The United States can be considered the "home of the V8" — it has always been more popular there than anywhere else, and it is certainly now the preferred arrangement for any large engine. With the recent exceptions of the Dodge Viper's V10, the similar Dodge Built Ram Tough V10, and the Ford large truck engine of the same arrangement, there are practically no large engines in the US of post-World War II design that have not been of this type.
Cadillac produced the first American V8 engine, 1914's L-Head. It was a complicated hand-built unit with cast iron paired closed-head cylinders bolted to an aluminum crankcase, and it used a flat-plane crankshaft. Peerless followed, introducing a V8 licensed from amusement park manufacturer, Herschell-Spillman, the next year. Cadillac and Peerless were one year apart again (1923 and 1924, respectively) with the introduction of the cross-plane crankshaft. Cunningham and Lincoln also had V8 cars in those years.
Ford were the first company to use V8s en masse. Instead of going to a straight-6 like its competitors when something larger than a straight-4 was needed, Ford designed a modern V8, the famous Flathead of 1932. This engine powered almost all larger Ford cars until 1953, and was produced until around 1970 by Ford licensees around the world, mostly powering commercial vehicles.
After World War II, greater vehicle size meant that the straight-6 became increasingly underpowered, while lower hoods and more aerodynamic styling meant that the straight-8 was simply too large. General Motors responded to Ford's V8 success with the 1949 introduction of the Oldsmobile Rocket and Cadillac OHV, the first OHV V8 engines ever produced. Chrysler introduced their FirePower hemi-head V8 the next year. Sales were beyond all expectations, so Buick, Chevrolet, and Pontiac introduced V8s of their own in 1954.
A full history of each manufacturer's engines is out of scope in this article, but engine sizes on full-size cars grew throughout the 1950s, 1960s and into the early to mid 1970s. The increasing size of full-size cars meant that smaller models of car were introduced and became more popular, with the result that by the 1960s Chrysler, Ford, and Chevrolet had two V8 models.
The larger engines, known as big-block V8s, were used in the full-size cars. Big-blocks generally had displacements in excess of 6 L (360 in³), but in stock form are often not all that efficient. Big-block displacement reached its zenith with the 1970 Cadillac Eldorado's 8.2 L (500 in³) 500. Once the 1970s oil crisis and pollution regulations hit, big-block V8s didn't last too much longer in cars; luxury cars lasted the longest, but by 1977 or so they were gone. In trucks and other larger vehicles, big-block V8s continue to be used today, though some manufacturers have replaced them with small-block-based V10s.
Smaller engines, known as small-block V8s, were fitted in the mid-size car ranges and generally displaced between 4.4 L (270 in³) and 6.0 L (360 in³), though some grew as large as Ford's 6.7 L (408 in³) 400 Cleveland. As can be seen, there is overlap between big-block and small-block ranges, and an engine between 6.0 L and 6.6 L could belong to either class. Engines like this (much evolved, of course) are still in production.
During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, every General Motors division had their own engines, whose merits varied. This enabled each division to have its own unique engine character, but made for much duplication of effort. Most, like the comparatively tiny Buick 215 and familiar Chevrolet 350, were confusingly shared across many divisions. Ford and Chrysler had fewer divisions, and division-specific engines were quickly abandoned in favor of a few shared designs. Today, there are less than a dozen different American V8 engines in production.
