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The lifter cover gasket is a solid one piece of cork with 3 holes corresponding to the bolt hole. The cover has 3 standoff tubes with a flared end on the interior side. The gasket holes are not large enough to go over the flares and the motor schematic shows the gasket behind the flares. I cannot seem to get the flares to come off. Is there a special way to install the gasket or is there some way to remove the flares to place the gasket on properly?

No comments? Must be at least one engine guru out there.

I believe you are referring to the side plate over the valve clearance adjusters.
On the ones I have seen the gasket was originally fitted between the inner and outer plate then the tubes for the holding bolts flared to hold it all together.

Its quite a thick cork gasket - about 1/8" from memory- and sometimes it is still OK but if it needs replacing you have the choice of opening out, or cutting away, the flares (with difficulty) and replacing the gasket as it was originally made or leaving a part of the old gasket behind the inner plate and cutting it away on the sealing face and making the new one to fit around it with a gasket adhesive to hold it in place.
Hope that makes sense.

I had my cover off this summer when adjusting the valves on my 5-26, but it doesn't exactly match what DavidM is describing. I have the outter plate and 3 standoff tubes, but don't recall any inner plate. Do you have pictures?

It's entirely possible that mine has lost the inner plate sometime during the past 86 years, but mine only has a very thick perimeter gasket (I'd say at least 3/16") and 3 crush washers to seal the bolts to the cover. As described, it doesn't leak.

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but it appears I do have an oil leak from the valve adjustment side cover. I thought it was coming from the choke lever shaft seal on the oil bypass valve, but it upon closer inspection I can see that it isn't.

As mentioned earlier, all my car has is the outer plate with a very thick perimeter cork gasket and crush washers around the 3 bolts. The outer plate is just thin sheet metal, and it's not possible to torque it down enough that it puts sufficient pressure on the gasket to prevent leaks without warping the plate.


Can anyone provide details or a picture (hopefully) of the inner plate and flared bolts mentioned earlier in the thread? I can't find anything other than basic descriptions in the the relevant parts lists. I'd like to know the material and thickness (dimensions are probably too much to hope for) so I can CAD up a reproduction and CNC it.

Thanks!

When i rebuilt the engine in my 526 i used gaskets from Olson gaskets, i used a scalpel or other very sharp knife to enlarge the holes just enough to force the gasket over the flange. The bolts should have copper rings to seal them. Dell

I have just checked with another owner and it seems that the inner plate on mine, that I described, might have been a non Packard mod by a previous owner. I believe the arrangement described by Dell is the way the gasket is fitted normally.

Thanks for the clarification. Perhaps I'm missing those 3 standoff tubes after all. My cover just has 3 holes in it, and the 3 "bolts" that secure it are really long-shank caps nuts that grab 3 studs in the block. As long as they are, I believe I was misconstruing those for the tubes others have described, but there's nothing with any sort of flare or flange that would prevent a gasket from seating against the cover, or more importantly that prevents the bolts being tightened to the point that they seriously warp the cover plate.<br /><br />After the last valve adjustment, I fitted some o-rings to seat against the cap nut flanges and outside of the plate, then torqued them down just prior to the point the plate started warping, but that's clearly not adequate. Are these standoff tubes affixed to the cover plate itself?

The 3 tubes are fixed to the cover plate and their function is only to position and retain the gasket

I think you are asking if they also prevent the gasket from being over compressed . They do not make contact with the engine block so it is necessary to tighten the 3 "screws" enough to prevent leakage but not too much so that the plate warps.

Mine has the same 3 long shank cap nuts that you describe.

I hope that answers your question.