Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Road Draft Tube

Unless noted below, All Road Draft tubes are black.

110s, 120s, 55-56s are engine color

1932-1939 12s are Natural (silver)


Oil Fill Tubes

1940-1956 All, and 1935-1939 Jrs:

The oil fill tubes where black from manufacturer, and then installed on the engine by the factory prior to painting the entire engine. So this is why there are traces of black paint underneath.

So correct from the factory, the oil fill tube is engine color. A replacement oil fill tube was black as that is how they came from the manufacturer. They were supposed to be repainted in the color to match the engine upon installation.

1932-1939 Sr. 8s:

Gloss Black

1932-1939 12s:

Green

Models 126-533:

Gloss Black

Round Pipes Prior to 1932 (640, 645, 740, 745)

Aluminum Gloss

I had incorrectly(??) thought that the '40-54 round road draft tubes used on 288/327/356/359 were engine color and posted as such last night. This morning I went through our stock of new and used tubes. As BigKev states, all new replacement tubes are painted black from the factory.

All 10 of our used tubes for these applications are also black, some in pretty good condiiton adn some beat up. None have any traces of green, gray or bronze.

FRom my observation I conclude that most if not all are black when factory installed. The photo posted above raises questions. Was this a display engine shown being put into a chassis at a photo session? If so the engine might have been prepared in a non-stock manner. There is a very widely published photo of a 35-36 12th/14th series Senior 8 sedan with the roof insert the same color as the body yet all inserts were black in production Another with the frame the same color of the body on a 12/14th senior. Custom painted frames were available up to the 11th series I believe but not 12th series and newer. Again perhaps done for publicity and no typical of production.

Even before Photoshop I believe photos cannot be taken as unassailable "proof". Although road draft tube color is not an earth shattering question I'd sure like to get to the bottom of this.

Just another point of reference, if you look at page 5 in the Engine Section of the 51-54 Service Manual, the bottom two photos show the oil fill tube is the same color as the engine, and just the cap is black.

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Fred - that photo is from the MSU collection of original factory photographs. I've cropped it a bit to better see the engine/chassis details. Here's the text that accompanies it:

8x10 black and white Packard Co. file photograph of 1948-49 Packard chassis on assembly line, workers on either side assembling parts with large tools, engine visible, tires on. Inscribed on photo back: 1948-49 Packard super eight, twenty-second series, model 2232, 8-cylinder, 145-horsepower, 120-inch wheelbase, chassis for convertible victoria (body type #2279), first twenty-second series Packards on the line, alongside twenty-first series Clippers, spring 1947

I was wondering how dealerships and factories lifted the motors back in the day!

LOL, I wasn't looking to start an argument about anything... I was originally looking for the draft tube color along with the manifold colors...

I posted this topic as I could not find a clear pic of a restored engine bay with a good look at any of them.

Can we all go back to getting along as common Packard owners?



Thank you again for the quick replies, everything is at the shop and should be done early next week.

Things are looking up in getting this old girl fired up...

No arguments, we are just hashing out another obscurity in the Packard world to get to a agreed upon answer. Debate is good, thats how problems are solved.

Re: photo caption. Photos and photo captions cannot, in my experience, be taken as unassailable proof. Some photos are taken of pre-production parts/vehicles which were hand assembled or built to pre-production standards, thus they MAY not be indicative of production cars.

I have a low mileage never-messed with 23 Series Super, I'll loook at the road draft tube today.

Keep in mind that I have a 22,000 mile '52 Patrician that was original right down to the hoses, belts and plugs when I bought it in '74. It was a factory show car and the engine was GREEN.

TO BROWENB:

This is not an argument, we are seeking the truth, if it exists, in a gentlemanly way. Halleujah!

Well I'm glad I've finally found a forum where questions can be asked and an honest debate be had, without persons calling other persons names or pointing out something obvious that the questionee had asked to make them look foolish. I've built/am building a list of cars, this is the first Forum to honestly be kind and offer great help/advise without being at each others throats or making the topic poster look like a complete noob. (Although with this car I absolutely am.) I've got many vehicles that I've built over the past, and this site is truly the best I've been fortunate enough to come across.

I won't name the other sites I'm a member of, but our other cars include, in order of year.

1927 Model T Ford Tudor (Original Crank Engine)
1946 Chev 1/2 Ton (Rodded)
of course our precious 1949/50 Packard
1970&1/2 Camaro RS/SS
1975 Porsche 914
1981 Camaro (Rodded)
1995 Camaro Z28 (Modified, but original equipment)

1996 Land Rover Discovery (Parents daily Driver - Gotta keep them safe)

2004 Chev Silverado Z71 (My Parts hauler / Daily Driver)

Thanks again for all the help and support you guys bring to this site.

To browenb

All are welcome here and are treated equally disrespectfully, as gentlemen we just wait a while.
By the way you're a boob, not a noob. Have a terrible day and may your timing chain jump three notches.

On the subject of how we treat each other here, being rather new at forums I find just what you refer to to be true unfrotunately. There are some, usually those who make thousands of posts, who are so incredibly misinformed as to make outlandish claims such as putting clothes pins on your fuel line will eliminate vapor lock. Then there are others who think they know ten times more than the engineers who designed the cars and those who wrote the service manuals.

The most disappointing point is that when you try to give correct/correcting information they call you all kinds of names in order to cover their stupidity. When you respond, it gets even worse. This is the nature of the internet and it seems of humans.