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Hello all
I have at my disposal an engine I believe to be a 384 for a 29
my grandpa kept it around as a spare for his custom 8 and when he passed away my mother kept both the car and the spare engine.
I do not know much about the condition of the engine other than its been sitting outside in a wooden crate for years and it needs to be rebuilt
I also recall there being nothing but an X where the serial number should have been.

I was thinking about rebuilding it with a tad more power in mind, but not enough to jeopardize the structure and without radically modifying it so if need be I can still use it as a spare for the custom 8

my ultimate goal is to put it in a speedster/hot rod sort of thing and I know many of you probably won't like that but at least it would be another running Packard power plant.

with all this in mind I have some questions

how much of an ordeal would it be to fix this thing up?

about how much can I expect to have to spend on a complete rebuild doing as much of the work as I can in my garage?

and about how much of it will I have to farm out to a machine shop?

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated
-alex

What do u think about this ROD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcqO-BLMV0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9F5t7JLbY0

Believe its a 1928 engine.

G'day Alex,
to PackardInfo, but I'll have to leave your questions to the more knowledgeable here to answer. There are a couple of Project Blogs on speedster builds, here is one of them which may be of interest. And, if you do build a Packard powered speedster, I invite you to include it in the Packard Owner's Registry here on PackardInfo!

Barry it's not a '28 engine. See this thread in the Modified Discussion Forum for a lot more info.

What about Ross's speedster? Is there a picture of it on this site?

If there wasn't before, there are now. And I can attest to the fact that it's an exhilirating performer. Photos by this writer.

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thanks for the links
I'll post photos of the engine and the build process when I have a chance to start
the engine is being kept at a friends house a ways out from where I am and I might be moving in the near future so It probably wont be any time soon

See Ross's Speedster in the Registry here!

Came across a photo taken of the engine before we sent it for storage at a friends house
figured you guys might fancy a look at it
the crate its in was boarded up so its all comfy cozy and safe from the elements where it is

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Hi Alex,
Based on the photo, the engine looks exactly like that in my 1929 Seven Passenger Sedan. Ironically, I have recently seen the correct distributor, carburetor and manifold for this engine on Ebay. As for what it may take to get it running...I have no idea. I am not to that point yet in my project. However, in speaking to those who know, these engines are fairly simple and straightforward, so I am hopeful that mine will cooperate when the time comes.

when it comes down to it most engines are pretty simple
suck, squeeze, bang, blow
I'm most apprehensive about the crank
I imagine if there are any problems that requires it to be machined its going to be tough to find a place capable of handling it

that and maybe finding connecting rods as from what I understand the big end is too large to fit through the bore of the cylinder and I doubt something like that would be easy to find