The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Thriftmaster Loadmaster?

i was looking at a post in the body repair post and found a link that had all differnt engines for what years and what color they were painted well my question is on this page they have names for some of the engines thriftmaster, loadmaster, jobmaster, taskmaster, and trademaster anyway i was wondering what those names all ment? also i have seen in the LMC catalogs that they have engine stickers for the 67-72 chevy/gmc trucks and them ones say INVADER and then the engine size. what was the purpose for they names?
Nate

Its really about marketing, but here is some helpful info from my 59 chevy truck owner's manual.

The Thriftmaster was the bottom of the line 235 ci 6 cylinder.
The Jobmaster was the 261 ci 6 cylinder.
The Trademaster was a 160 hp 283 ci v8
The Taskmaster was a also a 283 ci at 160 hp v8 but could also be had in Super Taskmaster form of 175 hp.
The Workmaster was the 348 ci 230 hp v8.

And the Loadmaster was a 322 195 hp v8.

There was also the Workmaster Special at 184 hp (with Special at this time usually meaning special pricing).

And finally, there was an economy optional Thriftmaster at 110 hp.

There you go, clear as mud.

I had a camaro with 230 i6 and it was a turbo thrift, and I think the 327 was the turbo fire.

Most of the car manufactures had names for their engines.

I had a 64 Riviera with the dual carter afb carbed 425 'nailhead' (nickname because of the small valves) with brushed aluminum valve covers which was called the Super Wildcat. A regular Wildcat had only one carb.

Chrysler had the 413 ci V8 called the Golden Commando.

You get the idea. Those are the ones I can think of off hand.

arnswine,

I've heard of all those engines except the 322/195 hp one...that must not have been around long...that's interesting stuff.


Stuart

thanks for all the helpful info so did the 348 V-8 actually come in the trucks? cause 1955-1957 i thought for v-8s was just the 265?
Nate

Nate - the 55- late 57 Chevy trucks optionally had the 265 as the only V8 - late 57 to 59 it was the 283 only - GMC had different [Pontiac] V8's

Bill

With the Advance Design, '47-'55 1st series Chevrolet Trucks, the Thriftmaster 235 engine, was in the light duty trucks, while the Heavy Duty Loadmaster 235, was in the Heavy Duty 1 1/2, & 2 ton trucks.

According to the

"Operators's Manual for 1959 Chevrolet Light, Medium and Heavy Duty Trucks"

You could get a 283, 322, and 348 ci V8.

The manual also talks about various transmissions:

3 speed
heavy duty 3 speed
4 speed (in my truck)
Spicer, Clark, and New Process 5 speeds

And on 3-4000 series trucks you could get a Hydra-matic. 4 speeds from what I can see in the pictures. And they had a pattern of N I-4 I-3 I-2 space R(everse).

On the 2 - 2.5 tonners you could get a 6 speed 'powermatic' automatic. The floor selector pattern was:

R(everse) all the way forward
N(eutral)
3-Hi Normal driving
3-5 Downhill driving and city
3-4 heaving pulling, congested traffic, long grades
lo-2 starting extra heavy loads, asc/desc extremely steep grades.

Now that had to be pretty cool eh?

Btw, top ratios of all those trannys was 1:1 and there were 2 speed axles.

As mentioned, the GMC V8 was a Pontiac and there's a good chance the 322 was a Buick since that was the displacement of the nailheads of that era. The nailheads were as narrow as a sbc and weighed no more but had limited breathing capability which didn't seem to hurt the multi engine dragsters of "TV" Tommy Ivo.

on that thing it says for the 55 it has 2 - 235s a thriftmaster and Loadmaster and yes i seen that spanky put a post up for that but my truck is a 2nd series 1955 Chevy 3600 so i don't know if that would have changed to the 2nd series or not also why did gmc run pontiac engines?
Nate

Thriftmaster was the "Standard Equipment" Stovebolt Six of the day.

Previous to '36 it was a 194 and later a 207/208 (can't remember when they changed it.)
From '36-'53 (or '54), it was a 216.
After '53 or '54 (can't remember) it was the 235.

In the "Art Deco" (Liberty/Victory) series and the early Advance Design series, the Loadmaster was a Babbit-Pounding, Splash-Oiling 235. I can't remember how far back that went, but it was probably into the late thirties. I think.