E.R.

I'm pretty sure a 356 head won't go onto a 288 block. The 356 block is longer beside being way heavier. Remember the Custom 8 is on a 127" wheelbase, which 7" longer than a 2392. The difference is all in front of the firewall. The space is filled up with machinery, not empty air like some of Pacarkd's competitors were guilty of.

I know of one 2392 in Connecticut with a 356. It belongs to a retired restorer. He was bored one day, saw the car in the garage, saw the engine sitting along side it....

He spent quite a bit of effort making things fit. He claims the front springs can handle the extra weight but the front is noticeably closer to the ground than my car! If memory serves me correctly he put power steering in it but he's been guilty of that before.

I asked him how it was to drive and all he said is "Its like nothing else I've ever driven"

Regards


John Harley

Joe

Until recently there was a very small car museum in Bernardsville, New Jersey. "It was a storefront on a downtown street and held four cars. The display was changed 3 or 4 times a year.

A few years ago there was a Packard display. There was a Grand Opening reception on a Sunday afternoon about a week after the show was set up. I think Packards East used it as a meeting so I drove down to meet my friends. On the way down I heard on the radio that John DeLorean had died the night before.

After looking at the cars, and looking at the cars, and taking pictures of the cars, and talking to people, I wandered over to sign the guest book. About 4 spaces above where I put my name was John DeLorean's, dated 5 or 6 days before. Visiting the Packards was one off the last things he did


Regards


John Harley

Darrel

Waldron, Kanter, Max Merritt and Bora East. You should get measurements, length, diameter, inlet and outlet size off the existing muffler should you have it. Be prepared to ask questions about the internals. Apparently there are no records as to what was inside this era of muffler. Vendors have come up with different solutions. Some solutions seem to be not very creative and rather unsatisfactory.

"Very reasonable cost" and "1003" might be mutually exclusive

Regards

John Harley

Don, et al

Good Video

One Sunday afternoon in July 3 years ago I was driving my Taurus over to the garage where I kept my Packard to pick it up. I was hit at the driver's side B pillar (i.e. right where the driver's seat is) by a 94 Lincoln whose driver was unconscious. He admitted to not haven taken his heart medication the night before. He knows that not taking the medication might make him unconscious. He doesn't remember the accident. His car kept going until it hit a guard rail.

After the car was cut apart, I was taken to the hospital for 4 days, then spent 4 weeks in rehabilitation learning to walk. I was lucky, no operations, "only" a broken pelvis, rib and collapsed lung.

If i was driving the Packard, I wouldn't be writing this now. People at cruise nights are always telling me old cars are safer in accidents than new cars. This is a lie. Cars now are made to protect their occupants in a crash.

At the end of February this year I bought my first new car in my life (my 23rd vehicle) with some of the money from the accident. It is a Ford Fusion. I figured I owed Ford a favor when they were in a little trouble.....

End of story

Regards



John Harley

Frank

The Chilton's manual covering your era has 2 different procedures for adjusting valves in the front matter. The Motor's manual may have one too.


Regards


John Harley

Rowdy,Turbo et al

Somebody asked Enzo Ferrari why he didn't switch to fuel injection right away. He said if cars had been born with fuel injection first, everyone would have astonished how simple and intuitive carburators were when they got invented later


Regards


John Harley

Eric

As my workmate says, coolosity




Regards


John Harley

john

Cool picture. That's F.E. in the Rocket outside the factory just after it's finished,

Interesting that the 2009 record is still about 20 mph slower than the Rocket was going in 1907

Regards


John Harley

John

Reference is The Stanley Steamer, by
Kit Foster, published by the Stanley Museum.

The picture of the crash is too big to upload. If you google "Stanley Rocket" under images it will come up.


Regards


John Harley

John

I'm going to try to post some pictures of the Stanley Rocket. It was clocked at 127.659 mph at Ormond Beach, Fl in 1906. It came back with modifications in 1907, but didn't finish the attempt, for reasons outlined below.

The picture you posted, I'm afraid, was taken in France about the same time. Perhaps the book or magazine you have wasn't closely proofread. The American LSR attempts were done on Ormand Beach, as American roads were basically non existant at that time. The picture is taken on one of the ancient French tree lined routes. The excellence of the French roads explains a large part of why the French lead auto technology in the beginning. The passenger car in the background is a small Renault. I think the race car is a 1905 Darracq, although I'm flying by the seat of the pants on this one.

The salient characteristic of steam cars is almost unlimited torque all the way through the speed range of the engine. They have rapid accleration and high top speed , to the point of foolhardiness. This was exploited many times by the Stanley twins, ( known as F.E and F.O.) who amassed a large gallery of speeding tickets.

These qaulities were recognized by the affluent men who imported expensive gas cars from Europe and wrote the rules for the races they held. Steam cars got written out of these rules almost immediately.

So F.E. Stanley went after the Land Speed Record. The engine is a 30 HP Stanley engine. This is nominal horsepower based on displacement. It is a two cylinder acting engine (i.e. 4 power strokes per revolution). Thus the power is really equivalent to a 8 cylinder engine. Developed torque is 985 ft lbs (!). The car had the largest boiler ever put into a Stanley, with a total area of 285 sq ft. They were running it up to 1300 psi. The gearing was .5 to 1-the engine running at half wheel speed!

If the pictures post, you will see that it looks like an upside down canoe. F.E. towed commercially available canoes behind his bike on a cart tied to a fish scale to measure drag. The one with the lowest drag was used. You will notice it also resembles an airfoil.

This brings us to 1907. The car was modified, and F.E. and Fred Marriott, the driver form 1906 and their most trusted employee returned to Florida. The weather was terrible, and they did not run until the last day.

Marriott buiit up steam, got the boiler hot, and wound up the car for 7 miles before he entered the traps. He hit a bump. He hit a second one, and was caught by a gust of wind. The car took off, flew for at least 100 feet, hit the beach, and traveled some more. The car was pretty much destroyed. Fred Marriott suffred a broken rib, eye socket and dislocated eye.

The car was going about 155 MPH at takeoff. As Fred Marriott got older and retold the story, this speed got higher and you will read that he was doing 197..

The Stanleys were aghast that they put their employee's life in danger. They never raced again. In some respects they lost interest in further perfecting the steam car. They did not however lose interest in collecting speeding tickets.

F.E was killed in 1917 at high speed trying to avoid a farm wagon, by his usual expedient of diverting into a field.

Here is a photo of Fred Marriott at speed, and the color picture is of Sarah Stanley Davison, a mild acquaintence, in replica of the Rocket at Ormond Beach in 2006. (She is a direct descendent .) She didn't go above 30MPH.


Regards


John Harley

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