Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

THe CL is "Center Line" as in the center line of the engine. All Packard V8's i;ve seen have it on the bellhousing and few other places too maybe. THe over layed CL is used often on technical drawings across all industries. THe "CL" is used on parts of other vehicles and products too. Not real common but does show up on variuos parts once in while.

Edit: note that there is a suburb town of Detroit known as Centerline. But i don;t think that has anything to do with the over layed "CL" in the casting.

Many companies that do castings put their logo/trademark on the castings they do. Obviously the CL logo was that of the firm that cast the V8 blocks.

While CL ahs long been the universal designation of the centerline on the blueprint of a part, a rough casting of the CL without a precise scribed actual centerline is useless. The CL on the block in not the centerline of the block anymore than the letters US mean something belongs to you and me (us)


Packard put their P in the traditional radiator shell on many forgings in the 30's, such as front spindles etc

Of course it's not the centerline of the block! The question was, WHO is CL (company name) who did Packard's casting in 55/56?

Relative to the CL on the bellhousing i'm not sure why anyone would say "of course" it's not centerline. The CL on the bellhousing is very close if not exactly on the center of the bellhousing. I mean it's not like the CL is conspicuously toward the rite or left side. Not on any of my blocks.

HOWEVER there is a slightly smaller version of the CL on the V8 heads over the extreme end exh port which does not seem to be central to anything of the engine. There seems to be no CL mark on exh or intake manifolds nor water pump but i havn't had a chance to inspect those close enuf yet.

UNless somekind of name or documentation is attached to the CL i find it highly unlikely that any company would use such an ambiguous trade mark or logo or as any other form of corporate identification NOT related to dimension.

The cylinder head CL mark location is very strange and does not appear to identify any kind of dimensional center. In this case i would agree that "of course" it is not a centerline. But for the block VERY likely YES.

At this point it is not clear as to what the CL is or is not.

56executive had posted a newspaper article that the Lakey Foundry Corporation was now casting Packard V8 blocks and heads. You could read that mark as LC as it is intertwined.
Perhaps CL/LC is the foundry mark for "LAKEY CORPORATION".

Probably the foundry mark. Check out this link Article on foundry marks about foundry marks on US Army parts. Page 14 has a symbol that looks like the CL in the picture. They are guessing it is Carnegie Illinois Steel, Lorain works. May not be, but definitely an example of a foundry mark.

OK forget my last post. Here is proof it is Lakey Foundry.

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Well i'll be damned. Some company did use the CL as a logo.
But how does the "C" come into the picture??? IT is Lakey Foundry and Machine Co. The only "C" is in "Company".

Thanks guys! I guess I missed the clue in Roscoe's article, but it sure is nice to finally have an answer to that question.

The way I figure things out is I use logic, reason and reasonableness. For reasons already stated a cast notation of the centerline is useless unless a scribed precise mark is there, and then you would have to have one at the other end. Centerlines are used on blueprints as a dimensional reference, they do not appear on pistons, wheels, camera cases or almost anythkng else mass produced.

Yes, the only place a "C" appears is at the end of the corporate name. So how does "C" come into play?? If it were a "Z" then I'd wonder. Lets' see, Leakey (Foundry and Machine) Company. First and last words, mystery of teh ancients solved!!!