Re: Packard fuel injection

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2011/1/16 12:50:22

56Executive: thanks again for posting interesting documentation about the Packard fuel injection "advanced project". It is apparent that automotive gasoline fuel injection systems were "bleeding edge" tech at the time. Per the documentation, Packard and others were testing timed, intermittent flow setups, whereas Pontiac and Chevrolet used continuous flow designs.

The timed intermittent flow designs were superior, but as noted in the documentation, more complex and costly than the continuous flow designs. Pontiac and Chevy's continuous flow types made it onto production cars although in actual use most of these were removed in favor of (multiple) carburetor setups, particularly drag racing.

I have seen and inspected both the 1957 and 1958 Pontiac FI. The most obvious difference is that the 1957 manifold was fabricated out of sheet metal and the 1958 is a cast aluminum piece. Both manifolds were tall, individual runner types with the FI mechanicals "hidden" under the plenum between the runners. Maybe this was done by Pontiac in order to rush it into production or maybe the initial low production numbers did not justify a casting run. BTW, the 1957 347CID FI engine was about 295HP, but was rated at 310HP, the same as the 1958 370CID FI engine.

Craig