I noticed there was some play when I wiggled the rotor. Is this normal?

play in rotor

Also I can only manually advance/retard the timing so much because I have the auto lite distributor

limited advance

Do I just need a new distributor? I have not replaced it yet, just the cap, coil, and plugs.
I will attach pictures of my points as well.
Could it be that the machine shop installed the oil pump wrong?

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Hello all, I am once again having a little trouble, but first a little update.

Since my last post I have gotten my engine in the car, but unfortunately I made a silly Mistake and didn’t put the lifters back in the correct order and had zero compression on most cylinders, so unfortunately I needed to take it apart again. However, the first time around I somehow got away with rebuilding it in the living room but my parents weren’t too happy with that so that wasn’t an option so I decided to send it out to a machine shop and just pay to have them do all the work over again. I gave them my shop manual for all the clearances, torque specifications, etc. I got it back again and now have it in the car once again.

Now I am having trouble starting. My first concern is that I have low compression on a few cylinders. I will attach a picture of my results (picture 1) the night before this test I put oil in the cylinders so this would be a wet test. I can tell the low compression is from blow by. My question is will this blow by go away once the rings seat?

My second question- and main concern is timing.
I am simply stumped as to what is going on with this.
I set my engine so cylinder 1 is at 6 degrees before TDC of its compression stroke. (Picture 2)
Then I ensure the distributor rotor is pointing to approximately the 7:30 position (picture 3)
I then turn the engine over until the spark occurs and it is at approximately 90 degrees AFTER TDC. (Picture 4)

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On my 1948 super 8 I still have the tires I got with it and I think they look pretty good. They are Firestone supreme si is what they say on the back. Size is 235/75-15. I plan to replace them with either a Coker or diamondback of the same size.

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Not sure I can help you but you should add your Packard to the registry!
packardinfo.com

Also I had a shop quote me $950 to recore the radiator I currently have.
I would like people’s opinions on if it might be better to just go that route instead?

Hello, I am in need of a new radiator for my 1948 Super eight sedan. I found one that someone makes new bit they say it is for the station wagon, not necessarily the sedan.
[url=https://cgj.com/product/pk-7006-1948-packard-super-8-wagon-radiator]
My question is would this work in my car or is the radiator for the station wagon and sedan different?

No I have not yet done that… I suppose your right I hadn’t considered that as a factor yet.

Or would it just be better to cradle the engine with a couple strap’s running underneath at the balancer and the end of the oil pan?

A little backstory; in the past I have just used the head studs and it worked great, I already pulled the engine and rebuilt it, now I’m looking at reinstallation. The reason I don’t want to remove the head studs is they have all been torqued down already and when the engine got painted they got painted over as well. If I remove it I will feel like I have to clean all the paint off of everything to get accurate torque readings.

Also the transmission will be attached when I go to reinstall.
I was looking at it and was thinking I might use straps to help protect the paint and run them from the thermostat housing area to one of the starter bolts and another place on the bell housing, would this work if I can get it to balance right?