In '56 the Stude Hawks used the big and heavy 358 Packard V8. It was too heavy and caused front suspension problems and really didn't perform that well. Stude V8s are plenty heavy themselves. Studes front end was almost the same from '52 through the Avanti. It worked well. From'57 on Packards and Studes used Stude drive train. The 289 Stude V8 was used in the Hawks and the Golden Hawk had a McColloch supercharger. The good tranny before the T10 4 speed was the T85 which came in standard and overdrive. These are all BW and the T85 used an R11 OD with 4 planateries. T85ODs were used in lots of cars and pickups at least into the '60s. I picked up one from a '49 Lincoln for $100 a couple of weeks ago. The T85 is what Ford patterned their "Rock Crusher" 4 speed after. The biggest problem for you would be clutch linkage and 12V Solenoids if you are 12V.
I think some Packard inlines used superchargers. There was just a Kaiser setup on eBay.
