automotive

Packard Twelve

We routinely work on museum pieces. In this post we introduce a typical case: The repair of a Packard Twelve engine block from 1934, carried out by our colleagues from Lock-N-Stitch in California.

As the name implies, the Packard Twelve is a 12-cylinder engine. It is a flathead engine, sometimes also called side-valve engine, where the intake and exhaust valves are contained within the engine block rather than within the cylinder heads. Flathead engines were very popular until the 1950s and were built in large numbers by automotive manufacturers. Their advantage is their simplicity, compactness, reliability and low cost as the flathead design obviates a complicated valve train. Such engines therefore need far less components than alternative designs such as, for example, single or double overhead camshaft arrangements.

The main disadvantage of the flathead engine is its relatively low efficiency and power output. The Packard Twelve V12 engine has a displacement of 7300 cc (445 cu in) and a maximum output of 119 kW (160 hp).

Repair of cracks in the side walls of the engine block

When the engine block was delivered to us, it contained eleven cracks of various lengths. Some were small, others rather long. Added together, they amounted to a total length of 200 mm. In addition, the block suffered from corrosion and material loss around the camshaft spaces.

The cast iron block had been “repaired” before by arc welding. This has not been a great success – new, fairly large cracks could be seen extending to the left and right of the weld.

As they always so on cast iron parts on which someone has already been attempting a repair by welding, our specialists cut out all material in the vicinity of the weld, in the so-called heat affected zone. This is our standard operating procedure. Whenever cast iron is welded at, the heat from welding burns out the carbon, which constitutes between 2% and 4% of the cast iron. Once the carbon is burnt, the cast iron becomes hard and brittle, looses its structural integrity and becomes worthless.

To replace the cut out material on both longitudinal sides of the block, our specialists installed repair patches made of cast iron. They stitched them firmly in place with Castmaster™ stitching pins. Similar pins of various lengths and diameters were also used to repair the cracks found in various locations on the block, in material ranging from 3 – 10 mm thick. Some of these cracks are visible in the pictures below.

Our specialists also installed five Full Torque™ thread inserts to repair thread holes damaged by corrosion and erosion.

Repair of cracks around the valve pockets

A thorough magnetic particle inspection (MPI) of the block revealed hairline cracks between some of the valve seat and cylinder liner bores. We permanently repaired these cracks by installing small size stitching pins.

After completion of the repair, we took the opportunity to skim all cylinder head gasket mating surfaces, on the engine block as well as on the two cylinder heads.