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I put in a thermostat and the gauge goes up just over 1/2 way and stays there. The other thing I did was make an adjustment to the metering rods in the carb for more fuel as it was running lean. So far, so good

Well, not so far so good. Started out for a cruise night about 1 hour from home. Got about 1/2 way there and had to turn around with a cooling stop on the way home. Rad looks physically good and looks clean inside. I guess the next thing is to look at the water pump. Going to let it idle until the thermostat opens, rad cap off and see what kind of flow I have. Any other suggestions?

Mark - it might be good to get an infrared remote temperature sensor gun - Harbor Freight here in the lower 48 has one for about $30 on sale. You can check the block temps as well as the radiator and see if there are any hot spots, and verify that the temp gauge is working correctly. I've seen more than one engine with the wrong temp probe, which gives a wrong reading on the gauge.

MArk

I just read the thread over-do you have a radiator cap with the right reach? It is an AC RC13. This will stabilize the temperature and stop water loss.

You said the polarity was reversed. If the the polarity is reversed at the plugs, the plugs will fire but will lose about 40% of their power. What ever the polarity of the car, the low tension cable from the distributor goes to the ground polarity side of the coil

Regards

John Harley

There are two issues here with the cap. I thought that the rad cap might be an problem, so I changed it for a new 7 lb cap that I had. For whatever reason, I didn't even look at the height of it. My bad! It was short. And the cap I took off was a STANT R6. So it's incorrect also. So, off to the parts store to get the correct cap and take it for a drive and see what happens. If this corrects things, great! I had the car running with the rad cap off, and waited for the stat to open. Saw some movement in the coolant. I had my wife run the RPM's up a bit, and saw more movement, but to me, I think there should be more. So if I need to pull the pump, can anybody give me a measurement of the impeller, from the back to the end of the blade? I also wonder if some of the holes in the impeller are plugged. Also while I'm there, I'll back flush the rad. As far as the polarity of the car and the ignition coil, it is not reversed, and wasn't when I bought it.

EDIT: Now a couple of hours later, I have found out the STANT R6 could be correct. Stants web site does not identify the R6 number, but will identify it by the car and gives a new number of 10206. They also cross it over to the following: Carquest - 33003, NAPA - 703-1411, Gates - 31306.

New rad cap in place, car runs nicely. Did the same run as the other night with no issues. Went to another cruise last night and was out on the highway running 60 mph. Engine got a little warm but when I got to the cruise, did not barf when I parked and shut it off. Still might pull the pump just for spite. 1outta14chevys - hope some of this has been a help to you. I also found another thread on temperature issue, maybe something here might be of help to you if you're still having problems.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9971&viewmode=flat&order=ASC&type=&mode=0&start=0

Good afternoon all. I also have a 1949 four door deluxe 23rd series and am experiencing the same temperature issues. I have made all of the same fixes including a new radiator and rebuilt water pump. In order to take the water distribution tube out for inspection, one has also to remove the grill as the tube is about 3 feet long and won't come out through the grill.

Our car came with an after market muffler, and only a two inch exhaust pipe. My stock 1931 Model A has a 1 3/4 inch tail pipe and I'm wondering if anyone knows what the correct size of the tail pipe is? Since the Packard is 288 cubic inches compared to 200.5 for the Model A, I'm thinking that I need a new less restrictive muffler and a larger tail pipe for the larger exhaust volume. Comments please. Ernie

The 46-50 356 engine used the same part number exhaust piece from engine to muffler so with having a 47 I know that to be 2 1/4". Not sure what the smaller engines used in that stretch but I'd bet it would be around 2".

The factory mufflers show two outlet sizes -- 1 3/4" and 2". My 356 engine has a 2" tailpipe so I'd bet the 1 3/4" is the factory size for the smaller engines.

I believe there was mention on another forum about using a straight thru muffler. Thanks to a previous owner, mine is definitely straight thru but most assuredly not original. Back in my younger days, I think they called them glass paks.

Thank you, Howard.

I'll go to the muffler shop and see if the one on our 288 is straight through and more than likely go to a larger 2 1/2 or so pipe. It seems to me that when we used to put on glass paks, we used to increase the pipe size or go to dual exhaust.

Ernie

Removed my water pump(another thread about repair) and found that it was not correctly assembled, and the seal leaking. I put a bore scope up the distribution tube. All looked good until the camera got submerged in coolant near the back of the block. Nice! Just for the heck of it, I stuffed the camera in the neck of the rad...whoa! Found a gob of solder and tubes partially blocked with some white crud. Nice! Now I'm getting to the source of the issue. Yea! Pulled the rad and run the garden hose in it and washed out some of the crud. Took an "O" ring pick and pulled out a chunk of the crud, went in the house and put it in some vinegar. Stirred it gently and it broke down in to a small cloud in the vinegar. Nice! Put the cap on the rad and laid it on the floor with the hose connections facing up. I filled the rad with vinegar yesterday afternoon. It's been sitting for about 24 hours now and the vinegar inside has gotten nice and cloudy. Going to leave it for the rest of the night, flush it out tomorrow and see what it's like inside. It took almost 2 gallons of vinegar, cost...less than 4 bucks. Will post again when I see what it's like after washing out the vinegar.