Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Getting it clean enough to work on is the most difficult and time consuming part of building a Packard V8. A running engine is bad enough, but many of the engines we build are junkyard cores. They take days to get ready to build:

1. Pressure wash the outside of the engine and pull it apart.
2. Remove all the core plugs, oil gallery plugs and fittings.
3. Run all the parts through the cabinet pressure washer. Lay the block on stands and use a long screwdriver and water hose to gouge out all the crud still stuck in the water passages.
4. Run the block, heads and all the small parts through the shot blaster to remove rust.
5. Tumble the block and heads to remove all the steel shot
6. Pull the plugs out of the ends of the rocker shafts and run wire brushes and solvent through them. Run the brushes through all the oil system holes in the block
7. Push soft wire through the oil filter tubes.
8. Run taps down every threaded hole in the heads and block.
9. Back through the wash cabinet and rinse again.

After about two days of cleaning, we can finally begin the machine work. The latest one we pulled apart, we found a petrified mouse in the timing cover and a toad in the oil pan.

A local big production rebuilder shop with whom I do a lot of business got in a Packard V8 to build. Naturally, they called me several times checking on how and what to do. When they were done, they said, "If we get a call on another one of those old boat anchors, we're just sending them straight on to you. They're too much work!"

jack vines

Jack,

this is going to come in very handy! thanks for sharing!!!

Hank

Jack,

Great post! I would add just a couple of things.

1) Have the block dipped in muriatic acid. That will clean out the crap in the water jackets better than anything.

2) Use a long steel rod pushed through the main oil galleries to clear the crusted up oil deposits. Do this early on in the cleaning process so the smaller stuff left can be dealt with by the later processes.

"Cleanliness is next to godliness." -- Francis Bacon (1605).

Craig

Hi, Craig,

The engine builders supply companies have steel bristle brushes in various diameters on long twisted steel shafts. As mentioned in #6, we put the brush shaft in an air drill and run them through using solvent until it is clean.

Cleaning the rocker shafts is the hardest part of the whole procedure. Sometimes, the soft plugs won't pull out and we have to drill them out on a lathe. You wouldn't believe the goop which is inside most rocker shafts.

Today, I was cleaning an oil filter drain line and it was so full of crud, I don't believe it was allowing the filter to pass any oil.

jack vines

Not only is cleanliness next to godliness, it is also next to impossible. But we try.

The rocker shafts and other similar tubular itenms such as oil lines and gas lines can be cleaned using the blowing string method. Kind of like cleaning a gun barrel. I've cleaned 3 different sets of the Packard V8 rocker shafts using the string method. The end plugs do not have to be removed. Simple, cheap, effective. Faster than removing alot of plugs and fittings or taking a chance on deteriorating any Al. plugs or solder fittings and so-forth wit hacid dipps and abrasives or pressure blasting.

I'll have to agree with JV. One thing is for sure just getting/cleaning/prepping/inspecting the engine for assembly before a major overhaul assembly is a daunting task.

For the rocker shafts I used my special degreaser cocktail and alot of soak time. I kept dipping it in until the fluid ran out of the holes in th shaft freely and fast. It took a long time, but it was effective.

We had my engine block dipped by a company that does engine blocks all the time. The engine builder inspected it and sent it back for a second day of cleaning before he would do any work on it. Clean, clean and clean some more before you start the rebuilding process.

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Your engine, your money, do it your way. However, We wouldn't go to all the trouble of removing the rocker shaft end soft plugs if it weren't necessary to be sure they were clean inside.

We've tried soaking in every solvent known to modern science. We've tried using string, soft wire and every other method. There were some that were still full of crud. We've rebuilt a bunch of them and learned there is no way to know the inside is clean unless we can look through end-to-end.

Bottom line, many of what we build are old, neglected, abused, sat in a field for fifty years core engines. Your results may vary, especially if you start with a well-maintained running engine, but we'll never settle for trying to clean rocker shafts from the outside.

jack vines