Re: 1947 356 valve clearance

Posted by su8overdrive On 2024/4/23 18:20:19

Right. HH56 always speaks the truth.

Regarding the mechanical liftered engines, a wise auld mechanic's practice to prevent valve scorching was to use a go/no-go gauge, set intake at .007-.009, exhaust .010-.012 engine warm and running, or at least thoroughly warmed. Packard's focus on smoothness usually second-tiered performance, not that well-tuned Packards were slugs. Howard Reed, a Buick alum, tried to convince Packard mgmt. to adopt not just overhead valves, but overhead cam. He was told the additional noise would be unseemly. Read: Reduce Packard's profit margins.

Some buffs forget that Packard's raison d' etre was not to produce toys for us 70, 80, 90 years hence, but return profit. Before the war, Packard was the second most widely held automotive stock after only GM. (Ford didn't go public 'til New Year's Day, 1956.) Packard's legal counsel, Henry E. Bodman, rewrote the Merlin contract so that it became the basis of government agreements for years to come. Packard's war work was not altruism, but for profit. Just as it was not the "Packard Merlin," but the Rolls-Royce Merlin for which Packard hired a phalanx of draftsman at taxpayer expense to redraw the plans suitable for Detroit production. Britain produced twice the Merlins as Packard, and each series either side of the Atlantic equally good.
The PT boats were not as good as the German Diesel schnellboots, or fast boats, and used the more dangerous gasoline at sea simply as we never had a gas shortage and it simplified logistics. Gas rationing was to conserve vital rubber.

Perspective aids discussion of nuts and bolts; why as well as how.