Re: Ken's 1953 Packard Clipper Deluxe Touring Sedan

Posted by kens53clip On 2009/11/27 12:55:52

In late October, 2009, had a bit of concern with the 327 straight eight. Was looking under the hood (or bonnet) while running the car and noticed a very small amount of bubbling liquid (believed to be oil) coming up around a central stud and head nut through the top of the cylinder head. Was afraid I was losing my head gasket. Fortunately, there was not a leak from where the cylinder head met the engine block on the side.

Checked Packard Info and found a thread entitled "1940 110 Compression" and found a reply from PackardV12fan posted 9/23/2008 in which PackardV12fan advised reasonably frequent re-torqueing of cylinder head holddowns following the head-tightening sequence in the service manual to avoid cylinder head gasket failure. Thanks PackardV12fan!

Bought a torque wrench and using the cylinder head torque tightening sequence in the 1951-1954 Service Manual on page 22 of the engine section re-torqued the nuts 1-12 in the proper sequence to the recommended 60 foot pounds of torque, most of which nuts were in the center of the cylinder head. Since the nuts on the sides of the cylinder head were tight, there was no leakage on the sides of the cylinder head, decided not to re-torque bolts 13-38 on the sides of the cylinder head, being afraid of possibly creating a problem where none presently existed. Fortunately, such re-torqueing as I did resolved the problem of the leak and replacement of the cylinder head gasket was not required.