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

Posted by BH On 2011/4/9 13:18:43

Keith -

The new type oil rings that I had cited were actually announced in May 1955.

However, I forgot about the upside-down compression rings - noted in an article from February 1956. Of course, we know from experience with other V8s that chrome rings were slow to seat, but back in the 1980s, I once found an oil consumption problem in a V8 truck motor in a new Dodge truck where all the gaps in the rings had beeen lined up!

Some of the things Packard implemented WRT to oil consumption complaints may have been overkill - perhaps due to their lack of expereince with OHV motors.

Even today, sometimes too much emphasis is placed on simply satisifying the customer rather than properly diagnosing the problem, which inlcudes verfiying the condition, PRIOR to attmepting any repair.

At the other end of the extreme, modern manufacturers tend to dismiss things as "normal operation" just because similarly-equipped vehicles of same year/make/model exhibit the same condition. That's nothing but a cop-out.