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

UPDATE: The 1934 Touring is running cool now, thanks to the recore. On the Hot days (85-95), it runs 175-185 over the road. Cooler days (70-80), it runs around 165. Idling for extensive periods will raise the temp, but will never boil and will cool down once over the road.

Separately with this car, I believe I have a heat riser valve issue. Its either not there or its open. Difficult to tell, as the outside components are not there. I suspect its open or missing, causing the intake to get much hotter than it should and I also suspect that it would increase the overall engine temperature. When I shut the car off after its warm, I can see the fuel begin to drain out of the intake drain pipe, which in turn creates a difficult restart when warm.

Additionally, I have also recored the 1934 1101 Coupe. It never gets hotter than 165 over the road and always starts when warm.

To remove a radiator from a 1933-34 Packard:

Drain coolant, remove hoses, hood, three bolts on each side of headlight bar, two 1.25" nuts on the bottom of the radiator. Begin to lift radiator and shell as a unit (2 strong men or an engine hoist as I used). As lifting, the bottom radiator tank hose outlet will hit the fan, so turn the fan as needed while lifting.

Remove chrome shell by removing 4 small bolts at the bottom and one near the crank hole cover. Remove lacing, which gains access to the other bolts that hold the shell on. Remove shutter arm nut. Slowly and carefully begin to separate the shell starting at the bottom. As the shell is coming off, note how the center strip is "snap fitted" into the shutters. carefully and slowly continue to separate the shell. Tedious and time consuming.

Once the shell is off, 3 bolts on each side will remove the shutter assembly and lift off. The headlight support bar will also come off at this time.

Shutter thermostat should be removed also when headed to the radiator shop.

You may want to consider purchasing new rubbers from Steele Rubber for the radiator support and headlight bar to shell.

Hope this helps. I have now done 3 1934's.

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Tom, the position of the slot in the end of the heat riser shaft (slot that holds the spring) will tell you if the valve is open or closed. Here's an old sketch I made years back.

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Hi Tom,
Glad to see that you've sorted the overheating problem at last. Many thanks for posting the strip down procedure of the rad, very informative. I am hoping that mine will improve even more during the season but if not I will use your procedure to pull mine for a re-core.
Regards
Terry

While using a engine hoist certainly makes it easier, it isn't necessary (though the unit IS heavy). When I did mine, we swiveled the two headlights slightly outboard and 2 guys simply lifted the assembly up and out, and reverse to reinstall. But you do want two pretty beefy guys!

I did mine to replate the shell and repaint the shutters, the radiator itself was in fine condition.