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oil pickup on a 39
#1
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David Grubbs
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I pulled the pan on my 39 120 today to check it for sludge and junk. The car does not have an oil filter.

Good news, very little sludge in the bottom. I'm cleaning it out and getting it ready to put back on. However, the oil pickup was pretty dirty. I took it apart - the screen mesh is a single sheet of what looks very much like copper window screen. Is this standard? I'd like to know before I put the pan back on.

Thanks

Posted on: 2014/7/2 19:25
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Re: oil pickup on a 39 120 - more issues
#2
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David Grubbs
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Put the oil pickup and pan back on. The cause of all of this work is due to accidentally putting Rotella oil in the engine instead of non detergent. The car ran fine for several weeks, and then sputtered to a stop a few blocks from the house. I towed it back and started working on it. The carb is working fine, but the spark was weak. I changed the coil, cleaned and re-gapped the plugs and pulled the distributor. It has the two part points, which were too tight. I cleaned them and reset the correct gap. I suspect the problem was gunk that got knocked loose with the detergent oil, which kept several cylinders from getting good compression.

Put the distributor back in, guessing at the timing, since the goal last evening was to run the engine at 1500 rpm or so for a half hour with new Rotella with one quart of ATF to clean out any remaining gunk. Got the engine running, but missing on one or more cylinders. It sounded like a motor boat when I held my hand close to the tailpipe.

This morning, I pulled the oil gallery covers and sprayed all of the valve stems with PB Blaster, then rotated the engine, and sprayed again. Did this several times, and let it sit several hours. Got my antique compression tester out (it's about 50+ years old), pulled all of the plugs and tested each cylinder. Results are:
#1 100
#2 70
#3 100
#4 90
#5 100
#6 65
#7 65
#8 80
The variances may be due to the old rubber on the compression tester not making a good seal. I was pleased to see that the valves do seem to be working, at least in some fashion. I will go back this evening and button it up so that I can run it again. I will also pull the starter so that I can set the timing accurately (not one of Packard's best ideas!!). My question is, what it the best way to free up the valves on the low compression cylinders, without removing the head?

Posted on: 2014/7/10 12:52
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Re: oil pickup on a 39 120 - more issues
#3
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jfrom@kanter
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If you have access to a cylinder leak down tester. That would be the best way to determine where the issues lies with the imbalance in the cylinders psi. With the leak down tester what you do is back off the valves on each cylinders and thread the tester into the spark plug hole. The tester regulate the air pressure in the cylinder. Then you listen for air escaping. If you have a bad intake valve the air will through the cab, a bad exhaust valve will leak out the tail pipe and if the piston rings are bad it will come out the crank case tube or dipstick. This would be the best way of proceeding forward with correcting your issue.

James

Posted on: 2014/7/10 15:03
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Re: oil pickup on a 39
#4
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JWL
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Really, Rotella oil caused all these problems? Hmmmm, I don't think so. Something else is afoot here.

(o{]o)

Posted on: 2014/7/10 17:11
We move toward
And make happen
What occupies our mind... (W. Scherer)
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Re: oil pickup on a 39
#5
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David Grubbs
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It was more of a magic moment of various problems colliding! The points were the primary cause of the weak spark, half of the plugs were set too wide, and add a possibly clogged/stopped valve caused by either the Rotella oil, or by not driving long enough to get the engine nice and warm each time. Hopefully tomorrow when I reset the timing things will be better after letting the PB Blaster work overnight.

Posted on: 2014/7/10 21:33
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Re: oil pickup on a 39
#6
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David Grubbs
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Well, the engine is alive and running well. Found one stripped spark plug, so just got a new set, gapped them and installed all new ones. Cleaned and adjusted the points; adjusted the timing - finally figured out the way to see the pointer and timing marks is to put a very strong flashlight shining at the hole under the starter, then use a 5" mirror to look for the marks.

Checked the spark plug wires to see if they were in the correct order and found two of them were not pushed in all the way! Duh - memo to self, look for the simple problems first.

As I said earlier, I think I had a perfect storm in clogged fuel filter, points too close, and several spark plugs with too large of a gap. Regardless, the car has had a complete tune up now, the pan is flushed and clean, and the oil has been changed again. Life is good again - the Billings All Original Car show is next weekend and I'll be able to show both cars.

Thanks all.

Posted on: 2014/7/12 16:43
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Re: oil pickup on a 39
#7
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JWL
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Glad to hear it is running again. Basic stuff first. Good lesson for all of us.

(o{}o)

Posted on: 2014/7/12 20:47
We move toward
And make happen
What occupies our mind... (W. Scherer)
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