Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

After much fiddling, replacing of starter, battery, fixing fuel system leaks, heater leak, etc I've finally managed to get this "drive it anywhere" (haruumph) Clipper running. It seems to have pretty excessive valve clatter or lifter noise, and 1 cyl perhaps not firing properly.

At 86k perhaps a valve job is to be expected. From reading it seems valve noise was fairly endemic to the 56 352, and some folks were able to quiet things down by overfilling by 1 qt? Will try an oil change to 15w40 Valvoline Blue Diesel I use in all my OHV cars, maybe try Lucas oil treatment? Overfill? Just bite the bullet and re-do the heads? Total rebuild at the present time is out of the question.

What is your oil pressure running at?

Seems OK, light in middle of the gauge off, calibration is unknown.

Another question is whether it is all the time or just when hot. With hydraulic lifters, wouldn't think a valve job would help clatter but maybe would the miss.

Would almost pay to invest in a mechanical gauge and plumb it in at the sender temporarily to verify the pressure. Others can speak more to various causes but seems the oil pump and air in the oil system was the primary cause of clatter. Overfilling may not do much if air is being sucked in from where others suspect the culprit area is.

I would think 86K on the original pump would make you a prime candidate for one of Jack Vines pump kits--assuming the bearing clearances are also OK.

Noisy at start up, no change when fully warmed up. Not a uniform clatter but sounds like 1 or 2 valves or lifters? Bearing condition unknown, but no ominous bottom end noises/rumbles evident, to my ears at least.

If the car has been sitting awhile before you got it, possibly it is filthy dirty and lifters are sticking. Some snake oil might help but I would pull the pan first and make sure it wasn't full of sludge.

Learned that the hard way when I got my first 56. It had been sitting but got it running. Advise was given to put some stuff in to dislodge the sludge and clean it out. Stuff did that very well--unfortunately it also clogged up the oil pump screen with all the crud it knocked loose and it was rebuild in a short time. Fortunately had planned on doing that anyway but would have liked to have done it on my time schedule.

Just about all the engine people here recommend dropping the pan and checking things before starting or putting too many miles on an unknown engine. Wish this forum had been around 35 yrs ago.

The best possibility, as mentioned above, is you have a couple of stuck lifters. The worst is flat cam lobes. I've only seen one Packard V8s with a bad cam. The light spring pressure and low RPMs aren't usually damaging to cams.

Pull a rocker cover and get an idea of how dirty the pan might be. If the head is only average dirty, go ahead with the flush described here. If it is really cruddy, pull the pan and clean the pan and oil pump screen first.

Before you put your good oil in, do a couple of flushes. Get two oil filters, a half-gallon of diesel fuel and five quarts of whatever is the cheapest oil you can buy. Diesel fuel is a better solvent than most of the snake oil sold in auto parts stores. Pour about a quart of diesel in with whatever oil is in the pan now. Warm it up and let it idle for fifteen minutes or so. Drain the pan, change the filter, add the new cheap oil and another quart of diesel. Again, let it idle at least fifteen minutes, with a few revs up to at least 2,000 RPMs. Drain the oil, change the filter and then put in your good oil.

All the time you are doing this, watch for the oil pressure dropping and/or fluctuating. The temporary addition of a mechanical gauge was a good suggestion. The plugged oil pump screen HH56 experienced can happen, but it is not common unless the engine was really dirty.

With this flushing, I've freed up more than one stuck lifter. Your results may vary, but hope for the best.

thnx, jack vines

All good advice given above. NOTE however that the lifters can be replaced withOUT removeing the head. Only need to remove intake, valve cover, valley cover and rocker shaft.

If u remove the oil pan be sure to check the oil pump for wear. It is ez to remove. Oil pump was weak on the Packard V8.

When valve covers are removed be sure to check the valve seals. They usualy get hard and break off little chunks that clog the oil pump screen.

SAVE any SOLID debris that u find in the oil pan or under the valve covers. Wash off the solid debris and post pics of it.

Keep us posted and we cann all walk thru the issues stated thru out this thread.

Thanks all, looks like solid advice. It's been run regularly in recent years and not sitting, except for the last 2-3 months. Oil in it looks only moderately dirty and no coffee color, gas smell or other weird issues. I did note when I ran it yesterday it seemed less noisy than it did before, so I'm strongly suspecting lifters. I wouldn't be surprised if valve seals had deteriorated, but there is no smoke at start up or at any other time. Exhaust smells like a healthy CO and water vapor, not oily or coolant-y. I'm going to try the flush out that Jack V suggested, and go from there, compression test and oil pressure numbers seem like they might be a good idea.

Hello Roger,


I had the same noise clatter sound in my engine ( see my topic some time ago ). We opened the valve covers and the valley cover to check it out, one pushrod was going banana and 3 valve tappets were broken also 2 were stucked. We replaced all 16 of them and installed a new pushrod ( all ordered at Kanter ) and the engine noise was disapeared.
Valve cover seals and valley cover seals were also changed.

One curious item is that since the replacement of these parts the ignition timing must be adjusted... .

Grtz,

Xavier



1956 Clipper DeLuxe