Re: McCulloch VS57 on a 359 Straight Eight

Posted by Stan Palma On 2011/4/27 16:07:18

Thanks to everyone who has joined the discussion. Jack, I have read a few of your posts and you sound like you know what you are doing around a Packard engine. As far as using an airbox, other than the Panther nostalgia angle, it is usually easier to seal a box than a carb- if you look at what Studebaker did with the R2 & R3 engines, when money was no object, Granatelli built the R3s with airboxes, while Studebaker built the R2s with hats & pressurized carbs. Both ideas work, but according to supercharged Stude guru Ted Harbit (the "Chicken Hawk" guy), keeping the pressurized carbs together requires constant maintenance. I was planning on using the stock carb- I think it is a WCFB, have to look.

I would also like to hear from the group about the use of the stock 359 aluminum head if it is salvageable. I have looked at some forum strings discussing the different combustion shamber shapes Packard tried, and would be interested in how they perform. It looks like the biggest performance change you can make is simply to separate the intake & exhaust manifolds, and do some simple intake porting or at least polishing/cleanup. The McCulloch should take care of the rest!