The short answer is: I like it! I wouldn't worry too much about heat dissipation--the biggest source of heat is the exhaust system, and I think this mod moves the motor further away from the exhaust pipe. The "can" portion of the motor is a thick mo-fo, about 1/8" thick, so the muffler clamps aren't going to have a negative effect.
I'm wondering about the degree of adjustabililty available through the turnbuckle. The business of rotating the actuator to adjust per the shop manual (the stock installation/orientation) gives quite a wide range of adjustability--good and bad. Some folks remounting a PB actuator go through quite a lot getting the unit aligned with the detents in the tranny. Perhaps the boys at Conner had a gauge that allowed them to pop these on transmissions at (near) production line speeds and have them be close enough to allow the cars to be driven off of the line and on to car haulers, the dealer to fine adjust if necessary as part of new car prep. Heck, I think we ought to make a poll of PB equipped cars with (what we think are) well adjusted actuators--measure from the very back of the motor can (where the end-cap of the motor meets the "can") down to the bottom point on the trans housing--where the pan bolts on.
The PB actuator is located in an absolutely miserable place to service, it was obviously a marketing brain-fart, traceable in some part to Jim Nance's love for all things push button. There is a great book that examines the 1950s through the artifacts that remain, and the consumer goods that came and went entitled "Populuxe"

http://www.amazon.com/Populuxe-America-Tailfins-Dinners-Shelters/dp/0394545931

the author coined this word to connote the mass produced, modern designed consumer goods (and buildings) of the decade. There is an entire chapter devoted to "just a touch of a button", the decade's promise that all manual labor would be replaced by the touch of a button. I think JN bought into this all the way, first at Hotpoint, then at Packard.
Had the 1957 models been produced by Packard, for Packard, with the new body shell and chassis I would have bet that they would have done a better job of locating the PB actuator.
I say we get a beta-car going on this soon. No aspect of it is non-reversible, no mods that change anything in an irreversible way. I would engineer some sort of seal at the point where the short-shaft exits the actuator, if no more than a piece of rubber that is a tight fit to the shaft OD, packed with grease on the inner side of the seal and tightly spaced to the upward link-arm.

As far as removing the whole unit from the car, I don't like the shop manual business of removing the tail stock from the trans. I have my method, which I have outlined in previous posts, in short:
a)support trans, remove rear trans cross member
b)place small scissor jack between frame and trans
c) remove motor from actuator (carefully-be mindful of commutator coming out of brushes and brushes springing together--you MUST seperate brushes and reinsert armature/commutator into brushes without bending/breaking phenolic brush plate) then remove the gear-housing from the trans. A PITA. Luckily, with proper PB repair, something you don't have to do often.


Additional question: is there going to be an interference problem with the pressure switch?

If that is a twelve (or "twin six" in '32) the chrome louvers are standard--twelves had painted shell/chrome louvers, eights had chrome shell/painted louvers.

Go to any Cadillac dealer and ask the nice man behind the parts counter for "cooling system treatment tablets" These are the miracle pill of the 80s still in use today.
They are really just ground ginger root, compressed into a horse pill. GM reluctantly began offering these in the early 80s after introducing their HT-4100 "wet sleeve" V-8, the predecessor of the Norstar and such. They were faced with catastrophic returns for coolant going everywhere it shouldn't, were trying all kinds of sealing compounds from Dow (which required complete disassembly to install) and were losing the battle when an experienced dyno mechanic, an old school wrench told the young engineers to "put some ginger root in it"--they laughed, kept on trying the next technological miracle, dealer reports kept multiplying. The mechanic went and got some ginger root, ground it up, put it in a test car (one of the many that were piling up daily) and VIOLA! the problem went away. The green engineers couldn't believe their eyes, tested the S__t out of that car and it held. The next week GM was the no.1 consumer of ginger root, cranking out horse pills to ship to the dealers. They put two in each engine, one per side at the Livonia engine plant.
I put one in each cooling bank of every engine I rebuild, and no problems. If you have a freeze plug leak after rebuilding it will stop (permanently) after about 15 minutes of running at temp.

I guarantee you it will be the best $6 you will ever spend.
One week after you start using the pills you can open the radiator and see no evidence of them ever having been there, no coating the rad core, robbing efficiency.


Check it out

PV-8, I've wondered about the Harrison/GM A/C compressor myself. The first thing I wondered is: why didn't Packard use that system instead of the Lehigh (which is basically a deli-counter refrigerator case system adapted into a car)probably cost. I would like to see a V-8 Packard with such a set-up. GM intorduced that compressor in 1953 and ran it almost unchanged until 1980 and they had it down.

P1--I figured that might be the case. I've looked at a lot of repainted/restored cars at shows and seen many variations--I thought I'd address the panel to see what the consensus was.

Well now, that makes sense, dosen't it! My car is solid Norwegian Forest green as well

Does anyone have the PI judging manual for V-8 cars?
What do they say about the color of the wheels for V-8 cars? I have five wheels in four different colors.

Leopard skin interior/vinyl roof

trunk straps

super fly headlight rings

22's w/spinners

Ohio players on the Alpine stereo



Mr.Pushbutton--rolling Detroit style

Could you post pictures?

Hmmm.......we need to get you a TH400 compatible pushbutton unit!

the fluid from a saftey-kleen machine (parts washer solution) works pretty good, better if you can run the engine and get it hot