Ken_P

That is exactly what it was like in 2010 in Sierra Leone. Gas and diesel were sold in 2.5l plastic water bottles. Next to inoperable antique gas pumps. Colors varied significantly.

Isn't that the truth? Glad you found it! Pretty important part, and I'm sure it would be hard to come by.

I'm so tired of this! I'm 39, and technically a millennial, although I don't really feel like one. I'm on my second pre-war car, and I'll add to the collection in a few years once I get out of the military and can stop moving every 1-3 years. There are still young people interested in the hobby, but many times they cannot be as active. I have 2 kids, ages 6 and 9, and my wife is working on her masters degree full time - that means I can't go to every dinner meeting or awards banquet. I get to as many shows as I can, but most of the events off the show field aren't really kid friendly. Not complaining, just explaining why maybe you don't see a lot of toddlers at awards banquets! I know of several guys my age via some of the blogs in the Packard world, and as I get deeper in Willys trucks and Jeeps, there are quite a few young guys there too, although many aren't purists. The hobby will change, and may even shrink, but it probably won't die. Hell - people still ride horses! (some even collect horse drawn carriages)

Then I’m sat!

Not a stupid question! Factory fan, engine, radiator (except new core), etc. No shutter system, etc. I did check air flow, seems fine.

Terry, that’s kind of what I thought, too, except: the first round of evaporust turned black quickly, and all the gunk coming out of the car is magnetic. I’ll do this next round of evaporust and peek again. If it looks the same way, I may try to find some way to remove the scale, if that’s what it is.

A quick look of the Packard parts database over on PackardInfo.com shows no Packard parts with that part number. 421008 is a crankshaft for a 1949 or 1950 Packard Eight (23rd series).

@TerryB - I don't think anyone is saying the hack isn't a big deal. What is not a big deal is the loss of a single pipeline for a week. There should be no panic over that. There should be civic concern over the hackability (yes, just made that word up) of our critical infrastructure. Buying an extra 50 gallons of E10 isn't going to help anyone in the long run, and it just makes things worse.

TPH - lots of good info here. Thanks! I did check the water distribution tube. All fine. Carb was professionally rebuilt about 5 years ago, and kept clean since then. Plugs show an even distribution across all cylinders. Been through the entire distributor, and installed a completely rebuilt spare, just to rule out any ignition issues. Head was recently off for an in-frame overhaul, compression is all consistent across the board. Thanks for the thoughts! I've been through pretty much the entire list on the Packard Club website - a lot of the mechanical work is detailed in my project blog on PackardInfo.com. So far, all sat. The only thing I haven't done is re-jet the carb for E10. Agree the 120s are great cars. I'm a fan, just trying to get it all the way sorted.

That's right Matt- the temperature drop should actually go up for a given radiator with a higher inlet temperature, because all heat exchangers are more efficient with a higher differential temp (in this case between the water temp entering the radiator and ambient air temp) - also why cars are more likely to overheat on a hot day. I think I'm struggling with a heat capacity removal problem. This is also supported by the fact that the car got hot when I ran it without a thermostat on a run a few weeks ago. There is additional friction in the engine because of the new rings, but I anticipate that effect should be starting to fade, because the new rings have a little over 500 miles on them now. I put in new evaporust today, and will keep cycling the engine. I'm also going to try and work out how to best do an accurate radiator flow test with the engine in the car, and I'll do that as part of the next cycle when I clean the gano filter, and or renew the evaporust. Edit: the below pictures are in the head and the top of the radiator that I took with a new inspection camera I just got. Can't get it very deep without pulling a freeze plug, but interesting. A lot of the surface looks mung covered, rather than rusty, yet all the crap my filter is catching is magnetic. Temp gauge is for fun. Sitting at idle at a stop light just after the car fully warmed up. Hadn't been above 30mph yet. This is after hot flushing the block for a week, running the pump 12-16 hours a day (it was so noisy I shut it off at night so I could sleep!!!) and one cycle running evaporust as coolant. We'll see what it looks like on the next cycle.

Having lived in Naples for 2 years: - In Milan, the traffic lights are rules. - In Rome, the traffic lights are suggestions. - In Naples, the traffic lights are decorations! Driving there was chaos, but it was controlled, and it was efficient. When traffic got bad, the 3 lane highway went to 5 or 6 lines, plus scooters whizzing around. The rule that everyone followed was: whoever is in front of your bumper has the right of way. They were going fast, but everyone paid attention, and drove defensively.

@Matt Harwood - fair enough, and if I thought about it objectively, I knew that. Sometimes it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees! I’ll keep running this thermostat for now, and think about swapping it out for a different one once the block is de-crudded. Sounds like all the vendor ones open at 160F anyways. Reading between the lines on the packard service manual, sounds like those 147 and 162 values may be when it starts to open anyway. That is how they are referenced in another section.

Holy crap - I was re-reading the service manual. It specs a 147F thermostat when not using the heater, and a 162F thermostat for temporary use when using the heater. I'm running a 160F thermostat. Is it possible that some of my slightly hot running (175-185 before the gano filter plugs) is caused by running a thermostat that is slightly too hot? Off topic from the thread title a little bit, but related.

Is the spindle nut loose? It looks like it might still be tight in the picture. I do keep it loosely on, so that nothing goes flying when the drum comes free. Second vote for beating on the dog bone. Good luck!

So what was the actual problem? (gets popcorn)

Thanks guys! Not too discouraged, just temporarily pissed! I can’t complain too much, I’ve put 500 miles or so on since the in-frame overhaul, and I keep making it home. 😊 Hope that doesn’t curse me!

Ben - I haven’t forgotten this idea. Trouble is, I was so mad when I got home last weekend, I just parked the car and shut the garage door! It’s on my list for the next drive.

Well, I put the evaporust in, and the car pissed me off I put 82 miles on last Saturday, and the car ran about 175-185. Suddenly, while going 60 (had been for a few miles), about 3 miles from home she suddenly shot up to boiling over. I pulled over, waited for it to cool, and filled up with water. The first picture is the crap in the gano filter after that 82 miles. The second is old, watered down evaporust vs new. It was shot after 82 miles, apparently. A few questions. Should I just stop running the gano filter? Let the radiator filter stuff out until the gano runs clean, and then pull the rad again. Keep it mind, on my car it is nearly impossible to pull the rad without pulling the front clip. Or, pull the gano, put a pantyhose foot in the radiator upper tank, hope for the best? Or just plan on draining down and cleaning the gano filter every 40-50 miles until it cleans out? Turns out boiling over with evaporust makes a hell of a mess... and I should’ve bought stock in evaporust!

Nice Audi! We bought a 2017 Q7 last fall (non-electric, so only kind of similar), and so far I've been really impressed. The thing gets over 30mpg combined if you keep your foot out of it, and I've surprised some modern muscle cars with it in sport mode at stop lights.

On the '37 120 (similar transmission, except cane shift and no overdrive), it's very easy to pull the transmission from below. With the cane shift, you have to remove the floorboard to pull the top of the transmission, then remove everything else from below. I imagine on a column shifted model, it might be easier. Also, with your all steel body, no floorboard to remove!

I do the same walk - I will now add this trick to my repertoire! I've always felt the hubs with my palm, since that's the part of my hand that I normally use.

He’s trying to predict when radiator service is required, based on a decay in the temperature change across the radiator, before it is so bad/clogged as to cause the car to overheat. Neat question.

Well-designed roundabouts are a joy to use, and save congestion and time. There were several north of Albany, NY that I frequently navigated with my 24' car trailer. No issues - two lane roundabout on 45 mph arterials. Properly sized, and avoided the lights. Our new car has start-stop. 333hp supercharged 3.0L V6, and I got 29 mpg on a road trip that was about 80% back highways with lots of lights, and 20% aggressive freeway driving. The feature can be a little cumbersome at 4 way stops, but it's easy enough to turn off if I don't want to use it. Simple switch on the dash.

Thanks for all the info guys! I’m going to put evaporust in tomorrow, and try to put 570 miles on it in the next month. That will give me a month to test things out after I’m positive the rings are fully seated. I’ll update...

Updates: I pulled the water pump, pressure washed the engine through the freeze plug best I could. Got a little more sediment out, all still magnetic. Distribution tube looked clean. Re-checked the water pump impeller clearance. It is supposed to have .021-.039 between the impeller and housing. I have about 0.060. Can’t get it any closer with the limited tools I have (arbor press, hammer, vice). My supposedly brand new spare pump had negative clearance, so I’ll send it out to a pro to rebuild, and swap it it in to eliminate that as a problem. Re-installed the pump, thermostat, freeze plug and filled back up with water (and a little dishwasher detergent to flush out any residual oil and make life easier for the evaporust). One odd thing- the book says my car should take 20 qts of coolant. I drained all the drains, everything was as dry as I could get it, yet the coolant system only took 13 qts. Not sure if the book is wrong, the rad/block has that much crap in it, or something else. Again, a radiator shop checked out my radiator six months and 400 miles ago, said it looked great. Newer core, flowed well, pressure tested sat. Drove for about 30 minutes, including 10 minutes idling at a train crossing and a few miles on the freeway. Car ran consistently between 175 and 185. Seems hot to me for a 60 degree day with a 160 degree thermostat. We’ll see what 6 weeks of evaporust does, then I’ll have to drain and flush and fill with antifreeze while it sits for 5 months. Any thoughts? Is my temp ok? Any idea why I need so much less coolant?