Thanks for the help with the Pics. Just when I think I am beginning to master the computer / digital picture deal? oh well, noted for future reference.

Doesn't look like anyone recognizes the decanter. Nonetheless, it will make an interesting dust collector.

Jim

Recently I was at a swap meet and spotted this unusual (or I think it's unusual) decanter. It is made by McCormick. The bonus is the seal is unbroken and it's full of liquor! The Cormorant is unbelievably well made; the wings are soldered into the main body and the whole piece is polished and chromed. You could almost get away with using the Cormorant on a car. In the glass portion, it is labeled 1937 with an accompanying image of a 37 Packard.

Has anyone seen one of these? Is this a collectable example, or should the liquor be polished during the next Packard meet? :)

Thanks,
Jim

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Mal,

I had a full set of rod bolts made by ARP for my rods when I converted them to accept the Plymouth rod bearings. This left me with the original 16 bolts and nuts. I would be happy to send a rod nut if you folks are unable to locate one at home.

Jim

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For what it's worth, (probably not much of anything)

I put a Kepich system on a while back. It was for the LWB model, mine is not. Didn't have time to play the shipping game to and from the east coast. Cut the mid pipe down, did a little welding, made it fit. Did not come with all hardware as mentioned by another person. I will say this, it was a decent fit with some modification; compared to a Waldron's exhaust system we put on a car a while back. The Waldron's system was nowhere near right, they sent other pieces, still didn't fit so they said it will have to be heated and bent and that is normal. All that great customer service for $500 and besides, a torched bent up system will look fine on a fully restored car.

I hate to say it, but it's probably best to find a good exhaust shop, buy the proper mufflers & resonators and have them install.

Scott, that is distressing news about your experience with the 20 year old version of the Egge pistons. Mine looked good, and so far are working well. These are such unique pistons, I can't imagine they will be easy to have made else where. I can only assume they have drastically improved the current pistons. Keep us posted.

PackardV8, I am not sure what anyone else means by ?properly installed?, but what I mean is following the piston fitment instructions that come with the pistons. Pistons manufactured with different materials, design, cam grind, and taper all require different piston to cylinder clearance. This is true with any aftermarket piston for any engine. I think it will be easier to get V-8 pistons made by another vender. There is probably more demand, and they are much more conventional in design. As for Mr. Part's wizard, it's to bad he did not reply. I saw him logged in the other morning, but never bothered to reply. I do think Egge does the old car community a service, but am a little unclear as to Mr. Wizard's motives.

Mr. Parts Wizard, I assume you are a representative of Egge due to your keen knowledge and interest in Egge pistons; and request for feedback.

I have recently installed currently produced Egge pistons and will offer my unvarnished opinion. I am sure others will have their own recent personal experience and will share at some point.

I installed .040? over Egge pistons in my 1939 320 Super 8. The original pistons were of cast design with an integral uni-cast steel strut. The replacement Egge pistons were of cast design without the steel strut. Both original and Egge pistons are of the thrust side slit skirt design. The Egge piston must be set up looser due to no steel strut. This in and of itself is not terribly alarming. In my experience, when using any aftermarket piston in any application, one must follow the piston manufacturers piston to cylinder clearance.

In my case, the slightly increased clearance requirement allowed me to rigid hone the bores cleaning them up very nicely (replaced hodgepodge of mismatched .040? pistons) and not needing to bore to next oversize.

Upon visual inspection, there was no areas of concern. All pistons were of equal finish and quality. I did not check piston pin (gudgeon pin to some of our far away friends) location of each piston because this car is not destine for the moon, just some regular old driving. The finish machining was particularly nice, with no chamfering necessary.

The next point of interest is that the piston ring configuration was modified by Egge. The stock pistons run a horrid four ring arrangement. The rings are needlessly thick, and of one piece construction, with dual oil control rings. No doubt, this aggravates expedited bore ware. The Egge pistons were redesigned for use with modern three ring narrow design. The oil control ring is of three piece design. Egge supplied high quality Hastings rings. Absolutely, un-arguably a very good design upgrade. Pins and retainers were also supplied.

The pistons are working fine. The engine operates quiet and smooth. There is no piston slap cold or hot. The engine had no visible smoke in less than 100 miles. The crankcase pressure is minimal.

I will say this for Egge, the exhaust and intake gasket set I purchased were WAY better than stock. they were completely metal clad. The pistons are better than stock from the aspect of the piston ring upgrade. The rocker arm rollers and pins were supplied with improper washers. I called and they sent more of the proper dia. washers, but all were too thick. I called back to explane the problem. The fellow on the phone did not seem very interested. I had to surface grind and fit all 16 washers by hand. Bottom line? if these rollers and pins were not available, I would have been in terrible straights. The old pins were worn flat and the rollers worn totally out. Every subsequent original set I have checked are worn out. Availability of reproduction rocker parts is a god sent.

The above are my thoughts and experiences, not hearsay. no one made me say this, and I have no affiliation with Egge machine. I have earned a living, my entire life, in the motor vehicle business. So yeah, I know a little something.

Take this for what it is worth, it's just my opinion.

Mr. Parts Wizard, (saw your other post about V-8 pistons also) if you are Mr. Egge, thanks for supporting the motor vehicle hobby and helping us keep these relics on the road. If you are not, it sure seems like you are.

If I remember right, my 51 and 54 had to be jacked up by the frame allowing the rear spring to relax, and axle to drop down so the tire would clear the fender well. This would be the normal situation if using the bumper jack on the road. I suppose if the tire were to wide, this operation might not even work. Try it and see.

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I would have to agree, with good quality points there is no problem.

Mal,
Your dual points set up is just a plate installed in the stock distributor. It sounds like someone replaced the whole distributor with a latter one.

Your options are:

1. Run dual points (no advantage in this application what so ever)

2. Find the stock ignition plate (or correct distributor by distributor # and application)

3. Remove the trailing ignition points, and run as normal single point setup. (yes, that will work)

Cheers!
Jim

Mal,

An ignition coil is an electro-magnet; an electro-magnet that induces its magnetic field into another set of windings to step up voltage, and reduce amperage. This process is known as mutual induction. An electro-magnet only takes a fraction of a second to energize, reaching full magnetic strength.

Where dual points came in is when performance V-8's began turning high RPM's say 5500 ? 6000 + revs. As RPM's increase, the time (dwell) for the coil to build full field (and best production of spark) is diminishing. As Owen said, the leading set of points breaks, collapsing the magnetic field, inducing the secondary windings transforming voltage amperage values and discharging. The trailing set of points are almost instantly closing to allow the primary coil to begin building the magnetic field, achieving full electro-magnetic saturation.

On a high RPM performance engine such as a V-8, maybe. On a 2600 rpm flat head 8, no. If the coil has time to fully saturate, there is no advantage.

I would investigate the availability of a pertronics electronic conversion (some PI Packard clubs offer as club projects for sale) because points made today are just not what they used to be. The rubbing blocks are not lasting so long, and the contacts don't seem to last so well. NOS sets do pop up on eBay from time to time.

Best of luck,
Jim

There are people that specialize in ignition components. You might look in Hemmings motor news. Maybe look online. I have a guy here locally that rebuilds distributors, and has parts. There are specific RPM's at which there should be specific amounts of advance occurring. The only way to ensure this is happening properly is to put the distributor in a distributor machine and check the advance curve. The correct weight springs are installed to allow the proper advance curve.

I provide the advance specifications from the manual to the distributor guy, he re-bushed the body, installed a rebuilt vacuum advance, installed a good used ignition plate, and put the springs in and curved it. In most cases distributors are neglected and never get this kind of attention. This complete refurbish made a huge difference in the way my car ran and performed.

Best of luck,
Jim