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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 dont hate.

With our brand F straight sixes, the least expensive upgrades usually resulted in surprising results. Header, modified intake manifold to fit a larger and more modern carb or a throttle body fuel injection setup.

Anything related to a Packard regarding boring or cam upgrades screams of parts made of unobtainium or less-than-thrilling performance.

But I'm not a straight 8 guy, my Packards are the lower end of the food chain.

Understand that a good port and polish of the passages in the block results in something like a 20 hp improvement in itself.

All the 1951 through 1954 engines used essentially the same block and most were either 288 for the cheapest models to two different 327s for the rest. One of the 327s had 5-main bearings and came with either solid or hydraulic lifters while the other 327 had 9-main bearings and as far as I know always had hydraulic lifters.

That said, there were different cams and cranks but, as Packard made their own engines, you’ll have to bore, mix and match whatever you need from those available so you may need other engines which would be cheaper than buying the pieces separately. Better still, just buy an engine that already has the bore/stroke needed and rebuild that!

All the engines except the 359" have the same bore, it's the stroke that changes. Ross I remember mentioned that the 288 might be the better performance engine, because it can be revved higher. The biggest performance improvement offered by Packard was the 4-barrel carburetor, offered beginning in '53 on the Cavalier and Patrician IIRC. Not sure if the manifold for the 2-barrel carburetor can be used for a 4-barrel carb, probably not.

The hydraulic lifters can be a pain if they are worn, solid lifters are probably better for your purposes.

Here is this nice chart that shows the various heads and how they can be interchanged amongst the engines for different compression ratios.

Packard 288/327/359 compression ratios for different heads

I have been considering this kind of thing for a long time. Since it's an "oddball" in the opinion of the aftermarket industry, there's a veritable dearth of parts and how-to's from which to choose. I've read some of the Ford-related stuff, and most of it is $#!t in addition to being of little help.


For think's sake, I compare these long stroke engines to Harley engines. Those boys rev the snot out of their stuff. Harleys essentially have bullet-proof bottom ends, and in my estimation, so do nine-bolt-main Packards.


Check out the YouTube of the guy with the Paxton blower on his Packard 8 in a roadster body. Kinda rat-roddish, but the engine has many nice features. Work on the street is that Old Man Iskendarian ground the cam for that engine himself. Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see.


I'd be happy to help you and to share thoughts on what might work and what probably costs more than a university education. I'm not sure what you can do as far as fabrication goes, but I'm getting more involved in it on my end. So far so good.

For what its worth, my 1954 359 L8 has a 4 speed GM 700R4 transmission which makes the car a rocket. In addition, it has a Porter muffler, Petronix electronic ignition and coil, 1954 air conditioner spec CGJ Brice Thomas aluminum radiator, 180 degree thermostat, flex fan with adapter, 6 volt Optima battery, zero "0" gauge tractor cables, auxiliary electric fuel pump, Wilwood disc brakes, Carter WCFB 2112S 4 barrel carb, Spectre single air intake plenum with K&N filter, 4 7/32 to 5 1/8 air cleaner adapter and a surviving aluminum head. I also disconnected the passenger side heater tube and put a K&N filter on the heater motor to let cooler air into the engine bay and a Summit racing fuel pump heat shield wrap. A rebuild was done around 2003 though. Simple stuff but it works for me.

Interesting stuff for V8s below, hope I'm allowed to share it:

jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/430-and-352-packard-speed-equipment.689719/

jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/1956-pac ... nsen-automotive-engineering.981064/

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I'm in the "you're wasting your time" camp. I looked at this, and the motor is just too heavy and the parts are too scarce, if at all, and what you going to do if you get to 200 HP vs the 100?
We debated this on one of the forums in the past, so you might search them.
Any adds will be more for "looks" than go.
There was a turbo hot rod on one in of the photos, posts.

Supercharging has been a popular way to increase horsepower and torque. Turbo supercharging is another way, but it involves moving a lot of exhaust heat around which may not be the best for these old design engines. Engine conversion is also a popular way to go. Later model V-8s and their transmissions is probably the best way to get the most bang for your buck. Have you thought about a Packard V-8 coupled to a modern 5-speed transmission? I guess it boils down to how much time and money do you want to spend.

Because if you want a Knucklehead, then you want a Knucklehead.


Difference, hot rodders and the aftermarket have avoided anvil engines like the plague, it seems. So you have to dig deep and spend some money.


I dig the car/engine in post #7.