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Minor update: Came back the next day and couldn't get the engine to turn any farther, which was expected. I poured a few ounces of Evapo-Rust into each cylinder. I don't think it will do a whole lot but I'll find out when I check it again on Friday.

Having a hard time getting the heater core off. One of the bolts is stuck in its nut insert and the nut is turning instead of the bolt. Of course it is also the low one that is almost impossible to get an impact on.

Any advice besides prying + unscrewing simultaneously?

(Picture of a different insert)

Other than trying what you mention, about the only other thing I can think of is somehow get under the pad and hold the nut. If you are going to remove the pad, easy, but if not and the nut is one of those close to the bottom of the pad possibly you can remove enough of the componentry on the right side to lift it away from the firewall enough to reach up. If the nut is one hidden under something else like the heater plenum remove that item and cut a hole in the pad to access the nut. The hole would be covered when the component is replaced.

Here are photos of the dash showing components and another without the pad where you can see a couple of the nuts.

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  nuts.jpg (462.96 KB)

Thank you Howard. Too tired for today but I will try that later.

I managed to be able to get a wrench underneath the heater core to unscrew the rocker arm bolts to free up the rockers and the engine was still the same way. Don suggested making sure the pushrods were free. I'll check that next but as I recall they fit in pretty loosely so I doubt that would be an issue.

I borrowed a friend's borescope to check out the cylinders. Aside from 8 and 6 they look pretty alright to me, though feel free to take a look at the (grainy) photos here:imgur.com/a/0v2O4TE. The pictures are labeled to the cylinder number.

Cylinder 8 is here:youtube.com/watch?v=7-tvpJZR1Y8

Aside from 8 and 6 they mostly just look to have a good amount of carbon buildup. A couple have visible but light scratches vertically on the cylinder walls. BTW for 6, I've had the spark plugs out for months. So IDK how old that spider web is.

Quote:

Actually it was the lifters that I suggested checking, not the pushrods. I could see only one photo on Imgur before it put popups in the way but the YouTube video looks like it was moving farther than I expected it was. When it gets to the end of the available movement, is there any noticeable clunk or other sound?

My bad Don. Yeah there's a bit of a clunk. What would you suggest doing to try to loosen them up?


It looks like in the manual they are called "tappets"?

Yes, they are sometimes called tappets too. Lifters and tappets are terms that are interchangeable. And also yes, lift them all up to be sure they move freely but don't worry if any fall back down as you are simply trying to make sure than none are stuck.

The clunk is worrisome though as it implies that something is physically broken. Maybe a thrown rod although the last time I had that happen (on a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 2-door hardtop), it went out the side of the pan and block so was rather obvious. Still, there are other ways these can break and not be so dramatic! I hope it is not the case here but it seems to me that you are to the point where you should probably pull the engine or at least take off the heads.

How do I access them / lift them? Just remove the cover under the intake / between the heads and take a look?

I've never worked on a Packard V8 (just beginning on mine) but if it's like other V8s I have worked on, you need to take off the valley cover which should expose them. The valley cover is under the intake manifold.