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On the rubber grommet, if you cannot find something and it is not terribly complex a possibility might be to use modeling clay to repair cracks and build up size on one of your originals. Make a silicone one or two part mold of that and then you have a mold that can be reused to pour new grommets using one of the urethane rubber cold pour compounds.

Thank you, Howard. Making one is a possibility but something I would have to farm out. When I'm at my shop for such brief periods, I can't take time to stop to make something! Even gaskets I would prefer to have made, especially as it may help someone down the road once Olson's has the pattern.

Speaking of which, I'll have to come up with a grommet or gasket for the siren where it mounts to the roof and possibly where it attaches to the mount. I also have to remember to remove it before bringing the car in or out as I'm not sure it will clear the door!

Ross was absolutely right about the cross plate having come out of the oil pump and has fallen into the pan! I tried with a long magnet to retrieve it but picking up something made of steel with a magnet when it is on steel is virtually impossible but I want to pull the pan anyway. What is supposed to keep it from falling out the next time? Was it crimped in place?

In the meantime, a little playing by taking a few minutes to merge the two sirens into one with the proper base. If there are any 1951-1954 Henney-Packard ambulance owners out there who are seeing this, take note that this is the proper base for the military version and that the civilian models had the same style but usually shorter depending on other accessories. If anything else, then it was added aftermarket.

I tested the siren on my Patrician’s battery in front of my sister’s house where the car is parked, thinking she would come running out but nothing. Later she told me that she was watching a police show and just as a police car pulled over to the curb and stopped, so did the siren so she thought it was in her show!

I also managed to get out the last remaining head bolt but it really protested! My impact wrench wouldn’t budge it but made the socket so hot I could hardly touch it and my breaker bar refused to go on at an angle where I could actually put some effort behind it. It was this post and the reference to the ratchet that did the trick. Using my torque wrench, I was able to get it loose enough for the impact wrench to finish the job.

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Are the stud threads in the block? I see that the half dozen bolts that were used are course but a couple studs that I found are fine.

By 51 stock head fasteners would have been all studs with rolled fine threads of one size ---7/16-20. If you have bolts those are most likely standard cut threads and is probably an attempt at a fix because something happened to the original threaded holes.

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Odd! I was in the middle of posting this and trying to add a photo when a CAPTCHA popped up! I’ve never seen that on this site before. I had to log back in but fortunately I had copied what I had written into the clipboard.

I remembered having read years ago about the rolled threads but couldn’t remember when the change took place or which direction it went. Anyway, I suspect that any damage the bolts may have done is more to themselves than to the block but unfortunately I can’t run a tap into the holes to be sure. Looking at the photo, though, the course threaded bolts look suspiciously like 1/2-13s so I’ll check tomorrow. It may be necessary to Heli-Coil where they had been. Rolled threads make more sense as they are far stronger than cut threads.

That said, I managed to get the head off but I’m a nitwit. I tried, fortunately rather feebly, to break it free with one nut still attached! Once I discovered and removed it, I got the head off in short order but it necessitated actually climbing into the engine compartment which wasn’t at all easy at my age and with the car so high.

Other than dirt that fell in off and out of the head it’s relatively clean in there and with a cursory look the bores look good too. I noticed a couple days ago that the spark plugs are new even though the top sides are rusty. I have no recollection of having changed the plugs and the engine was run at least once since I’ve owned it but they show no sign of it.

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What retains the distributor drive plate in the oil pump? Was it swaged in place?

There should be a spring ring that sets into the groove on the end of the gear. It grips small notches in the edges of the drive plate.

Thank you, Ross! I got the pan off a while ago and can see the clip but I won’t know if it’s intact or broken until I get the pump out. I have a number of spare pumps somewhere so not a problem if it needs one. What I don’t see is the plate itself! It’s not in the pan and I don’t see it hung up in the engine anywhere either.

It’s not full of muck as I expected it would be and the pick-up screen isn’t plugged either but, of course, I’ll thoroughly clean it all. Whoever had it apart last changed out quite a few of the pan bolts with longer ones including at least one in the hardest place to access - right above the frame crossmember.

On the head stud holes, the bolts that look like 1/2-13 are 1/2-13 so I’ll have to deal with that somehow.

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I have searched everywhere for the distributor drive plate that goes into the end of the oil pump but it’s nowhere to be found. It wasn’t in the pan and with a high power flashlight, I searched all over the area of the engine, turning it over to see from different angles. I also looked around the engine on the outside in the unlikely case that it made it that far but it wasn’t there either. It’s just gone!