Packard Forum Index » General

Looks great, Kevin!

Thanks for all you do for this site!

Unable to decode engine number N320874 (actually stamped N320874CAL) but other than the CAL, it seems like a proper engine number and it's correct because I own it. It was in a 1951 300 Packard parts car that was used for stock car racing. Until recently I also owned engine number N349042CAL which I have since sold and it too does not decode.

Packards last official engine letter was M for 54 so I am wondering if your N engines might have been service engines and had a unique numbering system dictated by California DMV when an engine was changed or was in some kind of special use vehicle. As I recall, some years back someone else had a strange prewar number no one could understand. Believe that one was without a first letter but had the CAL added along with some other numbers. Think consensus was it must have been an assigned number by DMV.

Yes, that is a service replacement motor with a DMV assigned number.

I know of a 40 or 41 that ended up with a 327 in it that was a service replacement motor per the instructions of making 327 available for earlier cars. The car was in Southern Calif and it also had a N######CAL motor number.

Quote:
Maybe that is the number I was referring to and just didn't remember the N at the front. On the one I was thinking of there was a discussion early in the forum -- maybe not long after the serial numbers were posted when the owner asked for help in understanding his number.

Also, if I remember the stamping font/size was different. Also I have a faint memory of a star/asterisk also on another example I saw.

I fixed some issues with the Decoder, especially the Engine Decoder. Now, it should correctly parse the 55-56 numbers and handle the earlier motors and motors with suffixes. It won't decode the suffixes as they are too varied by year and model, but it will at least parse the engine numbers and not throw a format error.