Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

I told you it looked ugly. I'm hoping not many will really even notice it when it's in place. And yes something I forgot to mention, (2) tube had to be sealed. The sealing took place long in the past because it holds fine. Interestingly, I found a tab on the upper inside tank. It named a Phoenix AZ radiator shop and it was dated 12-4-1962. That's the oldest piece of info I have on the car post 1955.

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Be sure to install the radiator with RUBBER mounts. Do NOT bolt it solid to the horse collar. Vibration is the worst enemy of solder. ESPECIALY any OLD solder that mite still be in the flange of the two halve of either the lower or upper tanks. THe filler neck and the inlet/outlet spigots are soldered too. Unless those were resoldered most likely that's where any leaks will occur over the next 4 to 5 years if any do occur. Just watch those areas close.

Be sure the radiator hoses are stress relieved. They need to pretty much slide rite into place with out stressing them to get them to fit. Otherwise the springing action of the stressed radiator hose will translate to the radiator snouts they connect to.

Good point, PackardV8. I'm often surprised in pictures of an otherwise attractive and reasonably correct engine compartment to see those ugly ribbed universal radiator hoses all bent into contortions to fit. Not a smart choice.

Radiators are large and heavy. BUT they are rather fragile too. When bolting it to the rad support make sure the radiator itself is not in a bind. Usualy this is not a problem. If the the radiator is in a bind then the mounting brackets can break away from the tanks. They are only soldered to the upper and lower tanks. The metal used in the radiators is usualy very thin gauge metal especialy in post war cars. So great care must be taken not to force any fitment of the radiator or anything that connects to it. Body parts and suspension parts can be twisted and pryed and often enven forced into fitting (within reason)without any problems. But NOT radiators.

Once any re-cored or rodded out radiator is fitted to the car BE CERTAIN to check for hood to rad cap clearence. On two seperate occasions i ran into problems with cap to hood clearence especialy on the lower silhouet cars of the 60's and later.

For some reason many rad shops will change the filler neck to a taller than oem filler neck. I never really knew why they would do that unless it was to somehow decrease the spring tension of the cap to artificialy reduce it's pressure rating.

Again, rebuilt radiators are mostly just a 'get me thru the nite' kind of stop-gap or PTF remedy just like rebuilt batteries or smoke engine oil.

KevinAZ, Packard used a system of rubber washers, spacers, steel washers, and cap screws to mount the radiator to the cradle assembly. Mounting the radiator with rubber washers and then tightening the cap screws will not provide the cushioned mounting needed. I don't know if the rubber washers and spacer are available. Sorry, I don't have a photo or drawing of these parts either. You are a creative and inventive person and can probably easily figure this out. I continue to be impressed with your work and the resulting attractive Packard. Thanks for sharing.

(o{I}o)

Service Counselor 25-7 has the revised mounting info for 51. Here is an excerpt. 55-6 used identical part numbers and quantity for bolts and spacers so assume mounting was also same. Mine was hard and crushed but the rubber washers were seemingly about 1/16 and 1/8 thick and spacer was just slightly less than 3/16 so as to just barely let the rubber compress. I was able to find new rubber washers at local hardware store and spacers were re-used but are easily made if missing. They are nothing but relatively thin tubing in a size just slightly larger than the screw diameter.

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Howard, I made spacers out of fuel line. It will accommodate the 1/4-20 screws required. I didn't know that washers were required at the center "B" location. They are not rubber washers and I wonder why they are used.

I believe the center washers would be to provide a solid attachment point at the same thickness as the rubber top and bottom washers. That would allow the radiator to be firmly attached without any deforming of the mount or putting much pressure against the rubber washers. Keeping it spaced away top & bottom would let the flexing and vibration be snubbed by the rubber pieces.