Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I'm not home right now to measure my engines, but I need to know the length of the 288/327 (51-54). Looking to get an engine stand and plan on mounting to the side of the engine. Need to know if the stand will be tall enough to spin the engine around.

No luck finding a used one online. Been looking for a month and all that is out there are the dinky HF stand that won't hold a straight 8. Best I can come up with right now is this one. Probably not ideal but better than the tiny ones.

I bought a couple cheapies as a test for attaching them together for end to end mounting but haven’t gotten around to making the adapters. So far, they are perfect for transmission work but wouldn’t want to attach anything heavier than that!

The engine block is 36 inches long on my 9 main 327.
I used a regular engine stand to assemble the crank, pistons etc.
I made a mount at the water pump end to be supported by a chain fall so I could rotate the block longitudinally. (The C Clamp is to prevent the hook from sliding off the axle pivot.)



Then when it came time to mount the transmission and needed to access the bell housing clearly, I did as you intend, I side mounted it into the same engine stand having drilled a mounting plate to use the engine mounts as an anchor.




By this point there was no need to spin the block so I used the chain fall as an added support as well. Some simple adult words were all that was needed to complete the tranny's mounting!
I waited until the sub assembly was installed on the frame before completing the addition of the head and ancillary components.



Have fun!
Bob J.

Something like this should work!