Talk:Straight-8

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[edit] Flathead to OHV had nothing to do with it

Overhead valve cylinder heads allowed the compression ratio to be increased enough to take advantage of high-octane gasoline, and the V8 engine was particularly inexpensive to build in the overhead valve configuration. A single short camshaft located in the V could drive the valves in both cylinder banks, and it required the same number of main bearings as the modern straight-4 to support the crankshaft adequately. As a result of low cost and high power, the overhead valve V8 quickly took over the US market.

The argument about the V-8 being better suited to cam-in-block construction than the straight-8 is just as true for side-valve engines as it is for overhead valve engines. Therefore, this cannot have been a reason for switching from straight-8s to V-8s, especially since the Buick straight-8 already had overhead valves. Respectfully, SamBlob (talk) 23:40, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

That's true, the old Ford flathead V8 was cheaper to build than the straight-8s, too. Daniels, in his book, describes the straight-8 as a blind alley from the very beginning, but that's not very NPOV. The original text I put in was more accurate: The American straight-8s by then were relics of the past, as all except the Buicks were flathead engines which could not take advantage of new high-octane gasolines to produce the higher power output expected of cars in the post-war era.

The point I was trying to make is that the obsolescence of the pre-war engines was an excuse to throw out all the old designs and introduce new ones. Given the availability of cheap high-octane gasoline after the war, the OHV V8 gave the most horsepower for the least cost. However, I was getting a bit ahead of myself. After low-octane unleaded gasoline was made mandatory, and fuel prices increased, the pushrod V8 in its turn became a much less desirable solution compared to some other engine designs. But that's another article.RockyMtnGuy (talk) 06:40, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Packard?

Didn't Packard have a staight-8 engine in many of their cars? --Ragemanchoo (talk) 02:38, 5 June 2008 (UTC)