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Redneck, welcome to the group. Odd looking battery. How many filler caps are on the the battery???? The 56's are 12 negative ground.

That actually looks like the correct original style Group 60 battery where the cells are arranged in two groups of 3 each, rather than the more conventional 6 in a row. The Group 60 was also used in Cadillac for a few years, and Buick also I believe. It was pretty much dropped by the regular lead/acid battery makers about 6 years back.

Very nice find. I second Ozstatman's recommendation of taking it easy. Even if the engine isn't completely frozen, some valves may be and is quite easy to bend the pushrods--been there, done that.

Oh, I'm not going to start the engine. Being most of the gaskets and what not might leak. Being the motor sat so long, I'm just afraid of lack of oil everywhere. If I start it up, I might do some nasty damage that I don't care to do. Its not like there are many new parts around for this thing. My idea is tear it down, replace all bearings (rods, mains, camshaft ect) new piston rings, maybe pistons too. I'm going to keep it all stock. NO boring it out. Just a nice honing job, and new gaskets should do it. In this way I'll be able to pre lube it and it'll be good to go when I do crank it over again. Also contemplating upgrading the oil pump being I heard nasty things about the oem. I read about "Adapting the Oldsmobile High Volume Oil Pump to the Packard V-8 with Kevin Gillooly ." That sounds like a winner. But there you go. Minimal rust, although what I am going to do is take the body off, sand down the chassis, repaint it, get the engine and transmission going, install that next and restore the body and bolt that back on the frame as the last thing. First time restoring a car, and it'll take quite a long time, but I'll keep ye'all updated and listen to ye'all for advice!

And as far as I know that battery does have 6 caps 2 rows of 3. That battery you figure is between 1956 and 1966; so its an older girl

I would like to thank all of you for accepting me in here. I have been nosing around packardinfo for a while, and OH the information! Lots of advice from people! So its only right to tell you my pet project, my new money pit! Thanks for the info look forward to contributing to it too!

I didn't mean to suggest that YOUR particular Group 60 battery is from 1956 or 1966, but that that particular configuration of battery was taken out of manufacture by the major battery makers about 6 or 8 years ago.

I bet it was only some commercial equipment applications, which I noticed years ago, that kept the Group 60 battery in production long enough for colector car owners to enjoy as long as they did.

I got nearly a decade of use out of one with an Allstate sticker on it, but others I tried never lasted more than a few years. I have also heard plenty of complaints about the lifespan of pricey, licensed Delco repros since then.

My next battery purchase for a V8 Packard will be a Group 27, which is awfuly closw to the old Group 60 dimensions and now in stock at the local WalMart. I'm not so interested in point judging these days.

Brian, I too had lousy luck with the boutique batteries and finally I bought was an Interstate Group 63 which I promptly painted flat black and put a Willard sticker on the side facing outwards. Good enough for me.

I've had much better luck with 6 volt batteries, often getting 6 years or more from them.

I love this legal part of the project. What I'm doing is trying to get a brand new title to the car because the last one has been lost in time. Because this car has not been registered in 43 years, my lovely cough...cough... state of Oregon cannot find any records with the license plate number or VIN number possibly due to the retention schedule for these things. I was expecting this. So I got more forms to fill out saying yea I'm applying for ownership and give them a copy of the bill of sale...again proving that I have a vested financial interest in the car. Good times!