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Thia may not be relevant but my first 1932 straight eight Chrysler Imperial would die all the time until I discovered the lack of factory heat shields between the intake and exhaust manifolds. Cured the problem.

Dan - I wish I had kept track of the NUMBER of things this COULD be based on all the suggestions from the kind folks out there!!! That's the problem - it could be any one of a million things.... I have no base line from which to begin the diagnosis. The car was this way when I bought it and I now presume that is why I got it at the 'priced to sell' cost that I did.

If I knew it ran properly at some point, and now didn't, I would have (I think) a better shot at eliminating possible causes, but alas, I have no freaking clue as to what is wrong. If you could hear this engine start, run and idle, I'm sure you'd share my frustration. Everything is great, until you drive it. 1st and 2nd gear, under 20 MPH with no load, I'm sure I could go for hours, but as soon as the engine is put under load, (like going up a hill or heavy acceleration) then as soon as you come to a stop, it just dies. No sputter, no miss or backfire, it just 'runs out of revs' and coasts to a halt. 30 seconds later, it restarts and the foregoing can be repeated ad nauseum. The engine is properly timed, has good compression, oil pressure, doesn't smoke or use oil, idles beautifully, etc., etc., etc.

Further to your suggestion - does anybody out there know if there is supposed to be a heat shield between the exhaust and intake manifold on that 245 CID six??? Any way I can check to see if it exists and is functioning?????

Chris,

Do you have the new carb on yet?

After going through much of what you've experienced (car shutting down under load), replacing the carb solved the problem.

Yes, we replaced a beautiful Daytona Parts rebuilt carb with a beat up Carter that has never been rebuilt to my knowledge.

The rebuilt carb which I expected to be perfect (and so we replaced so many other components) was not. The float level was not set correctly. So it went back for re-doing. It came back with apologies. We plan to reinstall it Thurs or Friday this week.

Hi Joe, thanks for the post; no, I do not have the rebuilt carb on as of yet, and your report gives me a faint glimmer of hope. MAYBE the 'next' rebuilt will be different/better than the last one. I purchased both from an outfit called Carb X in El Monte CA; anyone have any experiences with them????

Also - IS there a heat shield gasket between the exhaust and intake manifold on the 245???

And, does my 'valve clearance, outhouse-engineering' make any sense to those in the know????

Quote:

There is no heat shield between the intake and exhaust manifolds.

Thanks Brian. BTW, I got the heat riser spring installed and it seems to work fine - many thanks.

Correct, there was NOT anything Between the intake and exhaust, however there WAS a heat shield under the carburetor, about 6"x8", can photo if desired. Additionally, there is a thick insulator gasket between the carburetor and the manifold, not just the thin gasket that comes with the typical carb/carb kit. Without this insulator gasket, enough heat can transmit to the carburetor to boil the fuel.

There IS the choke flap IN the exhaust manifold which has been discussed ad nauseum as well. While prone to be a PITA, I do not think its malfunction would manifest itself as stalling under load?

I have been following this discussion, along with Joe Santana's ultimately successful efforts to regain confidence in Packard's reputation. I sincerely hope a resolution is closer at hand than a gallon of gas and a match....

Hey David,

Appreciate you weighing in.... Yes, I do have the heat shield between the carb and the manifold and I believe there is a thick 'spacer' twixt the carb and the shield. (I will check)

Re the heat riser valve, mine is nice and free after considerable work soaking it in Freeall and working it from the frozen state it was in when I got the car. I also procured a new spring from Brian DeBoeck in Calgary and have installed that.

To recap on the heat riser valve: weight down is the 'open' position; the spring holds it in the 'up' or 'closed' position cold and opens it as the engine warms.... sound correct????