Re: Did Chevy consider Packard V8 BB Design?

Posted by 55PackardGuy On 2008/10/11 18:27:36

Jack, I believe you speak well for the '56 352, but I would say the '55 352 vs the 348 already shows the Packard to be remarkably close in performance, given it had not yet had the '56 improvements. The fact that the '55 352 gives up a point on compression makes the outcome of the spec comparisons that much more impressive. Chevy gets a "head start" so to speak in CR and winds up in a dead heat on almost all other fronts.

The other reason I chose the '55 is, I don't have these figures for '56, do you?

These are the figures that the 352 and the 348 4bbl "premiered" with although the Chevy came out 3 years later.

Craig,

If you're willing to do the simulations using the heftier specs for the '56 352, that would be great.

All I had for apples-to-apples printed specs were the '55 352 engineering paper and the "Carnut" figures for the '58 Chevy.

Jack makes a good point that the engine that Chevy probably would have started with was the '56 352.

The only other sort of viable comparison would be 374 vs 409. I'd be curious to see how they stack up. Dual quad vs six-pack.

I think at least part of the original question is already answered. If Chevy had wanted to pay for the Packard big block design and tooling in 1958 instead of putting together their own rather odd and ultimately abandoned "W" design, they would've probably done well. Of course, one reason for abandoning such an idea, in any corporate setting, is the engineering stigma of "not invented here" and also the bad press that was bound to circulate--"Chevy buys Packard Big Block V8 design, admits it's better than anything they could come up with. Packard still goes broke."

I'm pretty well convinced that the lower compression '55 Packard 352 shows it already would have been a more than worthy substitute for the '58 Chevy 348 4bbl.