Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

So I recently saw a V8 engine for sale on Facebook for $100. Looked OK but I ignored it at the time.



Then they dropped the price to just $50 so I talked myself into going to get it. Safe to say this thing was in pretty rough shape, and the oil pan was held on with only 2 bolts.



Fortunately, someone stored it sort of on its side, which saved the oil pan from the usual dents/leaks that come when you set it on the pan directly on concrete. But that meant that a lot of water collected in the head.



While removing the other head revealed the most bizarre sights, these two nearest pistons having some unidentifiable yellowish crystals, and the next one down turning into a corundum mine with a snake skin.





Through several creative techniques we extracted the crankshaft, which is only 2 under and is in decent shape. The rest of the short block assembly was already fossilizing.



Likewise, the distributor was absolutely seized in place and no amount of hammering from above or below even cracked the rust.



I ended up with these parts. The cast metal on here except the crankshaft is getting scrapped unless someone wants it. The other stuff will be getting cleaned up and saved if it's reusable.



The block is currently getting rebuilt into new Toyota engines.


P.S. I asked the guy how he even ended up with it, and he said that he bought a load of scrap metal and this was mixed in 😂

Nasty!

That's a lot of work! I did it a few years ago on a 1965 Imperial 413 engine that I bought in California and had a family member bring it up to my Oregon shop as he was coming up anyway with a trailer. It worked out perfectly. However, I have never smelled such a smell in an engine! It apparently had never been serviced in is life and had oil like black tar with a horrible stench that took weeks to wash off completely. The pistons were stuck although not as bad as in this 374 but ultimately I got it apart. Supplied as a kit with its block and my existing low mileage rebuilt engine’s innards, it has since been fully rebuild and is just waiting for reassembly and installation.

Hey, at least we got the chance to try out the famous Barberton chicken dinner!

Spud

A trash can full of used trans oil. Drop it in let it soak.

If I brought it home and soaked it in a trash can of de-rust or acid, I could have probably saved the tappets (maybe... as they would probably need reground anyway and who knows if the leakdown could be gotten remotely back into spec). Same concern with the camshaft... far rustier than the crank journals. Pistons would mostly be junk anyway and used pistons are worth only like $10 apiece. Block and distributor junk. No one needs rods. So that's why I decided to just scrap the rest.

Fascinating to see the innards... my Dad re-built a 352 from one of our Clippers, but I didn't get to see it in the process. He liked the 352s a lot and bench-ran it . Sounded great! He sold it. This was in the '60s. so it probably brought some bucks. He didn't like doing anything for free. Use it or sell it.

There's little as expensive as a $50 Packard V8. The most recent one wore out two old guys beating it apart. The pistons were corroded into the cylinders and had to be broken out in pieces. Same with the valves; each had to be sledged out using a punch and a 3# hammer. Even after all that, the block and heads must be cleaned and magnafluxed to determine if they're cracked.

We were fortunate for several builds, but the most recent three have all had cracked cylinder heads.

Two of the three 374" blocks required one or more sleeves.

jack vines

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No kidding. I'm going to soak the heads in my non-acidic desrusting solution and (hopefully) be able to salvage everything. The actual heads and manifolds are getting scrapped (unless anyone wants them) except the one exhaust manifold on it which somehow appears to be nearly NOS condition. Not insanely pitted like usual.