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JUst out of curiosity after over 125 replies was this problem ever resolved?....just wondering

No it never was. Still overheats when sitting idle on a hot day. Interesting Packard issued a service bulleting years ago stating it is normal ignore it. Seems that even Packard got tired of replacing thermostats all the time for this same reason. LOL . And I thought GM was bad.

I have not read all the posys... but is it possible the fan is on backwards?

You would know if the fan was on backwards as the head on the blade rivets would contact the water pump pulley when tightened down.

otgdy

I went through this with the 50 I just sold. If the car doesn't boil over the cooling system is doing its job. Packard wasn;t the only maker to have this problem in this time period

I think the theory is that the grill opening could have been larger.


Regards

John Harley

Just wondering how hot the car gets by a second thermometer -maybe an infrared looking at the same part of engine. Perhaps at idle something is affecting water circulation past the sender in the back of block and it slows too much to get an accurate reading.

There are two basic reasons it could boil over:

-It is getting a tad warm (either engine is too warm or tranny is overheating massively and heating the coolant in the radiator instead of the coolant cooling the tranny fluid)

-you have too much coolant in.



If it's the too much coolant issue, the first couple times it boils the excess out, it will be done and not do it after that.


The fan on the stock Packard was likely adequate when the car was new, but wear on the water pump, partially clogged radiator passages, scale build up in the dist tube and block, all work against your car cooling efficiently. You can get it to idle on a hot day, i had no problem until my water pump went. That fan is pretty much a 4 blade stamped fan that a tractor would use.

You CAN get a specific few modern fans that will work, with some spacers to hold the pulley, in a bathtub. I think i used this one:

summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G4917/


I believe 17 is the size to go. 18 hits the crank pulley, and 15/16 looks tiny and has deeper "cups" to pull the air through that hit the pulleys and belt behind the fan.

That will band-aid it some, more air flow at idle is a good thing, and a 5 or so blade modern fan will move TONS of air compared to the old 4 blade.

You have to take the radiator out to do this mod, and i moved to external tranny coolers (3 of them) to isolate and protect the new tranny, and am having the cooler fittings removed so they're not in the way of reinstalling the radiator.

Might as well get that radiator checked out while it's out, and the water pump is staring you in the face while you're right there. You can yank the dist tube behind it and check it and remove soft plugs on the block and get all the crap out.

You could also try removing the thermostat to help with flow at idle, but that's a double edge sword. Some engines never get up to temp without a thermostat, some are a runaway fire because the coolant flows through the radiator too fast to sufficiently cool before hitting the motor.

The better fan and cleaning the radiator and block and dist tube and replacing the water pump are solid bets though. They can only help.


EDIT: I see you've covered 90% of the bases i talked about, i do recall reading this thread before. Sorry to be repetitive! If you're interested in swapping fans, i can send you pics of my setup. It's a 50 with a 327 but should be the same water pump, fan, radiator setup as yours.

3rd page, on flushing the radiator and motor while in the car. Guessing someone could build this setup with an air compressor and garden hose and a couple spare radiator hoses.

packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/SC/SC-VOL25NO11.pdf

"You CAN get a specific few modern fans that will work, with some spacers to hold the pulley, in a bathtub. I think i used this one:

summitracing.com/parts/SUM-G4917/"

Could you please explain what "some spacers to hold the pulley in a bathtub" means. I have a '51 Packard 200 with a 288 and some of the same heating issues.....It doesn't heat enough to overflow the radiator but the temp gauge shows a unnerving temp and causes me anxiety. I've learned to live with it but I like the idea of a more efficient fan. I checked the link and am interested.....However, I'm not sure a spacer is needed.....Did you use one? I can R and R the stock fan without pulling the radiator, is using the spacer with the longer bolts the reason to remove the radiator?

Thanks, Steve........

EDIT: First things first, put a temp sender and modern gauge in, even if under the hood for a day and just to test with and you don't install it in the car. If it's not boiling over, likely your gauge just isn't reading accurately. At least you'll know exactly what your cars real operating temp is. Before doing all this, you might not even have an issue.

End Edit.


You may have trouble doing this with the 51+ water pump if it's like the 53 pump i have here as it doesn't have the "little nipple" that a modern fan/fan spacer could ride on, vs the large pilot hole size of the 4 blade fan. (see the two water pumps below. grimy one is the 48-60 pump).

You may be able to "bore out" the first fan spacer if you get one with enough meat in it, or just have one spacer with correct pilot holes on both ends made for you by a machinist instead of experimenting like i did. Then you won't need the spacer washers that pin the water pump pulley on. It'd be worth it to make them if they're under $50 a piece. Fan is like $40. Good $100 upgrade, as you can see how close the fan is, and how well those blades are going to draw. Plus, since we have lower rpm motors and the fan blades are unevenly spaced in one spot, you won't have the "whooshing" most flex fans are famous for.

You're correct about the bolts being too long to do with the radiator in the car, and it looks like i'll be spacing the radiator about 1/8" or so forward with little washers or spacers between the radiator and panel it bolts to, to be sure the top tip of the fan doesn't hit the bottom "ridge" of the upper radiator tank where the radiator core material ends and the tank begins.

Also, stacking 8 items on in a row, you'll want the radiator out of the way so you can get a good straight shot. I wouldn't have attempted this if it wasn't apart to get the engine out of the car anyway and i could work in front and test things.

It basically goes, from the pump forward:

pulley

4 1/16 machine spacers (or one 1/4 spacer) with the same inside id as the pulley

first fan spacer

second fan spacer (or only fan spacer if you had one made)

last fan spacer

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