Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I was telling a man where to find the engine serial number on a 1948 356 engine on his Custom 8. Anyway, he said he couldn't find it or see it one. It does have a 356 head--Is there another way to indentify that it's a 356 besides the engine serial number?

Motor number is kind of hidden on the pad under the spark plug wire holder and can be hard to see but another way is to look in the distributor and oil sender area.

In the 356 the distributor is in the middle centered directly under a freeze plug. The oil ports and sender is in front of it. On the other or non 356 engines the distributor is slightly forward of center between two freeze plugs and the oil ports and sender are behind it.

Here are a couple of parts manual illustrations showing the difference.

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On the passenger-side of the engine, if the oil pump has six-bolts, then it's a 356-cid. (The 282, 288, 327 has four-bolts).