Could We See Big Block Gas V-8 & V-10 In New Trucks Again

Chuck_thehammer wrote:

WHY are there NO gas 18 wheelers??? because.
high torque at low rpm.
higher energy per gallon of fuel

and I am NOT a diesel fan.

just a better platform for pulling.

I think the primary reason is more pulling power per dollar of fuel and maintenance and total cost when amortized over a few million miles. A good portion of truck tractors are company owned; they don't really care about whether the driver is listening to an engine running at high or low RPMs, or whether they have to pump 250 gallons of gasoline or 200 gallons of diesel. They do very much care about the cost per mile to haul the stuff around.

big block was over 4 inch pistons.. small block was 4 and under.

chevy had a 400 small block and a 396 big block.
and 2 types of big blocks.. tall deck and standard deck.. both were 427... tall block was a truck engine.

up and coming engine... variable compression engine.. with turbocharger.. do out in 2017 for cars.

big engines will be a thing of the past.. we are running out of oil..MAYBE.

current big engines are considered small block. even over 4 inch pistons.
mostly due to block weight.

my opinion.

as to the gas and diesel...
just like Chevy and Ford
Black and White
Cat and Dog.
pointless.

WHY are there NO gas 18 wheelers??? because.
high torque at low rpm.
higher energy per gallon of fuel

and I am NOT a diesel fan.

just a better platform for pulling.

timmac wrote:
With the new EPA laws under the new prez/senate in the White house could we see GM 8.1 and Fords V-10 back into trucks soon.

Might even have a other gas class A motorhome chassis to choose from.

:C

This was the original question ^^^^^^. The real answer is no. One election, one president is a very short period of time. The auto makers have spent millions in developing more energy efficient less polluting engines. All it will take is one skirmish in the middle east to drive up oil prices and the fickle consumer will run from the gas guzzlers. Have we forgotten the near demise of the auto and RV industry? We have been lucky that we have experienced several years of an anti-war environment that has given us cheap gas. That can change tomorrow with zero notice.

I think the CEO's of the big 3 have a better long term vision than the average voter-consumer, don't expect huge changes.

down home wrote:

time2roll wrote:
Nope I am looking for a plug-in hybrid MH or truck.

That would be one heck, of a battery pack for a truck. Of course the bed is usually empty.

85kWh Tesla battery is about 1200 pounds so the suspension would need update or lose payload.
Some would be offset by smaller engine and transmission.
And maybe only 40 kWh or less would be needed.

dodge guy wrote:
Since this has gone diesel vs gas, right I don't own one. I do work on them. And as I stated I wouldn't own a late model def equipped diesel. Ide rather stop for one more gas fill up rather than wait on the side of the road for a tow truck or be limited to 50mph because of an issue.

And ide love to see a diesel PU getting 15 mpg towing 15k plus lbs!!! Since that seems to be what people are claiming. If not, the actual mileage of 11 wouldn't sway me one bit to get a diesel. If and when the time comes and I wanted a diesel it would be a pre DEF Cummins.

We no longer have it but our 05 Dualie F350 pulling, bear with me,19,00lbs, I think got, at 62mph, 1900rpm on cruise and average of somewhere around 20mpg.There is a post somewhere from when we had it with the exact figures. Nail it and it went down.
That figure was averaged over one mountain and a total, mostly Interstate in the US and some congestion in Ontario, and west over Superior and back down. Our 02 7.4 F350 did better than that with a tune, on tow setting. Empty it would run like a race car.

colliehauler wrote:
I don't see any big block making a comeback. If you want one you will have to resurrect a old vehicle that has one.

Crate engines are available up to 632 cubic inches.

572s are as common as dirt.
And in other post I made you got the dough, you can buy up to over 900 inches, complete.

time2roll wrote:
Nope I am looking for a plug-in hybrid MH or truck.

That would be one heck, of a battery pack fora truck. Of course the bed is usually empty.

The_real_wild1 wrote:
So what is considered a big block anyways? Wasn't there a 392 big block? Same as the 6.4 hemi.

"Big Block" was first applied for marketing the 1958 Chevrolet "W" series (348, 409, 427) but generally refers to a V-8 with sufficient bore spacing to allow a cylinder bore in excess of 4 inches, and enough deck height to allow enough stroke to build the engine undersquare, or at least almost square. "Big Block" to distinguish from the "Small Block" V-8 Chevrolet introduced in 1955. "W" engine was replaced by the "Mark IV" big block which started out as the 396 (366 as a truck engine) and grew to 402, 427, 454, 502 and 527 sizes. The Mark IV is the engine people most often think of when they say "big block"

Equivalent to the W series was the 1958 FE engine from Ford (332, 352, 390, 427, 428), later replaced by the "335" series medium block (302, 351, 400) and "385" series big block (370, 429 and 460). The "385" also replaced the (1958) MEL big block (383, 410, 430, 462).

At Chrysler, the "B" engine was introduced in 1958 to replace the 1951-58 FirePower Hemi (241, 270, 276, 291, 315, 325, 330, 331, 341, 345, 354, 392 . The "B" big block came as 350 and 361, the taller "RB" block as 383, 400, 413, 426, and 440. This engine was developed into the 426 Hemi, but that was a new block to accommodate the more complex valve train.

Larger cars that got OHV V-8s earlier than Chevrolet (1949 Oldsmobile, 1953 Buick "nailhead," 1949-62 Cadillac, 1951 Chrysler FirePower, 1952 Lincoln Y-block, 1950s Packard) more often were "medium-block" with displacements originally 4 to 5 liters, some ultimately growing to around 400 CID before being replaced by more modern big blocks that could be sized in the 400-500 range.

"Big Block" is not just about displacement, as small blocks can sometimes be bored and stroked to large sizes, with tall-deck Chevy small blocks being built to 427 or larger for competition applications where engine life is expected to be short. Improvements in casting technology enabled bigger bores on a small bore spacing.

The Big Block 440 upgraded to an Edelbrock Multipoint fuel injection system in my coach averaged about 7.5 mpg. It had to wind up to 3500+ rpm to pull 6% grades at 45 mph. Not a bad unit and I weigh about 14,500 lbs.

But I got a hankering for a diesel engine that wouldn't turn as fast and would have more torque.

So I changed my coach from the 440 with a 4 spd Allison to an '06 Duramax diesel with a 6 spd Allison.

Now note that I just changed the engine and the transmission. I didn't change vehicles (because I liked my vehicle!) so any changes were the result of just the engine and transmission - nothing else as nothing else changed! Size of vehicle stayed the same, air resistance stayed the same, and the driver stayed the same.

What happened to fuel mileage? Well it went from 7.5 to a documented 14.8 over 7,000 miles which included multiple mountain crossings out here in the West.

What happened to pulling power? Well, it went up as measured by being able to pull 6% grades at 65 mph.

What happened to sound levels (note the coach was always a rear engined unit)? Well, the sound level went down mainly due to operating at lower rpm. With gas I pulled the 6% hills at about 3,500 rpm and with the diesel I can pull that same 6% grade hill at 2,200 rpm. Cruising rmp with gas was about 3,200 rpm and with diesel it is about 1,700 rpm.

Bottom line, I like the new configuration and am glad I did it. Its diesel for me. Forget the Big Block gas engines. It is either a turbo gas engine or a turbo diesel engine.

westend wrote:

irishtom29 wrote:
The future of high performence gasoline engines more likely belongs to smaller turbo motors than to large normally aspirated ones. My 1 liter 3 cylinder Ecoboost Fiesta makers 123 HP and 148 torque. Scale those numbers up to 5 liters and you've a great deal of power. Note that GM has jumped on the turbo 6 train with a very powerful 3.6 dual turbo V6 used in a hot version of the Cadillac CTS.

Of course turbo charged big displacement gasoline motors would be useful too.

The Ford V-10 and probably GM's offerings in big block engines have been fuel-injected for years. There hasn't been a "normally aspirated" for quite awhile. You are probably using that phrase to refer to non turbo or supercharged engines.

I definitely agree with your premise, that injecting air is a better and more efficient way to get the most out of an engine (at least the most horsepower to weight ratio).

I'm thinking this thread was initiated by someone that pines for the days of the big block, when they were an excellent power plant for towing. They had gobs of power and ran without problems, for the most part.

I find it hopeful that, in today's market, there is more advancement in motive engineering than in the days of just making year-over-year cosmetic changes to haulers.

Please
Understand that normally aspirated refers to an non turbo or super charged engine, not to how the fuel is delivered.