Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

If anyone has a judging guide handy, todays question is the proper color of the straight oil fill tube on a 47 356. Looking at several engine photos of nicely detailed cars, some have a green tube and others black. All have a black cap and the horizontal vent tube also looks to be black.

Howard, my oil fill tube is Packard Green engine color and the breather cap and tube ventilator are black. The guy who rebuilt the engine in the mid-1980s is a stickler for finish. He used gloss paints and stainless steel fastener throughout. He also crackle finished the starter, generator, and distributor. He told me he was trying to give it the same distinctive appearance as the per-war old style engines. Not authentic, but it is a beautiful engine, and the best one I have seen. I believe the color scheme to be correct.

(o{}o)

Here is a shot of a motor with original accessories.

They really should not be super glossy and if you want to pull out all the stops you can get flattening agent that will tone down the gloss.

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I do have a judging guide at home, Howard, and I used it, making the tube on my 40 green and the cap black.

Here is the replacement (taller) tube and (bigger air intake) cap from a 47.

Not definitive, however. Could have been repainted.

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When I started working on my original 48, the filler tube was grey like the engine, and the cap black.

I have been using a semi-gloss black on the parts, and it looks period correct.

Howard, The oil fill tube on my '47 was green with the cap and ventilator tube a semi gloss black.

I think the black tubes stem from engines where the top layer of paint is gone revealing the black primer. The restorer repaints it black thinking that is the correct color. I remember a conversation similar to this for the '51-'54 cars. My car had a black tube, but others convinced me that this was not correct. Consensus was the tubes should be engine color.

This may be a dumb question but is it difficult to remove the oil filler tube from the engine? I ask as on my 47 (356), the oil fill cap has the slot facing to the rear of the car, I believe it should face forward?

Cheers
Lyndon

Thanks everyone. Green it will be.

As to removing the tube, on most engines it's just pressed in - but there is always the possibility someone has applied a sealant at some time. If you gently bump it with a soft faced hammer side to side while pulling on it at the same time it should come out.

There is supposed to be a baffle on the bottom end. If your tube was installed backwards, I wonder if that little piece is still attached. From a discussion last year, the mysterious piece of metal some had found laying in the oil pan was the baffle. Being installed on the wrong side because of a backward tube, apparently they were knocked off by the crank.

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You should be able to pull it out by hand with a bit of wiggling back & forth. It is a press fit in the block.

Yes, the slot in the fill cap should face forward. There should also be a tube to direct air flow into this slot as shown in post #3 in this thread.