Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

I was talking to an old-time hot-rodder at SEMA with a lot of experience with weird builds. He mentioned one of his friends discovered two Chevy Ram's Horn exhaust manifolds bolt right up to "a Packard straight eight." Now, I've got an email out to him for specifics about it (which engine, which generation of the manifolds, etc) but I'm curious if anyone else has heard of this modification.

Bear in mind that my engine is being built for race duty, so the 8-1 collector on the 327 just isn't going to do. That and twin-four manifolds might be cool.

Ben,

I know that Turbopackman, when he was with us, was considering using modified Chevy exhaust headers on his proposed turbocharged S8 engine. You might consider looking through his Eric's Packard Barchetta Speedster Project Blog. Or utilise the Advanced Search feature using key words to find if there is anything else on Site regarding this topic.

As I recall from Turbopacman's research the Chevy small block manifolds with almost fit but not quite. Being cast iron I imagine they could not be modified but perhaps the aftermarket "shorty" verisons could be bent to make them fit. I really don't know what if any benefit they would be unless you wanted to make up a dual exhaust system. Best way to find out would be to get a set or even one and try them out.

Well, the engine's breathing is going to be significantly addressed so the intake and exhaust manifolds are both going to go to a new home. I'll have a machinist go through the head and probably do some light porting myself. I might try to scrounge a couple of appropriate manifolds from the junkyard and see if they fit or can be modded and if things look doable I'll get some new pieces. If not, I'll just get a couple flanges and fab something new.

The intake manifold is going to be interesting. My first inclination is to fabricate an all new intake, two two-barrel Webers or something. It makes sense to me to split the front and rear pistons into two sets of four, so balancing the carbs can be done exactly. It makes the prospect of limp-home redundancy in race conditions interesting. Maybe some kind of crossover with a removable baffle like in the Mustang Boss exhaust system. I just like the idea of being able to limp it home if necessary (there will be lots of other duplicate systems).

I recently removed the intake and exhaust off my spare 288 and I assure you that a Chevy manifold will not fit without some extensive modification. It you were dealing with a "header" that was thinner walled steel not cast iron it would be possible to make it work but in my opinion you would be asking for trouble with cast iron. The Weber carb option is one that I have been playing around with. Are you referring to the side draft style or the conventional down draft? I spoke to a tech at Hilborn about using 4 of their single cylinder systems on a Packard with the Siamesed intake ports and he said it can be done so I would assume you could do it with 2 Webers or Solex style carbs.

Well, the above image is the original ram horns, but there's a second generation that seems better suited to the Packard layout. The guy who passed this info to me isn't some Johnny-come-lately so it's at least worth investigating.

If you are looking for a manifold I have an original Edmunds manifold for the Packard eight. It is aluminum and features twin downdraft carbs. It looks like a huge improvement over the stock setup if you are using a hot cam and headers. I would part with it for $1500 plus shipping. Fred Puhn, National City, CA.

Interesting... interesting. Does it come with the carbs and do you have any pictures?

Yes it comes with carbs. I will take photos tomorrow when the sun is out.

Sorry the sun went down before I could get out the camera. I will submit the photos as soon as I can.