Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I saw these pistons on Ebay, are these any different/better than Kanter or Egge? Price sounds good if they are not garbage.

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Packard-352-8-cy ... mdZViewItem?_trksid=p4506.m20.l1116

Hi, Don,

These are just plain old Egge's with the infamous "MadDogMarkUP" attached for eBay selling costs.

AFAIK, there are NONE other than Egge Packard V8 pistons out there.


thnx, jack vines

One thing is for sure. The PICTURES of the [pistons are definately NOT packard V8's. They look like HD Knuckle head pistons or HD 80 flat head pistons. DEFINATELY not V8.

With all due respect to EGGE, I'd rather have original-style autothermic strut pistons for my V8s (four 374s and one 352). Problem is, like cli55er, I am nowhere near ready to overhaul any of these engines, and it's impossible to say which, if any, oversize, I'll need. In the absence of a new OE-type piston, I'd try to reuse the original piston, if possible.

Just my $0.02 worth, but I'd bet there are plenty more people of same position. Hope we hear from them.

Yes, I hope we hear from them as well. I'll let this thread run its course for a while yet and then pass a summary of it along to Dan Kanter.

Brian said it. Until ready to do an engine how do you know what size.

I'd like to support our vendors, commend Dan for even considering it, would like to see these available but understand the economics of the project. All I can say now is my project would be a 374. So the question for a lot is, do you gamble and assume minimal wear or damage and commit to a standard or low or just go max & buy the .030 or top over and leave no room for future.

Also, prospective buyers might be interested to know the approx price of a set. Is the $800 ($100ea) an official price.

So shall I paraphrase your answer is 4-1/8 bore, and probably something between Std and 0.040 over? Anyway at this point your not commiting to anything other than an interest.

I wouldn't dare hazard a guess on price, but I'd suspect that if the demand was comparable, they wouldn't be much different that the autothermic strut pistons Dan already has made for the other Packard engines, but perhaps a bit more since I suspect the larger bore sizes will mean they contain more material?

Kanter could cover 90+% of the need with 4.030" and 4.155" sizes. If a 352" needs to go more than .030" the blocks are still common as dirt, so just get another block, or bore it to 4.125" and use OEM 374" pistons. I have yet to open a 374" core which has been re-bored.

thnx, jack vines

The tooling set up for the pistons will be set up for A SINGLE piston. NOT a set. A piston is a piston.

The tooling is set up for the LARGEST oversize. All lesser sizes down to standard are ground from the largest oversize.

So there would be only ONE mould set needed for 374 and a close but different mould set for the 352's.

So it's not really "sets". It's number of pistons that drive the cost vs demand. I don't know what a piston shop currently charges for grinding a piston. If he makes only .030 over pistons then one would have to have them ground to the smaller oversize if needed.

Some piston manufacturers supply pistons this way and they are called "Semi-finished" pistons. They only have to be ground to specific size application.

"I have yet to open a 374" core which has been re-bored."

I suspect the same of the 352's.

Most people are too quick to run to the boring bar. I don't like to bore an engine unless it's absolutly necessary. ESPECIALY when i only need to replace maybe ONE piston.

The standards for the 352 would be just as popular as for the 374. There are ALOT of 352's out there.