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G'day asparagus,
to PackardInfo. I invite you to add your Packard, possibly a V12 from the gist of your post, to the Owner Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it

MAL: Asparagus is Peter Hartmann who got the boot from here not long ago.

JohnF. Shireman

Asparagus, the chart you are referring to is the result of voting by site members. Kevin set up the voting place so all members could vote for their preference. If you feel the V-12 is the most reliable Packard engine, then you are encouraged to vote for it. Members are not required to justify their votes, just check the box next to the engine for which they are voting.

for JW

My apologies for not understanding your "chart". I mis-understood, did not figure out that, as you now explain, this is just a "popularity chart", and had nothing to do with any real world technical facts.

As many of you know, Packard wisely decided to survive in a declining economy, by competing in the "ordinary man" car price range, producing a line of cars in a price range more people could afford. I will match ANY Packard of ANY price range against ANY other maker's product IN THAT PRICE RANGE, INCLUDING the Packard Six, using ANY criteria for performance, reliability, or whatever.

Bear in mind that Packard did NOT make those parts that we generally associate with day-to-day "in service reliability".

Radiators,starters, generators, carbs., ignition coils, voltage regs., batteries, starter relays, etc.. dash instruments all came from outside suppliers. As to these items, so vital to day-to-day "start em up and drive em" reliability, if you take, for example, a starter relay or generator used on a Packard Six and compare it with a Packard Twelve, obviously, the much larger and more powerful motor is going to require much larger parts. To say there is a QUALITY or RELIABILITY difference in those parts and the industry tech. standards they had to meet, would be nonsence.

Absent a specific criteria, and in view of the fact that depending on the price range, Packards were designed to meet industry standards IN THAT RANGE, I am unclear how to discuss this question of "reliability" fairly and intelligently.

Quote:

You don't have to. The original post was only making inquiry as to a persons particular opinion, limiting specific criteria to perhaps one's own experiences with a Packard engine(s).

I freely admit I voted for the 245 six because this is what I have. That fact notwithstanding, the 245 six in my 1282 meets MY criteria for reliability. I was only stranded one time since I've owned it, just around the corner from my house, because I ran out of gas. Hardly criteria to judge reliability on. Maybe we could start up a new thread called "Bone-Head Packard Maneuvers" or something.

By the way, I don't care if the 12's are any better or not, I sure would like to have one, just a little Victoria Coupe would be nice!

Quote:
John.

I'd guessed as much from the tone and content of the post but chose to offer him the chance to include his V12 in the Owner Registry nevertheless. Maybe I'm naive, or a fool, or both but when I see an opportunity to enlarge the Register I go for it.

Getting back to the question at hand, my direct experience is with the 282 and in both my cars I've had mechanical failures of engine components. Water pump in the '38 and generator in the '41, these mind you are old components well past their "best by" date. Based on that I'd be loath to nominate the 282 as my preference and having had no experience with other Packard engines can't give an opinion on any of them. That said, I'll be sitting on the fence and abstain from voting.

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Hmm, there's times where I should just keep my mouth shut.....

For GUSHA:

Thank you for your post correcting me. I apologize. You are correct - I did not understand that this was simply a "thread" for people to say that they liked what they owned. That is fine.

In defense of my error, let me explain there is apparently some kind of computer malfunction, in that in the first "post" asking for OPINIONS ON WHAT IS THE MOST RELIABLE PACKARD ENGINE", (and economical) on my screen, that is all that showed up. The additional wording you are referring to, that suggests this is only a "thread" for people to tell what they personally own and have experience with, did not appear.

To show you how badly my computer has screwed up, the first time the word "poll" appears on my screen, is in JW's post # 11, and even then on my screen there is NOTHING to indicate this "thread" is just for people to tell what they personally own & like & and have experience with.

To further show you how badly my computer has screwed up, ALL of the posts in this "thread", on my screen, simply say "MOST RELIABLE PACKARD ENGINE".

Again, I had NO clue that the sentence REALLY said "MOST RELIABLE PACKARD ENGINE THAT I PERSONALLY OWN AND LIKE BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY ONE I KNOW".

Hopefully, in the interest of accuracy and getting us correct "real world" technical info., someone will either fix the problem at the "sending" end, or explain to me how I can fix this crummy computer of mine.

For my vote, I like the Packard Electric motors that are in old vacuum cleaners. If you take the blower fan motors off, they are virtually silent, and use NO gasoline whatsoever !

FOR OZSTAT:

Thank you for your invitiation to list my Packard. Not clear how to do that - could someone tell me how? Actually, I never mentioned this because I did see my Packard's picture already entered by someone, (mis-labled as a '36 club sedan) which is fine with me. I just assumed THAT series of photos was the "registry".

I am not too bright with computers, and on top of that, as GUSHA has pointed out, there may be something very wrong with mine. So again, if you or anyone else would tell me how, of course I would "list my Packard.

(

Say there are some water spots on that shiny chrome work

Somewhere around here I have an old magazine with a press release in it from Packard. The press release announces their new V8 engine for 1955.

They claim the new engine, in high speed tests, will go over 100,000 miles where the old engine had an average life of 18,000 miles.

I had to read that and puzzle over it several times. That is why it stuck with me all these years.

Packard had the best and fastest, high speed test track in the world. They could run cars continuously at 90, 100, or faster.

It is logical that at speeds of 90 - 100 a straight eight could wear out in 18000 miles and the new short stroke engine would go much farther. But this would not be a true reflection of normal wear.

It does throw an interesting light on the question of engine life.