Re: '38 six cyl question

Posted by jfrom@kanter On 2019/6/28 21:51:30

We reproduce the later 39-47 bearings in large quantities and have found that when we send out the original thin bearings for 35-38 cars many customer's engines already have the alter rods in them or resized early rods. Like Packard we supply "Quality parts for longer life". Our bearings are made with modern babbit which is stronger and longer lasting than original.

To add to the confusion Packard incorrectly packaged many sets of rod bearings marking the boxes with 387600(39-47 #) when they contained 35-38 bearings.

On the question of whether some bearings are original Packard consider that Packard never made shell bearings,sourcing them mainly from Federal Mogul, deemed "other" by some. So bearings in Packard boxes are not really Packard, just like heaters made by Harrison or radiators with the McCord brass tag on them.

On head studs, they're not a simple as they look. The threads differ on each end, the ones going into the block are slightly larger by thousandths so as to make a water seal as they go into the water jacket. Our last batch of studs had threads that were under spec so we returned them to the manufacturer and have to wait several months for replacements. We could have sent them out and recommended using a sealer but we do not make compromises. Sorry for the delay but that's the not-so-simple aspect of supplying parts for older cars and the Six in question is 80 years old. In our shop we're rebuilding an '88 Caddy and some engine parts are no longer available...it's only 31 years old!