About two years ago I bought a rusty 1950 Packard Super Eight Deluxe with the sole intent to race it in the La Carerra Panamericana. Anyone aware of the Packard brand and the legendary road race through Mexico probably knows just how bad of an idea this is.
The car was owned by someone who was going to hot rod it but didn't have the time. I bought it for $1200 cash and drove it home. Even in its poor state of repair, the Packard's engine was buttery smooth?I could nearly achieve the standard measure of a nicely running Packard: balancing a nickel on its side atop the head of the running engine. Still, it was in rough shape. The carb was absolutely filthy, the wiring was a disaster, the old mechanical fuel pump didn't work, and a good number of horses had escaped the stable. The interior was a hot mess, the floor would have been familiar to Fred Flintstone, and the six volt charging system was not very fun to deal with. Still, it had charm. And I live in Detroit, where the name ?Packard? has a strong emotional pull.
The car sat and waited for a year, but over the last nine months or so I?ve succeeded in completely taking it apart. That's the easy part. Recently my first new/old part came in.
The engine in this car is a 327-cubic-inch flathead inline eight that originally made 150 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. It did this using intake and exhaust designs originally developed in the 1930s, so the term "inefficient" comes to mind. A very small, centrally-mounted dual bore Carter carburetor fed all eight cylinders, and this meant the center cylinders ran rich, mid-cylinders ran optimally, and outer cylinders ran lean (three feet of engine block will do this).
Clearly that wasn't going to work for the purpose I have in mind. So, after a lot of investigation, I purchased an extremely rare, period-correct Edmunds intake manifold. This intake allows for two two-barrel carburetors spaced apart for better fuel distribution. The other day I decided to test-fit this pristine, never-used intake on my currently crated engine, and it fits like a glove. (The original Carter fits just fine, but others can be had, it?s a standard bolt pattern.)
There are not a lot of engines fitted with these intakes, mostly because Packard owners are purists, and those who aren?t purists pull the straight eight and drop a GM 454 V-8 or a Ford 460 in its place. It?s rather strange to be out on the edge of what?s known about such a revered brand, yet accidentally that?s happened. Even the old timers on the Packard forums are asking me about it.
It?s fitting that the first new part is a dramatic one, because this car is in for some dramatic changes.
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