Re: Waking up a 39 Coupe after 47 years

Posted by boothguy On 2017/3/5 23:07:01

#2 With the trans in neutral I am greatly relieved to find that the motor now turns by hand, so I pull the pan and clean it and the pickup. Everything looks good and there is less sludge than I would have expected. Also pulled the starter for a quick service on the bench and it seems to be in good shape. Also pulled the oil filter and plugged the outlets on the block. Put it back together with fresh Rotella and pumped up 30psi oil pressure on the gauge with the starter. I was also getting pretty pumped up myself until I checked compression with zeros on 1 thru 5 and 40 psi on 6. Pulled the inner fender and tappet covers to find 5 stuck exhaust valves. From my reading it seems these engines were prone to this even when new sitting on the lot waiting to be sold. So thats where things sit for now. Any magic trick in Packard world to unstick the valves or is pulling the head and doing a full valve job inevitable? With only 39K on the clock I was really hoping to get lucky with the engine. Also curious if its common practice to change the oil filter to a cartridge type (I have a couple extra Fram units)and do people relocate them so you don't have to R&R the generator at each oil change? Thanks