409 turbo fire?

[396/425blr]

i have kicked this question around before on other boards, not sure there is a solid answer? why did chevrolet label the 61-65 409 as a turbo-fire. that was the logo for the small block engines. 348/turbo-thrust, 396-454 turbo-jet and so on..... in the early 62 shop manual i think it was labeled turbo-torque, but it never was used in production. anyone know why it came to be a turbo-fire? dennis

[Verne_Frantz]

Good question Dennis, and I really don't have the answer. Just a marketing decision I guess which deviated from the previous methodology.
The standard 2bbl 283 was known as the Turbo-Fire unless a 4bbl version (pre-'62) was ordered, and then it was a Super Turbo-Fire. The carburetion difference added the "Super". The 348 "W" engines were Turbo-Thrust in their basic form, and then with 3x2s added, they became "Super" Turbo Thrust. The "Super" was also used on the 305hp hi-perf engine with an AFB carburetor (although still with a hydraulic cam). With the addition of a "special" cam, (meaning solid lifter) they became Turbo-Thrust Special. And in the case of a tri-power solid lifter 348, they were known as the combination "Super Turbo-Thrust Special". Now, that's a big name to throw on an engine.. So "Super" meant a carburetion upgrade while "Special" meant a cam upgrade.
In '61 when the first 409 was introduced, it was simply called "409 cubic inch engine", with no "name" what-so-ever.
In '62 (for whatever reason) Chevrolet reverted back to the Turbo-Fire name for both 409s (380hp & 409hp). Even in '63, all 3 engines, including the 340hp hydraulic lifter engines were only called Turbo-Fire. Who knows why????
In Chevrolet's published introduction of the new '62 models, they stated, "The name Turbo-Fire is applied to all 1962 Passenger Car V-8 engines and on the rocker cover decals it is followed by the engine displacement figures". That's it. They dropped the individual names for each engine.

Verne

[JoeG]

Toss of the coin............

[PeteLeathersac]

Cool stuff Verne...love the differences between Super & Special! .

If they simply decided to choose only one because the long names were getting to be a mouthful (and air ceaner lids already big enough), Turbo-Fire surely was the best choice! .

Gets me wondering what year the Chevy powered Canadian Pontiac 'Astro series' monikers appeared? .

~ Pete

[x Baldwin Motion]

Verne...priceless info

[Belair62]

Thats because he is Verne !!!