Hot rod mag engine masters- Packard engine!

[Stan Weiss]

Never worked on a Packard. I believe(my memory is gone) it was the early Olds V8 that had the vacuum pump built into the fuel pump.

Stan

[PackardV8]

Are you saving the vacuum pump that's built-into the Packard oil pump? I've heard that the vacuum pump was a "feature" they should have left out--or at least not combined it with the oil pump.

The vacuum pump was an assist when manifold vacuum dropped.

The vacuum pump did increase the load on the drive shaft and thus accelerated wear.

Never worked on a Packard. I believe(my memory is gone) it was the early Olds V8 that had the vacuum pump built into the fuel pump. Stan

IIRC, the early Olds had the vacuum pump paired with the fuel pump, as did Hudson and Nash. It was the early Cad V8 which had the vacuum pump on the oil pump. That's why we can use the Cad oil pump rebuild kits in the Packard pump. The gears are identical, but the drive shaft is slightly different OD.

[rebelyell]

Fond memories of a gentleman-farmer & Clemson engineer Mister Harlee from Pee Dee region of SC. He passed long ago. He was a restoration expert who truly loved older cars.

He had a pre-war Packard with beautiful grille & long hood; it sported a turbocharged John Deere tractor six & Chrysler front suspension. He also had a pale tan Ford about '34 maybe; he'd modified it to run on propane. That was some 40 years ago; May God always bless & keep Mister Harlee.

[rebelrouser]

Jack, glad to hear you are making parts to keep Packard's alive. I used to work for a guy that had several in his car collection, and helped him rebuild a few. The Packard straight 8 is an amazing smooth and quiet engine. Most people have forgotten about the quality of Packard, and I see less and less of them at local car shows.

[Truckedup]

Packard's repuatation for good machine work got them the license to build Merlin Aircraft engines. Cadillac was another known for quality in their aircraft engines... Imagine that, paying more for an automobile and getting a better build rather than overcomplication and expensive to repair..

[Schurkey]

Packard's repuatation for good machine work got them the license to build Merlin Aircraft engines.

From what I've heard--all of it second, or third hand--Packard built better Merlins than Rolls-Royce.

[Krooser]

I remember an interview with a restorer of P51 Mustangs saying the Merlin engines built by the Brits were manufactured mostly by women isolated from the German bombers in their various homes and locations.

Because of this, and manual machining, no two engines were exactly built the same. So you could ID what parts you needed by the woman's name.... Shirley pistons might be .002 oversize compared to Linda's slugs. Same with rods, cranks, etc.

[numboltz]

Don't know about which was better, Packard or R-R, but I do recall that Packard redrew all
the R-R drawings and housebroke it ie adopted US customary fasteners, etc. Also, R-R was
able to get quite a few scarce and in-demand US production machine tools, right out
from under the noses of American aircraft mfrs, in the early '40s causing some friction, so the
R-R product was certainly not a craft-cottage lashup. Lots of Merlin info on the Tube, like: