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My guess is that the converter to front pump seal is dried up and it leaking. The T/U that was in the '55 Hudson that my 320 came out of had that problem. It would use a quart every 10 miles, it leaked so bad. When I put said 320 in my Pat, the first thing I did was buy and install a new converter seal. They're easily available, and cheap insurance.

Well in an hour or two my friends will be here with a trailer and we are going to take it up to his building (approx 30 miles). He has a lift there. I hope to get the cover of the actuator off this weekend and ship the insides off to Mr. Pushbutton.
I will post pictures when I can.
Dan

Update:
Well last week with the help of friends with a trailer, we got my car up to a building that another friend has up in the country. It's about 30 miles from here. He set it up as a place to work on old cars. It's really nice and has a good lift! One of these days he wants to retire up there.

All we could do was drop the car off there. This Saturday we went up to the building and had to use a racing jack to maneuver the car around to get it on the lift.
Fortunately I was armed with instructions from Mr. Pushbutton! All I can say is while his way has to be the only way to get to the actuator, it looked much easer on paper!

By the way, I do NOT recommend catching a falling scissors jack with one's jaw!....Don't look Ethel! 








Well here is the beastly thing. I will send it off to Mr. Pushbutton on Monday.




I will keep posting as the work continues! Now I have to go back to my bowl of mushroom soup 
Dan

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Well it has been awhile since I have updated. this. My car sits on a lift, up in a building that I only get access to on the weekends. My actuator parts are being worked on by Mr. Pushbutton. Who has been very busy!
My radiator still is not finished. I talked to the guy who is doing that fabrication a few hours ago.
He said, ?Well we are almost ready to start working on that. ?Check back next weekend or maybe the weekend after that.?
My plan has been to first put the actuator back together. I am told to do this I have to jump spark the motor to get the shift-shaft turned back toward reverse. So I guess I'll have to charge the battery. Then take the fan blades off and replace the belts and thermostat while things are apart. When I get the fan assembly, I will take the old transmission cooler off and re-plumb the lines, adding about three inches of the proper rubber tubing to connect the hard lines to the radiator. I have a lower hose for a standard transmission V8 to hook that up. Then I will wire in the electric fan.
Once I can get the car moving under her own power I will drive her back home. Well not quite. I have found a place that will drop the transmission and fix the leek! This guy has worked on Ultramatics before and comes recommended.
I miss my car! Maybe I can still make the August shows.
I have been thinking about how that new aluminum radiator, shroud, overflow tank, and electric fan will look. I have been considering painting them with a Packard Blue candy coat. The guys at House of Kolor, tell me that I can spray the stainless, chrome, and other metal with Adhearal then the candy coat and it will hold up just fine on that heat.
I first had that idea when I was looking for a better air cleaner. I can get NOS chrome valve covers for about $300. My engine compartment is painted Persian Aqua and so is the pan that goes between the grill and radiator. If I can find the correct Kelly Green for the engine, I think that the dark blue will look better than the typical black.
I scored a new intake manifold that I would like to get Jet-Hot coated as well as the exhaust manifolds. Darn it, I sound like I am doing a ?make-over?.
Jokes, of course are well accepted, as well as honest input on these ideas.
Also I was thinking about using ?Trick Shift? in the trany, but I hear that it is the same thing as type F, which is much cheaper!

Trick Shift is NOT the same thing as Type F, it's a much better fluid. I put that stuff in my trans, and it shifts soooo much better and firmer than it ever did before with just Type F in it. I HIGHLY recommend putting it in any and all Ultramatics. I honestly believe that it saved my transmission.

Dan -

Thanks for updating us on your "progress". Sorry to hear that troubles continue with the car, but I'm sure you know that this could happen with most any old car. As such, can you imagine any of the overly-complicated modern cars being collectible decades from now? (LOL!)

WRT to engine paint, PackardV8 (Keith) reported here - as I have heard from others in the hobby - that you special high-heat engine enamels aren't really necessary. In fact, I was told that even Bill Hirsch's "aircraft engine enamel" will still burn off the crossover tube of the intake manifold, where it meets the cylinder head.

Now, while I prefer to use engine enamels, they aren't always available in the right color. That's a particular problem for owners of '56 Clippers and Execs, as I have NEVER seen a high-temp engine enamel in the right shade of metallic green that was used for that one year. It is a shade unlike any other green used on any other Packard engine (or any other car, for that matter).

However, I have on record that Dupont Dulux 5227DH provides the correct color for these engines. (I do not have such info for other Packard engine colors, however.)

I'm not sure why you'd wanna got to the expense of JetHot coating on the intake - unless you're trying to overcome the burning paint problem with that one spot on the crossover tube. Jet-Hot looks gorgeous on a header and helps extende their life, but for cast-iron exhaust manifolds I recommend Calyx, which can be touched up on-car, as needed.

The upper splasher - the cover between the radiaotr and grille - was originally painted a semigloss balck, but many owners painted it a hi-gloss black, which has a wet look to it. I just mention that as (short of black, white, gray or silver) I've not seen many colors that go well with Persian Aqua, which is a beautiful color, in and of itself.

Greetings from the peanut gallery! I have been writing nothing because nothing has been done, almost. I got my actuator ?in-nerds? back from Mr. Pushbutton, who I can't thank enough! He told me that I have to get the shifter back to ?R?. It has traveled too far clockwise! He told me about an easy way to do this by applying current to one of the leads of the electric motor.
Well dummy me, tired that and nothing happened. I took the motor out and found that I had nothing to turn the worm gear with. It took me a week but I finally realized that the motor could not work because the other leads were not grounded. So I made up patch cords and a bus bar so that I can work this magic from under the car. I am also taking a small piece of PVC pipe that has been notched as a plan ?B?.
I just got a call from the guy that is building the radiator for me. It will be ready on Saturday! (My friend can only go up to his building on Friday night.)
I want my car off of his lift! It has been there for nearly two months. This Saturday is our clubs car cruise and there is an all day show this Sunday. I might just be closer to August getting her back on the road than I guessed.
An important point. When I ordered the radiator with shroud and an electric fan, I was sure that I had plenty of room for it once I took my old fan off. I had not counted on the water pump having that long of a shaft coming out of the front like it does. The radiator guy says that he can rig two 12 inch fans. One will be high on the driver's side and the other low on the passenger's side. These will be puller fans. Does anyone think that this might work? We are assuming that the original fan was reasonably centered on the radiator. Is that true? What a time to ask, huh?
He says that it will still be pulling about 3K cfms, any idea what the original pulled? He also said that he will be attaching the sensor onto the bottom of the radiator which will cause the fans to go on at 190 and off at 170. Any thoughts about that?
Since the transmission lines go up the side of the block to the front, I assumed that I should cut them there and flare them, then just run transmission hoses to the radiator and back.