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

Good afternoon friends,

I tool my radiator cap off today after driving around for about 30 min to find what looked like to be oil in my coolant. sighhhh. (brown sludge material)

My Packard does not have a oil cooler right? Based off of that I think its "just" a blown head gasket right?. No coolant is in the oil. Its a low pressure cooling system so that is to be expected. I refuse to even entertain the fact that it could be a cracked block or head so please don't even mention it.(haha)

Correct, your Packard was not equipped with an oil cooler.

re-torque the head before panic sets in.

Flak, does oil even go into the heads on a flathead?

Yeah really no oil in the head to block junction.... Maybe a little blowby on the rings I guess.

No oil passages from block to head. All oil is below the head.

I am not overly familiar with Packard engines before 1939 or so but as far as I recall there is no oil in or anywhere near the head so this would probably be the time to pull out the engine, disassemble it and have it Magnifluxed. I can think of no way for oil to get into the coolant unless there is severe blow-by from bad rings in combination with a blown head gasket or a cracked block.