Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I pulled the oil pan to clean out the sludge and clear the screen on the oil pump intake, because I suspect it hasn't happened since Carter was in office. I had the slimmest of hopes that I could salvage the gasket, and like most old cork gaskets, it crumbled upon disassembly.

I haven't ordered the oil pan gasket yet (waiting to hear back from Ultramatic Dynamics, they have the best price), and I was wondering what the general consensus is: do most people get the gasket on something like this, or just use RTV? I can see advantages either way. Thoughts?

New gaskets can probably be reused if careful and too much RTV has caused issues if it squeezes out and starts floating around. Whichever you choose, if that pan is like the postwars, be sure to flatten the raised up bolt hole areas so gasket or RTV has a nice flat non distorted area to seal against there and the spaces between holes will have enough pressure to compress the gasket without distortions keeping them too far away--an issue on Ultramatic pans and later model oil pans.

Check out Terrill Machine in DeLeon TX for the gaskets. They usually have fair pricing, and are very easy to work with. I agree on how easy it is to over torque the fasteners. I like to use a 1/4" drive socket on them as a means of preventing my Arnold type muscles from overtightening them.....

After cleaning and reshaping the oil pan around the bolt holes as HH has aptly described, I like to use cork gaskets which I glue to the pan with Permatex No. 2; then I just wipe the upper surface of the gasket with a bit of grease and bolt it up. Normally if I have to remove the pan again with 5 or so years, I don't need a new gasket. Same methodology works well for tappet covers.

Excessive use of RTV, such that it squeezes out into the engine interior, can be very detrimental and to me is best avoided. Just my experience.

The gaskets from Ultramatic Dynamics are very nice one piece cork/rubber composite gaskets. Two thumbs up!

I never heard back from Ultramatic Dynamic, and the phone number on his website didn't work! So, I called Merrill Machine instead, and I'll have gaskets for the oil pan, fuel pump, and tappet covers (side covers?) next Friday. Thanks again to everyone for all the advice- it's much nicer to learn lessons the easy way (told) than the hard way (screwed up!).

Just for future reference, i'm pretty sure Terril Machine gets them from Best Gaskets as does Egge (and possible all the other Packard Vendors). When Jim, David F and myself visited Egge HQ in January, then didnt have a gasket in stock so sent us to Best's "Will-Call" office which was about 2 blocks away from Egge.

Best Gasket doesn't sell direct, so you have to go through a distributor like Egge or Terril.