The Packard V-12 PT Boat Engine

I had a rare opportunity to help rebuild a Packard Merlin that was for a Lancaster bomber and what a treat it was. When I say “help” I mean I was basically the gopher for the guys that really knew what they were doing but at 23, I was more than happy to help.

side note, the original V-8 in 63 to 64 Avanti was a packard engine.

All developed and built with No ....CNC or CAD .....we had great engineers and machinists

Jfk pt boat skipper

would have been interesting to see intercooled Rolls Royce Merlin engines in PT boats

Patrol Torpedo boats were not actually "lightning fast".
Their main tactic was to slowly creep around at night. A bow wake and churning propellers would be visible even on a very dark night. On the few occasions when a PT boat approached a major surface combatant they would creep forward slowly, being within a mile would be considered very close, they would fire their torpedo (praying to God that grease in the tube didn't flash), and then slowly creep away before the torpedoes hit which was almost never.
Pretty quickly the role of the PT boat changed from torpedoing warships to patrolling for Japanese supplies that were pushed overboard and expected to drift to Japanese-controlled beaches. This along with intercepting heavily gunned Japanese light craft which would transport a handful of troops or supplies. Torpedo launchers were landed and additional gunnery was installed.
With the hull typically in the water, speed rarely needed, and maintenance facilities non-existent, their hulls quickly picked up beards of moss. 100 octane gas during wartime was also not guaranteed to be available. Bottom line, a brand new PT boat without armament could maybe do 40kt, but put a crew on it, configure it for gun battles with maybe two torpedoes "just in case", give it questionable gas and a moss beard, and even if it could do 30kt, if it were in a combat situation it would be creeping along at night.

I was on 3 ships but would have loved this, as an MM2 it was a possibility.

Nice educational video on Packard V12 engines. I worked on a friends PT boat engines in the 90s. The Packard engines had been replaced with 2) direct drive forward mounted 8v71 Detroits and a single 6-71 with a v-drive in the center, this configuration is the opposite of the description in this video. We ran the boat from NC up to Toronto for a tv movie, "JFK Reckless Youth". This boat was also the Coast Guard boat in the 1991 movie "Sleeping with the Enemy".

My grandfather was Bill North vs pres. Packard motor production. A 52 yr old widower in 42.:sent to London then, met a younger pub manager.brought home a war bride! My English grandmother. Thank god for all of them!!!! A crying shame Packard motor ended as a result of all of this.

Very thoroughly and nicely produced. Great, serious information and explanatory work. I live about 8 miles down rt 440 in Bayonne and regularly visit the Boat lift built to put PT boats into the water at the end of the Hackensack and Passaic rivers where the empty into Newark Bay .
Thanks

Always thought this engine was the Packard licensed Merlin. RR gave them the license to produce merlins as the war was hampering production in England

My Farther served on PT Dark Avenger just behind Sub Base at Pompi UK.

Apparently, the Allison V-1710 V12 was never applied to the PT boat design.
On the surface, the Allison would have been a natural choice.

Oddly depressing to see Auto Row in Oakland and the former Packard dealership relegated to some dusty, rusty ads and such and a Packard rendition on the terrazo entrance. “Just ask the man who owns one.” Not enough people owned them. Funniest thing about how America shot its industrial foot is encapsulated in the Republican’s idiotic messaging: Only Nixon could go to China. Detroit almost drowned in its saliva picturing the Chinese demand for cars that they would meet. Someone forgot how China worked.

McHale's Navy taught me everything I need to know, or so I thought.

In the 70s, I went to a truck and tractor pull in Kansas City, and one of the tractors had a submarine engine on it, wow did it roar and pull.

Imagine if they had been able to have oil like we have now. Double life easily.

Very interesting.

One of these engines is on display at America's Packard Museum in Dayton, Ohio.