Re: Did Chevy consider Packard V8 BB Design?

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2009/2/16 21:19:18

A while back I read a magazine interview with a Mr. McKellar who was in charge of designing the Pontiac V8. One of the questions they asked was whether the rumor was true, that the Pontiac head was copied off the Packard or vice versa?

He replied that at the time they were working on the new design a machine tool supplier offered them a new type of head machining facility that gave a distinctive look to the head, how it differed from the conventional head he did not state.

He assumed since Packard was working on their engine at the same time they probably bought their tooling from the same supplier and that would account for the resemblance.

One difference was that Pontiac had 4 head bolts surrounding each cylinder where Packard had 5. This argues for a different design approach from the very beginning and means it is practically impossible that one influenced the other.

When you look at the big block Chev 396 or 454 head has anyone noticed that it is the same as a Chrysler Polysphere? Both are an effort to get the advantages of a hemi head in a simpler lighter package. The biggest difference is the typical cheap stamped tin Chev rocker arms used on the Chev. Plus the fact that Chrysler was dropping this design (1966) just as Chev was picking it up (1965).