Congratulations you have entered a new stage in your life many changes ahead buy my experience is that most are good and rewarding. The biggest change is that you and your wife are father and mother rather than husband and wife and that is a definite change. Wait and you will know what I am saying it is a change but change is good. Enjoy your child as they will not remain one long.

mom and baby are doing very well. trying to learn how to feed correctly ever since last night. we had one of our friends come in last night to consult Sheena in breast feeding. not much sleep on her end, but she is holding in strong that's for sure.

name:

Henry Lee Greene V ;0) that's right, five! i don't have any pics digitally right now, but i will post one later ;0)

later,

Hank

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The gas line was pressed into the fitting about 1" and soldered. I have soldered in a new line. Now to try and bend that 5/16" pipe to fit the contours of the frame.!

The main and rod bearing journals are the same diameter in the 320 and 385 engines but the 320 and 385 engines have different bearing numbers so I assume they are wider in the larger engine, but are both of the flanged design to control sideplay. A common practice when converting to simple non-flanged shells on the rods is to weld "tits" on the side of the rods and mill to dimension to provide side-play control. The braze or weld-to-steel contact rather than bearing metal-to-steel apparently hasn't compromised the success of these conversions.

The finned rods were a 1934 innovation along with the first use of the oil cooler or heat exchanger and full-flow oil filter to provide better life for the babbitt. I don't have the experience to tell whether an actual improvement in bearing life resulted over 1933 but my 34 Eight (320 engine) ran about 85,000 miles on the original babbitt rods with the exception of #8 which was rebabbitted at about 53,000 miles.

Motor's Manual (12th edition) indicates that for the 320 and 385 engines after the adoption of insert bearings (1935-39), crankshafts were finished 0.0005 (half-thousandths) different depending on whether copper-lead or cadmium-silver bearings were fitted. I haven't checked other sources to see if this information is consistent.

Hank, What a blessed event. Congratulations!

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And the closure of the St. Thomas Ontario plant putting another 1400 workers out of a job.

Congrats to the both of you on the new member to the Packard family. A very big new phase of life is begining for the three of you.

John F. Shireman

O_D

That is an interesting anomaly in the '34 320 / 385 engines. If my recollection is correct the 385 that is available here in Arizona is a '34. This fellow that Mel is posting the thread for is unsure of what engine his car was equipped with.

I know very little about the 385 engines. Maybe you could answer a curious thought that occurred to me, did the '35 / '36 385 get the same style flanged thin wall inserts as the 320 or were they more durable due to the bigger dimensions?

Packard seemed to struggle a little with connecting rod / bearing design at that time in their history. The rod bolts seem so close to the rod bore for no great reason. The finned caps are bizarre. The 12 rod seems to be of high quality, but for the life of me, I can't imagine why they would have forged the bolts integral with the rod assembly. It seems like this rendered the rod assembly disposable once the bolt stretched, or the bolt / rod damaged.

I will admit, these engines are a step ahead of most of their flathead contemporaries of that period.

The 1934 engine, both 320 and 385, can be instantly recognized by the one-year only oil cooler mounted to the water jacket plate. And of course 1934 was the last year for babbitt bearings.

Dave,

Thanks for info. It seams like it was luck of the draw, and which ever row of bodies they started assemble that day! (or something like that)