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Hi Richard:

A crack visible with a camera is a pretty nasty situation.

The service limit for that motor is only .040 so I would check the bore and see if the motor has been overbored.

Given one crack already, if you can find somebody capable, and the pistons are not standard, then sleeve the whole thing back to standard.

I personally never had to deal with your situation so I don't know if the repair will work. The sleeve needs to be press fit into a smooth surface so the cylinder has to bored true after being welded. I guess they have to grind the weld smooth to get started.

I'll check tomorrow if anybody has fixed your situation and get back if they have.

Please note as well that motors originally having cast iron pistons usually have thinner walls because cast iron pistons are not subject to electrolytic corrosion. Thus, they don't wear as fast as cylinders with aluminum pistons.

I am still trying to find a replacement block, but if I fail in the attempt, I have found a company which (at a cost!!) claims to be able to repair the existing one by cold stitching, machining and fitting liners to the offending cylinder(s). We have ascertained that the engine has had new pistons and liners fitted in the recent past, possibly when it was restored, so the old liner can be pulled and replaced after pinning the crack. Similarly, the valve port can be done and a seat insert fitted afterwards. Horrendously expensive and not ideal, but if I can't find a block, that's the way I will be forced to go!
Richard

Sorry Rich no luck on our end. I went through the half a dozen or so early 6 cylinder block but no luck.

James

Hi Rich:

I checked today and the machine shop did have one of the Merlins (they implied it was a Merlin) came through and they fixed it. The downside is the motor was not put into a plane and became a demonstrator.

Richard,
My one and only experience with cold stitching was a total failure. The process relies on the pins having a reasonable thickness of metal to engage the pins and in my case it was marginal and they failed after a few hundred miles. I do not know what minimum thickness is required.
By the time the stitching had failed on mine the block had cracked in 2 other similar locations. If the block on yours is thinned by corrosion & wear then it is at risk of failing again or in other locations.
As I said this is based on one experience only and the company doing the repair will have lots of experience but so did the company that did mine, I later learnt that most of their work was on modern diesel prime mover engines which would not have suffered corrosion and still had the original metal thickness to hold the pins.
A member of our local club went through all of this some time ago, first repairing a cracked block, the repair failing, unable to find a replacement then making a new one entirely using 3D copying technology to make the patterns. You should not have to go that far there will be spare engines around for your Packard, they are not that rare.
David

I have been told that David Moe at the Packard Seattle Company has a block, but I have no contact details for him or for the company. Can anyone here help me contact him - email is best because of the time differences.
Richard

If you go to the Packard Club website and download the Yellow Pages for suppliers, you'll find David Moe's contact information, copied here for you.

Packard Seattle Company
425-334-7754
7627 44th St. NE
FAX 425-334-7754
Marysville, WA 98270
E-mail: dmoeenterprises@cs.com

Thanks Owen.
Richard

I have an early 20's single six, actually an entire driveline. It makes a pretty cool old farm machine, but it might be available to a restoration project. It starts and runs, shifts, all of that.

Ed...

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G'day Ed B,
First post, although a long time member, so to PackardInfo.

What a machine, love it! If you have the engine or chassis numbers, should be able to more closely identify it.

And, I'd love to see it in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo along with any other Packard/s you may have.