Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I put the Olds pump in my 56 Patrician because of the lifter noise issue. It increased the pressure-went right to H. The problem now is I am pushing out oil through the rear engine seal. Has this happened to anyone else?

As I recall an individual installed the high volume Olds pump in a 56 Golden Hawk with a freshly rebuilt Packard engine and experienced the rear seal leak problem. This was a few years ago and I believe the only thing he did was change out the high volume to the regular Olds pump and had no more issues but I could have missed a post where he might have mentioned doing something else. I believe his posts were on this forum if you want to search for posts related to Golden Hawks.

Although GTO failed to mention it, info that might be useful for diagnosis is that the Melling pump in his case was the standard volume pump, not the high volume. Also of interest in his case is that the episodes of lifter clatter preceded and then continued on after a full engine rebuild, despite normal oil pressures and slight crankcase overfills. And continued on after a Bob Aller rebuilt pump, and continued on after we pinched off the oil feed to the filter.

When a "rebuilt" but with unknown details has a problem, it can be difficult to diagnose.

In this case, I recommended beginning with the lowest viscosity petroleum base oil and a known accurate aftermarket oil pressure gauge. This gives a baseline.

While not likely, sometimes over-use of sealants can block that drainback hole in the rear main cap and cause a leak.

Overfilling can cause a leak at the rear of the pan gasket indistinguishable from a rear main seal leak.

If all else fails there is the conversion to a neoprene rear main seal.

A bit off topic, but I was asked to diagnose why on a recently rebuilt engine, the rocker arms weren't getting any oil. I knew what the problem was as soon as the shop owner started waffling on how he'd cleaned the rocker arms and shafts. Finally, he admitted he'd just washed them externally with solvent. The rocker shafts are always clogged internally with crud. Proper rebuild requires complete disassembly, removing the end soft plugs, rodding the inside of the shaft with a bore brush, regrinding the rocker tips and reassembly. Then, the rocker arms oiled as they should.

I only mention this as we have to consider the engine as a system and what else might be causing the OPs problems.

jack vines

I used the standard oil pump-not the high volume pump. The engine was rebuilt by the previous owner but I do not know if they did what Jack pointed out in his reply.

Possibly the rope seal was not compressed properly and there is a gap or insufficient molding of the seal to the groove. I believe others have converted to the neoprene seals as a matter of course and maybe not a bad idea just to have the less fussy technology.

As I recall there was mention of a plug for one of the oil galleries buried inside the distributor hole that was accidentally left out and engine had varied problems. With good oil pressure doubt that is the cause of any lifter noise but something to think about.

Howard, thanks for the thoughts and I'm hoping a lot of folks have a contribution to make as this is a particularly perplexing problem.

From my understanding no leakage at the rope seal prior to the installation of the Melling Olds pump, so unlikely the seal was installed improperly.

In addition to what has already been mentioned, since lifter noise is what has been described, have they been rechecked?

I have the hv pump. No leak. Sure it's not the pan.