Re: 1951 engine identification?

Posted by HH56 On 2015/5/30 9:46:32

Service engines appear to be one of those gray areas. Don't believe anything official has been posted or mentioned actually denoting the N as a service engine but since Packard never used N as a year designator in normal production it leads to that conclusion.

There are some service counselor articles saying all service engines are equipped with hydraulic lifters. Dec 1951 issue covering the 51 and 52 engines is one and it goes on to state that when replacing an engine to stamp the H for the hydraulic option after the motor number. There are a couple of articles in the Sept-Oct 54 timeframe. First says all 51-4 service engines are hydraulic and configured for Ultramatic and tells the service guy what to change if installing in a manual car. The second article in 54 brings questions because it cancels the previous article saying all 51-4 service engines had hydraulics and corrected it as only referring to 54 engines. It stated the numbers given in parts manuals were to be used for service engine replacement on 51-3 cars. If that is the case, unless the factory designated those various replacement numbers to that mentioned service engine it would appear solid lifters might have been available.

I can't find the article right now but believe there was also a bulletin from the Stude era stating the warehouse had found some leftover 51-4 engines but don't recall if the article mentioned how they were equipped.