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Edmunds used to make finned aluminum heads for 282 and 288/327 Packards. I've seen nice used ones sell on ebay in the $500-$800 range. The also made 2x2bbl manifolds

Thanks for the info Fred. It gives me a little hope that we may be able to do these without making a loss. The 3D scanning of cast iron 282 HC head was completed last week. Now it will be a matter of proofing this against the detail in the top deck of the block and then grafting in the performance combustion chamber model that we have developed and the internal water jacket detail before creating the finned top side detail. Then we can start to look at manufacturing options and prices, so you see it can be quite a long process. As this is only a side project it will progress as we have the time and you can be sure I will keep you all abreast of any developments.

So finally, after many, many months, I have organised the shed to accommodate the new Packard project. I have a clear floor and new benches so next on the list will be a trip to Wades Workshop to pick up the rolling chassis that I arranged to 'acquire' from him over a year ago now.

In the meantime I have not been idle and after stripping down the 282 engine that Wade virtually donated to the cause (I think it was in the way and he wanted it out), we have identified a number of areas that will need some further work.

Once the engine was mounted on a stand it was pulled down (not that many pieces in one of these) and cleaned up a little. My first concern was to check to see how sound the crank shaft was. If you have never picked up the crank from one of these, take my advice and have someone younger and fitter do it for you - I know it is a big engine but OMG this thing is heavy! Anyway, after much grunting it was hung from the roof on a piece of sturdy wire through a flange bolt hole and given what my father has always referred to as the 'ding' test. Take a 5/8 open ended ring spanner and give the suspended crank a nice solid tap towards the bottom end and you should get a nice, long, resonate 'dinggggggggggg'. If you hear a 'donk' it means you have a problem (most likely a crack) and a brand new door stop or garden ornament hanging from the ceiling. I got a really long, resonate 'dinggggggggggg...ggggg' that seemed to go on forever - so HWT... (Happy With That).

Examination of the main & big end surfaces raised some questions as most are quite poor, but one looks brand new and is possibly a reclaimed surface. Sizes seem pretty uniform though, so machining should be able to take care of this end of things. The main housings and caps all look sound, so should be no problems there. The conrods also look good and are much 'nicer' pieces than I expected for a large, slow revving, long stroke engine of this era. I would probably get them crack tested and then surface relieved first, but if the length is workable then I will most likely reuse them.

Pistons, on the other hand, are a different matter. Wade was kind enough to source some slightly used pistons from his personal stock and typical of Packard they are lovely things, but the alloy and steel 'strut' construction of these is not my preferred choice for a forced induction motor. Also looking at the bores I think they will have to be taken out at least 40-60thou to clean up properly so that means that Wades pistons won't be able to be used at this time either.

Given that this will be a 'performance' engine using period technology, then boring the block out for larger capacity would be one of our first considerations, so the next step is to find some pistons to suit. With a standard bore of 3.25" (out to 3.31" at 60 over) and with a compression height of (from memory?) roughly 2.125" this is not going to be a very easy task - although I am willing to consider a bore size out to near 3.50". Of course this might be pushing my luck a little and I can't really afford to machine the engine just to then sleeve it back down to standard. Decking the block to enable using smaller compression height pistons is a limited option since that would require re-machining all the valve head reliefs (read, more cost), although I am not likely to end up using the standard valves so the reduction in valve length itself would not be an issue. Either way, to use this block and get the larger capacity, I would like to go with the largest bore size possible. Either way it seems likely that we will be looking at either custom pistons on the standard con rods or larger pistons with a smaller compression height from some other application on longer custom con rods. Either way will be acceptable, but budget is always a concern so we will have to see what we can find in the books.

The cam shaft (aka the 'bump stick') hasn't really been considered yet, but that will likely also need testing and a carefully considered regrind. I will likely leave the research here to my brother as he has this nice little computer package that enables him to model cam profiles, timing, etc, etc, for the best performance and he'll get upset if I don't ask for his help. He also builds and rebuilds classic race cars and their engines and gearboxes for a living, so he is a handy guy to know.

So that is about the state of things at this point. Next time I hope to share some results of our research into engine internals and hopefully the chassis will be finding its way to its new home.

Quote:Matt,

Good to hear things are progressing and that the rolling chassis will have a new home soon.

Concerning boring a 282 block, usually the maximum recommended oversize is 60thou. Although my '41 was out to about 90thou, a combination of 75thou plus wear, it was sleeved back to std when rebuilt. Can't see 3.5" bore as possible although if you do manage to I'd like to see that!

If I have to use a sleeve it means I can take it out past the water jackets then sleeve it back to oversize. I know guys with Austin 7 racers that hve been doing it for years. Not exactly kosher, but doable nontheless.

So it has been a while since updating the project post, and things are starting to happen. And yes, Mal, I have taken the photos I promised but I am updating this during my break at work so you will have to wait, I'm afraid.

The '34 1100 chassis was picked up from 'Wades Workshop' some weeks ago and brought home. It took some effort to get the beast into the shed, but with my step-sons help it was accomplished and my new shed suddenly got much, much smaller.

Since then it has gone up on stands and been levelled to make measuring and marking easier. With the wheels off it was time to get serious and next job was to remove the 374ci Senior engine & gearbox, which still belongs to Wade, and build a trolley for it to sit on - which gave me an excuse to buy the engine crane I have wanted for a while.

That done I have removed some of the unwanted metal from the chassis, namely the running board brackets, body mounts and transmission cross member. Also removed the piping for the lubrication system, although I still haven't decided if I will retain this feature or not.

I have also managed to remove about half a bucket full of dirt, grease, stones and rust flakes so far. I want to keep it all so I can take it back to Wade and ask for a refund when I'm finished... LOL

I then bolted the 282 engine block, sump, bell housing and gearbox together and this is now sitting on top of the chassis waiting to be dropped roughly into place so more measurements can be made. Next I will be looking at the engine, supercharger and manifolding layouts and then from this working out the modifications to be made to the chassis. Then I will have to contemplate the seating position before working out the steering (the car will be RH drive for our Aussie roads) set up and finally figuring out how to wrap a body around it all.

Right now I am really enjoying the project as at this early stage it is easy to see progress being made. Once things start having to go back together, though, this is likely to change.

I will post some photos of the work so far (including of my new PACA badge, which is now fixed to the front of the chassis with a couple of cable ties) when I next get a chance and hopefully will also have the results of a long weekends worth of work on the car by next Monday night.

Friday 10/6/11 - finally got the chance to upload some photos. Enjoy!

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Matt,
for including not just the PACA badge in your Blog but the Racing Biposto in the Packard Owners Registry under the guise of a '34 ex Sedan Must say the chassis looks a lot cleaner than the last time I saw it, and the badge is impressive!

I am floating away on an ocean of postwar engines 50-56, and Ultramatics coming out of my earballs. A crazy idea came that maybe you folks on the other side of the world would find good utility in a bulk purchase for the general good? Bang ten engines, plus axles, plus whatever in a container and send it your way? A thought.

That may very well be something the guys down here would look at Ross, but I would recommend you post the idea on the post-war forums and maybe PM Mal (Ozstatman) and see if he can put you in touch with more of the Australian post war guys.

I looked at the post war engines and although they would really suit what I am doing, for the car to qualify for cometition over here it must be built of all pre-war parts and use established pre-war technology.

So it was a productive weekend, made even more so by my father (who has a wealth of experience in such things) who was staying for the weekend and I managed to convince should offer some advice.

First was consideration of the overall length and width of the chassis. At just over 39" wide at the seating position the chassis, as it stands, is not a bad width for a 'comfortable' 2 seater, remembering that the body won't sit outside the line of the chassis at all. For handling it has been decided to reduce the wheelbase to 120" - which gives us a 2:1 wheelbase to track width ratio - just nice and on par with the race and sports cars of the day. This will be done by cutting 15" off the front of the chassis and moving the front axle and spring hangers backwards. I hope to reuse the forged hanger ends from the rear of the car at the front and will fabricate new rear hangers for the front springs inside the existing chassis and much higher. This will drop the overall height of the chassis 6-8" closer to the ground. Starting at the back of the crucifix, the rear of the chassis will be cut and pulled towards the centre so that what are currently the rear hangers of the rear springs will sit only about 24" apart. A tubular cross bar will then be used to anchor new 'outrigged' rear hangers at the existing width but higher so as to match the chassis height from the front end alterations.

The rear leaf packs have been removed so that I can organise for new top leaves to be made. Both packs have fractured main leaves with one being 'replaced' by pulling out the original second leaf and putting in another main leaf with one good eye/end so there are eyes on both the top and second leaves. The other pack had one eye brazed back together (!). The two spring packs look completely different but I am hoping to be able to just have 2 new top leaves made and then mix and match the rest to create 2 packs the same. Front and rear spring packs will be reduced from the current 9 leaves to probably 5 or 6. The car will be much lighter than the original so this will improve ride and handling as well as reduce the overall weight of the car. The original shock absorbers will be used but will have to be relocated due to the change in the chassis rails at the rear. I still have to find a pair of shocks to suit the front - although I am keen to keep the rate adjustment feature that the '34 car had originally at both ends.

The engine is now also sitting in position and waiting for the fabrication of engine mounts from some 4mm plate. Given that this car is to be the 'racing/sports' version it must be remembered at all times that 'weight is the enemy'. Locating the engine & gearbox is something of a compromise. I want to move the weight down and back as far as possible, but this is restricted by the chassis 'crucifix', the brake cross shaft and common sense. I could get it much closer to the ground, but it would look ridiculous and not be in keeping with the era and future use of the car. Also this would create problems with the drive shaft and the centre of the crucifix would have to be heavily modified. As it sits now, the lower, rear most point of the gearbox sits just above the brake cross shaft and lines up nicely with the gap through the crucifix. Given that I am lowering the chassis so much this should work fine. The seating position itself will end up a little further forward than my original intention, but it will still work and will also provide for some decent storage area in the tail (perfect for a fuel drum and crash helmet or the picnic basket).

We also looked at locating the supercharger. Dad brought down one of the 'blowers' he had in stock - although it is just a shell it is the same as the one I will fit to the car but is still in 'storage' at my brothers place - a Wade RO34 originally off an English 'Commer Knocker' truck with the TS3 2 stoke diesel engine. This unit supplies approx. 3.4 litres or air for every revolution and I still have to do all the calculations but think it will need to run at around 1.2 to 1.4 times engine speed to give around 8 pounds boost and mean that I will still be able to run premium unleaded pump petrol. The blower will sit out the front of the engine between the chassis rails - like the 'Blower Bentleys' - and be shaft driven off the front of the motor with a chain drive to control speed somewhere in the mix. It will probably suck through twin Stromberg 97 downdraft carbs mounted directly to the top of the blower and then a custom manifold will stay low down the right hand side of the motor and up into the 4 inlet ports. The exhaust will come straight out of the exhaust ports then out the side of the bonnet and run along the side of the car ending behind the rear axle.

So yes, it was a productive weekend with some work done but a great deal more planned. And thanks to Dad for his help. He reckons he has never seen anyone turn a 'truck' into a sports car before and spent a lot of time questioning my sanity and upbringing - he kept asking himself where he went wrong... I now know where I got my sarcastic streak from!

Photos to come when I get a chance.