The Chevrolet Inline-4 engine was one of

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

's first automobile engines, designed by Arthur Mason and introduced in 1913. Chevrolet founder

Billy Durant William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each s ...

, who previously had owned

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

which had pioneered the

overhead valve engine An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...

, used the same basic engine design for Chevrolet: exposed

pushrod A valvetrain or valve train is a mechanical system that controls the operation of the intake and exhaust valves in an internal combustion engine. The intake valves control the flow of air/fuel mixture (or air alone for direct-injected engines) ...

s and rocker arms which actuated valves in the detachable

crossflow cylinder head A crossflow cylinder head is a cylinder head that features the intake and exhaust ports on opposite sides. The gases can be thought to flow across the head. This is in contrast to reverse-flow cylinder head designs that have the ports on the same ...

. This was referred to this as a "valve-in-head" design, and it drew considerable publicity in a time when most rivals were flatheads. It was produced through 1928 when it was replaced by the

Chevrolet Stovebolt engine The Chevrolet Stovebolt engine is a straight-six engine made in two versions between 1929 and 1962 by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors. It replaced the company's inline-four as their sole engine offering from 1929 through 1954, and wa ...

. Chevrolet would not use another four cylinder engine until 1961 and the introduction of the

straight-6 The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bal ...

-derived

Chevrolet 153 4-cylinder engine The Chevrolet 153 cu in engine was an inline-four engine designed in the early 1960s for use in the Chevy II. It is a four-cylinder variant of the ''Turbo-Thrift'' six-cylinder engine. After 1970 GM ceased production of the 153 engine in North A ...

that was installed in the

Chevy II The Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova is a small automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, and produced in five generations for the 1962 through 1979, and 1985 through 1988 model years. Nova was the top model in the Chevy II lineup through 1968. The Chevy II ...

. For other, more modern Chevrolet four-cylinder engines see the

list of GM engines This list of GM engines encompasses all engines manufactured by General Motors and used in their cars. Divisions When General Motors was created in 1908, it started out with Buick and soon after acquired Oldsmobile, Cadillac and Oakland. There we ...

171

The engine was the first and most common member of this family. It featured

splash lubrication Splash lubrication is a rudimentary form of lubrication found in early engines. Such engines could be external combustion engines (such as stationary steam engines), or internal combustion engines (such as petrol, diesel or paraffin engines). ...

. For its last year (1928) it gained a revised carburetor, higher compression, aluminum pistons, and larger valves for a rating of at 2,200 rpm. Because of increased weight of the slightly longer 1928 Chevrolet National Series AB performance failed to improve from the 1927 Chevrolet Series AA Capitol. Applications: * 1914–1916

Chevrolet Series H The Royal Mail models H-2 (1914–15) and H-2½ (1916), the Amesbury Special model H-3 (1915) and the Baby Grand model H-4 (1914–16) were American cars made by Chevrolet. It was replaced by the Chevrolet Series F in 1917. Beginning The Baby ...

() * 1916–1917

Chevrolet 490 The Chevrolet Series 490 (or Four-Ninety) is an early American automobile, made from 1915 to 1922 by Chevrolet. Introduced in June 1915, the 490 sold for $490 ($ in dollars ). Chevrolet 490 was an immediate success and established the brand as a ...

() * 1917

Chevrolet Series F The Chevrolet Series F of 1917 was an American automobile manufactured by Chevrolet before they became a division of General Motors. The successor of the Series H, it had a longer wheelbase and other improvements, but kept the same engine. It wa ...

() * 1918–1922 Chevrolet 490 () * 1923–1926

Chevrolet Superior The Chevrolet Superior Series F was launched in 1923, manufactured by Chevrolet for four years with a different series per year. The 1923 model was known as the Series B, the 1924 model was the Series F, for 1925 it was known as the Series K and ...

() *:(includes 1923 Series B, 1924 Series F, 1925 Series K, and 1926 Series V) * 1927

Chevrolet Series AA Capitol The Chevrolet Series AA Capitol (or Chevrolet Capitol) is an American vehicle manufactured by Chevrolet in 1927. Launched in the year Ford changed from the Model T to the Model A, Chevrolet sold 1,001,820 Series AA cars, and under the direction ...

()Gunnell, p. 22 * 1928

Chevrolet Series AB National The Chevrolet Series AB National (or Chevrolet National) is an American vehicle manufactured by Chevrolet in 1928 to replace the 1927 Series AA Capitol. Documented production numbers show that 1,193,212 Series ABs were manufactured in a variety ...

()

224

The engine, the larger engine in this family, was introduced in 1917 for the 1918 model year and used only in the Series FA and FB. It had the same bore as the 171, but a longer stroke of , giving it at 2,000 rpm. Applications: * 1918

Chevrolet Series FA The Chevrolet Series FA (or Chevrolet FA) of 1917–1918 is an American vehicle manufactured by GM's Chevrolet Division. It was a replacement of the Series F which had improvements in engine capacity as well as other features. In this transfo ...

() * 1919-1922

Chevrolet Series FB The Chevrolet Series FB (or Chevrolet FB) is an American vehicle manufactured by GM's Chevrolet Division from 1919 to 1922. It was a slightly larger replacement to the 1918 Chevrolet Series FA, sitting on a wheelbase of compared to . It was repl ...

()Gunnell, p. 15–16 * 1921-1922 Oldsmobile Model 43A

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chevrolet Straight-4 Engine

Straight-4 A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

171

224

See also

References