The Buick Straight-8 engine (Fireball 8) was produced from 1931 to 1953 and sold in

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

automobiles, replacing the Buick Straight-6 engine across the board in all models in 1931. Like many American

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

makers, Buick adopted the

straight-eight engine The straight-eight engine (also referred to as an inline-eight engine; abbreviated I8 or L8) is a piston engine with eight cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. The number of cylinders and perfect primary and secondary en ...

in 1931 as a more powerful alternative to the previous engines.

Design

Unlike most other car makers at the time, Buick had been using a valve-in-head/OHV

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

reverse-flow cylinder head In engine technology, a reverse-flow or non-crossflow cylinder head is one that locates the intake and exhaust ports on the same side of the engine. The gases can be thought to enter the cylinder head and then change direction to exit the head. T ...

design or I-head since their inception and continued this practice in their straight-eight designs. The engine was sold in different displacements depending on the model of car and the year and was constructed upon two distinct (possibly more) block castings. The engine block in the smaller displacement versions internally resembled the 1937-53 inline Chevrolet 216, 235 & 261" straight six (the combustion chamber design was quite different), albeit with additional cylinders. The large block version (320 cid and 345 cid; used in large-chassis models such as the Roadmaster) was considerably heavier and this weight adversely affected vehicle performance and handling. In earlier years the engines used cast-in-place bearings that were then machined, which made engine rebuilding an expensive procedure, but after 1937 they began using drop-in bearings. The last year for Buick's straight-eight was 1953, but only in the lower-cost

Buick Special The Buick Special was an automobile produced by Buick. It was usually Buick's lowest-priced model, starting out as a full-size car in 1936 and returning in 1961 (after a two-year hiatus) as a mid-size. The Special was built for several decades and ...

. All other lines using the same basic chassis received the new V8 Fireball. Starting in 1954, the Special received the V8 as well. 1939 Buick Dynaflash inline-eight in a Series 40 Special

1939 Buick Dynaflash inline-eight in a Series 40 Special

1952 Production Engines and Ratings

References

Straight-8 Gasoline engines by model Straight-eight engines {{automotive-part-stub

Design

See also

References