Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Is there anybody out there that manufactures rod and main bearings for the V8? I see some NOS ones on ebay but I can't give $200 for a set of bearings.

G'day Nxslt1,
Being this your first post, it's to PackardInfo.

But sorry I can't help with your question. However, Jack Vines, a member here on PackardInfo may be able to point you in the right direction. I very much doubt Jack makes bearing inserts but is a great source of information regarding V8 Packards and rebuilding them.

Also, I invite you to include your '55 Packard in PackardInfo's Packard Vehicle Registry.

Egge makes rod, crank and cam bearings for the V8 Packards. I didn’t look at both years or all three engines but they have them at least for the 352 but $200 seems a bargain. High cost for parts is just a price we pay for these luxury cars.

I don't remember the Clevite number, but, if you can get the Clevite number, then do a google search for them, you might come up with a set.
Of course you need too know what size bearings you need, standard, .010",.020", .030" oversize. 200 dollars is not out of line today. PB

200 is an insane price. You can buy sbc and sbf bearings all day for 50 and unless I'm missing something there's nothing special about these bearings.

The special thing about these bearings is that they fit Packard.

Quote:

Why do you NEED bearings? Did you plastigage the old bearings? If you are doing a full engine rebuild then 200 is not much compared to the cost of pistons, machine work, etc.

If you check the service manual, you will see that if the bearings plastigage to 2.5, maybe 3 thou you can reuse them.

What car do you have specifically, what kind of project is it?

It all comes down to economy of scale. They made millions and millions of SBCs. Also there are 100s of company that make replacement parts for them.

Packards were never made in the millions, especially V8 motors with only a two year run.

As such, there are only a very few companies that make replacement parts. If you figure they are making a part that at its best may only ever fit 20000 cars, and they you have to wait for those cars to need that part. Then your talking engine bearings with standard and oversize variants.

Let's say on good year, a vendor sells a 100 sets a year. That a lot of capital out lay to have a run on parts made, and then spend years to sell them and also store them before you get your investment back.

So to make any of it worth it, they have to sell them at the prices you see. If no one made them, and you had to have them specially made $200 would be a bargin.

I know someone that had a set of ARP Rods bolts specially made for an ancient engine with no aftermarket parts, and that was close to a $1000.

I don't use plastigauge, ever, and I'm pretty sure I'll never pay that much for rod and main bearings so it'll most likely get a sbc put in it at some point. After some research last night looking through all of clevites catalog I did find some main bearings with the right journal OD and housing ID but I have no clue how wide the packard bearings are plus comparing pics the tangs are in the wrong location. I guess I'll figure out more once I get it tore down but I can't dump that much money just into bearings.

Again, it would be helpful if you give some more detail on the project. There are many V8 engine experts here that can guide you through a cost effective rebuild. It's slighly concerning to me that you've never used plastigage as you will save lots of money by measuring each set of component parts and replacing only what is needed. This is not a 68 Mustang engine where you can throw in 8 new pistons for $100 etc. A lot of times these engines need only a valve job and new rings, maybe an oil pump as well.

Packard engines are just kind of rare, same thing as rebuilding a big name engine from the brass era or whatever, you're not gonna be able to just give RockAuto 1000 bucks and have everything but the block show up at your door.

Bearing width is 0.950 IIRC.

You may find this thread helpfulpackardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=28676