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All good advice! When doing the choke adjustment initially before first run or after a fresh engine or carburetor rebuild, I typically start out doing the opposite by setting it to just lightly closed when cold. Then, once running and warm, I do the above. In any event, the marks on it are pretty much useless so I've never paid any attention to them.

I figured out, this only happens when the engine is hot. Runs beautifully cold.

I'm taking Don and Dave's advice and first setting the choke to where it barely closes when cold, then verifying it has some tension keeping it wide open when it is hot.

But more and more I suspect the float(s). I just don't get why it happens only when the engine is hot.

I made a video of it running cold and then running hot. The gas spills out from the top hole.

Happy New Year! Tomorrow is another ... year.

http://www.mktx.com/packard/12312006Carb.mp4

Happy New Year!

I know it's a bit early for an Easter egg hunt, but that's what I'm on trying to sort the problem I'm having with fuel.

I've been told "It's always something with that car," and this time, after 4 months running beautifully, I hit the snag of the 5-year-old Optima batteries giving out (no longer fully rechargeable) and demanding so much charging that they burned out the top contact of the voltage regulator. I bought 2 new batteries that did not tax the system and Brillman honored their warranty beyond the call of duty and replaced the VR. So everything should have been fine.

But then I started having fuel problems. In the one an only 2020 issue of the Oregon Clipper magazine is an article on winter vapor lock. I read it a few months ago but it didn't stick in my brain. I showed the issue to my Sis and she suggested that the problem was winter-blend gasoline. I of course blew this off. I re-read the article this morning and I think she has something.
http://www.mktx.com/packard/P20-21The2020IssueWeb.pdf
If that is indeed the problem, I wonder if there's anything that can be added to the gas to prevent this.

WINTER BLEND GASOLINE evaporates easier than summer gas. The bubbling in my fuel filter could be an indication of winter vapor lock. The car only shuts down when the engine gets hot (not that hot, just when the thermostat indicator is straight up - normal operating temp).

It's hard to admit that a sister who teaches art knows more about car problems than I do. Now to make the Dave/Don adjustments to the auto choke setting, ignoring the manual. I might try my hand at adjusting the metering screws, too.

Good Morning Joe...I wonder, do you run a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil in your gas? In the hot southwest, when we see bubbling in the glass fuel bowl, we add a bit more MMM to our fuel...if you add too much...the old girl might smoke just a bit...but keep running...and then some ghost of the past is whispering in my ear that you might have one little piece of junk in the float valve...Ernie in Arizona...May 2021 be a better year than 2020 was.

Thanks, Ernie.
I got some decent video of start-up this morning and, just what you mentioned, boiling gas inside the carburetor.

I have to piece it together and then I will post. I left my jug of MMO in Oregon, so I'll get some. Thanks.

Here is the video of this morning's startup. It's pretty boring until the end, because it kills me the engine is running so well and quits like this. I know it could be fine tuned, but if it's the gas causing the problem, This is Unfair!

This happens to no one else?

Is it Maryland gas?
(The State of Maryland, btw, is responsible to calibrating service station pumps. At one Exxon station in. Potomac I was able to put 18-1/2 gals in a 17 gal tank that was not close to empty. And yesterday at the Shell station, it was worse. My half-tank (9 gal) accepted, according to the pump, 15.5 gal. The excuse is Covid, the State doesn't have people calibrating, but in my experience, it's a major problem.)

I know that removing atmospheric pressure can cause water to boil at room temperature. Now I'm wondering if the oil bath air cleaner can cause gas to boil if. it isn't clean. I didn't service it when the oil (zinc racing oil) was changed is September.

Please watch the video and let me know if this has ever happened to you and, if so, what you did to stop it.

http://www.mktx.com/packard/010121CarbBoil.mp4

Well, it's not Maryland gas as I just ran my 53 up a steep hill on the local interstate at 80 and accelerating. None of my other cars are having any fuel problems either. In fact, they all love the cold weather. I did just replace a condenser in a 64 Stude that took it into its head to stop inexplicably, That solved it.

Joe, if you saw fuel inside the carburetor as I believe you mentioned some posts back, that is the first thing to look at. No gas type or quality would make that happen so it is the thing that needs to be addressed which means taking apart the carburetor. Either the float has a pinhole or the needle values it controls are sticky. Once that is addressed, then start thinking about the bubbling in the bowl which could be an air leak somewhere in the fuel lines before the pump.

Ross,
When you have the time, I'd love to drive the car up to your shop to fix it.

John Imlay's article, the pdf I posted, mostly from AAA, about seasonal blends, satisfied him that he was experiencing vapor lock on his '37 Twelve in winter because of the more volatile winter blend.

You think it's the condenser? Did the Studie overflow gas and boil it in the carb as in. the video? BTW. I love the '53 Starliner. I saw it backstage before the West Coast dealers saw it at the SF Opera House because I was in the musical that introduced the new styling.

On the freeway I have no problem whatsoever. I can drive it the legal freeway speed limit and faster if need be.

I've driven to Baltimore and back, an hour's drive, several times since the problem started. But when I pull off the freeway and the engine is at normal temp and idling at an intersection, it will quit, not every single stop, squirt gas out the top and have gas gurgling in the carb. It's all in the video. Please watch because I believe you can. help me.

Don, the bubbles in the fuel filter bowl are gone. I did disconnect the fuel line to do the fuel pressure. test. Perhaps there was an air leak before I did that. There are no bubbles in the video as there were plainly in yesterday's video.

That gas is boiling in the carb. Can that be caused by a pinhole in the float? Please. check out the end the video in the above post.
The carb is ejaculating gas from the float chamber vent. You can see this in the video plainly.

The carburetor was rebuilt by Daytona in 2018. The floats were set incorrectly, so it was returned for warranty work. It seems like a carburetor done properly should last longer than 1-1/2 years. I've asked my son to send the old Carter carb that I rebuilt myself and a new alternator I bought to me here. Just eliminate the VR and have no problem charging Optima batteries.

Last time in 2018 we changed damn near everything, another Easter Egg Hunt, not believing that a carb just rebuilt by one of the most reputable places in the country could. have a major defect.

As a former technician for The Department of Weights and Measures in NY, my only comment is BS! Checking pumps should not be a COVID affected activity...but what do I know in this day and age.
Pump validation is simply a matter of pumping 5 gallons into a calibrated canister. If the pump was within limits (4 or 8 oz. if I recall?), the pump got a new sticker. If the pump was over or under, the station owner was notified and the pump was supposed to be taken out of service, and reported for followup. Highly technical.

That the pumps were SO out of whack to the detriment of the customer bears notice, and reporting.

DAF

Long since asking/considering...Throttle Guard?