Engine Oddity

Posted by BigKev On 2012/1/29 21:25:55

Photographic evidence to following shortly, but this weekend we viewed a 1940 180 Club Sedan that had a dealer installed 327 swap done to it per the factory replacement instructions when the 356 motor was no longer available later in the mid 50s.

So it had a 327 with the factory "swap kit" per the Service Letter information. The engine number was N3#####CAL. It was a 327 9 Main motor.

The 'N' designation is unusually, as if it followed the letter sequence, that would mean it was produce in 1955. Obviously this was a service replacement engine, and not just a motor swapped from a later car. Not sure is the 'CAL' suffix was something Packard specific, or something used because it was done in Calif. Interesting to say the least.

It used the 356 water pump/pulley and timing cover setup and a special offset 356 style fan blade for clearance, and to allow for the front mounting setup. The manifolds and carb were the off of the 356, and the throttle linkage was from the factory conversion kit. The crossshaft looks like it is based on the 51-54 crossshaft, but is mounted further forward on the engine, and is not attached to the firewall.