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Hi there, glad to be part of the site! I have a 1949 23rd series (no -5- in the vin) Packard Eight Deluxe with the original 288. I hear one of the solid lifters talking to me 80% of the time. It does not do it at any particular temp but about a hour after you begin driving it will begin. If you push in the clutch and idle up the sound goes away after a few seconds only to return in a Minuit or so. Weak valve spring maybe? What do you think? Thanks Steve from N.C.

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Probably not a weak valve spring, if that were the case symptoms would show up at high speeds, not at idle or low engine speeds.

Yeah it does it from idle on up once it starts ticking. What do you think, re-set the lash on the lifters? How often is it recommended after then? IS IT even a lifter issue? Any other info you need from me just let me know. Stev

I don't know if it's a lifter issue or not, but unless you know the valve lash was correctly set recently, that's where I'd start. Typically, valve adjustments might have been done once or twice between valve jobs which typically were required at 40-50,000 miles intervals, more or less depending on how the vehicle was driven.

Quote:
"hour after you begin driving it will begin. If you push in the clutch and idle up the sound goes away"

Probably not lifter. Altho i have a 1948 288 here i'm not real familiar with the innards. IF it has a timing chain then i would expect that as the noise. When u push in clutch it pushes the crank forward.

Nice looking car and the paint looks good. But u need to use a fender cover when working on it to protect that very nice paint.

Play with the noise a little bit. See if pushing in the clutch always eleminates the noise. That's about all i can think of rite now.

Thanks! It has its imperfections here and there but it gives her a little character, and Yeah, I do need to buy some new fender skirts, the old ones are DONE! I am mindful of it tho, I rotate my belt buckle as far to one side as I can an un-clip my pocket knife from my pocket. As for the tick, it does not go away when I push the clutch, I can sit at the light with my foot on the clutch ind it just ticking away. It is when I idle the engine up to what I would guess is 1100 or 1200 RPMs for a few seconds that it goes away. Poor oil flow at less than that maybe? It holds 30lbs of oil pressure at idle, and more when you are going down the road, so I would not think so.....Just trying to figure out which end of this thing I should start poking with a wrench first to fix it. It is messing up that Packard air-plain engine purrrr! lol

I would check the ignition wiring. Sometimes the ticking from a spark to ground can be confused with lifter noise. Does the car seem to miss/run rough when you hear it?
Just something else to check.

If the ticking occurs ONLY at idle then that is an indication of worn wrist pins in the pistons/rod asssembly.

Sometimes also indication of worn timing chain.

When it is ticking at idle then try disconnecting a spark plug wire one at time to find out if it goes away on any particular cylinder.

Definitely solid and not optional hydraulic lifters? No H suffix on the motor number?

My 2262 with 288 has a solenoid starter bendix drive. But agian not real familiar with details of anything prior to the 55's.
If yours has a centrigul starter motor gear then it mite be sliding back into the flywheel teeth. When u push clutch in it relieves it for a few minutes until gear vibrates back.