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I received the gone over head last night from the machine shop to repair a broke off spark plug, cleaning and truing (decking)and im getting ready to install all the cleaned and painted parts yay!!!!!

I have a few questions

The nuts look ok i chased the threads and they go on nice and easy but i have one nut that isnt the same as the other 20 something.......and the washers are haggered and different thicknesses. Can the nuts and washers be bought locally ???? whats the washer thickness supposed to be???? does it really matter. Kanters has them but i think there made of gold!!!!!

The head gasket i received from Kanter has a copper side and a paper side what side goes against the block?????? and do you guys use any gasket sealer on the head gasket??? maybe some problem spots......experience knows best....and im not experienced on Packards yet.

What would the most that could be taken off the head to deck it???

Look here:
packardtwelve.com/shop/?category=Hardware+%26+Fasteners

The washers are harder than standard and are available from industrial supply companies as "hardened washers". the nuts are 7/16-20 thread and are "extra heavy series", thus the non standard 3/4 hex for that thread size. Using one standard size nut won't kill you.

Just as a side-addendum to this post, I too am in the process of a total machine shop rebuild. I notice on some of the archived photos on this site that some owners have what looks like chrome acorn head nuts. They look sharp and dress the old flathead up a bit. I checked with John Ulrich and he said what a lot of people do is use 'Faux' acorn nuts that go over the existing regular nuts. I did do some looking online for the 'real deal', but for 27 of them (or so) it would be prohibitive (for me, at least) Anyone have any tips, sources, advice on such an endeavour????

Don't have a recommendation on using them or not but if you do go with chrome acorn nuts be sure to get them from a reliable vendor who sells and stands by them being the proper grade for head use. Good ones might cost a bit more but a few years ago someone was selling ordinary strength nuts which were bought because of the price. Several reported they stripped out when approaching the proper torque and there was no satisfaction from the seller. I have no doubt crap vendors and nuts not strong enough for head use are still out there.

Rehashing this - cylinder head nuts/washers:

Would these be appropriate for the cylinder head, or overkill/too weak for the application? The dimensions of the nut match what's on the car, but they're somewhat taller than what's on there:mcmaster.com/90521a110/

And for the washers, these seem to match the dimensions of what is on the car currently:mcmaster.com/98180A140/

Thanks!

What year and engine is this thread referring to?

Sorry! It's actually a 1950 2302 with a 327. The nuts on the car are 7/16-20 and have a width of 3/4". It seemed as though my 327 would share the same nuts as were being discussed previously in the thread. Sorry again, and thank you in advance.

7/16-20 is UNF (United National Fine) thread. Get a die nut and run it over the studs to clean them up if you have not done so already. THe gasket sounds like a compound material which I have used successfully. The copper side goes to the head, the bottom I would assume would have a lapped in burn ring to go to the head side to get the seal between head and block. Have the head shaved if needed to make sure the are no warps, highs or lows so it is perfectly flat using a flat edge and feeler guage to find any highs or lows.