Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

'49-'50 the engine was mounted single point in the front and torque reaction was by two mounts on the trans. '51-'54 torque reaction was taken by two mounts on the engine and there was one mount on the back of the trans. You can't have it both ways or there is nothing to restrain the torque reaction.

That will make it tough to mount a modern trans as they are all one point mount at the rear.

At the end of the day it will be vastly simpler to find the pieces to do the car as a stick with overdrive in the original configuration.

Quote:

Sounds reasonable to me.

Good Morning...I seems to me who drives a 49 288 with overdrive...a good bit...that the engine really likes the standard and overdrive set up...Ernie in Arizona

Quote:

Ross brings up something I had never thought of. 23rd series cars all had the same single front motor mount and from the looks of the Ultra tail housing, while it is shorter it has the same fairly narrow single pad with two studs that go into a crossmember like the later units so how did they stabilize the engine.

Parts says the Ultramatic cases are identical 23-54 series so while there are bolt holes on one side, nothing is on the other. There are holes where the idler assy would be on the drivers side of the block that would be unused with an Ultra but don't believe anything is on the other side. Idler holes don't line up with anything and the block castings did not have other holes for side mounts until 51. Where or how did they do side stabilizers on the 23rd Ultramatic cars.

Are you saying that with the single mount in the front, that a straight 8 327 23rd series wouldn’t work with a modern GM tranny (because they also have a single in the back)?

Couldn’t I fab up a cross-member near the front of the transmission out of the 22nd manual setup?

I don't know what mounting holes are available on the GM trans and don't remember any being installed in place of a 23rd series Ultramatic. If you go that route believe you will be blazing the trail. What I was asking about is the stock 23rd series Ultra install on a smaller engine that only has a single front mount..

The 356 engine did have some small side stabilizer brackets located a few inches rearward of the front mount. Those also bolted into the front cross member but to the best of my knowledge the holes for those brackets were not on the smaller 22-23 series 288/327 blocks. The only decent sized side holes on that block would be where the manual shift idler assy bolted to the block and I believe those would be unused if there was an Ultramatic. Nothing is on the passenger side.

Likewise, there are 4 unused holes on the drivers side of the Ultramatic but again, nothing on the passenger side. I don't believe either of those sets of holes are anywhere close to any kind of ordinary frame mounting point.

Question is did they somehow use those holes and only stabilize one side with a special bracket or did the 23rd Ultra engine half of the bellhousing have some kind of stabilizer arrangement? If not, how is the engine stabilized? The single rear 23rd Ultra mount might be a tad wider than the later units but not by much.

Attach file:

---

  288:327.jpg (305.61 KB)


  23 Ultra.jpg (169.76 KB)

An duh, thanks Howard, I appreciate the reply and sorry I misinterpreted your question. Let me just take a look at my 327 and see if there are those side Mount hole on the block…

Well does it appear that there are two sets of those mounting holes on the left drivers side of the block?? As well as… what’s that tiny fitting for further towards the front of the block, close to the top of the oil pan???

I know so very little about this beautiful engine. I can’t believe I’m going to try to modify it to a modern trans 🤦‍♂️

Picture here

Attach file:

---

  image.jpg (385.96 KB)

And you’re right, not much in the way of mount holes on the passenger side.

In the end, I’ll probably need to use part of the rear crossmember mount from whatever modern trans I get and part of the original packard manual crossmember to come up with a stable enough situation. Uffda. Start sending prayers and funds please 🤣

Those are not mount holes and are not only not strong enough to hold the engine but they are also too far to the rear. The proper side holes were on 1951-1954 engines only.