Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

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I've often thought of this and i think it'd be a fantastic tranny. I think you have to have the T5 nose clipped a little and the chevy conversion kit is like 900. But if i was building a speedster like eric or some kind of hot rod, it'd be my tranny of choice.

one thing about the chevy engine swap is if you are in elksnot and have engine trouble good luck finding that packard part in the auto parts store but the chevy part will be there. It could save a week waiting for mail order parts to arrive, i always am ready to rent a truck and dolly if i am out there but it would be nice to walk in and say knibbling pin and some turn signal fluid for a sm block chev and walk back out the same time parts in hand,true the resale will take a hit but he should know that going in

Everyone always quotes that as a big plus when dealing with chevy swaps but i have to ask; what kind of packard are you driving in what condition that this is a worry? You can cobble any ignition parts together from most any parts store, carb parts are the same and you could even rig up an electric fuel pump under the hood from parts in stock at advanced and autozone. I'm confident you could come up with workable wheel/brake/u-joint parts to get you home too.

Now, if you're complaining about the wait for intake gaskets or oil pump parts...seriously, who's changing those on the side of the road?!

People give the same reasons for putting a chevy into a pontiac, buick, ford etc. but when it comes down to it if you have the failure of a type that makes you wait for parts for the correct motor, chances are you can't fix it on the side of the road or overnight on a chevy either.


If you have a healthy, correctly done motor of almost any make, it shouldn't leak, shutter, stall, or cause trouble for MANY thousands of miles.


Now, if you want to rephrase and say "with a chevy i can get a trouble free, rock solid, gm backed crate motor for a lot less cost" then sure, that's the case. The money you save there is deducted off the value of the car and then some.


But the idea of other makes but chevy throwing rods on the side of the road with just no warning and no way you could tell and pushing pistons through the hood and getting parts and fixing it for $50 if it was a chevy but now it's $2500 are all hypothetical.

And for the record, the ONLY 2 motors i had with major engine issues like crank problems or rods have been chevies. Not packard or pontiac or caddy or buick, those always had minor issues like carb related or a fuel pump or rocker adjustment.


So yeah, i would have to wait for parts for those makes because they're not a chevy, sometimes several days wait.

But i'd rather get a higher quality motor NOT built by some guy on an assembly line who's only goal is to get home and watch football instead of providing me with a tight tolerances motor. That way i don't end up on the side of the road needing the parts in the first place.

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"People give the same reasons for putting a chevy into a pontiac, buick, ford etc. but when it comes down to it if you have the failure of a type that makes you wait for parts for the correct motor, chances are you can't fix it on the side of the road or overnight on a chevy either."

-True. But finding a shop to work on the chevy engine is just as far away as the nearest garage to ANY location. Pont, buick and ford they will shy away from AND have to order and wait for parts too.

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"Everyone always quotes that as a big plus when dealing with chevy swaps but i have to ask; what kind of packard are you driving in what condition that this is a worry?"

Answer: Probably a streight 8 (not a Packard V8) UNDER I'state hiway conditions and speeds.

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" And for the record, the ONLY 2 motors i had with major engine issues like crank problems or rods have been chevies. Not packard or pontiac or caddy or buick, those always had minor issues like carb related or a fuel pump or rocker adjustment."

Sure, and u proabably owned a lot more chevies than Pack, Pont or Cad too and drove the chevies a lot harder and further too.

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"So yeah, i would have to wait for parts for those makes because they're not a chevy, sometimes several days wait."

Right again. But u're missiing the point, Those parts u wait several days for and paid 3 times the price for may be somekind of NPBI (no particular branded import) parts. OR in the case of BPO and Cad they are probably chevy parts ANYWAY!!!! Gufwah ha ha ha ha .

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"But i'd rather get a higher quality motor NOT built by some guy on an assembly line who's only goal is to get home and watch football instead of providing me with a tight tolerances motor. That way i don't end up on the side of the road needing the parts in the first place."

THere was an old joke that went around the GM Tec-center (east side of the tracks) back in the mid to late 60's when Caprice was introduced. It went like this:
"Why buy a Cadillac when u can buy a Caprice for just $7.00 more???"
That was with regards to MSRP Calais vs Caprice ca. mid to late 60's.
Gufwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

There will always be few that believe the world is still flat as well as those that will argue with success.

No one has to like the SBC. But it continues after more than 50 years to perhaps, not be the greatest engine in the world, but stands as the SOLE standard by which ALL other engines are judged with no exceptions whatsoever.

PackardV8 wrote Quote:

This is not true. The Gen I SBC engine was manufactured from 1955 to 1998 (2002 if you count the LT-1 Gen II 5.0L/5.7L). In 1997, Chevrolet deemed the Gen I outmoded and did a complete redesign to the Gen III LS-X family with few parts that interchange between the two.

In 1955, the Packard V-8 (and the Pontiac V-8 for that matter) were initially superior to the SBC in displacement, power, reliability and serviceability. Only because zillions of them were made and many excellent engineers and technicians modified it over the years did it end up as well as it did. If only Packard would have gotten 1% of that attention.

Craig

ok. but WHICH SBC is so commonly used for transplants. Gen I or Gen III ???

"Answer: Probably a streight 8 (not a Packard V8) UNDER I'state hiway conditions and speeds."


and what happens to them then?! nothing! they're a solid motor when maintained somewhat properly. If you PLAN on doing tons of i-state driving, get a different rear gear or overdrive, as was the options when new.


Most of these failures on most brands come down to poor maintenance, and for some of the later V8s, upgrades by shade tree mechanics who don't put a lot of thought into mixing and matching parts as the factory did.


As for your comment on "they are probably chevy parts anyway"

That's what ruins most BOPC motors, people treating them and working on them like Chevies. The BOP designs are superior to the chevy small block in many ways. The ONLY thing they don't have going for them is the vast numbers, because gm killed them off to save cash and forced them to take chevy motor designs.

Pontiac V8s share power steering pumps and alternators, and could share a carb although they were different from the factory, and the rest is pretty much different.

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If you want a Chevy why not buy a Chevy? Why mess up a Packard? And what about brakes, steering, transmission, rear axle etc? Are you going to gut that Packard like a trout and replace everything?

There are a lot of guys who post here, who use their Packards regularly. It would be interesting to know how many have been stranded on the road, and how often it was because of major engine failure.

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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha you sure don't know much about engines. Chev was a cheap car with a cheap engine. It never pretended to be anything else.

Not only was it never the standard by which all engines are judged, it was not even the best engine in the GM camp. An Olds 350 for example was better designed and better built, would outlast a Chev 350 about 2 to 1, and got better mileage to boot. We aren't even talking about Buick or Cadillac. If a Caddy didn't have it over a Chevy like a tent then a lot of Cadillac buyers sure got cheated out of their money.

The big reason for using Chev engines is that they are cheap and common, which they are, in every sense of the word. This is your big reason for wanting one, just like everyone else. "O they are so cheap and common, you can buy them cheap and you can get parts everywhere cheap."

Uninformed people fool themselves that this makes Chevs the best bargain. Not true. A friend of mine rebuilt the engine in his 54 Patrician straight eight, for $1000 in parts and it purrs like a kitten. No shop in the world would transplant a Chev engine for that, not even the greasiest junkyard reject.

The funny part is this guy is a mechanic who loves saving money and shopping in junkyards but for his Packard he rebuilt the original engine because it is the best and cheapest way to go.