Building it correctly - getting the crud out

Posted by Jack Vines On 2010/9/1 21:56:14

Getting it clean enough to work on is the most difficult and time consuming part of building a Packard V8. A running engine is bad enough, but many of the engines we build are junkyard cores. They take days to get ready to build:

1. Pressure wash the outside of the engine and pull it apart.
2. Remove all the core plugs, oil gallery plugs and fittings.
3. Run all the parts through the cabinet pressure washer. Lay the block on stands and use a long screwdriver and water hose to gouge out all the crud still stuck in the water passages.
4. Run the block, heads and all the small parts through the shot blaster to remove rust.
5. Tumble the block and heads to remove all the steel shot
6. Pull the plugs out of the ends of the rocker shafts and run wire brushes and solvent through them. Run the brushes through all the oil system holes in the block
7. Push soft wire through the oil filter tubes.
8. Run taps down every threaded hole in the heads and block.
9. Back through the wash cabinet and rinse again.

After about two days of cleaning, we can finally begin the machine work. The latest one we pulled apart, we found a petrified mouse in the timing cover and a toad in the oil pan.

A local big production rebuilder shop with whom I do a lot of business got in a Packard V8 to build. Naturally, they called me several times checking on how and what to do. When they were done, they said, "If we get a call on another one of those old boat anchors, we're just sending them straight on to you. They're too much work!"

jack vines