Why Is The Straight-8 Nearly DEAD

[@stellingbanjodude]

The Buick straight 8 had a reputation in the southern US for “ wearing out a Buick, then wearing out a sawmill. “

[@endutubecensorship]

Is this because after the vehicle wore out the engine was put to use powering a sawmill? I ask because a straight 8 sawmill would be badass lol

[@stellingbanjodude]

@@endutubecensorship yes, they would be removed from the Buick then be installed into a stationary frame to run or pull a sawmill. Then wear out the sawmill! Hahahaha

[@michaeldixon7961]

Sawmills used flat belts. Smooth engines meant smooth running flat belts. 4 power impulses per engine revolution of 8 cylinders were better compared to 3 power impulses per revolution of a 6-cylinder engine. A 6 cylinder Detroit 2-cycle diesel had 6 power impulses per revolution. Electric motors were best for sawmills.

[@endutubecensorship]

Very cool, thanks for your replies!

[@DarxusC]

@@michaeldixon7961 weren't they running at a constant speed? Couldn't you put a massive flywheel on there and make any impulses insignificant?

[@njinthemj52]

Before my father was born, my grandpa had a Buick straight 8. He put mothballs in the fuel, but wasn't the fastest driver. When my father's at home birth developed complications, grandpa put grandma in the Buick and hit the highway. Their friends were following in another car. All they could see in front of them was 2 feet of fire shooting out the exhaust of the Buick, untill they were out of sight.

[@GhostOfDamned]

@sourand jaded lead free petrol? XD

[@sparky6086]

Funny. Now that you mention it, when I was 5 yeqrs old in 1968, I watched my mother drive off to the hospital to give birth to my youngest brother, in our 1937 Oldsmobile with a straight 8 engine. He was her 6th child, so it wasn't a big deal, for her to drive herself to the hospital, as it was difficult for my father to leave his store. Even in 1968, a 1937 Oldsmobile was a rare sight in Atlanta, Georgia. It wasn't quite old enough to be considered a collector's item, and one car was as good as another to my mother, as long as it ran, so I'll bet the people at the hospital wondered, who is this humble, 9 months pregnant lady in such an old car, and will she be able to pay her hospital bill? Our 1937 Oldsmobile straight 8 was a two door and had two fold down jump seats in the back. My twin brother and I liked to use those seats, when we were 4 or 5 years old.

[@jasonmajere2165]

Interesting, new mothballs destroy gas cars according to mythbusters.

[@chickenfootlicker]

@@jasonmajere2165 what are mothballs used for?

[@frequentlycynical642]

@sourand jaded Not cupboards, closets.

[@danielrickel8807]

Hard enough to find an inline 6 in production now days let alone an 8 unfortunately. The low end torque is unbeatable on an inline 6 I wish someone would build an inline 8 pickup.

[@auggie803]

-Yes I agree with you a hundred %. I really think the auto makers could bring back a new and improved inline 8. The low end power would be incredible. When i was a 8 yr old brat my dad in 1955 bought a 1952 Buick Roadmaster v-8. This car would pull our 50'mobile home up a 2+mile grade mountain with no problem. This was in Calif. Then a few yrs later he traded for a Pontiac station wagon v-8 because we were now a family of 7 total. Then my dad got stationed to the east coast and we had to go up that very same 2+mile grade.We got about 1/4 mile to the top and this car stopped.We had to have a tow truck pull us the rest of the way up.-Just goes to show the power of these Buicks even if it was a v-8. A power house of a car for sure.

[@Nate1994a]

I actually have an i6 in my jeep. And I've seen other jeeps and drove one with over 400k miles with the i6 there amazing.

[@theflyingspringbk]

There's a straight 6 available in almost every BMW model produced today

[@danielrickel8807]

@@theflyingspringbk I know and they are the rare exception. Great car company.

[@papa_pt]

Inline six has been making a big comeback (at least til ICE makes it quit again). We've had Mercedes and JLR bring their own back into production a few years ago with rumors of Mazda building one too

[@fadedsoul23]

I learn more from this channel than I do in school, thanks man for the information, keep these vids up

[@carsonmajewski1073]

I couldn’t agree more

[@jhomrich89]

Today outside of large marine applications I cannot think of anything that uses a straight 8. Thanks for sharing this forgotten piece of automotive history.

[@TecTurtle3]

Take a look at stationaty motors like for bio-gas power plants. Maybe you will find some there too.

[@torquetrain8963]

The Cat 3608 is used in locomotive as well as marine applications. It is an inline 8 diesel

[@torquetrain8963]

The baldwin 608sc was an inline 8 locomotive engine. Nearly 2000 cubic inch per cylinder

[@jhomrich89]

Ok let me rephrase outside of stationary industrial applications in general today in the 21st century this engine is all but extinct. I think you all know what I mean

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

@@jhomrich89 What is the advantage there over an inline-6 ? I thought that maybe with the high compression and large displacement you want to avoid a equally large flywheel. And thus we need a lot of cylinders to keep instant torque positive?

[@CharlesFlatBaby]

Welcome back. I hope the KZbin issue has come to a satisfactory resolution. btw, I have a ‘37 Oldsmobile with a flat-head straight 8 and ‘53 Buick Special with a ohv straight 8.

[@CostaGeorge]

Charles i personally would love to see a video or even just hear an audio recording of the pure sound of your straight 8s throughout their rev range

[@CharlesFlatBaby]

@@CostaGeorge good idea. Both are pretty quiet, and don’t expect high revs, both are dead stock. But I’ll see what I can do

[@K_Bizz]

My favourite engine configuration of all time. The sound is just out of this world.

[@applejuice5272]

Yes! Me too!

[@Chris-ce7ve]

It is also cool, that some straight-8s only whisper.

[@davidpowell3347]

@@Chris-ce7ve Buick and probably Pontiac specified straight through OEM mufflers on their straight 8 cars so had a fizzing sound or even a bark.

[@dustinshadle732]

Around 20 years ago a collector in my home area took me and my dad out to cruise in a big straight 8 he had retrorodded. It had a 5 speed on the floor, a twin turbo set up off of split cast iron headers, and custom TBI. The guy was working on his buick straight 8. I was just amazed he put air conditioning in and leather seats. It was a very impressive beast in a straight line!

[@szymon6207]

1920s forget !

[@jwalster9412]

That sounds like ALOT of tourqe.

[@alfredvonk7686]

One of my colleagues owned a early fifties Hudson. When i asked him to start this beautiful automobile he replied; “its already running” I was stunned …. What a superb engine, idle with several hundred RPM’s

[@fredmorrison2635]

I've been waiting for someone to talk about the Straight 8. I'm aware of the negative points, yet I can't help wondering what a more modern version would be like. Such as taking the 2JZ and using it as a starting point.

[@CaptHollister]

Simple answer: It would be slow and inefficient. If you want a straight-8 to survive even moderate RPM, you need 9 main bearings and that piles on frictional losses. Even then, the crankshaft would still not be as rigid as the short, stout, crank of a V8 so it would remain rpm limited.

[@shaunmark1]

It would sound awesome though

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

Maybe you could produce a race crankshaft for an old engine? The typical way for more stiffness is a hollow crank and large diameter. With a low number of main bearings, there is no problem of friction. You only need incredible large connection rod Os. The in the crankshaft you need hollow sections with air to reduce the weight and keep the tubes for the oil to the conrod Os. To make the engine not even more long, I propose a second shaft next to the crank which connects to it through multiple gears ( thin ring on each counter weight ). This gives stiff end to end connection, damping ( oil in the gears, or even slippage for the gears + springs ) and you could run it at half the RPM and it becomes the camshaft, though I prefer DOHC and a (up to one tooth) 1:1 chain drive in the center.

[@CaptHollister]

@@ArneChristianRosenfeldt So instead of the friction losses of having more bearings support the crankshaft, you would prefer the friction losses of incredible large rod bearings and multiple gears...

[@ArneChristianRosenfeldt]

@@CaptHollister You need this large bearings anyway for the torsion, can as well have the bending benefit. Look at the W16 crankshaft if you want to see friction. It is almost identical to I8. Then also see the big throws on flat-4 in a bug, where they wanted to connect opposing throws and keep the arm short. Or the flying arms on 60° V6. At least in those the main bearings are small.

[@peteranddorothybowles5428]

I had an 8L3B Gardner for years the Late 50s There is another one of these working today in a 120-ton potting boat on UK south coast we dry-docked them together once and took a evening run Mirror calm Under the white cliffs The two 8 Gardners was loverly sound and smell Thanks for bringing back this memory Pete I now own an outboard engine Getting old eh Take care

[@Dave5843-d9m]

I worked at a factory that ran a railway locomotive with a straight right diesel. Max revs were 1200 but anything more than 1000 rpm felt way too fast.

[@steveashcraft718]

Baldwin VO1000 I believe. Nevada Northern Railway has 2 of them. One they just got running.

[@davidpowell3347]

@@steveashcraft718 Did that take power off from a gear in the middle of the crankshaft?

[@steveashcraft718]

@@davidpowell3347 Not that I know of. Should have a generator on the back of the engine. The generator powers the traction motors.

[@Flies2FLL]

Packaging was tough, the crankshafts tended to break at high RPM [as stated] and these were beastly heavy engines, heavier than V8's by a chunk. Great video!

[@Chris-ce7ve]

The advantage was, that the high torque was enough to move a heavy vehicle at low RPM, so this risk was minimal.

[@Flies2FLL]

@@Chris-ce7ve They were primarily built because they are naturally cheaper than V8's.

[@blackhawk7r221]

My buddy has two Packards with Straight 8’s. He says if you have to rev up your engine high to get power, you didn’t built it right.

[@Flies2FLL]

@@blackhawk7r221 That's totally cool! Do they sound like V8's?

[@blackhawk7r221]

@@Flies2FLL It’s a unique smooth sound.

[@michaelguerin56]

Thank you for another great video. The clips you have obtained this time are absolutely stunning!

[@donparker1823]

This was an interesting presentation. I often wondered why those old I-8's only had 5 or even 3 main bearings. Our old 1964 Rambler American with the 3.2L I-6 had 7 main bearings. It was so strong that Jeep bumped it up to 4.0L and used that engine for something like another 40 years. Dad had a 52 Packard with a I-8 with a 3 speed and an Overdrive. Back then Nevada had no speed limits. He would put extra pressure in the tires and drive 110MPH from LA to Southern UT (438 miles), where he was from, to go deer hunting. He's leave on Friday night and be back to LA on Saturday night with venison meat.

[@brucewiemer255]

Packard did have a 9 main bearing straight in their custom 8 line. A sales gimmick was to balance a nickle on edge on the top of the cylinder head while idling and not fall over.

[@FreedomForAll2013]

What is interesting is how a straight 4 isn't balanced in secondary forces, a 6 is perfectly balanced and yet an 8 is also! How does 8 balance inline but 4 cant? Or better yet how does the 8 manage it?

[@bunky8077]

Because the crankshaft has 90 degree offset crank pins more like that of a crossplane V8 and isn't just 2 flatplane I4s joined together

[@FreedomForAll2013]

@@bunky8077 what does that have to do with the firing order and secondary forces of the piston strokes though? I don't yet understand is all

[@FreedomForAll2013]

Ok yes I get it now! Thanks!

[@bunky8077]

@@FreedomForAll2013 Using a V8 is the best way to understand primary vs secondary balance as there are 2 ways of doing a V8 crankshaft, crossplane and flatplane. Do a search for flatplane vs crossplane on KZbin and you should find something. Its far easier to get your head around it with animations to go with it than trying to explain here

[@bunky8077]

@@FreedomForAll2013 This explains it quite well kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJTcfqKQpNaehqM

[@michaelguy1125]

Ford had experimented with an inline 8 about 20 years. Possible motor option for the F150 and f250 but never went passed the drawing bord. It basically two ecobost 2.0s put together in one block.

[@kylecurry6841]

Thank you! I've been wanting VR to cover more on the I8 engine. They're marvelous engines, just too long for most platforms in the realm of Automobiles

[@CarputingYT]

Wow, now this is another awesome topic! I was wondering why we don't see Straight-eights any more. Thanks VisioRacer, as usual, you have some awesome topics you cover! Keep it up, you're gonna be at a million subscribers in no time!

[@davidpowell3347]

I think the Pontiac straight 8 weighed about as much as the largest heaviest automobile V8s ever made such as the large Lincoln 462 engine. So going to V8 saved a lot of metal and allowed a shorter car to hold it. Wouldn't be surprised if the large Packard 9 main bearing engine weighed a half ton.

[@teppotulppu1603]

In Finland there are still MAN direct injected straight 8 turbo diesels in daily work use in Dr14 shunting locomotives. Sountrack of those historical pieces of engineering art is awesome.

[@juhomaki-petaja]

And Valmed made inline-8 Diesels for trains too. Production ended somewhere in 80s I think

[@teppotulppu1603]

@@juhomaki-petaja Valmet inline 8 was same as scania straight 8 in this video and was produced under scania licence. Or just copied from scania i'm not sure. Also MAN was produced under MAN licence by Tampella. Both engines are from 50's and 60's.

[@juhomaki-petaja]

@@teppotulppu1603 I didn’t know that😳

[@robertpierce1981]

Visio I appreciate the work you put into assembling your videos and narration style. Keep up the good work.

[@charliedee9276]

Crumple zone is why. The same reason inline 6's are going out of favor. There has to be sufficient area in front of the passenger compartment for proper crush and force dissipation to protect the occupants. Engine blocks do not crush, they instead get pushed back into the passenger compartment. Inline blocks mounted longitudinally take up a lot of room that can be used as a crush zone. Look at trucks and SUV's with longitudinally mounted engines, the engine itself is placed as far back into the engine compartment as possible to provide as much crush zone as possible in front of it.

[@Eight4E]

Great video, but I thought I should let you know that Buick is pronounced BYou-ick. Your pronunciations and English have gotten so much better over the years, keep up the good work!

[@JohnD3R]

I’m working on a straight eight at work right now. I’m at a classic car dealership. 1951 Pontiac chieftan

[@TIMMEH19991]

No mention of the 800 bhp English Electric 8SRKT engine used in the Australian D16 class locos which were still in use until very recently

[@sparky6086]

In the late 1960's, we had a 1937 Oldsmobile with a straight 8 engine. It was a two door and had two fold down jump seats in the back. My twin brother and I liked to use those seats, when we were 4 or 5 years old.

[@fuse8052]

Amazing and super informative video. So much of what you cover , I have never seen and would have never heard of. Thank you for what you do

[@Jay_Speed]

My grandfather had a Buick 8 inline in the fifties, when petrol prices went up the took out four pistons with the con-rods and put bronze plugs in the crankshaft for number 1, 2, 7 and 8. The push-rods went out as well but the spark plugs and lead stayed. Running the engine on four cylinders as a taxi. Later the did something like that on a V8 Buick, they cut windows in the four outside pistons and left them in the engine, using it as a V4. On this one the spark plugs where removed and the leads where grounded. This was in Belgium second hand US cars where really cheap at the end of the fifties and early sixties. This was because all the US military went back home. A lot of these cars where used as taxi, converted to tow trucks, light commercial trucks and so.

[@rickcrane6123]

In the 1920's Harry Miller was building 183, 122, and 91c.i.(1.5l) straight 8 dohc hemi engines in Los Angeles to race at Indianapolis and the high banked board tracks of that era. His famous "91" was supercharged and with methanol could put out 300 h.p. I believe it was this engine, or the 122 that Ettore Bugatti bought and copied to put in his Type 35 Grand prix car which was pretty successful. Look up Harry Miller and take a look at his engines. they are absolutely beautiful. Some Indy 500 races had over half the field with his cars and engines and won quite a few. He and his engineer, Leo Goosen, I think actually designed the front wheel drive unit for Cord as they already had experience on Miller's own "91" front drive Indy cars.

[@andyharman3022]

Fun Fact: Every Buick engine ever made was overhead valve. They never made a valve-in-block engine. This video reminds of Jay Leno's excellent video about the Duesenberg hot rod. Search for it.

[@WynnofThule]

5:06 It was also used in the Salamander firefighting vehicle

[@tilkanash]

Great video and really well presented thanks, if I may suggest at around 3.50 into your video when you mention US companies manufacturing and using Straight 8's, please include Stutz. USA manufactured and built produced and very impressive race machines . 16 Spark plugs , twin ignitions, all shaft drive for water pump ,generator, etc, and were built for performance. Stutz were built to race against Bugatti, Benz , Bentley , etc Many examples are still driving today. Beautiful cars. Thank you again for the great video.

[@jslade60]

I've only seen one running and it was running so smooth and so quiet you didn't even know it was on!

[@Tom-Lahaye]

Many more I8 diesel engines were made, although most not for automotive use. A very well known one is the Gardner 8L3, many used in smaller vessels like canal barges and fishing boats, and also in small shunting locomotives. Then we have larger inline 8 diesels for railroad application like those produced by Sulzer, Fairbanks Morse, Hamilton and Baldwin to name a few.

[@CaptHollister]

A fundamentally limited design, but what a soundtrack !

[@chrisbamforth4125]

L Gardner and Sons of Patricroft Manchester United Kingdom, made a number of straight eight diesel engines for marine and train use. They also had an 8 inline engine for road use in natural aspiration (240 bhp) and later with a turbo at 300bhp. Fitted to many UK manufacturers lorries. It was a very smooth engine with a very different exhaust note and remarkably economic compared to the competition. Gardner engines were famous for their exceptional build quality and engineering. Many marine engines are still in use.

[@martingardener90]

I worked on the Alvis Stalwart in the British army in the 80's - cant say I worked on the Rolls Royce B81 as they never gave any trouble. I do remember one that threw a con rod - It ran OK with just a slight vibration and hardly noticeable loss of power. Another lost it's coolant and got that hot it burned the paint off the head - once the leak was fixed it continued running fine.

[@Dowlphin]

One cool feature of this engine configuration is that you can abbreviate it so beautifully. *Str8*

[@sweetdrahthaar7951]

What a coincidence this video would show up in my KZbin feed today. I was just thinking about straight eights and remembering that my dad had a straight eight crankshaft as a mailbox post👍🏻

[@jimmyfleetwood1118]

Well done vid. Perhaps I missed it, but weight was a large consideration for the evolution from the inline 8's, as well. (Increasingly so as engineering was better understood) For the example, the Buick Fire Ball Eight, was well over 1/2 ton complete (minus trans and bell). 1200 to 1400 lbs I've been told by machinist. By contrast, the OHV Buick V-8 that came out in '53 was a "light weight" casting, at under 700 lbs--about the 1/2 of the Eight.

[@danielbennion80]

Good info. Thanks. 👍

[@exothermal.sprocket]

Loved that straight-8 turbo diesel sound.

[@weirdo1083]

Socialism now that sounds good.

[@davey6024]

Damn visio how u not got 1mil sub by now, you deserve it. Everyone like and share!

[@mr.gunzaku437]

I remember getting this cup as a kid at a gas station. Plastic collector 32 oz. It's long gone, but it had some pretty good art of a pink Duesenberg touring car that had a paragraph about the company and what happened to it during the early Depression. Sad, it's one of my absolute favorite car companies because the designs are so gorgeous. I couldn't imagine the size of such a monstrous engine, but it sounded cool and that car was classy. And if it had an engine that powerful under the hood, I'd love to have one.

[@keithammleter3824]

VisioRacer is quite right - inline engines have more of a problem with crankshaft torsional vibration. It wasn't a problem with the old American inline 8 car engines due to low compression design, and low power output. In the 1930's America, a long engine bay on a car was a status symbol. Post-war, long engine bays were considered ugly, and women drivers found long cars hard to park. So engines had to be shorter - hence V8's, not I8's, post war. An additional minor advantage of V-engines is lower friction. For any given cylinder swept volume, you would expect the power lost in friction would be directly proportional to the number of cylinders. However, for any given cylinder size and number of cylinders, the V-formation has less friction than the inline form due to the staggering of peak loads on each crank throw. For a while. I worked as the engineer for a dealer selling large industrial diesel engines. Over a whole range of an engine series, the cylinder size is always the same. One series we sold gave about 50 kW per cylinder, so if you needed 200 kW, you got an inline 4, if you wanted 300 kW, you got an inline 6, if you needed 400 kW, you got a V8, and if you needed 600 kW, you got a V12. And if you needed 800 kW, you got a V16. The V8 got the same size starter motor as the I4. The V12 got the same size starter motor as the I6. Of course the V16 had two starter motors fitted, each the same size as the one fitted to the V8 and I4. This is not the full picture though - for example the I4 cranked a bit faster that the V8. But the friction loads were close enough to allow starter motor standardization. The V engines needed only slightly larger starting batteries too. So, all up, a V8 is cheaper than an I8 for example.

[@VisioRacer]

Wow, thank you for your story!

[@Parents_of_Twins]

Learned something new as usual. I'd never heard of the Cord. They were front wheel drive back in the 30's which is just cool.

[@mortensen1961]

Cord made two series of cars, the L-29 from 1929-1932, and the 810/812 from 1936-1937. Both were front-wheel drive. . ..

[@wilbur9416]

Straight 8 and straight 6 sound so strong and beautiful. Straight 8s have lots of torque

[@stevehill4615]

Perskins make a straight 8 engine of 32 litres either gas or diesel fueled called the 4000 series (4008) for generator or pump applications.

[@jonthecomposer]

I love how straight eights sound very close to 90 degree crank V8s. It's all in the way the cylinders fire bank-to-bank. But if you look at the firing order and/or the crankshaft of a straight 8, the first four cylinders mirror the last 4 in a 90 degree crank configuration. So in reality, instead of firing (L=left, R=right) RLRRLRLL, they fire (F=front, B=back) FBFFBFBB, the front four cylinders acting like one bank of a V8 and the rear 4 acting like the opposing bank. And with the exhaust pulses literally the same per each group of 4 cylinders per manifold, the exact same exhaust pulses as a V8 are going to come out. This was the only thing that surprised me about straight 8s. Now, if its crank looked like 2 180 degree cranks offset 90 degrees, it would "buzz" since the firing order between front and rear banks would be equal: FBFBFBFB (like in a 180 degree crank car).

[@stuartcottee1843]

You forgot about the British built gardner 8 cylinder diesel used in buses and trucks, great video

[@rattyratstuff7125]

had a 320 i8 in my buick. drove it in hs and loved it. never got to drive after i purchased. i need that rumble again

[@alexnyan7055]

Visio in 4k with another great engine video! thank you m8!

[@phil955i]

Quite simply, packaging. What a beautiful sounding engine though.

[@kingofsludge7262]

I’ve had a dream for a few years, and I’ve been saving up to make it a reality. Hopefully in a few years I’ll have a new and improved straight eight to offer up. Hope!

[@johanlofgren7081]

Scania's diesel i8 has a very "brutal" sound. Some buses and railway buses in Sweden had these engines in the 60's and 70's I remember. Just LOOOOVED that sound. When idling at low temperature, freezing temperature, the idling becomes unsteady, similar to a big horse huffing and puffing, eager to get going.😤😁

[@SheepFromDaHell]

one honorable mention could be the "Schlüter 9.852 cm³ 8cylinder diesel". Awesome tractor straight 8 engine :)

[@eliaslundstedt5607]

The Scania engine in the red Z4p lokomotive is called the D812. A naturally aspirated unit, making 190 horsepower, and yes amount of tourque. There is it's bigger brother, the D815, which is turbocharged, making I think 220 ir 230 horses, idk tho.

[@stangei000]

There is another straight 8 Diesel engine build by Schlüter in Bavaria. They were build in the 80s for traktor and stationary usage

[@stevemino142]

The reason why the straight 8 died was few reasons fueling 8 cylinders in a straight line was a challenge as the middle cylinders got all the fuel while the front 2 and the back 2 usually ran lean adding more carburetors would help but went through more fuel also head gasket was a problem as so many bolts were needed to keep a good seal and the cylinder block was prone to warping around the half way area and because 8 in a row the engine was super long...as soon as the V8 came out the straight 8 was obsolete

[@MA70with2JZGTE]

Very interesting video, but you forget that the German tractor manufacturer 'Schlüter' used a 9.5l straight 8 engine in their 2000t (tv/tvl) model. With 165-195hp, build from 1970-1982.

[@sleepless3y3s]

80hp for a 5.9L straight 8 engine? We have come a long way with fewer cylinders and smaller displacement for the same horsepower

[@danielhomant2832]

Packards didn't have crankshaft issues like most other I-8 engines due to using a 9 main design to fully support the crank. They were the engines you can balance a coin on edge while it is running at any rpm.

[@Troy_nov1965]

Packard in their prime built the finest cars in the world.

[@hyper8545]

Been watching you for years. Love this channel

[@danbeyer6333]

Great video. Super research. Had the chance to buy a 1939 Buick with straight 8. But did not. Too bad for me.

[@VestedUTuber]

Short answer: it's a really space-inefficient engine design. The long, narrow shape of the engine forces a longitudinal mount and demands a lot of the length of the vehicle be dedicated to the engine compartment. For most vehicles a V8 is just going to fit better. You still see inline-6s from time to time because they're still small enough to fit inside a conventional engine compartment in either a longitudinal or transverse engine compartment - to do that with an inline-8, the engine would have to have a very low displacement and then you lose the torque advantage.

[@Bata.andrei]

The Ford model A equipped with a supercharged Packard I8, at the end of the video, deserves a video all on it's own.

[@dougbennett8592]

Ain't hot-rodding beautiful?

[@johnt4060]

The Buick and Duesenberg straight 8 was such awesome engines

[@michaelszczys8316]

30 years ago I remember seeing popular mechanics magazine they had experimental designs for sideways straight 8 with chain sprocket in center of crank

[@aaronburratwood.6957]

Imagine a 2JZ with an extra two cylinders. That would be sooooo long though.

[@apprenticefelix7740]

Yes

[@Hi11is]

3:52 REO was pronounced as a word, like rio, despite the fact that the letters were the initials of Ransom Eli Olds. The band REO Speedwagon says the letters. Excellent video BTW

[@VisioRacer]

I pronounce the MAN brand as ‘maan’ and only received criticism that it should be spelled, although it is normal in my language to pronounce such names as a single word. Thanks

[@davidpowell3347]

REO made trucks and lawnmowers! I think the trucks were made up into the 1950's An old advertisement for the lawnmower shows a parked REO truck with the driver in his uniform happily running a REO lawnmower (they were self-propelled and rather expensive with chain drive and self-rewinding starter) engine was cast iron and the power takeoff was from the camshaft!

[@Hi11is]

@@VisioRacer It's hard, Americans say the letters of LED (Light Emitting Diode) but other English speaking countries say it as a word. It was invented in America so they are wrong,😉We try to mix it up to confuse everyone. While wikipedia isn't authoritative, they agree with your pronunciation of MAN. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAN_Truck_%26_Bus

[@grahamnutt8958]

Very well researched/presented - as usual. Big 👍 here. Respect.

[@jonathanshiflett8877]

Man it would be cool if a modern manufacturer would revive the straight-8 by giving it wider main bearing journals, more main shaft journals, a stronger crankshaft, stronger connecting rods and pistons, overhead cam design with timing chains, dual intake manifolds with single throttle bodies on both, dual 4 into 1 headers with a turbo attached to both and then fuel injection for efficiency, man I know I’ll never see one like that but damn it would be cool. Basically just 2 inline 4’s attached to each other longitudinally connected at the end of the crankshafts, both with single turbos.

[@martintaper7997]

All of the crankshaft strength issues of a straight 8 are resolved by modern technology. Straight eights need not be much longer, or at all, than straight six engines, the "capacity" determines the length more so than the number of cylinders. They have two more piston spacings than a straight six and the bores are reduced in size and a longer stroke can further reduce bore diameter, all reducing engine length. So essentially for any give capacity you can have a straight eight essentially the same length or even shorter than some straight six engines - simple geometry. The reason they don't make them now is by reason of economics and lack of imagination.

[@scootbmx01]

You do realise what happens when you decrease the bore and increase stroke right?

[@martintaper7997]

@@scootbmx01 Well yes, but you don't decrease the stroke, do you, and you do realise what happens when you increase the piston count from 6 to 8, right?

[@scootbmx01]

@@martintaper7997 yes but by your math all you've done is increase rotational mass and made weaker pistons and rods.... The pistons would be tiny by the time you decreased the bore enough to keep the engine size down. Why you think V8's are so common place?

[@martintaper7997]

@@scootbmx01 How are the pistons and rods weaker - each piston and rod undergo a reduced load being smaller pistons with smaller combustion chambers; a smaller force then created by each cylinder. Each piston also has a reduced load by there being more of them, six versus eight. As to rotational mass, being a superbly naturally balanced engine the straight eight requires less balance mass, and in any case the crank balance weights per cylinder are of lower mass as each cylinder is smaller due to being more of them, six versus eight, again. I was not comparing to vee eights, but they are more common place for many reasons mostly to do with economics and history. Straight eights had a weakness in design because of when they came about when technology was much less sophisticated, and they were often large to very large engines - the straight eight ended usage in car engines in the early 1950s. Vee eights were the only solution to the straight eight problems at the time (for large engines), and so the straight eight was consigned to history. Today a straight eight would be a superior engine to any vee eight and would be "cheaper" to make as to "fewer" major and costly components, but even the vee eight is an anachronism of history and will soon be gone.

[@scootbmx01]

@@martintaper7997 🤦... ill address this in parts... first ill start off with the weakness concept that you don't seem to understand, except this time ill use some maths. For the given power if it was a constant between the inline 6 and 8 counterparts then yes, the load across each piston would be less for the same power, however this almost NEVER happesn, have a look a ez30 subaru's compared to ej25's for instance. You have a 6 cylinder engine with 86mm bore and stroke like say an rb30 right with a cubic capacity of 2997cc, to cram 8 pistons in that same length you would need to decrease the piston size by over 10mm to 74.48mm, this does NOT take into account the thickness of the extra cylinder walls and sleeves, so you would end up with pistons well below 70mm wide assuming a standard thickness of around 3mm between cylinders (this varies depending on the position you measure, check out PRP's video on bore testing). There is only so much space between the inside face of the skirt where the rod sits between, decreasing that down by over 10mm PER PISTON, mean you will NEED to run a thinner rod aswell since you would physically be unable to fit a standard size rod in there anymore, especially not accounting for heat expansions etc. No onto the second point, about rotational mass... Longer crank, more rods and pistons, more valvetrain meaning more weight in the valve train, all turns into more rotational mass. Like the first point, if the weight was a constant and all the parts for the 8 cylinder counterpart were lighter to maintain an overal same weight then yeah sure, but that never happens. Balancing has nothing to do with that rotational mass, theres more mass to get moving meaning a less responsive engine given all other things equal. tldr: more parts = more weight, not a hard concept especially given the crank would need to be thicker overall to maintain the same integrity or be thinner overall, sacrificing integrity to keep the weight. Same for pistons, rods, valve train. 3rd point, v8's. They're so commonplace because they are literally...so common. They're shorter than any decent inline engine but generally wider, making them better for engine swaps vs tall or long inline 6 engines, i purposely omit 4 cylinders from this because people swapping 8 cylinders into cars arent wanting less power, less torque etc generally. V8's have evolved and that's why they are still around today otherwise what we're seeing now with smaller engines and forced induction taking over production cars would have happened decades ago. 4th point, the superiority of the inline 8. What exactly makes it superior? Yeah sure it's more balanced but that's about it and that's even less of a point with modern technology. You still cannot get around physics, it needs to be longer, have more moving parts, a longer crank (refer to my above point about weight vs integrity) and as such packaging becomes a concern. I'm not denying v8's will eventually die off but it won't happen anytime in the near future.

[@fahrfromrunnin]

I appreciate your channel! Since you are in the UK, you might have already heard of it, but I just discovered a neat, modular engine; Connaught. Drivetribe are putting a straight 10 in a Mk2 Miata (Well, it's a VR10, but you will see). Thought you might appreciate it if you don't already...

[@CaptHollister]

I believe VisioRacer is based in Slovakia, not the UK. And how do you describe a V10 (or V20 when two are geared together) as an inline 10 ?

[@rickreid81]

Excellent video Visio Racer. Thank you!

[@pughoneycutt1986]

I know of 2 saw mills and 1 grist mill that were powered by Buick straight 8s for decades

[@Josh-b3c]

It's nice to see you're back

[@robertrobinson3861]

Serious straight eight Grand Prix racing engines of the 1930s era had the drive coming off the center of the crankshaft making them, in effect, two four cylinder engines back to back. This results in the same total torsion twist as either four cylinder 'half' on it's own. Of course this made the task of getting the drive to the gearbox a bit more complicated, but it worked.

[@jcgabriel1569]

No, they're not. On those engines, drive was taken from the rear of the engine, not from the middle. The central drive is only used in the mid-1950s, with the 1954-55 Mercedes-Benz W196 F1 car and 390SLR sports car, and the 1956 Bugatti T251 F1 car.

[@robertrobinson3861]

@@jcgabriel1569 Yeh, my 'Time Period' was off the mark, but that doesn't change the technical context of my statement.

[@MGWilliams]

Missed the Gardner 8LXB/C, very common truck engines of the 70s 80s. Also the Rolls Royce super charged 8 pot was fitted to the Thorney Croft Mighty Antar.

[@brettcatterall7761]

Was working on a 49 packard. Had a huge straight 8. That was one heavy car

[@davidpowell3347]

A car that deserves better than to be put as less desired than a common Chevrolet "57. Much better car yet the old car fanatics don't seem to want them. Would be nice to have one in show condition with the manual and overdrive.

[@jamesgeorge4874]

Great Vid, lots of good content, the Cord would be a good exploration on too, they were quite ahead of their time. Updoots on your monetization situation, you are what makes KZbin great.

[@Mikepet]

There were quite a few Straight 8s in German tractors like Deutz, Eicher and Schlüter. Really great engines that lastet for ever.

[@cluricaun78]

That was a bad ass video, love those straight eights! Gotta admit though, I like it better when we see you do the intro/outro. Just thought I'd mention that :)

[@davidpowell3347]

Was that a Pontiac 8 shown early in the vid with its head off? Believe some large or powerful high compression straight 8's had a gear near the middle of the crankshaft that provided the power takeoff,reducing the crankshaft whip since it acted like a pair of 4 cylinder crankshafts to some extent Crankshaft whip can be visualized by using a very long socket wrench extension,compared to a short extension you will notice the twist that occurs before you reach much torque being applied,the problem with the crankshaft is that it tends to start winding up and unwinding in a sort of "torsional vibration" which adds stress,there are ways of trying to dampen this out to some extent with iron hubs surrounded by rubber,the rubber then surrounded by another heavy iron outer ring,also there are fluid filled dampers can be overcome to some extent by making the crankshaft thick through the bearings,high quality forged steel,also rigid stout heavy engine block with deep skirt Packard at one time had two blocks,one with 9 main bearings and one with 5 main bearings,I believe that during certain years both were available in 327 cubic inch displacement size,I believe Packard's were considered to be the best balanced,blueprinted and counterweighted of these ancient but very nice running engines along with a 9 bearing straight 8 made by Studebaker for the Pierce-Arrow during the time that Studebaker was associated with owning Pierce. (Studebaker's own straight 8 might have only had 5) I suspect that the early Duesenberg 3 bearing engine was quite unreliable and short lived,a toy think later Duesenbergs that won races had much improved engines or else the stories are just stories even the Pontiac had 5 main bearings

[@Spectrolite1]

Best Alfa Romeo Engines? Keep up the good work!

[@Damien.D]

How can you pack so many technical and historical informations in only 6 minutes and half? =)

[@VisioRacer]

Thank you. It is my pleasure ☺️

[@BreakerAlpha]

3:24 damn, that sounds freaking awesome!

[@patrickcannell2258]

Near every Dennis Fire engine 1947 to about 1972 were powered by Roll Royce B Series engines. London Machines did not have them. London Fire Brigade preferred diesel engines. Was a beast.

[@paulred2009]

I'm glad to see your videos again so soon!!!!

[@High-Overlord-Pugula]

Had a 1950 Packard with a straight 8, sadly it never ran and I just couldn't find the time to rebuild it, it had sat for 35 years without being turned over so it was well locked up

[@lolbr-tn6kq]

It needs more main bearings & head bolts per cylinder. In it's present state it is unmodifiable...

[@speedhunter7156]

There is a Hotwheels concept that takes the straight 8 engines called crazy 8's and puts two one on each side of the car making it a crazy DCT 16 cylinder cars and a crazy concept that could have existed

[@holeshotshane6344]

That first shift gear noise is like hearing nails on a chalkboard. Seriously it makes my eye twitch.

[@erikhesjedal3569]

Yes. I have wondered why. Thanks Visio!

[@IrenESorius]

I luv these explanatory videos of yours VR. ⭐ How are the internal vibrations on the straight six,es? I have read that many of "the worlds most reliable / best engines" are straight sixes from BMW - MB - Jeep, etc etc. The straight 3 cyl sounds lovely in my very subjective taste. 🥰 As usuall,, cheers and thank you soo much for the time and work you "plow" down in these flicks,, 🍻😎👍‍‍!!! I luv em,, ❣

[@VisioRacer]

I might look into that, thanks!

[@michaelbenardo5695]

I knew about all the automotive Straight 8s, but didn't know about Straight 8 diesels.

[@carmob7499]

Epic video thx for the knowledge Bomb 💣

[@enthusiasticpaunch]

Feel like this was a nudge from my uncle bud..always tried to teach me stuff. He had a beautiful 49 Pontiac Chieftain with a straight 8. Miss that guy.

[@KapiteinKrentebol]

4:00 That is a really beautiful bus.

[@moondogdieselworks3883]

As always great video great passion