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After having a planned tow early this morning to put my 1951 Henney-Packard back into the shop, I had an unplanned one shortly after by the same driver to put the Patrician inside. Whatever happened to the engine yesterday, it cranks irregularly and won’t start (seems like it wants to) and I doubt I’ll have time to pull the head as I’m leaving for home on Monday. I may at least pull the plugs and check compression, though, and pour some oil into the cylinders in case it is a blown head gasket as I suspect.




The 1965 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special of many colors replaced the ambulance on the lift with the Patrician of many colors back under it where it usually is kept when I’m not here. Had it been running, I would have put it up onto the lift briefly to fill the Ultramatic which I know is a little low but that will have to wait. The camera's wide angle lens makes the cars look stubby and slightly curved when they are not. The Cadillac even has a huge 133" wheelbase but doesn't look it here!

I just finished performing a compression check and it's abysmal! No time to pull the head as I'm closing up the shop to leave on Monday after the off-grid solar panels have finally been installed. The next time I come I'm sure it will be much cooler and I'll have more energy of my own but the heat saps me quickly. Anyway, here goes and your guess is as good as mine what it might mean!

#1 20
#2 90
#3 80
#4 120
#5 140 (and there was moisture on the gauge)
#6 110
#7 15
#8 100

As a little repeat history, this engine was rebuilt decades ago and was one of my everyday cars and used often on PAC's NorCal tours. With all that, it did not amass many miles - a few thousand maybe - but one time shortly after the rebuild, it was necessary to replace the Egge pistons after what they said was a bad batch, one of which had its top come off at the upper ring groove and a couple others cracked. Egge replaced all of them. After a few more years of driving it, the car then sat for many decades in my garage untouched and not even accessible until I brought it to my Oregon shop.

Once here, it was quickly and easily made runnable again with a rebuild of the brake hydraulics, fresh gasoline and a cleaning of the points which had oxidized from disuse. It’s been running beautifully and as posted several entries back I even drove it around the block. After bringing it here, the first thing I did was to pull all the plugs and pour oil into the cylinders, then it sat that way for a couple months. The plugs at that time were nice, dry and clean but here is what they all look like now.

Quote:

I would guess stuck rings making it burn oil. Wash out the plugs with gas or sandblast them or whatever and recheck the gaps, it will probably get going again.

I would do one of those tricks, e.g. putting MMO in the gas, to retard the rate of carbon buildup as you don't want to burn a valve in an easily avoidable way considering that it's clear there's a problem.

Thank you. With this type of plug, there is no gap to adjust and the liquid I saw on #5 looked an awful lot like coolant with the radiator showing nothing inside. Also, the oil was changed while getting it running again and it does not look like oil now! I agree with your assessment but I think that first I'll pull the head and do a visual inspection as I want to change it anyway and already have the proper gasket for doing so. There are specifics on installing the gasket with an aluminum head so I'll have to refresh myself for that when the time comes.

Well at least the head will be light, what with it being aluminum.

If you're seeing coolant, then maybe that points to a head gasket leak? Does the oil look like a milkshake now, or water sitting on top of the oil? Low compression could be sticky valves also. The head off should at least show you something.

Those are some funky spark plugs.

First see how much the head nuts will tighten to the torque spec. If they go more now, then the gasket got loose on you.

I would just take a pass over most of them.

Kevin, the oil doesn't look like milkshake but it also doesn't look like Royal Triton which is what it's supposed to be.

Pgh Ultramatic, I'm planning on checking their torque but I want to change the head anyway so this will be a good excuse and I can check the cylinder walls while Im at it to be sure there were no more Egge issues. The water pump works fine but is wrong so also needs to be replaced and I had the proper one rebuilt already a year or so ago so this will also be a good time for that work.