Sorry, I thought I remember seeing a I-8 in a Chevy pickup. But it could have been a 6. I also thought I remember seeing 8 plug wires and thinking it was pretty long to be a 6 but I could be wrong.

 

I don't think that GM did it but I'm pretty sure that Nissan and maybe some others had an I-4 that had 8 sparkplugs. Not sure of the year though.

 

I owned a Datsun that had 8 plugs for 4 cylinders. As I recall it was a 1981 model.

Daniel

 

If I remember correctly, Chevrolet never made an inline 8cyl. They were known for their I-6's. Their sister companies, Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac all had I-8's I believe. As well as a slew of other car makers, all which are now out of business except for Dodge.

Is it a flat head, valve in block, or an overhead valve block? And if you scratch around on the block you should be able to find a name or some thing to help.

 

My 86.5 Nissan had that Z24 engine with the 8 sparkplugs. Good truck, but poor quality steel. I lost an entire bedside after hitting a pothole in Davenport, IA in 1997. It wouldn't have been so bad, but I had just replaced the broken tail light housing the week before!! Running offroad, you could feel the cab, floor, seats, and frame all flexing in different directions over rough terrain. It was definitely not safe, but it went through pretty much anything! The owner's manual had instructions for rotating duals!! I have never seen a dually Nissan Hardbody, even when overseas, but I know how to do the tire rotation and brake maintenance!!

 

Chevy came out with an optional V-8 in 1955, for the second time. Pontiac used a I-8 until 1956 or 57. I was there in the 50's but not when Chevy had their first V-8, back in the 20's I believe.

Dan

 

I'm going back out there next weekend, so I'll snap some pics then.

 

There was the 235 CI motor, and one that was larger. 26x or so. They were both big engines, quite a bit bigger than say a Slant 6 or similar car motor.

 

My old boss had a 96 ranger with the english (?) made I-4. Had 8 spark plugs. Oh, he sold it for $2700 with 200,000 mile and it STILL had the ORIGINAL clutch! nothing was wrong with it. Then he "upgraded" to a 04 ranger...has a lot of rattles but the clutch is much better.

 

In the early '60s my great uncle had to stop driving so he gave his car to my brothers and me to drive to high school in the next town. It was a 1949 Pontiac with a straight-8, single barrel carb. We had that car full of kids every day to school and back for several years. Next we had a '47 Dodge and a '51 Chevy, but those were I-6's. They were great cars to learn wrenchin' on. Then there was the '57 Ford Fairlane (big V8, convertable hardtop, did you ever rewire one of those?) and the '59 Alfa Romeo. Ahh, those were the days.

 

The Dusenberg had a straight eight.

 

My buddies dad had a 40's era Packard with a flathead straight eight. Very smooth and quiet.

 

Could be a Hudson straight eight...

 

My Dad has an old '40 ~ '41 Jaguar XK120. It apparently came with a straight eight originally.

 

the bigger chevy six was a 292 had very long stroke and was a truck engine.