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Hello forum members,

I do not come over here often enough. Sorry to re-join by starting off with a question.

During the early 90s I had a Caribbean Convertible and a "standard" convertible. Both had the 359 cu. in. aluminum head. Both heads were shot, which was part of the reason I ulitmately sold both cars, plus I needed the money for a down payment on our first home. Shot defined as the cylinder head's mating surface to the block was erroded away exposing the inners of the head, and two of the spark plug ports were stripped to the point where no heli-coil could fix them.

Fast forward to 2025 -- Here is my question. I am thinking, or maybe not thinking, of rejoining the Packard ranks.

What is the liklihood of sourcing a decent 359 cu. in. aluminnum head which could be used. Alternatively, what is the liklihood of sourcing a junk 359 cu. in. aluminum head so that I could investigate having one made, perhaps 3-D printing.

I think the part # is 446974, but I do not know if there were multiple versions or variations. Because it was a one-off year production, I would assume there was only one "type."

Please weigh-in.

You would never 3D print one, you would CNC machine.

Some guy was just on Facebook the other day hawking one. I would expect to pay about $1000 for a nice one. And good luck finding one for sale.

I would reconsider which head to use, but would also encourage you to "join back"!

There is one currently for sale on Facebook but not sure which group or whether it's in the general Marketplace. It just appeared there yesterday but I cannot locate it now so maybe it got snapped up. I may have one for sale soon too but it's not perfect, having a little previously-repaired corrosion under the outlet but the spark plug holes and outlet holes were all Heli-Coiled years ago. As the head was 1954 senior model only, there were no variations.

I found the Facebook listing but you'll need to be a member of the Packard Automobile Classics group to view it.

It sounds like the guy is willing to take 500 bucks for it, but it will need to be checked over at a machine shop before it goes on the car.

There's another guy that commented saying that he owns three of them, but who knows what kind of condition those are in.