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Hey gang,

Just checking in to share some progress! Project is going to take several days as tools/parts/discoveries happen, and I've made some progress.

The head came off in about 30 seconds with an assist from my wife. I don't know anyone does it by themselves.

Worked on the head first, getting it cleaned up top to bottom. The head shows evidence of having been milled before, so it won't be getting milled again. That said, the straight edge way able to lie flat without play, so no worries there. The only issue I'll have to tackle with the head will be some significant pitting at all of the ports where water would pass between the block and the head. Other that that, the head's good to go.

The block is slowly coming clean, too, but as you all know, just a very slow and tedious process, and there's more cleaning to be done. Of the cylinder walls I've seen, they are bright and unblemished (you're indeed seeing reflections in the pictures). It did look like some coolant was leaching into cylinders 8, 5, and 4, where the compression was also slightly lower. I got to cleaning the piston head with Scotchbrite and some brake clean.

Some other questions that have been asked:

- There was only ever blue smoke at start up, then white, then no smoke (my wife commented on this the other day before I got into the disassembly when I was driving the car around the neighborhood and she was out walking). It's never really smoked, other than some MAJOR rich running issues I had when I first got the car... Thankfully, that was sorted out.

- I never did a vacuum test on the valves, though I know that would've been a good practice. Plan at this point is to take each valve apart, clean/lap, check guides, verify valve stem length with the gauge, clean the lifters... basically recondition the valve train with what's in the engine and replace parts as needed.

Haven't dug into the valves yet. The tool I bought (a spring compression tool advertised by Briggs and Stratton) is fighting me - I just don't think it's beefy enough for this particular assignment. I've since purchased a different spring compression tool from eBay (one I found recommended in another thread on this topic).

That's where we stand! Won't make much more progress for the next day or so - taking the kids to MonsterJam in Greensboro! For now, it's a decent start I think. Thanks, all!

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Wow, looking good! Going to take several days?!?! I pulled my engine spart last year on the May long weekend and it was 3 months before I was up and running again. That said, I think you're doing great!!

Haha, well, who knows what sort of nightmare I'll run into along the way. But I kept after the offending valve and finally got it. I'll wait for the beefier tool to get the rest, but here's how it all checks out.

- original valves still in the engine, they clean up pretty nicely. Not tons and tons of carbon. Very little play in the valve guide

- I suspect the lifter plunger was indeed just dirty, and the check ball wasn't, well, checking. Looking forward to cleaning all these.

- not a lot of pitting around the valves

Productive night!

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Maybe a good cleaning is all it needs!

If your car wasn't smoking I think that would indicate that your rings are not too bad, but the low compression tells a different story. Either valves or rings...

A few things I did/learned when working on my engine.

Be sure to cover the drain holes so you don't have any keepers fall into the oil pan when removing and installing valves.

Do a leak-down test on your lifters to make sure they're up to the task after you clean them.

Don't change plungers from one lifter to another, they're very finely machined and are matched.

I found on my valves that one side had just a bit of wear, so I turned the valves that I reused 180 degrees. (Put valves back where they came from.) I replaced all of my exhaust valves and a couple of my intake valves.

I tested my valve springs to make sure I didn't have any weak ones in the mix. (I was not sure what was causing my noise, so I was leaving no stone unturned.)

When lapping valves I found that most lapping compounds in the auto parts store are very coarse, too coarse, I ended up ordering some finer lapping compound. (This is based on my YouTube research.

I picked up a used Blue Point CF-12 valve spring compressor off FB MarketPlace that needed a little repair. It worked very well.

Take your time when putting your valves back in to make sure keepers are in correctly, especially for the valves behind the exhaust that are hard to see and get at. A mirror or your phone are helpful to check these ones. As another member commented just put a bit of grease on the keeper and stick it to the valve stem. Squish them on tight and slowly loosen your compressor watching to make sure the keepers stay in place. I found reassembly very satisfying! Although I did need to swear at a couple of them! LOL

When you put the head back on, I torqued mine down, and then retorqued it after it warmed up and cooled down and then did it a couple of more times after that. This was recommended by a few forum members and I found it was necessary.

BTW, I'm not a mechanic, just a farm kid that's a bit mechanically inclined.

You'll well on your way and you'll be ready for start-up before you know it!

Quote:

I’ve never had help removing a Packard head! In fact, I just removed the one recently by myself in my 1951 Henney-Packard. The hard part wasn’t removing it but rather in getting it to break free so it took more like an hour to get it off.