Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Whose Carib is that in front of your car????? Does the owner post here at P'Info.com???? Beautiful car. Carib or Pat is my next car.

What's the stock fan on that car look like?

Sure these cars operated great new...but the definition of great back then was different. If it puked some fluid out and ran a little rough but didn't leave you stranded....great!

Today we demand that it doesn't lose fluid, runs great, and stays cool at 90% humidity and with the AC on in 100 degree heat. And it will do all that, if you design the cooling system like a car that did that from the factory.

I would suspect that a better designed fan, some kind of decent shroud setup, and an overflow expansion bottle would probably vastly increase the cooling efficiency. It would be changing from stock, true, but we're generally looking for better than stock cooling, whether we realize it or not.

Now, i have a straight 8, so i have no idea what your fans, shrouds, etc look like. But the older straight 8 setup leaves a lot to be desired, it was just adequate for the driving conditions and expectations of the times.

Pat

Overheating is boiling over, not good. Running hot is running over normal temperature but not bling over. This is the cooling system doing its job. Temperature differential over a good radiator core is a lot less than you would think, about 15 degrees or so

I had a 1950 Eight for 13 years that i recently sold. Our local club does lots of parades, the fees we get help out our treasury. After 5 or 10 minutes the temperature gauge would go over the H mark and stay there until the car was driven at speed. It never boiled over, but it scared me every time it happened.

We went over the cooling system numerous times. We checked the accuracy of the temperature gauge and it was on the mark. The block and distribution tube were squeaky clean.

Three summers ago I spent a lot of time and money going through the whole system exhaustively. I even bought a 4 row radiator for it despite the radiator man telling me I didn't need it.

We found a lot of smoking guns and fixed them, but the car behaved the same way.

Conclusion, if the car doesn't boil over the cooling system is doing its job

Regards


John Harley

I realize that the cars in question here are from '56 but didn't the '55s have a overheating problem? I think I read that somewhere and that Packard came up with a fairly simple fix - which was designed into the '56 models.
As a '55 owner I was just curious.

Hmmmm..... I've read most of the 55/56 Service Counselors and Technical Service Bulletins and don't recall any information about cooling system upgrades in 1956 in response to overheating problems in 1955. Did I miss something?

Well, I'm not betting my Packards on it but it seems I read something about that in one of the old car publications. The claim was made that during the design phase for the '55, the amount of air flow needed for the cooing system was miscalculated (pre-CAD). By way of proof the author noted the Bumper Bullets were moved to under the headlights and the lower grill opening was enlarged.
Personally, I hope that I got it wrong and that wasn't a problem. On the other hand, I was shocked when I saw that the lower opening on the '55 was so small - especially, when much of the area was "blacked out" to make it look like it went from bullet to bullet.

OK, that is a new one. In my 35 years of owning/ being around 55 Packards, plus another twenty-odd years of experience of my late friend Don Boger, V-8 overheating has been a non-issue, excepting standard neglect issues.

Don bought perhaps more than a dozen V-8s, predominantly 55,s from the early sixties through the early seventies. They were among the cheapest used cars available at the time and, they were driven by the whole family to work, shopping, and his daughters took a pair to college.

I believe some journalist was trying to fill an empty page.

I'll have too agree 100% with Ross and Owen Dyneto. I especialy agree with Ross when he says:

"I believe some journalist was trying to fill an empty page."

Most of the monthly magazine news stand type publications contain information exactly as reliable as Ross explains.

Note that there is a 55 or maybe 56 SC or STB that adresses CLipper grill air deflector but claims the defeletor modification is to prevent a whistleing noise at speed.

I know of no Packard specific evidence of any production 55 or 56 overheating issues.

Whose Carib is that in front of your car????? Does the owner post here at P'Info.com???? Beautiful car. Carib or Pat is my next car.

Some guy in the neighborhood. No.

Actually a friend and a member of POC.

What's the stock fan on that car look like?

To me it looks like any other fan. My memory says no shroud.

Hey Owen, Ross & PackardV8; thanks for taking out of the very few concerns I had about my '55. That is what is so great about this site: in enables me to go "right to the horse's mouth" about things like this. As you say; it could be a writer with too much time and too few brains.
It could also be a "miss-information" project by another automaker(s).
It could also be a symptom of creeping senility on my end.