I've got a 288 in my '51, and would like to hop up the old girl to more than 135 HP. Any straight 8 "hot rodders" out there with any advice?
You will have to regrind the cam and bigger valves. These run so sweet I just made mine look nice and enjoy it. Pulled it out of my 48 and putting it in my 40 120 coupe. Should be nice!!!
Packard experts may be found here. I link to the Modification Discussion section http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewforum.php?forum=12 Packard straight eight is a powerful motor but quite detuned. You can get another 25% of HP with a few simple modifications. Twin carbs, or 4 barrel carb and manifold off a later engine, dual exhaust with a split manifold, reground cam, milled head, recurved distributor, and the "speed secret" that is often overlooked, shaving the flywheel for peppier acceleration. All these things can be done with modified stock parts. There are also vintage Edmunds dual carb manifolds and aluminum heads, if you can find them. If you want to go to the trouble the crankshaft and rods out of a 327 will fit your engine. Make sure you get the one with 5 mains not the 9 main bearing unit used in Patricians.
I would add, do not do any modifications unless you take the engine out and overhaul it first. Things like bearings, crankshaft, pistons, rings, etc must be in top shape. You can hop up an engine without noticeably shortening its life if you drive it half way sensibly. But you can also take an old engine that would run for years if you baby it, and if you hop it up it will often blow sky high in a month. So, make sure everything is up to specs before you start hopping it up. O ya use modern low friction rings for more power and less wear. Very important on a long stroke engine.
Check out the March 2012 Hotrod Mag 48 Packard 327 (same block as 288) with vintage supercharger I would send you picture of mine but I don't have them on a URL to post the link.
I'm 'bout to get hold of a '41 Clipper w/ the 282 engine. I like the solid lifters there. Do the peppier mods suggested on here for the 288 pretty much hold true for the 282, or does it have another set of issues to think about? ie. Are they pretty much the same engine or was the 288 a different casting?
I believe the 282 and 288 are completely different engines. The first comes from the Packard 120 introduced in 1936, the other a brand new post war design made in 288 327 and 359 cu in versions. The same basic hop up tricks will work with any motor. Check with the Packard discussion board I linked to, those guys really know their Packards.
They are air pumps like any other engine. Compression, cam, exhaust, induction, ignition. On 40’s and early 50’sengine the biggest bang for the buck was compression. Raising from 6 to even 8 is a huge improvement. A regound cam with a smaller base circle means more lift and duration. An intake with 2 2 barrels and a free flowing exhaust. Finishing with a good point or HEI style ignition will add to the efficiency and I could see a 40% increase over stock. There will be true hottroding by making quite a bit of what you will need but that’s the fun. Good luck.
Thread link- https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/packard-straight-8s-perf-mods-lets-talk-about-it.388993/
The Jalopy Journal
