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

Hi just wanting to find out the correct oil capacity for my 1949 288ci engine in my deluxe club sedan with a H prefix on the engine number. My understanding is that the capacity is meant to be 5.2qt but the dipstick says full 7.2qt so I just want to clarify this....5.2qt brings the level up to halfway between low and full on the dipstick.
Cheers Rob.

Suffix H indicates the engine has optional hydraulic lifters and if the engine number has none of the suffix designations listed in the service note then the capacity is 6 quarts. For other specifications you can reference the 22nd series mechanical specifications in the service counselor. Typically an extra quart was added if the car had the optional accessory oil filter installed on the engine. To fill the actual filter and plumbing lines took less than a quart but the slight amount of additional oil caused no issues and dipstick was soon back to the full mark.

Verify you have the correct dipstick. This should help:

Thanks mine does have the oil filter but I didn't change that this time.
But I was told that the H doesn't mean that it has hydraulic lifters and mine has solid lifters

You may be right about the H suffix for hydraulics in 49 engines being incorrect as the H for hydraulic lifters was officially a 51 item. One thing to be aware of is just because you have solid lifters now does not mean the car did not have them originally. I as well as a few other people on this forum have removed hydraulic lifters and installed solids for various reasons when building up an engine. I suspect it might have happened at some dealers or independent garages too after Packard went away. For a lot of years before one of the vendors reproduced them new hydraulic lifters for the postwar blocks were as hard to come by as even used 356 lifters are today.

To the best of my knowledge no one has found or at least posted any postwar chart with an H suffix in the list before 51 but it would be nice if someone did have something official in their collection they would share. Here is an earlier post with a few of the known postwar suffixes..