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After minute examination, I find that there is no oil return hole in the block. My parts car does not have the oil filter, and it has no return hole either. Was there some other way to get filtered, clean oil out of the bottom of the filter and back into the block? It can't go back in to the oil pressure sending unit plumbing can it?

If there is definitely no crankcase return oil port then the filter would have taken oil from the lower port, passed thru the filter and then back into the engine via the upper port. For the 356 block with hydraulic lifters there was an article issued advising mechanics to drill and tap a hole into the crankcase for the return oil port. This was done when the plumbing was changed to add the pigtail feeding the lifters directly as well as have the filter supplied from the lower port.

Apparently the 288/327 block being primarily solid lifters until 51 kept the arrangement with the filter feeding into the lifter gallery port. When hydraulic lifters were being installed as more the standard rather than the option then the return port into the crankcase must have been added.

Here is a 48 article on how to install the filter which must have been for blocks with no crankcase return port to which the optional filters were added.

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Thank you Oh Mighty Guru!

FYI, the instructions are not that great. Apparently on the assembly line they put in the oil pressure sending unit, with a Tee and the base elbow. If you got an oil filter, they installed it and plumbed it. If not, they put a pigtail back into the block for one outlet, and plugged the other with a soldered up tubing end. I have this latter set up on both the Club Sedan and the parts Touring Sedan.

What the instructions do not really tell you is that for a retrofit, you have to remove the Tee and pigtail and then run the two tubes from the oil filter into the block and base elbow. This is a pain, because the oil filler, distributor, spark plug wires, and coil are all in the way. Also, the commercially available tubing lengths are either too long or too short, so you'll need to be able to cut and flare.

On my Club Sedan, the block heater is also in the way, just above the return hole in the block.

If anyone knows of a bolt in pre- bent tubing set, I'll buy it, but at this point I've wasted several hours taking it apart, cleaning it, ruining tubing, and using sinful words. All I have to show for it is a shiny, clean oil pressure sending unit. Its going to be a lot easier to unbolt the oil filter than it is to plumb the thing. Besides, NOT having a oil filter is more unique these days!

The kits all had premade tubing bent to shape and length which varied by engine as is noted by the different part numbers for the two kits for the engines in the illustration. I'd be willing to wager the bent over or soldered tube was never a Packard option. An inverted flare plug possibly but not something as crude as bent over tubing. I would almost be willing to bet that someone over the years has used some parts they had on hand on your engine.

On pre 51 engines the hydraulic lifters were optional and on engines with the option I believe the filter was still an option and not much apparently was done for the oil return on those blocks. On the 356 which had hydraulic lifters it had the 4 way port and a return into the crankcase. Not so the 288 or 327 apparently until 51 when hydraulic lifters became more the standard.

If you are using the premade lengths of steel brake tubing, it is a pain to try and work with. Most use copper or Cunifer tubing and either paint it or live with the reddish color if they can't find the real tubing off a parts engine.

One would indeed think that the factory would spring for a plug, but I think its a bit odd that I have two cars with the exact same set up and no oil filter, plus the ones you have seen. But at least I have a shiny oil pressure sending unit and pigtail. That had to be done in any event. I have to remove the starter solenoid, as it needs cleaning, too.


In other news, I have now replaced the overdrive relay, and can move on to STEP TWO of the overdrive troubleshooting procedure! Yes! Step Two! The triumphs never cease!


While I'm here, the accelerator is sticking, and I can find no apparent reason for it, but I have not removed the air cleaner yet. Any ideas?

Good work...and progress without offending the Packard Gods too badly. And when you run out of things to do, I do have a correct original Packard oil filter canister available.

DAF

Gave up in disgust in trying to run the oil filter lines, and I too have a oil filter canister available. So after hours of work, I have a new cleaned up oil pressure sending unit, which had to be done anyway. To update, I have moved on from the oiling system to the OVERDRIVE. The first problem was to figure out why the OD relay was clicking when the battery disconnect was closed. Well, apparently someone ran one of the wires from the kickdown switch to ground! Of course, I forgot to test the kickdown switch while I had it out. Rectifying this allowed me to go to step 1 of the OD troubleshooting procedure. And, of course, the OD relay was fried. I have to say that Tucson Packard got one to me in the blink of an eye. Now moving on to step two, everything appeared to check out correctly, and so I went for the grueling test drive. I have a 63 Mercury Meteor with OD, so I am at least familiar with what a car does when the OD works.


I'm pretty sure that the OD worked, but it would not kick down. Back to the drawing board. Pulled out the kickdown switch AGAIN. WD 40 got it to work, and it tested fine, though it took some pressure on the plunger. Put it back in. Tested the poles in relation to accelerator position and
NADA. The accelerator will not move the plunger far enough to break the OD relay circuit. Another call to Tucson Packard. I expect a new kickdown switch to be in any day.

A new issue! What is the deal with the gas tank sending units. I've seen a lot of discussion and workarounds, but I hate doing gas tank sending units, and want to put it in and be done with it. I'll test the gauge before I take the tank out, but so far I have never had a gauge or wire problem- its always the sending unit. I only want to do this once. Any advice would be appreciated!

The 48-50 models have a similar bimetal heater gauge unit as later models had but used a different type sender. Not a straight resistance type sender as later years but another bimetal heater unit with an on/off pulsing operation. As best I can find, there are few if any NOS senders and maybe no repros so you would probably need yours rebuilt. If anyone would have or know of a repro it might be KM Lifestyle which does make some custom senders. A few Fords of the era used a similar bimetal unit but unknown if any of those would fit the Packard tank or be any easier to find than the Packard version. Packard used a different sender arm length depending on tank size.

Tinman_70 who has a project blog here as well as a more complete one on the PAC forum has done some experimentation to see if a readily available and inexpensive straight resistance type sender can be substituted. His original could not be rebuilt so he has detailed his experiments finding a fit and resistance value for a modern sender in his 49 club sedan project blog at the PAC site.

His car is not on the road yet so he doesn't know if the constant heating of the gauge bimetal from the resistance sender rather than the pulsing on/off of the bimetal sender will be stable or will cause the reading to gradually increase without the pulsing cooldown periods.

Here is a photo of the output of the bimetal type so you can get an idea of the operation. Temp gauge sender works in a similar fashion and is also not too plentiful.

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