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I have a 52 288 and want to rebuild it and have it produce a little more power and excitement. any ideas or suggestions? what can it be bored out to, cam upgrades... lifters...? I would ultimately like to put a turbo on it. Please don't hate.

Keep in mind that the rest of the car will tolerate only so much before exceeding design.

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It doesn’t sound as though there is a rest of the car to worry about!

Yeah, not much off the shelf hop up parts for these engines. I have seen an Edmund's intake for 2 2 barrel carbs.

Well, boring it out .060 only gives 10 more cubes. Better to get the crank and rods out of a 327. That is the only difference between those engines other than externals.

I always port and relieve those engines and use a '54 head for a little more compression. Too much compression on a flathead and it will knock so badly you can't give it full throttle. OOps, dinner time. Back with more.

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That's the guy.


I have his phone number, I think.

These endless questions about "hopping up" engines that were at the head of the class in their day makes us think that, at heart, most those posing such queries are better served in the ranks of "retrorods," ad nauseum, where you wind up with what antique furniture dealers call a "married piece;" neither fish nor fowl.

Perhaps best to do a little soul searching, ask yourself if you really want a period car, are drawn to its engineering, lines, charm.

Because a properly rebuilt Packard, or for that matter, Hudson, Buick, stove bolt Chevy, Delahaye, Pierce, Plymouth; anything is a treat.

Because most old cars are woefully undergeared since high gear flexibility still the mark of refinement, esp. with monied owners who came of age when Dobbin still principal transport, taller rear axles/overdrive panacea. Adding slightly taller non-overdrive rear axles to overdrive cars was often done at Hudson agencies in California after the war to cope with longer, faster, better roads.
My '47 Super also has a higher compression head, but this was suggested by Packard in the dealer-issued Service Counselors for owners who wanted a little more oomph.

Advance your timing. For example, most i know with 356-ci, even 282 engines, are running 9 or 10 degrees BTDC with no pinging, modern gas burning cleaner.

Focus on using any major brand 10W/30 motor oil for i.c. not Diesel engines, use DOT-5 silicone brake fluid, radial tires, an Optima battery, even a bolt-in, 6-volt, 50-amp alternator is a nice upgrade and what Packard would've installed had they been around a few years later, already used in tow trucks, emergency equipment.

Run straight reverse osmosis (never distilled) water without antifreeze if your car never subjected to two consecutive nights of a hard freeze (30 or below), which lets you advance the timing for more pep.

If you're rebuilding an engine, porting, blueprinting not a bad idea, but overkill, and you can always lighten your flywheel, but that's more than enough.

And take a page from Railton and Bentley Continental--- lose weight.

Try setting up the complete car correctly, including worn linkages, everything fettled and skip the cowboy crap, some of which inevitable from those who read all this heroic rubbish about some brand of automobile, only to drive one and realize it's not as east or convenient as a Camry or Accord.

Friends with '59 Ferrari Berlinetta and Pinanfarina coupes, a '63 Lusso, laugh that a 25-year-old stick Civic in good shape can out-accelerate, out-corner, stop better. But that's not why they own them.
My girlfriend's well-tended '01 Miata is a vastly better car than the Lotus that inspired it. Time moves on. What do you really want?

We don't have these cars to drive to Safeway, not that we can't once in a blue moon.

Look around. Note the Packards we see at local shows, meets, for sale online. Most of them are garish, circus wagon colors, two-tones that never remotely were, doused with every ridiculous option intended to help dealers turn a few more bucks.

Packard's soul has been all but lost years before the sudden concern for the long rotting factory.

Enough of this nonsense.

I'm not sure if Crane Cams is still in business, but I sent them a cam for a 327 some years ago and basically told them to do what they could with it. I'll try and find the grind slip. It made for one very zesty 327 that was still quite tractable.

A quick and easy factory mod is to substitute the 1954 cam driven gear which shifts the cam 5 degrees. It seems to make a nice difference.