Ahhhh,
oo?ps my bad...Glad I opened my mouth to show that I didn't know what I was talking about and somebody corrected me....It's embarrasing for a minute, but then you're smarter afterwards. (I was calculating CR as V/R, not (V+R)/R)
So....My head is a 51 288 AT, which should be 7.5:1CR. This *calculates* to a combustion chamber of 91cc. (I didn't and don't think I will cc the head with a pipet)
The block was bored +.020, but not milled or decked.
A 91cc head with a standard 327 calculates to 8.37:1CR. (matches with the chart posted for head xref)
A 91cc head with a 331 cubic calculates to 8.45:1CR.

Now, if my machinest does indeed remove 0.7mm (.027 Inch) then I esimate/calculate a 84.73cc combustion chamber. This will yield a CR of 9:1, which I feel a little bit better about.

The 'marks' on the head are more like gouges from the head gasket. It looks as if somebody really tightened the head down, and the gasket made some dents into the head. It matches the outline of the combustion chamber.

Thanks for setting me straight8.

Tobs

Hans, I really like your owatrol oiled clipper. I used that oil on a few parts for my car like the hood hinges.

Anyway, am I the only one that finds it funny that the fiat is 'up on blocks'

regards, Tobs

Monroe Part numbers from the Monroe online parts catalog are:
Front 5751 sensatrac
Rear 31125 Monroe matic

Monroe has some listed on their Website. They have "50's sounding " type name with 'sens-a-trac-o-matic' you could try those.

I was surprised when I did the math how much the CR will be raised with milling the head 020...I guess I will use this head. I already told the engine builder to be very careful with valve clearances and the head, and if I have problems with pre-ignition then I can go back to the original head.
As long as the clearances check out OK, I'll start with the 288 head, and for the price of a head gasket can swap it back if I have to.

Hi guys,
typing this a second time, grrrr.

Anyway, my 327 is slowly going together, and was bored +.020 making it a 331 now, (yay) and I have a 288 AT head which will raise the CR to 8.38:1
The engine builder said the head needs to be milled .020 to clean up the marks in it from the old head gasket(s) which I saw, and are pretty obvious.
So, I did some math, and my new compresion ratio will be about 9.2 or perhaps 9.3:1 (I approximated the reduction of chamber volume as 4 cylinders .020 high and surface are of the piston, 2 valves and a spark plug)

I know this is higher than the max stock CR from packard of 8.5:1, but we do have higher octane gas here in germany, (91,95,98 and 102) which I can run.

Is this CR going to be driveable? I'll be super careful for ping, and the engine builder is cleaning out all cooling passages in the block, so that should be up to snuff...

I got chrome acorn nuts for the head, so it will look all 'hotrod'. Will this CR be hotrod, or ping city? It is going to be 327 with OD in a 2 door with no power options...

Thanks, Mike

I got my hood blankey from the packardclub.org

http://packardparts.org/parts.htm

It's a fiberglass type one, which is different than the 55-56 ones. Mine doesn't have a wire screen on it though.
-Tobs

Well, gregor's car still isn't running for longer than a few seconds at idle....From what I have researched, a 1.5 ohm internal resistor coil is good for a pertronix unit, which can handle up to 8 amps. Gregor still has points, which can handle only 4-5 amps. So, I think an external resistor is ('doch' -german for 'actually') needed. (I'm saying 1.5ohm 100Watt resistor in series before the coil should help keep the coil cool and constant)
The points that are in the car are still light grey in color and not blue, so I think he was cooking ocils faster than burning points.

His 4bbl carb is also in need of some help. The accelerator pump was only sparying about 1 drop per stroke into the primary bores from one nozzle. From what I remember, that accel pump should shoot a nice 'water pistol' like shot per stroke of the gas pedal.

Yesterday the car would start, idle a minute and die when given gas...today the tank will get some more gas, and see if that helps.

The pistons are of the steel strut construction, and as I said in my first post, they are +0.020 oversize.
Never heard of gudgeon offset....
Thanks for your input. Will talk to the engine builder today, and will be going with the original clearance specification.

Hi Guys,
A question from my engine builder. He is getting ready to bore my cylinders for the +.020 pistons I got from Kanter, and he didn't believe the original spec from packard for the skirt to cyl wall clearance of 0.0005" to 0.001" He says this is like the clearance a modern engine runs, and that the engine would sieze shortly after start up if we run these clearances....

I already got a reccomendation from Ross that this spec is still valid. (with closer to 0.001" or 0.03mm being preferred)
A call to Kanter and they also stood by the original packard spec.

So, before I convince my engine builder who is pretty experienced (albeit more with old daimlers and the occasional SBC or SB Ford) that this spec is correct, anybody want to weigh in on this?

If I understand correctly, the steel (Steel is correct?) struts in the pistons keep the thermal expansion low, which allows these tight clearances of the cyl?

The engine builder speaks with a pretty strong bavarian accent, so I have to struggle to understand him, and convincing him on this is also going to be fun.

Thanks! -Mike