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

1938 Super 8
Finally got the baby started.
I took her for a run which didnt turn out very well. It is of course very hot here in Florida and as I was driving the car started overheating in traffic, it took a while to get out of the way of traffic as it was on a hill waiting for the bridge to go up. As I got out of the way the car overheated, I looked under the hood and saw the coolant gushing out of the radiator.
I had the car towed back as it would not start. I did a compression test and found it to be 120psi across all 8. Car turns over but will not start, any help would be greatly appreciated. kevin.

Most likely the two events are connected, though two separate problems are possible. If the timing of the "would not start" was very shortly after the boil over, a bit of vapor lock would be a likely suspect and if so, after the car sat for a while to cool, it should restart though it might take a bit of cranking to get fresh and cool fuel to the carburetor. If it wouldn't start even after cooling down, some suspects would be a distributor condensor or the ignition coil, or possibly points as a result of a condensor failure, neither coils nor condensors like repetitive "hot" experiences. Classic symptoms for a failing coil are - runs great until it gets hot.

I don't suppose you had antifreeze in the car, but in a climate where it's not needed, plain water is a better heat transfer medium that any mix of water and ethylene glycol, though don't expect a cure-all.

I have sympathy for you, hot days can really be stressful to old cooling systems unless kept in top form. Part of the problem is that the gradual degradation of cooling systems is a slow but constant process as scale builds within the water jackets and radiator tubes gradually become restricted. It goes unnoticed as long as there is enough cooling reserve capacity above and beyond the demands, we never notice it until all of a sudden in a stressful drive and weather, woosh!

Thanks for the reply Owen. I did try to start it the next day but no Avail. I replaced the condensor and points but still no start, the coil is sparking.

Got any fuel to the carburetor? Remove the air filter, hold the choke open, and stroke the throttle linkage a couple of times. You should see two streams of gasoline coming from the accelerator pump jets - easy to see! If not, perhaps the carburetor has no fuel. Remove the line at the carb, hold a bottle over the end, and have someone crank the engine a few times - careful with sparks, cigarettes, and any other possible sources of ignition.

Yes plenty of fuel, I am wondering if maybe when getting hot it blew an intake manifold gasket or jumped a tooth on the timing chain.

Pull the plugs and clean them with a wire brush. While the boil over was going on, coolant could have been sucked in thru the breather and fouled your plugs.

Hi Was wondering what the engine would do if you spray ether into the carb and try go start it. Cleaning the plugs etc is a good place to start. Thought the coil/condenser would have fixed it.

I recently purchased a 1935 120 Packard, and the person I got it from had a overheating problem, he replaced the radiator, and removed the thermostat, and the car still runs warm. He originally planned on rebuilding the water pump too, because when I got the car he included the water pump rebuild kit. How hard is it to rebuild a water pump?

Removing the thermostat could make the car run hotter. Without the restricted flow of the thermostat, the coolant will flow too quickly through the radiator and not have a chance to cool.

That theory about excessive speed of water through the radiator is a myth even though it comes up often. The speed of coolant through a heat exchanger or the source of the heat does not effect of the efficiency of cooling (within some very wide bands). However what can happen is removal of the thermostat can reduce the resistance of the water flow from the pump which may can cause the pump to cavitate preventing the water from flowing.
The thermostat is there to speed up the warm up time of the motor and to maintain a constant water temperature particularly in cooler weather.
If the car is over heating its not the thermostat unless of course it has jammed closed.