Experimental The Gavril Next-Generation V8 Compendium 1.1

This is just a simple mod I made to correct a few flaws I noted in the Grand Marshal's engine selection: both engines lack low-end torque, the 4.5 is too powerful, and the 5.5 is not necessarily powerful enough for enthusiast or law-enforcement applications.

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The Gavril Next-Generation V8 Compendium: A VMlinuz Production
(May Contain Lore)

The year was 1988, gas prices were on the rise and Standard Motor Company desparately needed a replacement for the aging Gavril "mid-block" V8 (as seen in the Barstow, Bluebuck and Burnside Special, and probably others that have not been revealed yet). SMC needed to address two key issues with the mid-block: high friction from its pushrod valvetrain, as well as its insatiable thirst for gasoline. As such, they set out to develop the legendary Gavril Next-Generation modular V8.

To solve the friction issue, SMC engineers looked to Europe and Japan for inspiration. All of their foreign competitors' engines had one thing in common: space-efficient, low-friction SOHC valvetrains. The engineers decided that their new V8 engine simply had to use an SOHC layout - the pushrod was a relic from the Brass Era. As for fuel economy, throttle-body EFI was SMC's weapon of choice for most of its engines at the time, so the new V8's got TBI.

The Engines:

276 ci. The base 1990 Grand Marshal almost got a Bruckell 3.8. Gavril's marketing department, however, was not so keen on this. For one thing, the Grand Marshal was mainly popular among aging boomers, who wanted something familiar under the hood of their couch large sedan. Also, the early Bruckell V6's were notoriously rough, and while this had been fixed a long time ago with the addition of split crank pins, the bad reputation stuck around. Only a V8 would do, so the engineers hastily detuned the NG to fit the bill. Its output was almost exactly the same as the planned V6's, but it was smoother and carried the prestige needed to sell it to the boomer crowd.
(In 1995, it got a significant performance upgrade, making it slightly less horribly underpowered.)

Output: 220 lb-ft @ 2900 RPM, 172 HP @ 5400 RPM

335 ci. "What kind of Communist V8 has a displacement that doesn't start with at least a 3?" Those exact words were spoken by Walter C. Johnson, CEO of Standard from 1984 to 1992. The enraged executive demanded a 353 be made available, just like in old times, but the bureaucrats knew that the old times were long gone. They compromised, settling on a 335 for the high-end models. These could be found in Grand Marshal Deluxe models made before 1995, as well as in most Sport and many police models.

Output: 277 lb-ft @ 2700 RPM, 223 HP @ 5300 RPM

366 ci. By 1995, it became clear that the bean counters had underestimated law enforcement's demand for performance, which the 335 was often unable to meet without expensive modifications. Subsequently, the police package was redesigned, now starring a hefty 366. Some of these big bois found their way into civilian cars by way of a towing package, but these are rare and somewhat collectible. Even rarer is the Grand Marshal Sport 366 - court documents from the 2001 intake manifold cracking lawsuit (Barker v. Standard Motor) show that around 1,200 Grand Marshal Sports (out of over 164,000) were special-ordered with the 366, two of which also came equipped with a 5-speed manual. One of the two manual examples recently sold on BeamBay for over $24,000!

Output: 306 lb-ft @ 3000 RPM, 250 HP @ 5500 RPM