Re: What about the 25K 105mph V8 Patrician?

Posted by BH On 2011/4/9 10:16:02

Guy -

I don't mean to speak for PackardV8, but I don't think he intentionally quotedyou out of context. It wasn't a mere snippet, but a full sentence - the question you asked of him.

As for the use of the word "stunt", I don't think Keith meant that anything was falsified, but that the endurance run was conducted as much (or more) for the purpose of promoting the new product as it was for product evaluation. I mean, what owner would ever be able to a car at a "sustained" 104.7MPH for 25,000 miles? Yet, the Car Life's "Far and Fast" article suggests that the average owner should be able to drive twice as far at half the speed without serious mchanical problems. That sounds like a reasonable conclusion - that is, back when the cars were new and driven regularly.

Yet, I don't believe that the endurance run - though interrupted by stops for refueling, driver change, etc. - would be as telling as stop-n-go city drving or even town-and-country driving. No doubt, you're aware that vehicle manufacturer's provide an alternate maintenace schedule for "severe use", which includes such short-trip driving. The oil gets a lot blacker a lot quicker with short trips than it does with interstate driving.

So, it's possible that an oiling issue could have escaped that 25K run. For the first year, most of the factory bulletins and articles on oil-related issued with the V8 during all of 1955 seem to be pointed at complaints of oil consumption and lifters that were simply noisy at a cold start. The first indication of an issue specific to the oil pump only came in the Spring of 1956, when dealers were instructed to inspect the pressure relief valve for sticking. Two months later, there was a redesigned pump for production with a sump tube kit for field service, but vehicle asembly ended the following month, and Packard ceased publication come Autumn. Time had simply run out.

Nothing more happened until 1975, when PI announced a modifaction service, which did away with the piggy-backed vacuum pump in favor of thicker bottom plate, but I never had any faith in that. The point is that nearly 20 years had passed before anyone else publicly addressed any oiling issue with the Packard V8.

It's more clear, in recent years, that the culprit is one of wear between the driving shaft and its bore in the pump body. Lots of short trips and cold starts would accelerate that wear - worse yet with "colletible vehicles" that are only driven occasionally.