Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Ross - 10 mpg is possible. I know the car is running rich. Spark plugs are black and black soot at the tail pipe. Someone previous to me has been in to the carb, and in my opinion, did not know what the H*ll they were doing. High temp silicone(red)to seal mating surfaces, and the fitting to the choke coil! Really!? Make a friggin' gasket if you can't buy one. Sorry, but I get rather upset when things are McGivered. That's for the side of the road to get you home. Then fix it properly. Think the float level may be too high. It is one of the items that is next on the hit list to correct.

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Is your Ultra going into direct drive solidly? I don't recall the engine in my 54 being terribly loud or racing at that speed.

70 may be possible but going over 55 kills your mileage. With the old long stroke engine and low gearing slowing down to 55 can increase your mileage nearly 50%.

In your case you need to tune up your engine and rebuild the carburetor. Maybe your fuel pump has too much pressure. Something is not right if it is burning that much gas and sooting up the engine.

Ordinary speedometers can be quite accurate. Today it is easy to check them with a GPS but a stopwatch will do. It used to be that if your speedo was dead accurate at sixty it might be out 1 or 2 MPH at 30, or vice versa. If it was off at all speeds it meant you needed to correct it by changing the speedo drive gear in the transmission. A speedo shop could do this in a few minutes.

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I don't know Howard, remember when I thought mine was racing at 55 and 60 and didn't think it was going in high gear at all? come to find out I was basing it on the sound of my more modern cars...even my '04 Focus commuter sounds like its loafing at 70 compared to my Clipper...that's the difference in an automatic overdrive and a single speed direct drive tranny. After driving it and getting used to it, the Clipper sounds comfortable running 2250 RPM's at 55. Based on the estimated 250 RPM increase for every 5 MPH, 3000 RPM's at 70 is about the max for me but prefer 65 for a sustained cruising speed. I haven't checked it but of course my speedo could be off by as much as 5 MPH as well.

Rusty - engine tune-up was one of the first things I did when I purchased the car. Cap, plugs, points, rotor, condenser, and wires. It's definitely running better then when I got it, but as stated above, some monkey has been in to the carburetor. Something as simple as the tube to the choke coil. They couldn't get the nut to thread on, so instead of taking the time to do it right, they gobbed on some high temp silicone and made like it was screwed on. I can only imagine what was done inside. Going to play with it over the summer, and do a rebuild over this coming winter. As far as the speedometer, what Howard is saying makes alot of sense. I had a 59 Olds Dynamic 88 about 30 years ago and the speedometer would peg at about 40 mph. It was a drum style that made it look like a line going across. I took it apart, desoldered the drum from the shaft and moved it away from the magnets, I think about a 32nd of an inch. It ended up within a couple of mph across the scale. Got lucky with that one. I'd like to try what Howard is saying.

It shifts smoothly, so I'm sure its going into direct drive. I wonder if there is a quick and inexpensive way to temporarily rig up a tach, so I can check engine rpm at highway speed. I don't really want a tach permanently mounted inside the car.

I wonder if there is a quick and inexpensive way to temporarily rig up a tach, so I can check engine rpm at highway speed.

Pretty simple, just lay the tach on the front seat and run the leads thru the air vent to the engine compartment. That's how I did the final check on my Ultramatic to confirm it was slipping after lockup when applying heavy throttle.

For Phil:

If your car has the standard 3.90 axle you will be crannking around 2810 rpm at 60 mph in your Ultramatic.

When new you wouldn't have noticed, but as the cars age you notice the motor cranking. Even my modern car does the same. When it was new I couldn't hear/feel the motor in passing gear now I can.

Of course when I see how fast children run without effort I feel pretty old myself.

Tim - same thing for me. I sometimes get tired just watching the grandkids. Actually, the Packard handles higher speeds alot better than I do.

If you have a dwell tach mine has leads long enough that I can connect it up and put inside car with that and gps easy to get rpm at any desired speed also good way to check speedometer for correct reading with tires on car now .