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Got it free! I had the valve cover off and hit it with a spray of PB Blaster once or twice a day for a couple days. Went to start it this morning and it started right up. Very slight ticking and stumbling for a minute, one more puff of PB Blaster while the valve was moving did the trick. Nice and smooth now.

Video: https://youtu.be/QdaLivAg3-4

Let it warm up to operating temp and ran the car up and down the driveway a few times to give it some exercise. It smokes more right now. I'm guessing because it's clearing out the oil in the cylinder and from the Marvel and Seafoam I put in the gas tank.


Wes - I haven't heard water, but I've heard of people putting ATF or similar down the carb for the same reason.


So now another question. I want to install auxiliary gauges under the dash for temperature and oil pressure. My question is how do I hook those up? Do I need to get rid of the factory pressure sensor and temperature sensor? Or can I piggyback off them? I don't trust the gauge in the car.....I can tap the glass and the gauge moves around. I have no idea what the actual temp is.

-Kevin

Kevin, Here's a video by Eric The Car Guy about using water, it's an old trick, so something to keep in the back of your mind.
youtube.com/watch?v=KFtp_jmLF3k
Wes

On the gauges, you could put a tee fitting in where the oil pressure line is, or just find another plug. On the temp gauge, I don't think a tee would work as well, just based on the length of the bulb. Maybe you could temporarily disconnect the factory gauge and use that hole? Of course, there may be another option I'm not thinking of.

For the oil, a 1/8 NPT street tee threaded into the port where the existing sender is located would be the simplest method. Remove the sender, add the tee in its place and replace the sender in the tee. Use the other tee port for a mechanical tube going to the oil pressure gauge under the dash. Amazon and ebay stock the street tees. You might even find them locally.

For the temp sender it gets a bit more tricky. For an accurate reading the sender elements really need to be immersed in the flowing coolant. A tee will inevitably have one or both elements in sort of a dead area because there will be no flow past them. A possible solution would be another 3/8 NPT street tee in the heater outlet on top of the head for the extra gauge. Place a bulb type sensor for a mechanical thermometer in the top port and if it is long enough the bulb end will extend thru the tee and down into the flowing coolant with nothing else needed. If not long enough, having the heater valve open to let coolant run thru the heater core will provide the flow. As long as the air flapper valve is working so air is not flowing thru the heater core the constant water flow should not be much of an issue when the heater function is not wanted.

An alternative to the tee in the heater outlet would be to buy an adapter to place a sensor in the radiator hose or fabricate an adapter to fit under the thermostat housing to position the sensor bulb in water flowing to the radiator. Downside to that approach is there would be a sort of dead time until the thermostat opened to let water flow. There are commercial adapters that are made to add fan sensors directly in the radiator hose but since Packard used a fairly large hose the adapters in that size are somewhat hard to find. I am sure they are out there but since I didn't really want to cut the hose decided to build my own adapter using a 1" aluminum block and position it under the thermostat housing rather than try to find a commercial hose unit in the larger size. I don't remember the size and shape of the housing for 54 so the adapter might need to be different.

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For the oil pressure, you can use one of the oil galley taps on the passenger side of the engine. That will hide the sender, or mechanical gauge line. Water temp is more difficult. I just use the Stock gauge for that.

Just my opinion but personally I would keep such gauges in the shop for occasional diagnosis rather than modifying the car to add them to it. As long as the stock gauges are working properly, you'll know if there is something that needs a more accurate reading without having to install it into the car.

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Absolutely true on the oil gauge and for the reasons given as an advantage using the ports on the passenger side main oil gallery. That is where I placed my extra gauge in the 47. Only reason I suggested the street tee in the sender spot as being the simpler option is my port plugs were very tight, flush head with only a screwdriver slot, and some kind of sealant on them. It was a real pain to remove -- and that was with the fender off and easy access. If your access is not as open and easy then if the plugs are like mine it could be a chore getting a plug out.

Howard and Tobs - great info. I'll look into those. I think mine already has a T on the oil pressure sender, but I haven't looked closely. I'd like to keep any oil lines from coming into the cab, so I'll look into some sort of an electrical one.

I might just replace the stock coolant sensor with an aftermarket one for now, and just unplug the factory gauge.


Don - I don't like to modify much, but the problem is I don't trust the factory gauges on my car at all. Remember I'm working with a car with an unknown history and I'd like to be positive that things are working properly under all conditions. Discreetly mounting some real gauges under the dash would allow me to check on engine temp and oil pressure under all driving conditions rather than hoping for the best. As I gain trust in the car and the mechanicals, I would have no problem removing the gauges and going back to stock.

The oil pressure dummy light doesn't tell me anything, and the fact that I can tap the temp gauge and it bounces to totally different readings doesn't inspire a lot of confidence.

-Kevin

I don't think it will be that easy to find 6v positive ground electric gauges so if your car is stock you might need to think about adding some sort of isolated inverter power supply to run a pair of 12v gauges. Electric temp senders will definitely not be long or thin enough to reach the coolant flow using the street tee. It might work with leaving the heater flow on or maybe you will need to use the original hole or the radiator hose or under the housing adapter.

I am kind of a believer in mechanical gauges for a secondary set as they are almost always more direct and reliable. I also believe in getting the optional copper tubing for the oil gauge rather than use the nylon tubing that usually comes with the gauge kits.

If the needle in the original temp gauge moves when tapping the glass it could be that someone removed the gauge and the needle touched on the cluster edge and bent and it is now touching against the glass.

The replacement header is going in bit by bit. Got it tack welded into place across the entire inner flange. We were originally going to drill holes through the top of the header and weld through those to the flange on the roof/drip rail (similar to factory) but that's much more difficult than we originally thought.

In the end we went from inside the car and welded the roof/drip rail flange to the header from the back. We then welded the sides on the A-pillars and remade some of the original support around the A-pillar. Still need to do some more there.

The fit is pretty good overall, and the windshield flanges measure out to what they were before. I'm planning on using seam sealer (maybe 2K?) between the new header and the roof/drip rail, especially on the outside. It's definitely not a water tight fit. I'm terrified of moisture getting in again so will probably go overboard on prevention. I'm going to prime all metal surfaces prior to doing seam sealer.

I still need to do some work to fit the replacement corner supports (where the sunshades mount). The original one on the driver's side was completely rusted out.

With any luck the welding will be done on Monday then it's on to cleaning all that up and prepping for primer.

-Kevin

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