Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Brian, on the '51 i owned long ago, simply cut a smallish, five-inch square plenty, patch on the driver's side of the transmission hump under the dash, using a piece of aluminum and four sheet metal screws, so had only to pull back the front carpet/rubberized floor covering to pull dipstick.

87 octane all you need. The Search box readily answers such basics. As did Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers; the Magliozzis, among others, how using higher octane not only a waste of money, but not even serving your engine as well.

Stabil is always a good idea, because who knows when life, travel intercede, and your car might sit longer'n you'd like. To save lengthy tech talk, do not use the marine variant, just the basic automotive Stabil. A Chevron engineer did tell us that any gasoline will last at least a year without such providing it does not see temperatures above 80 degrees, which might be the case in your (and my early boyhood) Detroit, so long as storage building well ventilated, shaded, insulated in summer.

If an aside permitted, too often, some like to blame gasoline, brake fluid, motor oil, etc. for the maladies of long deferred maintenance or amateur repair.