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PackardV8

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Posts posted by PackardV8

  1. Find your local 4x4 off-road shop and ask them for a quote. They do Jeeps, Ford, Chev and IH every day and should gave gears, seals, bearings and limited slip on the shelf. Often, they'll have take-out street ratios and posi which have been replaced with crawler gears and lockers.

    Jack Vines

  2. Nothing should surprise anyone buying a 50+year-old basket case. I've seen Avanti variously with 259" engines, 3-speed-overdrive trannies, Dana 27 6-cyl rear axles, Ford 9" rear axles, Chevy engines, Ford engines, Mopar engines, SteelTech brakes, Turner brakes and mystery brakes.

    Decide if you want a restoration, a driver or a modified car and then take off everything which does not fit that definition.

    jack vines

  3. FWIW, a completely new 350" doesn't cost that much more than fiddling with the heads and cam on the 305". A 245hp 350" long block, which would bolt in and look as stock as one wants, is only about $1500, plus core and shipping. A built 383" which will make those passes like a rocket, would only be about $3500.

    Driven the same fashion, an appropriately tuned 350" would produce essentially the same fuel economy as a 305". (But where's the fun in that? When the horsepower is there, it's fun to use it occasionally/appropriately ;>)

    My 83 acquired a 355 SBC roller engine with Aluminum heads etc. Very happy with it but unless you fall into the deal I did, it would be an expensive upgrade.

    Without knowing the details of the build, it's difficult to give an exact quote, but a typical roller cam aluminum head 355" runs about $3,000.

    jack vines

  4. One possibility is ignition timing is retarded.

    Pull the distributor and have the vacuum and centrifugal advance verified on a machine.

    Confirm the vacuum advance is connected to the correct vacuum port.

    The most difficult thing is to confirm your timing tab is the correct one and TDC is actually where it is indicated to be. There are a dozen different front balance damper, front cover and timing tab combinations for SBC. It's possible the timing mark is not actually where it's supposed to be.

    jack vines

  5. All good points!....but a 'complete long block engine' ends at the crankshaft rear face...(IMHO) thus, the 400CI flywheel would be needed. The 350CI flywheel will not function properly on the bigger engine!

    The question, as stated, is still.....FALSE!

    I'd argue TRUE. A "400" Chevy engine" is ready to bolt up to a transmission and needs only fluids to be ready to run.

    The original question didn't state "long block" but in any case it is mis-defined above. There no such thing as a "complete long block engine". It's either a complete engine or a long block. As defined by the American Engine Rebuilder's Association, a long block includes short block, heads, valve train, but not the flexplate/flywheel/front damper, manifolds, sheetmetal or accessories to make it a complete engine.

    jack vines

  6. As mentioned earlier, the problem is often in the relationship of front pad and rear shoe friction materials. If a too-hard pad is installed on the fronts, along with regular linings on the rear, the rears will lock too soon.

    Conversely, if a too-hard rear lining is used, they won't contribute much to the stopping effort and may not even hold well as parking brakes.

    How old are the front flex hoses? I've run into problems over the years where the hoses have deteriorated internally and were blocking the pressure to the calipers.

    jack vines

  7. Thanks for all of these responses and I will pass them on to my mechanic.

    As to my underlying concern about braking, I have always understood that any braking system should have enough 'authority' to fully brake (stop) a turning wheel (at low speeds at least). Am I wrong?

    Bill

    You are correct. In a conventional system, you should be able to have the brakes lock the wheels with a maximum application of force. If they won't, especially with a light car and skinny tires, such as our Avanti, something is wrong.

    jack vines

  8. When the minority who claim "anything made by Paxton is a genuine R3", gets in here, then there were maybe 200 versions.

    Paxton sold them with and without B serial numbers, with standard rods, with standard heads, with 288-degree cams, with 299" and 304.5" bores, with and without competition superchargers, without any supercharger, with aluminum and iron intakes, et al.

    jack vines

  9. Regarding engines, remember that Studebaker was making aircraft engines during WWII (as did Packard). Supercharging and 160 octane fuel was pretty common. When Studebaker developed their V8 there was a presumption that very high octane fuel would be available so high combustion chamber pressures could be used to obtain horse power. GM converted gasoline engines to diesel with poor results. I would expect that a 289 diesel would likely be a good engine; they certainly have demonstrated the ability to absorb high combustion chamber pressures.

    Can you give us a citation for 160 octane fuel being pretty common? IIRC, it was experimental and more properly referred to as 100/150 aviation fuel.

    Wikipedia

    Avgas -The particular mixtures in use today are the same as when they were first developed in the 1940s, and were used in airline and military aero engines with high levels of supercharging; notably the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine used in the Spitfire and Hurricane fighters, Mosquito fighter-bomber and Lancaster heavy bomber (the Merlin II and later versions required 100-octane fuel), as well as US-made liquid-cooled Allison V-1710 engines, and numerous radial engines from Pratt & Whitney, Wright, and other manufacturers on both sides of the Atlantic. The high octane ratings are achieved by the addition of TEL, a highly toxic substance that was phased out of automotive use in most countries in the late 20th century.

    The octane rating became important as the military sought higher output for aircraft engines in the late 1930s and the 1940s. A higher octane rating allows a higher compression ratio or supercharger boost, and thus higher temperatures and pressures, which translate to higher power output. Some scientists even predicted that a nation with a good supply of high octane gasoline would have the advantage in air power. In 1943, the Rolls Royce Merlin aero engine produced 1320 horsepower (984 kW) using 100 RON fuel from a modest 27 liter displacement. Towards the end of the second world war, experiments were conducted using 150 RON fuel (100/150 avgas), obtained by adding 2.5% aniline to 100 octane avgas.[4]

    jack vines

  10. Actually, Studebaker began using superchargers in 1957 because the heavy old Packard V8 was taken out of production.

    Yes, agree, once the good engine was gone, they were forced to add the supercharger because that's the only way the Studebaker V8 could produce 275 horsepower, so as not to have a reduction in the advertised horsepower. In real world driving, the '56J was faster and quicker than the '57-58.

    No, actually, the Packard V8 isn't that much heavier than the supercharged Studebaker V8. I've weighed both on the same scale on the same day and the difference is less than 20#.

    As to "old", the Studebaker V8 came out in '51 and the Packard V8 in '55, so it's the newer of the two.

    Maybe, the Studebaker engineers were doing the best they could with what few resources they had available.

    jack vines

  11. Wow!..If a 289 (299?) can be wound to 8K, I wonder how high a 259 or even the super-short stroke 224 could be wound out to....all else being equal?

    Yes, a shorter stroke takes more RPMs to generate the same inertial loading on the OEM Stude V8 connecting rod weak link. However, the old school valve train goes wonky before the shorter stroke short blocks hurt themselves.

    There are many drag race engines with 4.5" strokes turning more than 8,000 RPMs, so it's no longer about stroke length. Changing the build with custom connecting rods and light forged pistons and a 289" will turn the same RPMs; whatever the valve gear will support.

    With good rods and pistons, a custom cam profile, titanium valves and race springs, a 289" could turn 10,000 RPMs; whatever RPMs the builder wanted.

    However, it's moot, as the iron heads run out of normally aspirated flow capacity to supply a 289"-305" short block way before the high RPMs happen. That's why Stude engineers went to superchargers in 1957.

    jack vines

  12. My 700R4 swap required cutting the corner off the passenger's footwell. The most difficult parts were the shifter and the TV bracket and adjustment. BowTieOverdrives was my preferred solution.

    If buying a rebuilt tranny, I'd go with a 200-4R just for the gear ratios.

    jack vines

  13. According to Vince it had a competition blower and was painted black. If you have the Hot Rod Magazine 1st R3 road test it is pictured. It was shipped back to Paxton following a impeller explosion for rebuild and was returned with a fresh coat of black paint. I was told at the time of the rebuild that the impeller and the bearing race spring pressures were different on the competition blowers.

    The competition model Paxton was sold without any warranty. The ball driver life at sustained high RPMs was very short.

    Wonder if Paxton/Studebaker was the first to give a national magazine a non-stock ringer test car? It soon became commonplace with Pontiac sending out '64 GTOs for testing with tuned 421"s in them instead of stock 389"s. One Mercury Cyclone furnished to Car and Driver had been built by Bud Moore Racing.

    jack vines

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