Re: How to Identify a 1956 >>374 block?

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2013/12/30 23:15:31

I thought that PB was standard only on the Caribbeans (although dealers could try and specify almost anything if Packard made it) If it was somehow original to this car, that might make it unique. Secondly, the single four barrel Rochester might also make it unique among the Caribbeans. I was told by the son of an old Packard mechanic that the dual four barrel cars were among the first to suffer crankshaft failures and replacements because of carbs leaking raw gas down the cylinder walls, diluting oil, etc

Whether or not a 56 Carib was delivered with a conventional Ultramatic shift lever in lieu of the pushbutton shift (very unlikely but not impossible) or with a single 4-bbl (extremely unlikely)is fortunately a question that can be answered. The build slips exist and the owner of them visits here on occasion, if he doesn't see this post and respond, I'll email him about it. Unless the build slip shows special requests (REQ), I think we can conclude it was shipped with pushbutton and dual 4-bbls.

Shouldn't argue to strenuously with someone who was there at the time, but the Rochesters used by Packard both in single and dual setups did differ from the GM counterparts but not significantly. Problems of engine failures with GM cars due to 4GC issues certainly doesn't seem to be a topic that gets any comment to speak of, in fact they are and were considered a good carburetor. And it's hard to see why the situation would be different with the 4GCs used by Packard. More likely is that some owner made the conversion, either in the hopes of better gas mileage, or because someone made him an attractive offer for the dual quad setup, such was the case with my own 56 Carib - the owner removed the dual quads and put them on a stick shift Clipper for his daughter. I've driven my 56 Carib with both carburetor configurations and as long as you can keep your foot under control on the accelerator, the difference in gas mileage is pretty small.

As to the conventional shift lever, those who have been around many 56 Packards have probably seen quite a few that were converted to conventional transmission linkage due to prior owners frustration with being stranded somewhere when the electric shift malfunctioned, probably more than once. There was quite a long period of time when good quality service on the unit was unavailable but fortunately today with Mr. Pushbutton available, we can get units that are considerably more reliable than the original units.

UPDATE: Query sent for details from the build slip/shipping order. Will advise when/if I get a response.