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

115 to 125 is pretty good.

My '37 120 runs well and does not consume water. I haven't added any coolant in several thousand miles It's about 55 to 60 F where it has been parked for 2 days. When I start it up later this morning, I will let it run where it stands for about a minute then back it out of the barn. It will spit a few large drops of sooty water out the tail pipe, along with a plume of steam. When I stop and get out to close the barn door, it will spit out a little more water. That is normal and to be expected in cool weather.

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I feel like I missed something. What about your loud tick, is it gone? Seems like your head gasket is okay, maybe there was a bit of a leak that was taken care of when you retorqued the head?

I tend to agree with TxGoat, compression sounds good and baring anything else that would cause concern, some driving to get your engine broke in sounds like what is needed at this point. Packard warns against low rpms for new or rebuilt engines as they had experienced higher ring failure. Having said that, my engine guy said rings are much different now and not likely to have the same problem.

Keep us posted, it sounds like you're on your way!

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I learned about rod alignment when I was working on my engine as well. When I thought my noise was being caused by slap, or the wrist pin bushing, I took #4 piston, with the connecting rod, to an old engine builder that knew his stuff. (Opened his shop in 1967.) He checked the rod alignment and said that a bent rod in a Packard is rare. If a rod was bent there would be a noticeable reason why.

We have club member that rebuilt his 327 and it has a noise that he was never able to track down. Maybe it's a rod? Apparently has never got worse, or better.

It was less than a knock but seemed a little more than lifter noise. Nevertheless, in case it was lifter noise I went through the valves and tested all lifters but it wasn't until I had it back together and the noise persisted that I found the probable cause by way of the photo that is shown above. It made the noise only when gunning the throttle without load but idling and driving it was quiet so it was still that way when I sold it. I have never experienced it on any other Packard engine 327 or otherwise.

I still have the loud tick or chirp or whatever it is. I thought it might be a valve or guide but its not affected by adjusting the valves or placing the feeler between the valves and lifters. I thought it might be a lifter or the cam at a lifter but I can't localize the sound to the oil vent hole on any lifter.

I think the vacuum and RPM values and stability are very good. This makes me think there's not a problem with the valves. I think the compression is at least good.

I think the water spray has calmed down and I hope it was from the long idling. Some, but minimal bubbles at radiator fill. Hopefully, the water from the tail pipe was from combustion.

I re-torqued the head and manifolds during this process. I think I probably had some exhaust leaking due to the smoke around the manifolds when I sprayed Seafoam down the carburetor. I'd think you'd be able to isolate to 1/2/7/8 or 3/4/5/6 by spraying down one throttle valve or the other.

Pretty much everything on the car works correctly except the following (I don't count the radio and power antenna since I took out the radio, removed the front cover, mounted a 4"x6" tri-axial speaker and remounted the face of the radio inside the dash. I used a 6-24V 40W Bluetooth audio amp plugged into the new speaker. Any Android audio app can be used. I mostly use Sirius.)

Exceptions:
1. Car bogs a pretty good bit on acceleration. I replaced the vacuum advance module with a NOS. I trimmed a piece of tubing which I placed around the spring to limit travel and a vacuum pump to set the max. It maxed-out at 13 psig at about 10 BTDC. I need to know more about this. Maybe the accelerator pump is involved. The centrifugal advance does start at about 600 and maxed out about 10.

2. The wipers could work better.

3. The plenum hasn't been installed.

I have uploaded a zip file of an mp4 video with audio of the vacuum, tach and click sound.

Attach file:

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VID_20241223_193357464.zip Size: 8,532.52 KB; Hits: 13

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Well I recognize the sound of the vacuum pump. LOL

Did you put your stethoscope on you fuel pump to see if maybe that is where the noise is coming from?

Have you found anything that affects the sound? Warm, cold, under load.....?