Re: 1939 Packard engine numbers

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2008/3/4 14:12:49

You didn't say whether the 1950 casting date was on the cylinder head or the engine block. If on the cylinder head, this is pretty common as cylinder heads occasionally required replacement, and spare parts continued to be made. My 1948 Custom 8 had a cylinder head with a 1951 casting date. But if it's on the block, it almost certainly indicates a replacement engine. I've never seen an authoritative piece of Packard literature instructing dealers how to deal with engine numbers on replacement engines. Nor do I have any credible evidence of how, if at all, replacement engines were numbered at the factory. If I had to guess, it would be that factory new spare engines had numbers within the original sequence; I say this because the range of engine numbers for a particular year and model usually exceeds the number of cars built and thus I conclude the additional were for parts inventory and already numbered. For example with the 1939 Six, 24,350 cars were produced but 26,040 engine numbers were assigned. So if you truly have a 1950 casting date on the engine block, and a correct 1939 engine #, the only conclusion I can reach is that a replacement motor was obtained, and the original motor number was stamped on it.

The engine # you gave is relatively late in the series, how does that compare with the vehicle VN?