Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I'm going to call this a strange phenomenon! My six cylinder, yes 6 sparkplugs, has a serial number of 24898B. The Packard decoder indicates that the engine is an eight (8) cylinder built in 1926 or 1927. Anyone have any answers?

It is entirely possible your car had a service engine installed sometime in its life and if that is the case, there have been some strange numbers associated with those engines. Some numbers reported seem like they could have been dictated by a state DMV but others seem to have no meaning except to the person that stamped them.

Can you find a casting date. These are raised numbers cast directly in the block metal and on the inline engines they were usually located low on the block just above the oil pan. Some engines have a date on both sides, one often found below the starter but they can also be toward the front of the block.

Post a picture of the Engine Serial Number. Starting in 1938 the Engine Number would have starter with an A and then progressed for every year.

1938 - A######
1939 - B######
1940 - C######
1941 - D######
1942 - E######

through 1954 which was M######


So if you put a C in front of your serial number, it comes back as a 1940 Six Motor. More than likley your engine was a replacement, and was restamped by the dealer. A picture of the stamping will confirm that.

Kev brings up an excellent point about the possibly of there being a missing "C" in the engine number -- or one of the other year letters A thru F which are the other letter years available before the six was discontinued in a passenger car. It is probably just missing the "C" but the engine could also be a scrapyard transplant instead of a service engine and both possibilities are something I had forgotten to consider.

There are cases where it has been found that sometimes the year letters "missed" the pad for whatever reason and in others it was deliberate such as in the example below. On the example I suspect that the engine was stamped in an ordinary fashion but then it was determined it was going into a senior chassis so the second C was added outside the pad and after the fact.

There have also been numerous instances where the person who did the stamping apparently did not eat his Wheaties that day or misjudged the force needed for the stamping and one or more of the letters are so faintly stamped as to be barely visible. Again note this example where with some enlargement and image contrast and briteness manipulation you can see the very faint second C. Your number might have a missing C or another letter done in a similar lightly stamped fashion.




As an aside, if the engine number is actual and just missing the "C", the suffix "B" at the end indicates a change from the original as introduced specs of the car. In this case, because of an unanticipated parts shortage, instead of the originally specified clutch assy manufactured by Long, some 1940 cars were equipped with a Borg and Beck clutch assy and the B was so the service dept would know to order those replacement parts instead of the original Long parts. This issue is first detailed in the Service Letter of Nov 1. 1939 and there are some follow up service letter clarifications of engine ranges and exactly what parts were different in certain models because after the first switch some parts again were in short supply so there were some different parts mixes .

That’s a very long engine number considering the mostly-rebuilt engine in my shop is C4411. Must be an early example.