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We bought a 1941 Packard Clipper in July. It has been at the mechanics ever since. We discovered that someone had put bb's in the cylinders. I got a new head gasket and we had the head planed. We are now trying to start it and it will not start. My mechanic now says the compression is low. Our mechanic told us that to fix it right we need to rebuild the whole engine. He said the cost of that would be at least $10k. All suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Suitbear552,

Sorry to hear about the grief you're having with your Packard engine. That's a dirty trick for someone to sabotage the motor by putting BB's in it; never heard of that one before.
When you say your mechanic thinks a rebuild will be 'at least $10K', I guess it depends on what degree of dependence you have on everything being done for you, or if you can do any of the work yourself. $10K seems awfully high to me, though others may differ. I just had my 245 CID six fully machined, bored, crank ground, new pistons, the works, for $4400. I am NOT a mechanic, but did feel confident enough to rent an engine lift and R&R the engine myself. It is a very basic and straightforward process that doesn't take that long, nor require any but the most basic of tools. Anyone with even a bit of a mechanical aptitude can tackle it. Even hiring a mentor or helper-mechanic to guide the way, can keep costs down and, as long as you have all the machining done at a competent shop, you should end up with a good result. There are always lots of guys that ARE mechanics on this site, that can advise you, and no doubt will, but that is my considered two cents worth. Good luck. Chris.

Sorry for your big downer.....Two thoughts come to mind, I feel the mechanic didn't go far enough in the initial diagnosis..Did you/him know the last time it ran? What were the compression readings? valves and pistons damaged/bent by trapped BB's, the ignition system up to snuff? are the timing components, ie. distributor and timing gears indexed properly? Gas in tank, pump, carb? If these items were checked then most of the peripheral checks were done and his summation might be correct....BUT, my gut feeling is the head gasket was done thinking that's all there's to do, but it still didn't fix the no start issue. now the testing and inspecting and sleuthing begins... I have found that when a problem is not solved by the original diagnosis, and proper testing is bypassed, the next thing is "worst case scenario".....needs a new engine. Maybe it does or maybe it doesn't. I feel the cost of 10K for an engine is pretty high and maybe even might make you discouraged, discouraged enough to just tow it home and wonder what to do next. Moving from extreme to extreme tells me that you might be better off getting a new mechanic. This is just my humble opinion, based on the facts possibly not yet know to this forum. Don't give up, we're hear to help. Good luck.
Steve Fisher

Concur with the other guys that if it is a 41 with the 282 engine 10K sounds a bit high unless the mechanic is also doing removal, disassembly of the bolt on stuff to get the engine ready for a machine shop and then the reassembly and reinstalling of the rebuilt engine.

If the car is actually a 42 sold in and possibly registered as a 41 then one of the two available senior model 42 Clippers would have a 356 engine and those are not inexpensive to rebuild. There is disassembly work required on the crankshaft before any machining of the rod bearing surfaces can be done. 10K for an engine rebuild might still be a bit high but more in the ballpark with the extra work needed to remove and replace the counterweights on the crankshaft..

Easiest way to tell them apart without looking for numbers is the 41 will have a dash with a long horizontal speedometer and smaller clock in a rectangular opening on the glove box door. 42s will have a row of gauges next to a large round speedometer. The same size round clock is on the glovebox door.

It is a 41 because the dash has a horizontal rectangular speedometer and the clock is rectangular on the glove box.
The compression on the engine was from 60 down to 20. I had my mechanic take the head to a machine shop to have it planed.The mechanic thinks the low compression is due to the valves and not the rings.. They did not find any cracks. They cleaned out the bb's out and cleaned off the valves and the block. We put an new head gasket on it. It will turn over but won't start. He was using starting fluid because we are not sure what is the situation with the fuel tank. The guy I bought it from said it did run.. but was very hard to start.. He never said anything about the bb's in the engine. We have no idea about the transmission or clutch.

I am not sure how much farther I can go with this car. It is a 1941 for sure. I would like to get it running and I was just hoping that if we removed the bb's in the cylinders and put a new head gasket on it it would run. I have no idea as to the transmission or clutch. I do know the brakes need attention as well. I do not have the space or tools to do much of the work myself at my home. If anyone knows of a shop in the Houston, TX area let me know. I don't think my mechanic is thrilled with working on this old of a automobile.

41 Packard Clipper Pictures

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I guess I have a few questions/comments, Suitbear552.

Thanks for posting the pics by the way.

I may be missing something very obvious but what I can see in the shot of the engine top end looks like just an engine that has seen some miles. If it ran with the BBs in the cylinders I would expect to see peening on the piston tops and damaged valves.

Have you seen the BBs? They should (I think) be pretty battered.

At the very least it seems like you should have a look at the valves and seats. If you are loosing compression due to piston and ring clearance it may be juat plain wear and mileage, not from the BBs.

There is a limit to how much the head can be planed or ground, beyond that the valves will interfere with the head. Do you know how much warpage is on your cylinder head? Since you are not dealing with very high compression you should be able to tolerate quite a bit of distortion and maintain a good seal.

It may be a good idea to check the engine serial number to verify exactly what engine you are dealing with. For many years your car was just an old (very) used car and any changes made may well be lost in time.

I agree with Chris (PackardNewbe) that if you have to have all the repair work done by someone else it will run into money, as in hourly labor rate x unknown hours + parts.

Good luck.
JimKB1MCV

Enlarging the picture I see the BBs around the valves on the LH side of the pic.
Are they as flattened as they look?

JimKB1MCV

From your photo we can see that the engine is very tired. Cylinders 5 and 6 seem to have broken top rings judging by the wear pattern on the walls.

You will almost certainly need a complete rebuild which would be $4k or so, plus installation, plus brakes, plus etc. Your decision.

Seems pretty sure your garage does not want to do it. Pressuring him to do it would surely be very expensive.