901 Packard

That blacktop is a killer. The old mud fields were much kinder to your feet and legs. I too did 8 hrs on Thur. and 6 on Friday and figure I did about 15 miles total, but it felt like 100.

I moved from the DC area to N.Myrtle Beach SC. Weather is great, old cars are everywhere you can drive them all year. Yea occasional hurricane, but taxes are low, except restaurant food. Housing price is good, and car insurance is half that in the DC area. They don't tax SS, and you get homestead exemptions on Real Estate. Car repair for antiques is a problem, but I do all my own work anyway so not a problem. The best thing, no snow shovels needed.

Many years ago at Hershey I saw Bill Harrah buy a car. His muscle guy had a trucker wallet with what looked like a log chain attached to it. He peeled out $ 50,000 while a bunch of us oogled at his girlfriend ( much better looking than the car he was buying ). Never forget that sight. Cash talks.

Any advise on 19" lock rings ? Have newly powder coated rims and was thinking years ago installed lock rings on my Chevy pickup using dish soap so the rings did not chip the paint. Saw a you tube where a guy just used his rubber soled boot to stomp them down, looked painful !

Standing at the Bank is the best, either cashiers check or wire transfer. If the buyer balks, then its NO deal. My car, my way or the highway.

Sorry Jerry, this is a 433 car ? Then a 6 cylinder, not an eight ? so my suggestion is invalid. I would suggest you get on the PAC forum and talk to someone who knows this car well, and can tell you from specific experience what you are in to. Sorry for the confusion.

Sorry I was away for a couple of days, and saw you mentioned removing the rocker covers. Do not do this, what you are looking at is the roller rocker system cover and they will not go back in with the valves installed. The valve springs will push the lifter ( push rod ) down and the rocker mechanism will be in the down position and impossible to push the four valve trains ( 8 valves each ) back up at the same time to get it back in. The only exception might be from under the car, but reaching in through the cam shaft to lift the push rods out of the way would be very difficult at best. The rollers are in two sections of 8 vales each, hence two covers. This car has a roller bearing rocker lifter system that pushes the push rod up to move the valves, servicing can only be done when a complete tear down of the valve train is done. You will have to wait and see if you have excessive noise from the lifters after start. Given the overall condition of this car, I would very much doubt you have any lifter issues. If you say the valves all move, then that is a good indication of other things being in good shape as well.

Given the looks of the block behind the water jacket, as suggested I too would recommend a complete boil out of the radiator. However it is quite a job to completely remove the radiator on these cars. One suggestion might be to disconnect the radiator, block off the bottom hose and flush it with Rydlyme. Rydlyme is used in boiler cleaning of copper and brass steam and heating boilers and will not harm yellow metal. Just pour it in and let it set for couple of hours and it will descale the inside of the radiator. Flush out completely with fresh water. You can also save it for reuse, just strain out the gunk and put it back in the gallon container. There are other flushing products out there at auto parts stores so you might try that before removing the radiator. I think you are getting near the end of your pre start chores. After re-installing the pan and adding oil, I would be looking to turn the engine over on the starter with the spark plugs removed and do a basic compression test. Although Packard did not have compression readings, my research leads me to believe that 87 lbs is about max for this engine. That test will give you a lot of information about this engine. It is possible to get some oil pressure on the starter, just make sure you have a fully charged battery with good cables, preferably new. Unless this system was converted to 12v, all 6volt systems require over size cables to get all the voltage through the system so think" heavy truck" when replacing any 6v cables and make sure the "positive " ground is tight to the frame. You can also get some excellent advise from the Packard " PAC" website, many experts there specific to your car.

The scrape down process is not something you can do easily. Basically if the bearing clearance is more than factory, then the mechanic would take the cap off, and scrape it on sandpaper or a mill file to reduce its size, then refit. This process would take up the excess gap in the bearing race. Not something for amateurs. As was suggested, use plastiguage to determine clearance, but you are a long ways away from that. I would clean out the water jacket as good as you can. The water does not go all the way around the cylinders. The back side is the valve gallery. This is an open cooling system, so flow is important to all the areas especially at the rear of the block and the head because there is no pressure to insure complete coverage. This is the reason the water temp gauge is located at the back of the head so you get a good reading at the far end of the system. Check the water jacket cover for rust out, new ones are available for around $ 350. The flow in the cover is important and any holes will cause the flow to reduce front to back. I would be more concerned about bearings if after start up, you do not have adequate oil pressure. 30 lbs at 30 mph is the standard, 10 lbs, maybe less at idle is OK, you just don't want to let these engines idle for long periods. The rods are rifle bored and it is a long way up the rod to the wrist pin, so idling is not recommended as oil may not get up there.

Matt's right, you have to decide if you want top shelf, or other. If other, there are good cars out there, you just have to be patient and flexible and yea maybe she isn't going to be a beauty queen. The old song " make an ugly women your wife, you'll be happy for the rest of your life " works for me. Pre war sedans are cheap even Packard's, and if you are buying paint, chrome and sandpaper, they cost the same for a Model A, or a Packard. Over the top restorations are for the Pebble Beach crowd. Let them loose the money. I saw a 32 Packard convertible at Hershey last year for $ 1.3 M, and it had a lot of the same stuff my lowly 901 has, it was amazing to see the similarities. I bet that guy gets no more attention then I do, for a whole lot less money. Enjoy the hobby, and don't take it to seriously. Buy what you like, not what someone else likes, unless your like me, I had to buy a Packard, my wife spend 30 yrs working for Packard ( Electric ) so I had no choice.

Detergent oil will help some, but don't expect a squeaky clean block, mostly clean bearing surfaces that you cannot see. Just change the oil and clean the screen on the oil pick up every few hundred miles at first. If you see a lot of gunk, then maybe go further, but it will take some time. Also getting the oil hot while running can do wonders. On a engine that has set for so long, I would be curious about the valves sticking. MIne was in a museum for 15 years and most of the valves were stuck. The only way to know is have someone turn the crank and watch the valves go up and down. Once you determine that they move all or part of the travel then maybe turn it on the starter. Did you remove the starter and try it on a bench ? Remember this is 6volt positive ground.

All good suggestions so far. I use Rotella 15/40 in my 32 and have no issues. As suggested clean out what you can from the valve gallery and make sure those drains are clear. As for the pan gasket, use Permetex or Form a Gasket on both surfaces, I think this car uses a slinger return line like mine from the rear main bearing and if the pan is not tight it will leak around that return line hole as it comes through the pan flange. It is not under pressure, only gravity feed but still the pan needs to seal around the hole. I did not see that you turned the engine yet ? I made up a crank tool by using a 1" black pipe and connectors and drilled and ground out the space for the pin that holds the pulley. See photo attached. Overall length is 14" . Just use a big crescent wrench to turn it. As for the oil filter, you can disconnect it for now and by-pass back to the pan. A by-pass filter does not do much anyway, it may cycle about 10% of the oil, so just change the oil regularly, you are not likely to drive it many miles to need a filter.

I go to a car show every Tue. night. 50's music, not too loud. 50 to 60 cars just show up, mixed years, some newer some older. But driving in with a 32 Packard and everyone looks. They past right by those pony cars etc. and take a photo of mine. If we don't get our cars out no one will realize they exist and the sport will die. Young people need to see them before they can appreciate them, so go show yours and turn your hearing aid down, it could provide a great memory for some little kid, that may want to buy your car one day.

Soak the end grain with Penetrol, leave the rest of the wood dry if not exposed to the elements. On interior door wood where rain water might get in, I prime with an oil based primer like Zinsser and then an oil based top coat like rustoleum and thin it a bit. On the fire wall a couple of coats of Zinsser, sand with 220 and then top coat with oil based, not lacquer. If using lacquer based top coat, then just primer and top coat as usual, the primer should penetrate the wood and seal it. Keep in mind that wood moves with humidity, and no paint till adhere forever.

Some sellers make it easy to walk away. Too many good cars to even look at this one.

Could not agree more, take them out and show them, even to local restaurants etc. We do a drive in at a local bar-b-que joint every Tue. night, just show up. You will be amazed how many people come by to see the 40 to 50 cars that randomly show up each week. People love my 32 Packard and take photo's standing in front of it. No telling how many kids get the bug, or where. We are responsible for the future of this sport, even if it is a hot rod Honda Civic with a bumble bee muffler.

Yea, this is definitely an old school kind of place in Conway SC. Everyone there should have retired 10 yrs ago. They had maybe 150 blocks on the floor, and 50 crank shafts hanging from the ceiling. They do a lot of local race track kind of stuff, along with big diesel farm tractors. He said he has done several Packard Straight 8 blocks over the years, but most were cracked from freezing up north. Fortunately mine is a CA. car, then to Fla, then to Minn. but must have had antifreeze, because no sign of abuse. He charged me $ 30 to install a new ring gear, I could not get the money out of my pocket fast enough. This car was in West Petersons family, so pretty well cared for prior to my ownership.

I don't know guys, if it is worth fixing, then it is worth fixing right. Bore and sleeve is the way to go. I just did my 901 Packard and it only cost $ 1,000 to soak the cylinder block, bore and sleeve back to standard dia. Egge had the pistons on the shelf, and I was back in business in 2 weeks. Fooling around with a hone is OK, but having perfect bores is more important to me.

IT is not a 32, wrong dash. It is a 31, and yes it is way too much for that car in that condition. $30K buys something drivable and presentable.

The term "rare", should only be used to describe a steak.

Got some rainy day specials for my Packard, all the vendors I bought from were happy to have any business on Thursday, even rare parts.

No doubt that the wood was painted prior to assembly, at least primer or what was back then called "red lead". Take a razor blade cutter like an exacto knife, and see if there are any chips that can be removed from the crack. That might tell you if red lead was used to paint the wood prior to its original assembly. It would likely be there to protect to the wood from moisture. Red Lead was also available in a putty form to close gaps for assembly just like this. However as you point out, the dissimilar materials will expand and contract at different rates, so the only solution it to dissemble, repair the gap, and paint both items separately, then reinstall, which I would bet is how it was built originally, and live with the crack that will inevitably occur. If you want to seal it with sealer, then I would use 3M 5200 which is paintable. Mask both sides with fine line tape, and use the least amount possible. Run your finger down the seam multiple times to remove all but the necessary filler. When you remove the tape, then run your finger down the seam one last time to smooth out the tape line. It will dry in 24 hrs. and stay for years. However personally, I would live with the crack.

Been buying e-free 91 and 93 here in SC. But when I lived in MD could not find it, so went to a local small airport and got 100 oct e-free. Lots of old airplanes out there, so e-free is going to be available for a long time. We don't want those old planes falling out of the sky. I understand all gas produced by refineries is e-free, then they blend in the ethanol for local market.

Frankly, I miss the mud, but what I really miss is those Oliver tractors pulling people out, man those things could sure pull.

Marine Tex works well too in big and small cracks. Available at West Marine. Comes in a small size too, so you don't have to buy a large container of stuff you only use once.