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OZ....just realized I have not keep myself up-to-date on this blog. I had no idea Wade moved and I had no idea you took half you motor apart!

I'm sorry for lagging behind. my last post was 2013...geesh I'm horrible!

I found the work you did to your engine very informative and helped me understand ALOT about the Packard 8.

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Ahh for the good old days. Today in this state that would get you in deep doo doo and all it would take is a "concerned citizen" making a phone call.

The environmental police in the form of any number of bureaucrats who live for making examples of that form of transgression would be swarming the property. Every environmental group wanting to be more visible to call attention to what ever pet project they have would start picketing the place. Lawyers would work overtime building a hanging case and to make it complete, you would get to pay for half the acreage of the property where the quart or two of oil got dumped to be dug up, treated and then for good measure carted off to a hazardous landfill.

Back in the day - working as an young teen in my father's Packard dealership - we would take the crankcase draining accumulated in a 55 gal. drum and spill it on the dirt road leading to the city land fill. The city encouraged this to keep road dust down. This was common practice. Today we would go to jail for doing this, and rightfully so. We did so much unintended damage to the environment in those days.

(o[]o)

When I was doing all the nasty work on the car, especially cleaning up the paint guns, I had a "Dump Bucket". This was a 10 gal plastic bucket (like those orange Home Depot ones) 3/4 filled with sand and gravel. I kept this to the side of the house. Anytime I had any kind of solvent, paint, etc , I would dump it into this bucket. Time and the outside heat would take care of evaporating pretty much everything. If the bucket ever got too manky, I waited for the free household hazardous waste disposal day the city has once every few months and dropped it off. Then started over. I only had to do this twice.

For garage floor oil spills, a quality absorbent kitty litter works wonders. Spread it on thick, let absorb for a few hours, and sweep it up.

when I was younger we dumped all our used aircraft oil into 55 gal drums, then donated it to the local golf course. they would use the oil to treat piles of sand which were used for the sand greens, back before they got all hoity-toity and grew grass ones.

sometimes while golfing I'd find little bits of safety wire and know that our oil had been used for that putting surface, we didn't always remember to strain those out...

Friday 16th September 2016

Hmmmmm......things have stalled as far as the Coupes Rally trip preparations go. Rang Supercheap this morning, the Transoil 140 hasn't been delivered yet, so they'll call me when it comes in.

Then, thinking I've pushed my luck far enough because I don't carry a spare fan belt, thought I'd better pick up a spare and went to Repco(another Auto parts store) to source one. I was pretty sure Supercheap wouldn't have one, because all the ones they have on display are flat modern belts.

Didn't expect Repco to have one either, and they didn't, but they ordered one in for me which is expected early next week. My current belt is a DAYCO #24490 and 1245mm in length. As adjustment on the belt is already at the limit of the tensioning arm on the generator was thinking maybe of getting the next smaller sized belt which Repco told me is 1210mm in length. Then learned that the belt going to be ordered is a Gates TR24562 which is 1240mm long,(EDIT - After picking up the belt learnt it was 1438mm!!) long so will go with the slightly shorter length of that.

I had a look in the Parts X-Ref and there's only one entry for a fan belt so once my Gates belt arrives and it checks out I'll add it and the DAYCO there. Note, if anyone's interested, while in the X-Ref saw there's a 6 blade 17" flex fan listed as fitting a '38 Six.

I'd add photos of my DAYCO belt but having trouble doing that. Photo problem now resolved. Also the reason I didn't add photos for the previous 2 posts was my state of cleanliness(NOT) because of greasing the car, changing oil and the Exxon Valdez "incident". It was much easier at the workshop, although I certainly was very dirty there at times.

To be continued.......

EDIT - Thanks for all the oil disposal stories, it was another time altogether, and to which I'll add mine. Back in the mid '60's my brother and I bought a '28 Ford Model A Tudor Sedan(first car). The local authority had a 3' diameter stormwater pipe running under our parents property, but close to the surface, and it had about a 4->6" hole broken into the top of it at one point. So, to change the oil on the Model A, positioned the drain plug of the sump over the aforementioned hole and let the old oil run free. Never had to worry about collecting it in containers or otherwise disposing of it. Knowing what we know now wouldn't do the same today. Instead there are plenty of recycling options including Supercheap who have an oil disposal bin in front of the store.

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Good to know on the fan blade.... forgot about that x-ref. Thanks for the reminder!

Wednesday 21st September, 2016

Yesterday picked up the Transoil 140, as well as the fan belt. But the belt was the wrong one! Last week when the guy at Repco ordered it he assured me it was 1240mm long, but it wasn't! It was 1438mm long or about 8" too long. All worked out in the end with the lady who served me today arranging a refund and also ordering the correct belt. Hopefully it'll be there early tomorrow morning, cause about mid morning I set off on the trip to Adelaide.

Now that I had the Transoil, drained the transmission and refilled it with nice new stuff, The old stuff, although still sticky, was black. Did the same for the OD. To facilitate the refilling, while at Repco bought a little 1 litre oil hand pump. Checking the book it's 2 pints for the trans and 1.25 pints for the OD. On to the internet and learned that 2 pints = 0.95 litres and 1.25pints = 0.6 litres. Although facilitating the refilling process, also learned the each stroke of the pump only pushes through 4ml of oil(it's thick), meaning the trans took about 240 pumps and the OD about 150 pumps. And, lying under the car, it was hard work, had to take a breather about every 25 pumps = 100ml

Now as ready as I'll ever be for the trip!

I remember when I worked at a gas station in early 1960's. Young guys and some older ones who had very little money and old cars and trucks that leaked or burned oil would ask for and get some of our used oil to keep their crankcase full. As some of the guys said used oil was better than no oil in the crankcase. Same guys were the ones looking at scrap tires for replacements.