Re: Merlin inspection building question

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/5/24 11:38:54

<i>I wonder of the 1954 sale of the foundry site was prompted by an unwillingness/inability to invest in upgrades needed to produce the V8 block, or by a cut-off from the electricity, steam, and compressed air produced by the Packard power plant (I imagine that the utility tunnel from the Boulevard to the foundry was cut-off by the I-94 dig), or some combination?</i>

It should have been feasible to put a bridge over the freeway to carry the utilities to the foundry.

There might have been a problem with casting the wider block. They might have needed wider flasks (the frame that holds the sand mold) and their ramming equipment might not have been able to accommodate a wider pattern and flask, so upgrades may have had a significant cost.

It might have just been a matter of low production rates. Kaiser produced it's engines in an old Continental plant on Jefferson. Kaiser had trouble getting enough castings from Continental, so bought the Round Oak stove foundry in Dowagiac, Mi in 46 or 47. Kaiser closed it's foundry and outsourced engine castings to Lakey at the same time that Packard did. Kaiser's decision to outsource must have been driven entirely by low production rates because they were using the same engine in 55 as they had previously.