The Pontiac V8 engine is a family of overhead valve 90° V8 engines manufactured by the Pontiac Division of General Motors Corporation between 1955 and 1981. The engines feature a cast-iron block and head and two valves per cylinder. Engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations then assembled at Tonawanda Engine before delivery to Pontiac Assembly for installation. Initially marketed as a , it went on to be manufactured in displacements between and in carburated, fuel injected, and turbocharged versions. In the 1960s the popular version, which had helped establish the Pontiac GTO as a premier muscle car, was cut in half to produce an unusual, high-torque inline four economy engine, the Trophy 4. Unusual for a major automaker, Pontiac did not have the customary "small-block" and "big-block" engine families common to other GM divisions, Ford, and Chrysler. Effectively, Pontiac's V8s were all small blocks, sharing the same connecting rod length 6.625 in (168.3 mm) (except for the later short deck 301 and 265 produced in the late 1970s and early 1980s before Pontiac adopted universal GM engines). The V8 was phased out in 1981, replaced by GM "corporate engines" such as the Chevrolet 305 cu in small block V8. History Pre-development Pontiac began as a "companion make" to the Oakland division of the General Motors line of automobiles in 1926. Pontiac successfully competed against more-expensive inline four-cylinder models with their inline flathead six-cylinder engines. After outselling Oakland, Pontiac became the sole survivor of the two by 1932. In addition to the inline 6, Pontiac used the Oakland V8 for one year, 1932, debuting the Pontiac straight-8 engine in 1933. The two inline engines were used through 1954, when Pontiac unveiled its OHV Strato Streak V8 in 1955. The development of this V8 dates back to 1946, when engineers began considering new engine designs for postwar cars. They came up with a L-head design. Pontiac engineers tested their V8 in 1949 or 1950 against an OHV Oldsmobile Rocket V8 downsized to . The results showed Pontiac that an L-head simply couldn't compete with an overhead valve engine. Despite their work, the division's conservative management saw no immediate need to replace the Pontiac Straight-8 until later in the 1950s. The concept car Pontiac Strato-Streak was used to introduce the V8 and in later years the engine was installed in Pontiac products. Development By 1949 work on