Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

Do you have any documentation on the cam rollers being replaced ? Mine were broken with 57,000 miles. See attached photo, Since you have the lifters out, removing the cam levers is not too bad of a job. Replacing these made a world of difference in the valve noise.

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We've decided to go with the new valves, both intake and exhaust. Although they are a bit loose, given the sticky valve problem with this engine and lack of oil pressure lubrication in the valve guides, the extra clearance will likely help us. Terry is lapping in the valves to the seats. As the engine deck has been cleaned up, an old weld repair is evident and appears to be intact. We pulled the anterior rockers/cam rollers, and except for a few old weld repairs, they appear just fine, without much wear. I don't think we're going to pull the rear rocker/rollers since we'd have to remove the exhaust down pipe to get them out. Finally, the head has been repainted and looks good.

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Making progress.

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Looks like you've done very nice work, hope it runs well.

Had you considered, as long as it was apart, converting from the stamped steel rocker levers to the later forged ones? I know many folks have done this after a failure of one of the stamped ones.

I wasn’t aware of later forged rocker arms- thanks for the tip. I can see why they were upgraded to forged as several of my rocker arms had been welded in the past- you can just make it out in the photo. Otherwise they were in good shape, so we’ll hope for the best. I don’t think I’ll be putting a lot of miles on this old gal.

To quote the late John Wemple: "If you have a stuck valve you will rather have the stamped units."

Those were a running change in the eighth series and once they are serviced the stamped units are trouble free. The advantage of the cast units is they are quieter and easier to replace the rollers. However, they do weigh more than the stamped units.

One other note. When painting those cylinder heads we put washers under bolts so that there was no paint under the washers. Sometimes if there is a lot of material under the washers it creates a cosmetic issue.

First start!

youtu.be/SA75u8SbB-Q

Stephen,

Nice work.

Congrats on getting it up and running.

Now the fun starts with driving it and putting miles and smiles....

Very nice. Sounds great!

What did you wind up doing with the slender valve stem issue?

Thanks @Greenfield.

Regarding the valve stem clearance issue- After much research and speaking with several valve manufacturers and old school machinists, we decided to just go with the standard .340 diameter intake and exhaust valves from Max Merritt without changing the valve guides. That gave the valves a few extra thousands clearance, which we reasoned was a good thing in the end, since I was having the common problem of sticky valves. There didn’t seem to be too much play with the .340 valves and old guides.