1940 Packard 180

[electra225]

Somebody made a comment awhile back that they would trade every vehicle they had for a certain model car. Well, this would be mine. I realize it's not a Buick. Grandpa Anderson had one of these, only his was black. Grandma Anderson didn't like being "showy" by buying a non-black car. Grandpa Andersons son got the car after his did died and has it still as far as I know. The wife and I used Grandpa Anderson's old Packard as our "getaway car" when we were married. A Packard 180 would make a Duesenberg seem like a dump truck in comparison. The Packard was a massive car, but was light on it's feet. It has enough torque you could start from a stop in second gear without slipping the clutch. Grandpa Anderson's 180 didn't have air conditioning. He was too tight to fritter away money on things like that, but no expense was spared when it came to his Packard.......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dVP1xBugPA

[walyfd]

There was a 41 120 at Hershey with AIR!!!! Wish I snapped some pictures of it. Needed total restoration but all the parts were there.

[electra225]

The 120 didn't have the big 356 straight 8, did it? The air conditioning compressor didn't have a clutch, so it ran all the time the engine was running. I'll bet gas mileage was beyond horrible pulling the compressor all the time.

Another question I have is how people who take videos of these big Packard engines running make them sound so bad? They sound like they are grinding walnuts. In reality, they ran nearly as silent as any engine ever ran. They would idle at 250 rpm. All you could hear is the air cleaner hissing and the fan belt squeaking.

[walyfd]

Dealers would remove the belt from the compressor until it got hot out.

A well tuned flathead, you should be able to hear the ignition poins open and close. The blocks are so solid, they eat noise.

[Conelrad]

My dad had a '47 Windsor, another massive steel chariot.

We loved that car, got rearended by our '48 Ford coupe that got rearended as well, in front of our house by a Chevy Nomad.

Turned out the wagon driver had a bee get stuck between his eye and his glasses.

Pop bought the Plymouth Plaza wagon with the insurance that I showed in an earlier post.

[TC Chris]

A well tuned flathead, you should be able to hear the ignition poins open and close. The blocks are so solid, they eat noise.

This got me to thinking. All of my cars, ranging from 1938 to 2005,have had OHV engines--even the Corvair, which assured that it got regular infusions of fresh oil. But there is one exception: the 1960 Rambler American with its sturdy little flathead 6. When I got it, the gasket was seeping a bit so I replaced it. What a simple chore! Unbolt, lift off, scrape, bolt back on & torque. No fiddling with push rods and valve lash and all that.

And that Rambler--it always made people smile. it was a little inverted bathtub of a car in a crisp styling era when I had it. I'd drive it around and I'd see people catch sight and smile. The Chevy does that now, but it's way older now than the Rambler was then. And the Chevy is operating about 50 miles from where it was built in Flint and about 10 miles from where its engine block was cast in Saginaw. It's the hometown car.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Dennis mentioned that they had a Chrysler. That might have had the 265 flathead six in it. I have huge respect for the Chrysler flatheads. They were almost as quiet as the Packard, but had a unique exhaust note. Tractors and combines ran Chrysler flathead sixes back in the day. The combine engines were governed at 3500 rpm and would blow fire when they ran. Grandpa had an old Massey-Harris Super 101 that had a Chrysler 201 flathead in it. Dad kept griping that it would only pull two plows in second gear, and that it was too slow to mess with. Grandpa was a Massey man and got aggravated hearing dad brag about his Olivers. Grandpa dropped a Chrysler 265 into the old Massey that he had "tuned up" with Mallory ignition, a bigger carburetor and set the governors at 3500 like on combines. It had a Pierce belt-driven governor and updraft carburetor. And an Isky cam. That old tractor pulled four plows in second, but with the engine running so fast, it was like a gear faster. I could pass dad's Super 88 about every ten rounds or so. That was the sweetest running tractor engine I ever heard, and would turn the exhaust pipe red hot. The limit to that tractor was being able to keep the wheels from spinning. Dad later had an Oliver 525 combine with the 265 that would burn ten gallons of gas an hour if you were into heavy material. The limit to that 265 was the gas tank.