Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Hello,
I have been working on my 1939 Packard Super 8 that was the family car from 1950 or '51. We got the engine running after replacing all of the gaskets in the oil pump and oil manifold (to mains), servicing the oil pressure relief valve, and cleaning the oil cooler. We put in a new radiator and hoses, checked the water pump and some of the rubber around the front of the car (Center Motor mount and spherical rubber bushes on the torque arms).

It runs smoothly and has 60 PSI (after two adjustments of the relief valve) at start up and at increased RPM, and 22 psi at idle after running for 60 minutes.

My father rebuilt the engine around 1951 or so. I am thinking about what I need to learn about the car I wondered if in 1939 Packard used oil control rings on the pistons, if there were oil control rings (as opposed to a plain oil scraper ring - like a compression ring) were they one piece cast oil control rings as I have seen on some rings from the late 40's or early 50's engines.
How many rings in total were used on each piston and where I might find the information (drawings or written info.) on the rings.

Rick M
1939 Super 8 (1703)

Someone else can give you data for 1939 but I suspect it was unchanged from 1938 which used 4 rings per piston, same as back to the first days of the 320 engine. Top groove was a Ferrox-finished plain compression ring. 2nd groove was a No. 70 compression ring, 3rd grove had a No. 85 plain oil control ring and the bottom groove had a X-90-85 spring-dampened oil control ring.

Thank you, I just found some information in the Packard library, under service info on this site.

The information you gave is more complete than listed (although the service information is quite extensive).

Rick