I just finished replacing my hydralic lifters on my 52 250. During the project, in addition to replacing the lifters (which required pulling and replacing the head), I replaced the water pump (the old one showed some leakage around the weep hole), rebuilt the carb, R&R the heat riser assembly, and replaced the heater control valve at the firewall. I did not replace the thermostat - had a new one, just forgot I pulled the radiator but did not have it serviced, i did a simply flow test and it emptied quickly. I did repaint it with radiator paint, just the top, not the fins.

Since reassembly, the car has run hot. I have dialed in the carb (which still runs just a little rich) and the timing, and that has helped. The car never ran hot before.

I live by the ocean, and the temp stays around 70 - 75 degrees, so overheating really should not be an issue.

Now, it will idle in my garage forever with no problem, but after about 15 minutes on the road, basically on the highway at 55 mph, the gauge slowly creeps over toward hot. I haven't run it long enough to get it there, but I am pretty sure it will go fully to hot with a little more time. My hand held laser thermometer shows about 210 degrees across the heads at that point, a little lower in the main block and the radiator at about 180. Previously, I never saw the gauge get above the center. In the garage at idle, even idling for a long period, it only gets to about 170 at the block, the radiator only about 140.

I did not flush or back flush the engine.

The water passages in the head were very clean.

I think my next step is to replace the T-stat, or maybe run without one for a while and see if that helps. If not, I'll run something through the system and backflush it - which is another reason I might leave the T-stat out for a while.

I am wondering if the pump could be under-performing. Is there any way to test for this? As a last resort, I can put the old one back on and see if that solves the problem.

I am running with the heater closed, but I don't think this should make any real difference.

I don't really want to tear into this again, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thank you for the info David.

I will try oiling the throttle shaft to see if that helps. I am in 70 degree weather, so I detached the arm from the throttle to the choke. It did not seem to make any difference to the failure to return to the idle stop.

I pulled the plugs, and they are quite dark, showing a rich mixture, but i think this is mostly due to a lot of idle time - it seems unlikely that the carb is flooding at higher revs. I reset the mix screws with a vacuum gauge, so I think this will help.

I took the carb off (again) today to re-adjust the float,as that seems to me to be the only way to adjust the fuel mixture. But at this point (I have done all the adjustments a number of times) it dialed in as close as I can make it. so i didn't monkey with it.

The car still performs poorly at speed. It winds out fairly well in first, but makes more noise than power at the higher revs in second. Not a miss, just a lack of power. I haven't really gotten it to speed in third because it runs poorly enough that I don't want to take it on the highway.

Reverified the timing, at 6 degrees BTD, and I verified that the the advance appears to be working upon acceleration. Vacuum gauge also showed the timing dialed in. Ha always run well at correct timing, but it does act a lot like my Plymouth flathead when the timing is off.

running out of ides here.

The trans in this car is actually a four speed. The low gear is off to the side. Second is below reverse, third is where you would expect it, with high right below it. Its designed so you basically always start in second. It looks designed to get you into fourth quickly. Looks like I should use 160 in the trans, especially out her in Sunny California.

In addition to doing a bunch of other things on my '52 250 (327 engine), I rebuilt the carb. Initially, I was getting a ton of gas gushing out of the float vent hole, you could see every time the pump completed a cycle. I lowered the float a could times, which did not help, and then replaced the needle and seat with my original (the rebuild kit had the flat type). This fixed the issue right away. But, I had very bad running/missing at top end and the car was running hot - not overheating, but running hotter than normal. Timing was dialed in perfectly and the car started and ran not under load as good as it ever has.
I re-adjusted the float as it was low due to my earlier issue, but now the car idles way too high and I need to really goose it to get the idle to snap back to normal.
No vacuum leaks, the distributor was not changed and has always operated fine - vacuum advance always seemed to work.
After changing the needle and seat back, I did not do anything with the throttle body, butterfly's, etc. It is not the linkage as when I take it off, I still have the same problem.
I do not have a return spring on the carb, but have never needed one. BUt I need to apply pressure to the throttle linkage to get the carb to snap back to its stop.
I did re-adjust the metering rods, but I am not sure that would cause this issue. I did also re-adjust the idle screws, but this seems really to be the throttle failing to turn to its position on the stop.
Assuming this is the carb, what would the likely cause be?

My transmission is a three speed. It does sound quite like the one in Model31's video - maybe louder. Somehow, I don't associate it with the sound of quality - I found it somewhat frightening.

Doing a video is a good idea though. I'll try this in the next few days. I want to check the levels, etc. before taking this for a spin.

The car underwent a full restoration some years ago and I know for certain the engine was rebuilt (at least representaed that way), but I have no mention of the trans. Only 1200 miles since the restoration, so if it was rebuilt, should outlast me.

I am blown away by the quality of the restoration and the car is just beautiful. I just love these elegant old Packards.

I bought a '32 902. Beautiful car and nicely restored at one time. Unfortunately, the transmission whines in 1st and 2nd louder than my first grade niece. I assume this is not normal, but maybe somewhat expected.
Just got delivered, so i haven't had time to look into it yet. Assuming it needs trans fluid - -among other things - I assume this is a 90 wieght similar to what I use in my newer Packards?

I bought a rebuilt fuel pump for my '52, but it is an unusual design. It has a sort of stirrup that the cam lobe sits in and it travels back and forth on the pump arm as the cam rotates. I understand what it is doing, but it just looks like trouble waiting to happen if anything gets bound up. Maybe this is a replacement pump, but I don't think I like it.

I also note that the mounting plate is significantly thinner that the normal pump, making me question whether this is the correct pump. If I use it, I will need to get new bolts as the originals will bottom out.

Have you guys used this kind of pump before? Some pictures follow.

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I am installing a hear riser on my '52 and I am not quite sure exactly how it all comes together.

It looks like the best way is for the longer end of the exhaust diverter to point downward with the weight at about 9 o'clock when cold (diverting exhaust into the manifold) and at about 7 o'clock when warmed up, which then channels the exhaust down through the pipe. I don't see a good combination that puts the weight right at the bottom when warm. Is this correct?

I apologize as I thought I had found a diagram on the forum a few months ago, but can not locate it now.

I have some pictures attached. (I am using a nail to temporarily position the diverter, so I know I am not using the proper pin.)

The first and third pictures are in cold position and the second and fourth are in warm position. The third and fourth pictures are oriented with the exhaust down similar to how it will be when the manifold is installed.

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This clears it up completely. Apparently I have a substitute pulley that is significantly different. This is just as described to me.
Thank you.

My fan pulley is one piece with two grooves for the fan belt and the P/S belt. In speaking with the folks at MM, it seems like there are two seperate pulleys, one for the fan and one for P/S, and the P/S pulley fits inside the fan pulley, similar to the way the P/S pulley sits inside the balancer. They fit tightly together and look like one unit. For those with P/S, is this how yours is put together? It might be that my pulley is fabricated and that might be my problem.