Re: Chevy into Packard

Posted by Mike On 2011/1/14 17:41:11

Everyone always quotes that as a big plus when dealing with chevy swaps but i have to ask; what kind of packard are you driving in what condition that this is a worry? You can cobble any ignition parts together from most any parts store, carb parts are the same and you could even rig up an electric fuel pump under the hood from parts in stock at advanced and autozone. I'm confident you could come up with workable wheel/brake/u-joint parts to get you home too.

Now, if you're complaining about the wait for intake gaskets or oil pump parts...seriously, who's changing those on the side of the road?!

People give the same reasons for putting a chevy into a pontiac, buick, ford etc. but when it comes down to it if you have the failure of a type that makes you wait for parts for the correct motor, chances are you can't fix it on the side of the road or overnight on a chevy either.


If you have a healthy, correctly done motor of almost any make, it shouldn't leak, shutter, stall, or cause trouble for MANY thousands of miles.


Now, if you want to rephrase and say "with a chevy i can get a trouble free, rock solid, gm backed crate motor for a lot less cost" then sure, that's the case. The money you save there is deducted off the value of the car and then some.


But the idea of other makes but chevy throwing rods on the side of the road with just no warning and no way you could tell and pushing pistons through the hood and getting parts and fixing it for $50 if it was a chevy but now it's $2500 are all hypothetical.

And for the record, the ONLY 2 motors i had with major engine issues like crank problems or rods have been chevies. Not packard or pontiac or caddy or buick, those always had minor issues like carb related or a fuel pump or rocker adjustment.


So yeah, i would have to wait for parts for those makes because they're not a chevy, sometimes several days wait.

But i'd rather get a higher quality motor NOT built by some guy on an assembly line who's only goal is to get home and watch football instead of providing me with a tight tolerances motor. That way i don't end up on the side of the road needing the parts in the first place.