Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Quote:

Actually, Craig wasn't the only one who figured the Olds oil pump conversion out. There were a couple of other guys who did just as much and more than Craig.

Turbopacman (Eric Boyle) was the FIRST to discover that the Olds pump was a feasible retro fit for the Packard V8 engine.
MANY others, including myself, had spent 8 years or more trying to find such a retro fit with no success.
The first WOODEN mock up of the adapter plate was done right here in TN.
Craig manufactured the adapter kit and took it to market and i am most glad that he did.

Olds pump Dowl:
True, there is no dowel nor centering provisions with the adapter kit. HOWEVER, there are variations in V8 rear main caps as well as at least TWO different oil pans, possibly 3 different pans. I have two such variations of rear main caps in my possession and this was discovered some 6 years ago and posted at various Packard forums with pics at that time.

NOT good to dowel the pump to the adapter plate alone. The PLATE itself would need to have a centering dowel that indexes to the hole in the rear main cap and THEN dowel the pump to the plate.

But with internal factory variations of main cap and MAYBE pan variations the doweling would not be practicle nor necessarily accurate for every engine.
I recently made an alignment shaft utilizing a stripped distributor body to use for alignment.

As long as the adapter plate is sufficiently hand fitted for centering and the bolts sufficiently tightened then nothing should shift around any.

OEM Olds vs HV Olds pump:

Eric and i got into this a couple of years ago. If i remeber right, the OEM Olds pump is overall VERY close to the same outer dimensions of the HV pump. Even at that time, i discovered (with wooden plate model) that pan interference was a strong possibility.
It might be a good idea to try an OEM pump with a manufactured adapter just to see.

I'll post pics of my alignment tool mentioned in an above post later on today or tommorrow.

Joe. U mite want to think about one of these. I have it currently installed AND RUNNING on my 56 Exec.

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From what I could tell when I was doing my investigation into the V8 oiling problem, the "OEM", or stock pump, is the same as the high volume pump externally. How it bolts on, where the pickup is, casting thickness, etc, are the same. The only external difference I noticed is the diameter of the pickup tube, and the fact that you can bolt one on instead of pressing it in. (you can do both, actually. The bolt on tube is the high volume one)


I tried several different oil pumps including 302 Ford, 390 Ford, 460 Ford, 455 Pontiac, and finally the 455 Oldsmobile. None of them worked as well as the Olds, but I imagine someone could make their own adapter for any of these if they really wanted to. I chose the Oldsmobile for ease of adaptation, and it's relatively cheap, even in the high volume version.

I got this idea one night while browsing Craig's Panther site, and looking at his oil pump modifications, which basically he lowered the oil pump a couple of inches deeper into the pan to keep the pump submerged in oil more. I thought to myself, "if he can do that, why didn't he just adapt a different pump to the thing and be done with it totally?".

To make a looonnnggg story short, I went through and found every engine that has a CCW rotation like the Packard, and started looking at their pumps. Low and behold, I found the Oldsmobile. So, it was quickly put to use by Keith and Craig, and now you have the "Olds Oil Pump Conversion Kit".

Keith- Nice pan, but I don't ever plan on dropping mine that much to require a sectioned oil pan!

Sorry not to have given due credit, but hey, I'm a new guy and did not know the history of the Olds pump project. Nor did I know the extent of the research involved before the first prototype was actually installed. Let me just give a hearty thanks to anyone & everyone who were involved, to include Craig for making it available to the rest of us.

On another note, I started the car again today with the valve covers still off, and noticed that even on the "slow" oiled ends of the rocker shafts (front right bank and rear left bank), the oil now drips at least a drop per second, whereas before the drops were more like one every 3 to 5 seconds.
Warmed up, and on the road, the gage now shows about 65 psi, and idles at around 55 psi (remember the gage reads about 10 psi high).
In other words, if oil is the engine's lifeblood, all indications are that it is now flowing more abundantly than ever before, probably including the day it rolled off the assembly line.

Joe H

Try this: Remove the valve covers and go for a drive. Go ahead, run it up to 70 or 80 mph for 8 or 10 miles. You will never so much as get maybe 5 or 6 drips of oil outside of the head.

Check your valve guide clearence. The guides simply do NOT get enuf oil. At 34K miles my guides were worn .005 - .009. NO SLUDGE BUILD UP.