Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

I'm getting ready to do the second oil change (since I've owned it) on my '53 Clipper 5.4L, and in the service manual I have, it says to replace the oil filter every 8k miles? It says, "It is recommended that the oil filter element be replaced by a new one every 8,000 miles to coincide with the engine oil change..." I replaced the oil and filter about 900 miles ago and I thought I read somewhere on here to do it every 1,000 miles.

FYI the V8 engine manual suggests every other oil change to replace the filter (4000 miles).

Unlike oil which is known to go bad from age, I would imagine oil filters really only go bad from contaminants. As long as they are replaced every few years at least, you could probably go by mileage. Perhaps 4k miles.

So the oil change every 1k miles isn't really needed? I put 10w-30 convential in it and changed the filter about 1k miles ago. The oil level and color look alright, but I swear I read on here that since the oil is different than what was available back then, it should be done more often with todays oil. I am completely new to the Packard world and am trying to learn as much as I can and appreciate all the advice I'm getting.

If you drive your car for ten miles or more most every time you start it, you can go two to three thousand miles using modern, quality multi-grade oil. I'd change a partial flow filter at 4000 miles, and a full flow filter at every oil change. This assumes your engine is in good shape and in good tune. Short trips are hard on motor oil and on engines, especially in cooler weather. If you start it, drive it. It takes at least ten miles of driving for an engine to warm up, and it take more in cold weather or some types of driving. Try to drive the car for at least half an hour or more whenever you start it. Don't start it just to hear it run. That's both needless and abusive.

Makes sense,I do drive it almost 5 days a week for work. I put probably about 1000 miles on it in a little under a month. It's 20 miles one way to work. Plus at least one weekend day for a cruise.

These reservoir types need the reservoir drained and cleaned out after taking out the filter element or you're just reintroducing contaminates.
It's one of those it depends questions. If it's stored in a dry place and not driven much then rusting is not that much of an issue. There's always one or more valves in the open positions so it'll breathe a bit. Water is part of combustion so have to warm it up to get the water out the exhaust system.
If it's never been rebuilt and has sludge in it, then that's another case to watch and more frequent doesn't hurt with modern oils, since more detergents. They didn't even put detergents in the early motor oils, aka "ND" or straight weight.
If you're regularly driving and moderate speeds, 3-4000 is probably good. A "partial flow" filter isn't going to see the same amount of flow as a "full flow" filter so the element won't catch as much per mile. What I do when I get a new vehicle is check the oil every 1K for color and lubricity until it needs changed then round down and use that interval. It'll tell you if it's getting used up, dark and gritty.
But today you get free oil changes, synthetic oil, and some have a oil checker/monitor tied to the computer so only works on the older cars/diesels.
Depends how long you want motor to last too. At 3000 or less interval you're probably at max life because they oil isn't close to used up when changed.

If you drive the car regularly for half an hour or more at a stretch, (more is better) you can easily go 2,000 to 3,000 miles between oil changes using conventional multigrade oil. In warmer weather and with plenty of miles driven after startup, 4,000 miles would be no problem. I believe the pre-war 120s with no oil filter were expected to go 2,000 miles between changes under fair to good driving conditions. Oil today is better than what was available then. If the engine has old deposits inside, then more frequent changes might be indicated, but it ought to go 2,000 miles easily. I run synthetic multigrade oil in a Model T Ford in very hot weather at highway speeds with no issues whatever. I'd expect a Packard engine to thrive on it, provided it was internally clean and in fair to good condition. But conventional multigrade, like 10W30 or 20W50 does very well under most all conditions. A tight engine would probably do best on 10W30.

A 20 mile trip (or more)several times a week in anything but severely cold weather = very good operating conditions for the engine and the rest of the car, assuming all systems are in good order.

People will usually add zinc (ZDDP) to the oil and use lead substitute in the gas to make it more like the oil of the day, but for the oil change interval itself, if anything I think it could be longer since today's oils are better than those of 70 years ago. For example, dual weight oils should reduce engine wear during warm-up and hence prolong oil life.

The main caveat to all this is that most people don't drive their cars that often. If you drive it regularly you could probably use the same oil change interval as modern cars with little negative effect.

Oil may go bad from accumulating contaminants but it doesn't go bad from age. When it comes out of the ground, most oil is at least 10 million years old, some of it is 300 million years old.