Chevy Small Block: 100 millionth iconic engine manufactured in Detroit,
100 million motors built since 1955 and still truckin’
WIXOM, MICH.— Scrabble. The Mickey Mouse Club. Steve Jobs. The Chevrolet Small Block V8. All of these can claim 1955 as their year of birth.
The Chevy Small Block — the 100 millionth of which was built in late 2011 and which has powered everything from pickups to Corvettte racing cars — was the direct result of some serious “no guts, no glory” efforts on the part of Chevrolet’s newly appointed chief engineer, Ed Cole, and his team who, in just 15 weeks, created a brand-new, then state-ofthe-art, overhead valve (OHV) V8 engine virtually from scratch.
Its design was compact and simple by the day’s standards, and its brief development was made more remarkable by the use of new manufacturing processes (green sand casting) and component designs, such as stamped rocker arms.
It certainly didn’t hurt that Cole had played an important role in the design of Cadillac’s new OHV V8 just a few years prior, but it was ultimately made possible by the nearly unprecedented level of support provided by both General Motors’ president and CEO, Harlow Curtice, and Alfred Sloan, GM’S chairman of the board.
Their intention was to revitalize the milquetoast, six-cylinder-only postwar lineup of the Chevrolet division with eight-cylinder power, a new chassis, and new styling. This new powerplant was also intended to give the division’s fledgling sports car — the Corvette — some real teeth.
In a daring move, the original 265 cubic inch (4.3L) engine, which became known as the “Turbo-fire V-8” or “Chevy V-8” (there was no “Big Block” until 1958), went straight from the drafting table to production — there simply wasn’t time to test it.
Little could Ed Cole (or anyone else) know that an engine using his same basic design would continue to be manufactured 57 years later, or that one-hundred million of them would eventually see production. Placed end to end, they’d circle the equator 1.8 times.
The argument could be made that today’s modern, fourth generation, Ls-family motor has about as much in common with the original Small Block V8 as the four cylinder in your neighbour’s Honda. After all, aluminum engine blocks, variable cam timing, cylinder deactivation, and reverse-flow cooling systems could scarcely have been imagined back in the 1950s. Nevertheless, a clear design evolution is obvious, particularly if you consider each generation’s changes and similarities. Just as in the first Chevy V8, there’s a camshaft in the block and the same 4.4 inch cylinder bore spacing that Ed Cole’s team specified in 1955. Pushrods? Check! (The ’90-’95 Corvette ZR-1’S unique, Mercury Marine-made “LT5” DOHC V8 was the only factory Small Block ever produced without pushrods.) Even the location of the oil filter remains unchanged today from its 1956 position — 1955’s had an external filter.
As for the future? There will be a fifthgeneration Small Block V8, and some of them, at least, will be produced in St. Catharines just as the fourth generation is now.
GM has confirmed that the next generation will incorporate direct fuel injection, and pushrods would seem to be a certainty, but the General’s lips are sealed beyond that.
While it’s unlikely to have a 15-week gestation, one safe bet is that it will have 4.4-inch bore spacing, just like its 1955 predecessor. Brian Early, a contributor to Wheels, is a professional mechanic. bandbearly@sympatico.ca