Thanks, Bob. That’s reassuring. Everything is new for me, but I love learning. I’ll give it a shot.

Okay…yet another question.

In the Classic Car Restoration series (Mark Lambert), he also showed how to check compression. Completely new to me, but decided to try it. Now, I bough a very inexpensive tester. Many of the reviews mentioned that it seems to read low and many comments were that it seems to read about 75 psi when other/better testers read 100psi. As such, I am not really concerned about the actual numbers, but the amount of variation does have me concerned. Looking for guidance….

In the video, Mark states that Packard allowed up to 20% variance between cylinders. As you can below, No 5, 6, and 7 vary significantly more than that.

Here are the numbers which were repeatable.

No 1 - 75 psi
No 2 - 65 psi
No 3 - 68 psi
No 4 - 65 psi
No 5 - 55 psi
No 6 - 52 psi
No 7 - 52 psi
No 8 - 75 psi

Okay, folks…i could use some help. I went ahead and pulled my water pump off so I could inspect and clean the coolant distribution tube. Here is what I have…

Clearly a lot of silicone had been used (back to my question of what gasket sealant should be used). In this case, it was a lot more than should be needed. This clearly at least one of the coolant leaks I have. I know the radiator does have one small leak.




Now, from other posts, it sounds like the coolant distribution tube should slide out. Is that right? Take a look at the condition of what I found. I would sure like some guidance on next steps. I know that Allen did flush the system and all of the coolant that came out of the block was very clean. So that’s good.

Note that the small hole above the tube on the block was full of crud, but everything else was very clean. The corresponding hole on the pump was full of silicone.

Quote:

That is your front motor mount. If you look at the lower left bolt on the water pump, you will see why people say you will likely have to jack up the engine about a 1/2 inch to replace the water pump. That is because if the front motor mount (rubber) is worn out the engine will drop down and rest on that bolt. In my case, the bolt is where it should be because I have a new motor mount.

Quote:

Here you go, Ben.




Question for the group…I’ve seen a lot of disagreement on this. I’m planning pull the water pump so I can inspect and clean the coolant distribution tube. I’m also planning to go ahead and replace the timing chain while I have easy access.

I have some great videos from the old Classic Car Restoration show for a 1938 Packard. In that, he mentions using a very thin coat of silicone sealant on the gaskets. There are a LOT of options on sealants and I would love some guidance on what to use.

Not sure if this will help. This is original and not in great shape.

The fan is off. I’ll take some pictures tomorrow. I pulled the radiator out of the shell so I can get it to a shop on Monday.

Then, I revisited the heater project. The wrinkle paint is awesome, but I wasn’t happy with the way one door turned out. About a quarter of one door didn’t wrinkle the same as the rest.

So…stripped it back down and primed. I’ll try again with the wrinkle paint tomorrow.

With the help of the Three Hooligans, the front clip was removed and set safely aside. It took all of about a minute. Now there are quite a few things I can get done pretty easily. Pretty exciting!

Next step….get the radiator out and to a shop.

The first picture is my next door neighbor, better known as The Head Hooligan.

Those look great! Hopefully, I won’t be too far down the road getting that done I want to get all the mechanical in good order, including new springs all around. Then, I’ll be moving on to the dash.

Looks like it holds a lot of good memories!