Oz, I shall try that if, after giving the acetone/ATF mix a good shot at it, there is still untoward resistance.

Owen D, you are right. Turns out the vaunted WD-40 is not a good rust dissolver, merely a preventative. Thanks for the tip. I just put 50-50 acetone/ATF down the cylinders. That is supposed to be the strongest of all, or so they say.

Hi all, Appreciate your responses. The engine is a 385. I don't think it was run with old gas because the mechanic had disconnected the fuel line from the tank (it still is) and run the car from a portable gas can. It might be the rings have detached from the cylinder walls but are still corrosion-bound and/or not flexing in their grooves. I'll try the acetone/ATF method. If anyone else has an idea, please shoot it this way! Thanks.

Engine on Super 8 would not turn over, so I separated the flange at the rear of the transmission and rigged some bolts so I could use a lever. Poured WD-40 down the cylinders via a flexible tube and, after a day or so, attempted to turn the engine with the lever. No dice, so I tapped moderately on the lever with a dead hammer to facilitate the WD-40's penetration and added more to cylinders. After a couple days of tapping on and off, I thought I noticed movement, so marked the fan belt and pulley and hammered the lever a few times, more than a tap but not a full blow, from about 8". Sure enough, the engine turned slightly. I was able to get it to turn about 60 degrees with a fair number of light to moderate blows. Put in more WD, let it sit for a couple days and got it to turn back and forth through about 120 degrees, but only using the hammer and lever. This time it seemed like the engine was looser; each stroke moved the engine further than the day before.

If rusty rings were the culprit, I would have thought they would have broken fully loose over this much travel and that would have freed the engine. However, it still cannot be turned by hand even with the plugs out. Something is creating resistance, but the fact it turns through this much arc would seem to preclude a broken part as the cause.

The car was last driven three or four years ago by a mechanic who told me it ran beautifully. It has not been started since. The pan was full of oil. The oil is slightly dirty, but I can see no metal in it. The area under the valve cover, the valve springs and the lifters are oily. The radiator had been drained and the drain valve was open. There is no water in the pan. Is it possible the valves may have gotten varnished up and are so sticky they are inhibiting the engine turning? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks David. Received your email and now believe I won't have to drop the driveline after all. Still, good to know what is involved.

Hi all, Need to drop the driveline. If I remove the six bolts in each of the front and back flanges, will it come out readily? There is a yoke near the transmission but the hole seems large enough to accommodate the flanged end. I'm hoping the universal joints will flex enough so I can work it down and pull out from the back and don't have to do any more disassembly. Any advice? Thanks.

Thanks Owen. Examined both heads closely but can't find a piece number stamped on either, so can't tell if the engine is 6.00 or 6.52. The speedster, which had modified block and carburetion, had a choice of two heads, 4.85 and 6.00, the latter requiring anti-knock fuel but boosting horsepower by 20 to 145. Some specs say the standard 385 developed 105 hp and others say 109. I wonder if a high compression head is what made the difference.

Hi all, I have two cylinder heads for my 1930 740. The one that is on the car has the letters "HC" stamped in the top of the head on the driver's side near the firewall. The other has no such markings. I assume HC stands for high compression. According to the Kimes book, Packard often offered engines with a choice of different heads / compression ratios. I don't believe it is stated in the book whether such choices were offered for the Super 8s, 740 and 745, although it mentions such a choice for the 734 speedster. Does anyone know whether different heads were offered for 740/745?

Yes, completely different wheel on the 1932 V12. Deluxe 8 still seems to take the 19" that year, while Regular 8 and Light 8 both have 17" wheels. Looks like all models in 1931 had 19".