Is there a fuel pump heat shield on a 23rd series Packard 288 engine? If so, does anyone have a photo? My car does not have one, but it does have vapor lock on a 100 degree day.

Although that sway bar shown on Ebay is a decent price the chances of it working on your Packard are nearly zero.

There are many interfaces that have to match;
1. The non-straight part of the bar between the bearings has to miss other parts of the car
2. The distance between the support bearings has to match the distance on the Packard.
3. The support bearing brackets have to mate with the hole pattern in the Packard.
4. The links have to be the proper length.
5. The link end swivel bearings have to mate with the suspension brackets.
6. The end-to-end overall dimension of the bar has to match the suspension bracket spacing on the Packard
7. The arm lengths on the bar have to match the Packard dimensions.
8. The shape of the arms has to miss the front tires when the steering is turned fully.
9. The biggest item of all - the bar has to be made of heat treated alloy steel. I have seen cheap ones made of mild steel that yields when the car is driven hard or hits a big one-wheel bump or simply is jacked up on one side. Beware a "universal" part that fits nothing.

By the way I would like to find a heavy duty sway bar for my Series 23 Packard too, but I have yet to see one.

I just had 90% of the chrome redone on my 23rd Series 4-door. The total bill came to about $7000. The biggest single item was the front bumper at $750. None of the chrome was badly pitted, rusty or dented when I took it in. The quality was the best you can get. It was all done in San Diego, not Mexico. This is almost unheard of in the Peoples Republic of California.

I suspect this is about as expensive as it gets. Chrome I had done by folks who send it to Mexico is about 2/3 that price but quality is not so good. Also there are many stories of "lost" or stolen parts.

I considered sending the chrome to another state, but the packing and shipping costs both ways adds a lot to the cost. The chrome off my Packard was a pickup truck load.

90 miles a day on a commuter car is easy on a battery. It is always fully charged. I have a problem with batteries in collector cars that mostly sit and are driven 90 miles a month. A battery tender should be used on a car that sits. But they are a pain to hook up, the wires are easy to trip over, and I hate to have electrical things running in the barn when I am not there (fire hazard).

Some early used cars I owned from my young years in the late 50s. Listed are the approximate price I paid and the seller:
1948 Studebaker Champion 4-door sedan $125 (used car lot)
1952 Morris Minor convertible $350 (private party)
1948 Dodge 4-door sedan $125 (friend)
1949 Renault 4CV $150 (used car lot)

But since I wasn't satisfied with these "ordinary" cars I saved all my money over the summer and bought something really special:
1949 Alfa Romeo 6C2500SS Farina convertible $500 (importer of exotic Italian cars)

All these cars were functional and complete used cars that were used as daily drivers when I went to school and worked in a grocery store.

On the negative side I made the union scale $1.50 an hour.
Prices are all relative to the value of the dollar.

That 356 unit is probably what is on my 288 engine. It has a rolled brass or copper sleeve under the thermostat. It is a sturdy design.

I used to manufacture custom sway bars. You use alloy steel such as AISI4340. Bend it hot and have it heat treated for strength afterwards. Many sway bars have forged ends with holes machined in them. I did that using old fashioned blacksmith techniques (torch and hammer).

At today's costs you would pay more for heat treatment than a used original bar would cost. The offer for $75 is a good one. Steele Rubber Products has all the rubber parts, but you may need to make the steel brackets if you cannot find used ones. Sway bar link kits are available in auto parts stores and speed shops.

If you need new rubber bushings let me know and I will sell two new ones from Steele at a discount. I did not need them on my packard so I used the originals.

My 23rd Series Packard has a cast iron thromstat housing off probably an earlier car. Very sturdy compared to those sheet metal ones. I have seen these at the PI Packard swap meet in Los Angeles. Having a shop make one is the most expesive option. There are still lots of good spare parts for these cars in private hands.

When I got my 1950 Deluxe 8 it had a nearly new NAPA battery and the battery hold down frame was missing. I bought an original hold down frame from a Packard and it did not fit. This was due to a slight interference on the width. Then I bought a battery hold down frame off Ebay and it did fit, but it looks wrong. I used that until the NAPA battery died about a year later.

I went to NAPA and bought a battery off the shelf and put it in. It was dead and would not take a charge. I returned it and they told me the battery had been sitting in their inventory for several years with electrolite in it. I got one from another store and had the same problem. After the 3rd one I gave up and bought an original reproduction Delco for $250. It was shipped dry so there was no problem with age on the shelf. It looks great and the original Packard frame fits.

If you buy a NAPA battery (or any other) make sure it is not used up by sitting on the shelf with electrolite in it. The stores do not but them on a trickle charger and they go dead sitting. A dead battery is hurt fatally if it is not recharged right away.

If your engine has hydraulic lifters it could be just the brief noise they make until the oil fills the lifters. Older lifters get leaky and the oil drains out when they sit. If the engine sits longer there is clicking for a longer time. I have heard that many times on old engines wih hydraulic lifters. No big deal.