Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Hi folks,

I've been having to do a bit of necessary (and rather painful) repair work on my 374, and I have a query:

Bolted to the rocker shafts are "couples" of tin shields that would appear to shield the valve springs (and presumably) the valves guides from excess oil, maybe cutting down oil consumption and smokiness from new?
I'm well aware that pretty much any manufacturers powerplants worldwide were oil users at the time to a certain extent, and judging by the different rocker shaft part numbers from '55 and '56 I'm guessing that there were little alterations in an attempt to cut down a little bit on excess oil swilling around in the top end and probably going down the valve guides and places, and I'm presuming that's a part of what these little shields do.

What I'm thinking is I'm going to leave them off and have nice oil oiling lots of mechanical things in the heads.

a) Do any of you wonderful readers have any thoughts of potential issues if I don't use them, and b) would I be on the cards with the idea that restricting oil splash if their primary function?

Cheers
Muir

No mystery about them, they were called valve spring baffles and were a running production change during 1956 and you'll find them described in one of the 1956 Service Counselors. They came in 2 flavors, those originally installed during engine manufacture and a service kit for engines already in service, the difference being that the service kit type did not require removal of the valve springs to install. My '56 is a very late car and surprisingly doesn't have them, and also burns zero oil despite nearly 100,000 miles so I'd conclude that installation is not essential and depends on your particular engine's oiling situation. The service kit baffles were P/N 6489127.