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

The picture that humanpotatohybrid posted with the arrow points to where the head has eroded away, or cracked and a chunk fallen off, or something.

It doesn’t look like anything that resurfacing won’t fix but take off only the bare minimum even if some very slight remnants of the spot remain. Have it magnifluxed first to check for cracks.

Kunzea can you take a nice close up picture from a bit of a different angle?? Can't tell much from straight on.

Bottom line up front: What I thought were ridges were actually locations where there was little carbon or other build-up.

Please check the following.

I started to describe what I thought I saw, that there was a ridge around the water passages and the cylinder/valve cavities. I realized that if that was the case then the head could probably never be resurfaced. That didn't seem likely. I went down and felt around these "ridges" and realized they weren't ridges at all but were the locations where the head gasket edges had sealed between the head and block and had kept the engine from building-up carbon. The "ridges" were actually low spots in the build-up.

There was little or no "ridge" on 4 on the 5 side. I think this relates to my experience re-torquing the head a few months back. The center nuts around 4 and 5, especially 4, rotated about 3/8 of a turn. Practically all of the center nuts turned a significant amount. At 18 threads per inch this 3/8 of a turn equates to a possible warp of about 56/1000". Also I've been getting traces of sooty water from the tail pipe.

I have talked to 2 machine shops about re-surfacing the head and the manifold assembly (manifolds bolted together).

BTW, any recommendations on painting those components. Also I'm going to get new nuts and washers. Probably not acorns. SST since they won't be painted?

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Is this a problem? I have sooty water shoot out the tailpipe on the first start after sitting for a couple weeks. Not all the time but frequent enough.

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Me too, I think this is typical and nothing to be concerned about. If your car is puffing blue smoke all the time, that's something to be concerned about.

Kevin and 53 Cavalier

If the combustion is complete there is approximately 20 ounces of water produced for each 16 ounces of fuel consumed. On start-up I doubt if the combustion is anywhere close to complete, and a good amount of free carbon (black smoke) will be present. Until the engine and exhaust system warms the liquid water and carbon will exit the tailpipe. The water is scrubbing the carbon out of the exhaust flow. After the engine and exhaust system achieves operating temperature the production of 20 oz of water per 16 oz fuel consumed is still valid but leaves the tail pipe as a hard to see vapor. Some amount of carbon will still be present but exits as small particles . . . again not something easily visible. Carbon and water coming out of the tailpipe shortly after a cold start is quite normal, it’s a direct consequence of chemistry. Hydrogen in the hydro-carbon fuel combining with the oxygen in the air . . . that’s all it is. If it is really cold the water in the exhaust will re-condense and appear as a ‘white smoke’ cloud.

dp

Here's some "white smoke" from a 45F cold start.

It's important to remember that burning oil is SMOKE but condensation is VAPOR. The easiest way to tell is that if you look directly at the tailpipe, the vapor will be less visible, but smoke will be extra-visible.