Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

We're rebuilding a '56 Golden Hawk 352" which obviously had a hard life. It had one piston which appears to be a forged Sealed Power or Speed Pro L2057.

Has anyone seen or heard about these?

jack vines

Jack, -> this way to Egge L2057 pistons. Forged pistons made by Speed Pro are available -> here and made by Sealed Power -> there.

-> This link turns the clock back to 2006.

Thanks for those links. Egge still uses the old TRW number, but as I mentioned, their cast OEM piston is nothing at all like the forging I found.

I'd already searched all of those before asking here and as we all knew for the past twenty-five years, Packard V8 pistons haven't been in any catalogs other than Egge and Kanter.

jack vines

The L2057 is the original number for the 352 Packard forged TRW brand piston and Fred believes
it only appeared in the 1960 TRW catalog. In our 40 years of accumulating engine parts we never found
one of these TRW brand pistons.

Thanks
James From
Kanter Auto Products

Hi, James,

Thanks for the confirmation.

Quote:

What's even more odd is finding only one TRW forged piston in a running engine with seven OEM pistons.

Every '56 Studebaker Golden Hawk standard shift I've ever pulled apart, there was evidence of an engine blowup. The Packard V8 just didn't like high RPM. Valve keepers pulled through the retainer and a valve dropped. When those were repaired, the OEM cast pistons cracked where the barrel of the skirt turned into the flat pin side.

This engine had only one third generation hardened retainer to go along with the one forged piston, so likely that repair was from a dropped valve. Difficult to believe they'd see the devastation and just replace the one and not replace the other fifteen retainers.

jack vines

FWIW, I weighed the single forged TRW and it's 30 grams lighter than the remaining seven OEM Packad Bohnalite cast pistons. That's probably enough to introduce a noticeable vibration.

jack vines