Thislist of GM engines encompasses allengines manufactured byGeneral Motors and used in its cars.
When General Motors was created in 1908, it started out withBuick and soon after acquiredOldsmobile,Cadillac andOakland. There were dozens of other smaller companies that William Durant acquired during his first employment term until he was let go due to financially overextending his purchases. He regained control when he brought onChevrolet in 1917 which was short lived until he was let go for the second time. This meant that the different core brands designed and manufactured their own engines with few interchangeable parts between brands, while sharing chassis, suspension and transmissions.
One of the companies Durant bought in 1909 was theNorthway Motor and Manufacturing Company founded by Ralph Northway who had previously supplied engines to Buick, Oakland,Cartercar and other 1900s manufacturers, including V8 engines to Oldsmobile, Oakland and Cadillac when they were independent companies.[1] When Durant bought companies that became part of GM, Northway continued to supply engines to his former clients and added Cadillac, GMC and Oldsmobile to the list, then Northway Motors became theNorthway Motor and Manufacturing Division in 1925 and became part of the GM Intercompany Parts Group.[2]
WhenFisher Body was bought in 1925, coachwork was shared and with the introduction of the Art and Color Section also in the late 1920, GM products shared appearances. The core items that made each brand unique were the engines. Buick and Chevrolet used overhead valves while Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Oakland used side valve or flathead engines and the divisions no longer outsourced their engines and manufactured them according to particular brand requirements. The original factory location was located at Maybury Grand Avenue, Buchanan Street and theGrand Trunk Railway in Detroit then later became GM truck Plant No. 7 in 1926 to manufacture front and rear axles and parts for past model Chevrolets. Starting around 1925 engine blocks and cylinder heads were now developed at each brand but were cast atSaginaw Metal Casting Operations.[3] In the mid-1960s, there were 8 separate families of GMV8 engines on sale in the USA.[4][1]
By the 1970s, GM began to see problems with their approach. For instance, four different North American divisions (Chevrolet,Pontiac,Oldsmobile andBuick) offered four completely different versions of a 350 cu in V8 engine - very few parts would interchange between the four designs despite their visual similarities, resulting in confusion for owners who naturally assumed that replacement parts would be usable across brands. In addition to these issues and the obvious overlap in production costs, the cost of certifying so many different engines for tightening worldwide emissions regulations threatened to become very costly.
Thus, by the early 1980s, GM had consolidated its powertrain engineering efforts into a few distinct lines. Generally, North American and European engineering units remained separate, with Australia's Holden and other global divisions borrowing designs from one or the other as needed. GM also worked out sharing agreements with other manufacturers such asIsuzu andNissan to fill certain gaps in engineering. Similarly, the company also purchased other automotive firms (includingSaab andDaewoo), eventually folding their engine designs into the corporate portfolio as well. GM later reorganized its Powertrain Division into GM Global Propulsion Systems, located at 800 N Glenwood Avenue inPontiac, Michigan,[5] which became the GM Global Product Group in March 2020 and is in close proximity to the old location ofPontiac Assembly.[6]
GM's German subsidiary,Opel, relied on a range of three-, four- and six-cylindergasoline anddiesel engines. A survey[citation needed] of their range shows a reliance on petrol and diesel four-cylinders, and in 2014, there was only one 3-cylinder engine and one 6 cylinder engine in service in Opel's passenger car range.
In addition to automobile and truck engines, GM produced industrial engines, which were sold by brands such asDetroit Diesel,Allison, andElectro-Motive. Most of these engine designs are unrelated to GM's automotive engines.[citation needed]
From the 1950s through the 1970s, each GM division had its own V8 engine family. Today, there are only two families of V8 engines in production for road vehicles: theGeneration V small-block and itsGemini small-block derivative.
GM entered the diesel field with its acquisition of theCleveland-basedWinton Engine Company in 1930. Winton's main client was theElectro Motive Company, a producer of internal combustion-electric rail motorcars. GM acquired Electro Motive at roughly the same time as Winton.
A partnership of GM's Research and Development Division and their Winton Engine Corporation delivered their first diesel engines suitable for mobile use starting in 1934. The engines were also sold for marine and stationary applications. In a 1938 reorganization, Winton Engine Corporation became the GMCleveland Diesel Engine Division, and GM'sDetroit Diesel Engine Division began production of smaller (50–149 cu in (0.8–2.4 L) per cylinder) diesel engines. Locomotive engines were moved under the GM Electro Motive Division (EMD) in 1941, while Cleveland Diesel retained development and production of large marine and stationary engines.
Cleveland Diesel was dissolved in 1962 and their remaining production moved to EMD. In 1988, the Detroit Diesel Engine Division was incorporated as an independent company, later acquired by DaimlerChrysler in 2005. EMD was sold off by GM in 2005 and is now a subsidiary ofProgress Rail.
GM Whirlfire engine, including:
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42°39′45″N83°17′08″W / 42.6623635°N 83.2856193°W /42.6623635; -83.2856193
