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

Craig, I just looked it up online, but for some reason the drop-down menu to create your personalized plate does not include the antique plates. So maybe a call or trip to the DMV would work. I'm pretty sure you can just exchange them, and I believe it only cost $10. "BMBLBEE" in yellow would be quite fitting and look great, I think!

Pulled a main cap today. Sorry the picture isn't very good, it was hard to get a good one with the flash off the crank. The plastigage "painted" better on the crank than the bearing. I think I'm within spec. The bearing and crank both look pretty good to me; I don't think I'm going to pull the other caps. Thoughts?

Any feedback on the previously proposed postulations?

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Well, I spent all afternoon cleaning up the oil pan. Turns out the sump is actually about 3/4" deeper than I previously thought.

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If I ever saw a picture that points to the importance of dropping and cleaning an oil pan, that's it!! A lesson for those who procrastinate.

Speaking of, is this still generally considered an annual job with modern oils? My car isn't equipped with an oil filter.

It was recommended annually when cars were driven 12,000 miles a year on average. So based on how many miles you may drive per year, adjust accordingly. Modern detergent oils should lengthen the interval, lack of a filter should shorten it.

Whilst you are in there------I just had in a 50 Custom with poor hot oil pressure and also excessive consumption. Mains were OK, but the rods were something else! All 8 journals were different sizes. Apparently they had been resized by one of those "reach up inside the engine and rework the crank" machines that they had back in the day. After careful fitting and shimming we now keep 40 at 40 even when hot.

In any event, do pull off your rod caps and check the clearances while you are this far. It is actually a very easy job to replace the main or the rod inserts in the car once the pan is off.

Yes, I agree with Ross. Assuming the crankshaft journals are in good shape it's an very simple matter to replace the bearing shells.

For those with an interest here's a picture from the 1933/34 Service Letters of the crankpin trueing tool commonly in used in the babbitt bearing era when crankpins were generally not hardened. They worked very well and an advantage with the babbitt is that you only had to turn the crank to whatever dimension was required to true it up and then just size the Babbitt accordingly, so for example, if you need to remove 0.004" to get the journal true, you didn't have to go another 0.006" to get to the next available undersize of bearing shell.

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Thanks gents, for the replies. That tool is great.

OK, now this is just comical - to me at least. I rushed home from work today with the hope of getting my motor back together. But I wanted to paint the pan while I had it out. As I've mentioned, I'm moving in a week, so time is of the essence.

I stopped at three stores on the way home, looking for paint. Either "duplicolor universal grey" or "rustoleum light machine grey", both of which I've read about here.
Finding neither, I looked for a decent grey, specifically avoiding anything " metallic". Frustrated, I grabbed this

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Now, admittedly, the picture looks darker than the cap looks in person. However, all I could do was chuckle to myself (and imagine my surprise), when I began to spray. This is the result. It wasn't until then that I found the label with the color..."aluminum ". Ha!

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