Re: 1951 Packard getting 22 mpg??

Posted by su8overdrive On 2018/2/20 16:18:35

My '51, a little old not Pasadena but neighboring Hawthorne, CA Scotswoman's 48,414-mile original bought for a song simply as i was new to old cars and thought it nifty to have something my age with a Packard label to drive and save my '40 120 for special events, had a 3.9 rear axle, so I was always wanting "another gear" on the NorCal highways.
Her Xerox exec son had it for sale as he wanted the third bay of his garage for a pool table. That old gas smelled so bad I thought the Sinclair dinosaur had died.

However, Tom McCahill, dean of road testers who called them as he saw them and knew what he was talking, writing about, raved over an Ultramatic 3.9-axled '51 200 in one of his wonderful, oft hilarious Popular Mechanix reviews, in which he also tested a '51 400 (Patrician). Tom preferred the 200, and reported a stopwatched/fifth-wheeled genuine 95mph, which was "....really peeling the wind." The Patrician was only another six mph faster.

But jack up yours, chalk the driveshaft, and turn one of the tires with the other in place and count the revolutions, because at some point in '51, the 200s got a smarter 3.54:1 rear cog. Maybe someone here will know how to identify what gear yours is by markings on the case.

As said, good ergonomics, none better in the '50s,
certainly not the claustrophobia I had driving a couple Hudson Hornets.
Assuming your part of Pennsylvania's not as hilly as Pittsburg, and you keep the car, you can always switch to a 3.54 from a parts car, which shouldn't be too hard to find.

My ex-Packard, -Hudson, -GM garage mechanic's mechanic put in new rings, the legacies of the old cigarette-puffing harpie's short trips, but didn't touch the valves, that 288 idling like velvet.
Don't forget, your Ultramatic has a direct-drive, lock up torque convertor, unlike Buick's Dynaflow. Some of us Packardites were chagrined when Chrysler in the late '70s ballyhooed their "new" lock up torque convertors in an effort to boost CAFE ratings.

A period HydraMatic took more abuse and rapid acceleration, but Consumer Reports rated Ultramatic highest of automatic transmissions. Like many English cars, Ultramatic suffers an undeserved reputation simply from too many being serviced by those unfamiliar with them, and it was never suited to the torque curve of a powerful V-8 in the dying company's final cars. John DeLorean left Chrysler's work-study program to join Packard at a then impressive $14,000 annual salary under the respected Forest McFarland, who'd headed the team developing Ultramatic, giving it an improved torque converter and dual drive ranges, relaunched as "Twin-Ultramatic."
Ultramatic was Packard's sole postwar innovation of note, even Torsion Level coming from an outside engineer who had to sell the hell out of it to Packard's hidebound, coupon-clipping management after the Big Three passed.
My wonderful old mechanic's mechanic rebuilt mine, necessitated by some mummified seals, including the 11- to nine-inch lock up clutch upgrade, one of the few transmission specialists unfazed by Ultramatic, still around at 93 in great spirits but sidelined only by macular degeneration, remembers every job he ever did since before War II, when he ran motor pools in the Pacific.

Those "contour-styled" Packards have enormous trunks.
I'm 6'3" and had plenty of room behind the wheel. Remember, if you keep it, you can always upgrade the floor covering from that rubber matting to a nice carpet, etc.
Always amused us the purists who are up in arms over anyone tastefully upgrading an off-the-rack car priced for the cutthroat car biz, even tho' not butchering anything, while oohing and ahhing a Packard Darrin, for example, no two of them alike and much of their craftsmanship only a cut above a high school auto shop class.

Two other things you might want to do are locate the Ultramatic dipstick location just to the left of the driveshaft hump on your front floor, and hacksaw an opening to ease checking ATF level. And another in the trunk floor directly over your gas tank sending unit, something Chrysler did at least in the '40s, but not Packard. A piece of aluminum, four sheet metal screws and with carpet in place, no one's the wiser, life easier.

A friend back then with a '53 300/Cavalier had 127,000 miles on his Ultramatic and other than a band adjustment, never any service beyond periodic ATF drain and refill. He drove the car like a grown up.

However, Dave Brownell, editor of the much-missed Special Interest Autos, recounted a '51 200 with stick and overdrive owned in high school, with which he routinely stomped allegedly hot Fords, Mercuries, an Olds 88 and tri-Chevies, other than a '57 fuelie, in the usual teenage impromptus. He said he'd get it into second, then second overdrive and just leave it there, let that tough, short-stroke 288 wind.
Tho' babying my Ultramatic and letting impatient Datsuns and Toyotas whip around me, once underway, i liked opening up that 288 and making high-speed passes now and then, and it was sure-footed on winding roads, my Cavalier friend accusing me of driving it "like a Ferrari" once at speed. Ah, callow youth.

Jean Trevoux did well with a contour-styled Packard having a log manifold and four Strombergs at the grueling Carrera Panamerica, all the more impressive as he lacked class-winning Lincoln's covert factory support.
Thanks to Big Kev's well ordered site and contributors, you can read about that here.