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

Good manners are a characteristic of old flathead inline engines like your Packard.

They will continue to run smoothly and quietly in an advanced state of wear. Sometimes the only symptoms are sluggishness, lack of power, and poor low speed running.

It its heyday a ring and valve job every 20000 to 300000 miles was routine maintenance, as others have pointed out.

Sometime between 50000 and 80000 a full rebuild would be necessary.

Check your oil pressure to verify the state of the bearings. If oil pressure is good and the cylinders are not tapered over .007 then a set of rings and a valve job, and your car should run as good as new.

If the cylinders need truing and the bearings are worn, then plan on taking the engine out for a complete rebuild.

Sounds like I have a project for after the show/cruise night season.

Anybody near New England have a spare rebuildable 282?

Phil, not sure if this helps but as Owen points out there are some variables around normal compression. Another variable could be how well the gauge is calibrated, and if you are 100% confident of no leaks. My simillar '39 282 has the following PSI: 120; 113; 115; 116; 115; 115; 109; 115

This car has some wear, and it may have the cast high comp head on it - the number did not corrospond to numbers I have seen in either the owner's or shop manual, but it seemed close enough to the hi compression head number to make sense, unless it is off another year.

If it runs fairly well, why replace the orginal motor with a replacement block? I would enjoy for now and look to a possible winter project? Hope to see your car sometime here in the Southern NE area!

Steve

Steve, your compression #s are just excellent. FYI the numbers usually found on a cylinder head are not part numbers but are casting numbers; from a single casting several different compression ratio heads could be made. And the high compression head normally had "HC" cast into it.

But I agree with your point, if all an engine needs is a valve job, why go shopping for another engine which may or may not be as good as yours and may still also require a valve job, and maybe much more. Were it my car, I'd remove the head, measure the cylinder bore taper, drop the pan and examine the bearings and plastigage them. Since Phil's engine was performing well without any note of oil consumption, noises or low oil pressure, I'd be optimistic that a valve job would give him thousands of miles of enjoyment.

I don't plan on doing anything right now. Just thought it would be "fun" to play with a spare motor.