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We have a 1952 Clipper that had the engine (288) completely overhauled about five years ago. Only drove the car about 100 miles due to circumstances beyond my control but it ran really nice. One valve loosened up a bit and I adjusted it back to spec. Fast forward five years (car was in storage in an underground parking lot) and we decide to put this engine in a very nice 1951 2 door Clipper. Had a very difficult time getting it to start but eventually it came to life. It is running on six cylinders. #7 and #8 are showing 0 on the compression tester. The rest are 90 psi. Had the lifter covers off and observed all valves moving as well as proper valve lifter clearance. I have read where these engines are prone to sticking valves but I cannot understand why this engine, being practically new, is acting like this. I tried some water injection through the vacuum line at the base of the carb, no difference. Looks like the head is coming off.

If the valve clearances are still correct it is hard to imagine that the valves would be responsible for the no-compression situation. Sitting for 5 years undoubtedly had something to do with this if the engine was running properly when it was put into storage.

Possibly a valve in each of these cylinders was open during the storage period...and either the valve face or seat face corroded. Anyway, if squirting some oil or ATF into each cylinder through the spark plug hole doesn't restore the compression then the head will have to come off.

Please let us know what you find and how you fixed the problem.

You could run a leak-down test on each cylinder to determine where the compressed air is going. You may find that the valves are just not seating --OR-- as you are seeing 0 psi in adjacent cylinders, the head gasket may be to blame.

Good luck.

I've got a couple of spare 288's as well as a spare 5 main 327 and one 288 has stuck valves as well. Needless to say I'm following this with real attention.

Good luck!

Dear Robin:

Before you take anything apart, get cylinder number one on TDC and dump Gumout into number 8. Fill it up. Cover the plug hole with a rag and crank the motor over with the coil grounded. Repeat for number 7.

Let it soak for an hour or two and then repeat using penetrating oil. Let is soak overnight.

Get under the fender and see if you can free the valves by turning them with pliers and gently prying up and down with a screwdriver.

It may be hard to start with all the stuff in the manifold, so be prepared with a squirt oil can and gasoline.

See if this works.

Robin

Try this first

Move the air cleaner off the carb. Start the enigne. Dribble ATF down the carb while running.

I bought a 1950 15 years ago with a stuck valve and that is what my mechanic did. This was a day after I got the "them straight eights never ran right, drop in a 350 and be done with it" speech from a tire kicker

There used to be a Packard mechanic here in New Jersey who would remove the spark plug and force the valve down with a screw driver through the spark plug hole. It worked every time and he used your own screwdriver. He's been gone 10 years and people are still talking about it. You might want to check the position of the camshaft first....

Regards


John Harley

This seems to be rather common in newly overhauled engines that had the valve guides replaced and fitted to modern specs. This new fuel seems t gum up the valves with this close tolerance after just a short time of non use. I have had a 327 gum up after just a couple of months even when the engine was started and brought up to temperature about once a week. Finally, the valves had to be removed to loosen them. The bottom line is that our straight eight engines are better off if used regularly.
I have had good luck with a Marvel Mystery oil upper cylinder lubricator. It seems to solve the problem.

In L-head engines like our Packards it would be a poor idea to fit valve stem to guide clearances at anything other than the original Packard specification. I've replaced more valve guides than I care to think about in these engines and it's rare that the new guides require reaming to provide the correct clearance, but it would still be foolish to install new guides and not check the clearances and ream to size if needed. Tigher clearance is not better.

Thanks for all the replies. I will try everything before pulling the head. Apparently cannot get Marvel up here in Canada. Going to be about a month before I get back to this car as I have to go to work but I will report back on results.

Robin

Well I ordered a complete gasket kit from Max Merrit and looked in the maintenance manual where it made mention of two adjacent cylinders with no compression being a blown head gasket. So off the head came and yes the gasket was blown. The engine has no more than maybe two hundred miles on it since overhaul but this gasket was definitely not as robust as the one I replaced it with. The valves were fine, everything was fine except this crappy head gasket. So back together it went and it runs great.