines.

They are/were big and heavy.

And more reasons...

 

When you look at the length, the firewall recess to make it fit, add the fan, the rad, it's support...length is a problem for most cars. It won't fit well in a old Ford where a V8 will.

 

As said length because a issue with fitting it in . Also speed equipment is super rare . Now a bunch of flatty sin the bone yards and plenty of hopup equipment.
I also wonder about weight as most of the S8 were in Big cars.

 

What everyone else said.
Weight, size, availability, packaging, performance parts.
Up till the mid 1950s, a flathead v8 could be swapped into a ford with out changing the original drive line. (Some exceptions exist)Way easier than changing a lot of things on the car to fit a straight 8 with ******. The small block chevy changed the face of hot rodding after that.

 

Cannot find the article now but I remember reading about Pontiacs new for 1955 ad campaign, they said the V-8 was tested for 100,000 miles on the high speed endurance test but the old inline 8 would have only lasted 18,000. Had to have frosted any buyer who just bought a '54....thought at first it may have been Packard, but then I remembered the 9 main bearings of the final version. So no it probably was not Packard!

 

This guy likes straight 8’s

 

Well the smallblock chevy, and now the LS makes things easy, and booooring. If it is about Hp/ USD you can't beat chevy stuff.

 

Wow that guy went the extra mile! Great job.

 

Here is a Buick 320 with a T5. Adaptor by the guy in Ham Lake WI.
Length overall about 6 feet

Pulls hard in a 2850lbs car.

 

I don't consider the SBC boring. It is a good, quality engine with a long history of performance. It was the first engine that I rebuilt.
I will admit that I am more of a FORD man now. I put a 300 in my model t. That engine is 37 inches long. The straight 8 is probably even longer so fitting one in a early Ford is probably a job.

 

THat

Head length of the Buick 320 is 34.5 " overall another 6" maybe with fan so little bit longer than a Ford 6. Ford 6 is an interesting choice for a car!

 

What kind of car?

 

Once up to speed and in a straight line, the 1954 Packard 359" I8 with a 4-bbl, 212 hp, would run away and hide from the 1954 Ford V8 115 hp.

jack vines

 

I love my I8 because it's super smooth, interesting by today's standards and nowadays unusual.

But, in terms of actually wanting to go fast? V8 beats it in almost all aspects. The Ford flathead is about the same weight but that weight is balanced overall slightly lower, definitely shorter meaning you can get the weight of the front end further back behind the wheels, and can sustain much higher RPM meaning that it can ultimately create more power for the same displacement without sacrificing torque.

So, better design for power? V8.
Better for smooth, quiet motoring? I8.

Hm. Speaks for itself

 

Because Ford didn't make an inline 8?

Everyone here likes the Ford car bodies because they were light, plentiful, and easy to upgrade. They were easy to upgrade because they were piles of cheap ****. The long inline 8s didn't fit well in the cheap **** Ford bodies. To make the long motors fit required too much thought.

That ought to ruffle some feathers here. LOL! Gene

 

I'll be back...going to get popcorn.

 

The str8 not fitting in an early Ford would be a big plus in my book. As to the flathead, you can get pretty much the same hp output from a Predator log splitter engine, at about a tenth the cost.

 

Everyone has really answered the question, you even answered your own with the Nailhead.......even Buick knew they had to change, the 425 is a monster. But the straight 8 has it's place, would I yank a running 320 out of a '50 Sedanette, hell no.

 

In short apparently it’s better to be bent than straight...! LOL

 

Well I would never downgrade the cool factor in a car by removing a straight 8 to fit a sbc or sbf. A straight 8 with multiple carbs is going to be way more cool the a regular belly ****on small block in any car.

 

Ditto on the comments. While the Bowtie is not going in either of my cars, the straight 8 may in one...

 

How did this turn into a discussion about I8's vs SBF or SBC?

 

Weight, length despite tight bore spacings, long-stroke bent-paper-clip cranks, and a general scarcity of main bearings.

A killer I8 is certainly possible, but it would probably be a scratch build around two big four-cylinder cranks: 10 main bearings and a geared output between mains 5 and 6. It might not be all that heavy but it would still be around 40" long.

 

I LIKE MY I 8! Will it do burnouts? Don't know. Afraid to find out. 100mph + on the hwy.
All the torque I need getting there.
Was not cheap to build. Cheaper than re engineering and installing a flat head { Cadillac? } engine I expect.

Ben

 

If you want to go fast, you quickly realize that weight is the enemy. Cars that came with straight 8s weighed a lot more than cars that came with a V8 (or a 4). The V8 will fit in place of the 4, the straight 8 won't. So, the obvious choice is to use the V8...first the flathead, then the OHV as they arrived on the scene.

Besides, Buicks and Packards have always been "old man" cars.