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I used oven cleaner and brake cleaner to degrease the head and block, and then used the small wire wheels that come on a 1/4" shaft in my die-grinder to remove all the rust. Then I went over the entire block with a rust converter to get any specs that the die-grinder could not reach into. Then a final pass with brake cleaner to remove any remaining residue and grease. The I brushed on Bill Hirsch Packard Gray. I did all this with a set of "junk" spark plugs installed.

See my project blogs as I have pics of this process along the way.

Monday 16th June 2008

After donating plasma at the blood bank earlier arrived at the workshop late morning to find that Wade wasn't there. Further cleaned up the engine prior to painting and wired up the smaller parts in preparation. Then rang Wade to find he was literally overhead having just arrived at the carpark on the roof of the workshop. He'd been to Pirtek, a hydraulic hose specialist, sourcing parts for the '34's oil filter conversion. Took a number of pic's of the oil filter parts and setup today and will post these along with a description of the setup in the near future.

Proceeded then to mix the Packard Green paint and hardener for the engine and parts requiring painting and applied a coat by brush, leaving the old spark plugs in place. The engine painting is going to be done in a number of steps because I'm now going to remove the timing cover and tappet side covers and paint these separately. I'll also paint the sump separately as it is currently resting on the blocks which gave clearance for removal of the steering crank pin. Once the steering crank pin is re-installed, and the new front engine mount rubbers are installed then the sump will be done. After the engine and related parts were finished more parts were wired up and POR-15'd black.

I had hoped to add a surprise here as a photographer arrived at the workshop soon after I did and told me he was expecting up to 12 young women to arrive shortly for shots to add to their portfolios as aspiring models. Well we waited, and waited, and waited and I was ready to drop my paintbrush at a moments notice and become a photographer myself, all for the sake of art of course. They were going to use Wade's Super 8 as a prop as well as a Harley chopper that had arrived. But all to no avail as apart from one young lady who arrived early in the piece and left soon after nary a one was sighted. And at this point I was going to show you the pic's of the girls doing their posing. But never fear, if the young ladies do appear at some future date I'll take and post pic's of the event.

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Tuesday 17th June 2008

Woke this morning to find that Forum member Turbopackman had forwarded an eBay listing of a Lower Transmission Stabilizer Rod which I require because the left hand threaded section on mine has snapped off. Thanks Eric. We now won't have to pursue Wade's proposed fix which he was talking about just yesterday, what a co-incidence!

And while I'm here, a couple of things I forgot to mention in recent posts. Thursday last week, on his return from the Border Run to Berri, Wade arrived with a Gel type battery for the '41 which came via another Packard club member from Melbourne, Victoria. And on Friday I dropped into Lee Bros, the specialist fastener supplier, and picked up some copper sump plug washers.

Also this morning another Forum member, Heather Moss, had emailed me some pic's from the Border Run including her '39 Super 8 and ANOTHER '41 Coupe. I note there are a few external differences compared to my '41, notably the front bumper and the lack of running boards. I will make contact with the owner, as another '41 coupe owner to satisfy my curiosity concerning these features, and just to talk "Packards".

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Having spent quite a bit of time with 34 Eight oil filters and coolers, let me make a comment on the one you pictured. Remember its a full-flow system meaning that no oil gets to anything in the engine without first passing thru the filter and cooler. Thus on your modification, I suggest making very sure that the ID in all of your fittings and connections, hoses etc. is no smaller than the ID of the original Packard feed lines to the filter and then back to the oil gallery. VERY important.

When I did mine I chose to convert the old Purolator L-6 to accept a modern spin-on filter inside (inexpensive kits available from the CCCA), and then replace the heat exchanger core with a length of flexible finned high pressure tubing, thus keeping the effectivness of the cooler. The tubing was rated at 250 psi and I'll enclose a picture of same.

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Quote:

Dave,

Wade, the guy helping me with my '41 Coupe, is doing this conversion for his '34 restoration and is thorough, experienced and particular in his approach to solving problems or in this case engineering a solution for the oil filter he's fitting. So I would think he's already addressed the concerns you've raised. He also reads the posts here from time to time, but irrespective I'll raise these matters with him so that he is conversant with the matters you've raised. Thanks for your concern, it's much appreciated, as I can see you're looking to avoid what could turn out to be a catastrophe.

Tuesday 17th June 2008

After my earlier post today received a call from Dave of JJ Smith Radiators at St Peters, an inner southern suburb of Sydney, to let me know the '41's radiator overhaul was done. So after dropping my wife at her sister's for the day at Rouse Hill, which is an outer north-western suburb, backtracked to St Peters and picked up the radiator. Dave said that the major work to the radiator entailed fixing a crack in the top tank, a core leak in a lower corner and the overflow tube was blocked, as well there was relatively little sediment in it. One of the reasons that Wade suggested having it overhauled was because of the overflow tube was crimped and he thought there could well be a blockage there, so chalk another one up for Wade. As the pic shows there is surface flattening to the fins but there were no leaks, as evidenced by the pressure testing undertaken, and the flattening is purely surface and cosmetic damage. I'm glad it didn't have to be recored as the cost then would have been much much more, and all this at a cost of AU$150.00, about US$137.00, and Dave even threw in a new 4&1/2lb cap when I said I needed one. He mentioned that he likes to look after the "resto" guys and he's certainly doing that, Dave's one of the good guys.

On my way back home went to the workshop to drop off the radiator and at first thought Wade wasn't there. But after depositing the radiator found him, along with Barry and David, two other members of the Packard club sitting in the office chewing the fat. Barry's the guy who I met when I went to see the '41 after it first arrived in Oz and he was there picking up his '51 Convertible. Tells me that he's now got his 327 9 main and the O/D trans back and they are ready to be put into the car. He says the next job is to install the new floor pans he got in the US a couple of months ago. He's picking them up tonight, from Belmont(about 80 miles north of Sydney) from the guy who imported our cars, on his way home to Tamworth(about 300 miles north-west and inland from Sydney). This was the first time I'd met David, who's from Wauchope(about 300 miles north of Sydney near the coast), he's got a '29 626 Sedan, '34 1101 Coupe and a '36 7 Pass Sedan. After showing Barry how to do a reply to a post in Packardinfo, something about the blind leading the blind comes to mind, he's set to unleash himself on the Forums and has a wealth of Packard knowledge to share. I then got into David's ear about joining the Site and putting his car's into the Owner Registry at least. Also got on to Barry's case about the same subject. All in all a very enjoyable half hour was spent with these blokes before they departed.

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And Dave,

Got your post up on-screen for Wade when at the workshop and he assures us that all is OK with the ID of the fittings, etc being used. Again, for your concern

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I noticed the rubber hose and aircraft type clamps in your earlier posts and photos of the oil filter/cooler conversion. I offer the following for your consideration, and do it with only your best interests in mind.

Personally, I would not trust such a set-up. These clamps have a nasty habit of coming loose over time. Also, how good is the hose going to hold up with high pressure and temperatures? It would only take a short amount of time to lose all the oil should the hose or clamps fail. Is it worth the expense of an engine to use this set-up? It would seem a more prudent way would be to install copper tubing and brass fittings.

Take care, and best of luck.

Quote:

John,

Thanks for your concern re Wade's oil filter/cooler conversion and the hose and fittings utilised in the process. There are at least 2 things which mitigate against this, being Wade's many years experience in the aircraft industry and his utilisation of Pirtek, a major hydraulics company here, for advice, supply and installation of some of the fittings. I'll refer your post to Wade of course and I'm sure he'll take your concerns on board.

I hope you don't think we're harping on the conversion of the 34 filter/cooler assembly, it's just out of concern because even the shortest interruption of oil, with a full flow system, would be catastrophic for a lovely 34 engine. Packard advised that normal oil pressures were between 25 and 55 psi, and to me this means they want the oil pressure relief valve set for 55 psi. Wade no doubt has already determined that the hose and clamp arrangement can take this pressure.

One other point for him to take into consideration and that concerns the water flow. There is a temptation to use a block-off plate to keep the water out of the cooler housing, but there is a baffle within the water jacket side plate that directs all the water into cooler and the exit from the cooler is the only way the majority of the water can then progress down the jacket which doubles as the distribution tube. Thus, blocking off the cooler housing will essentially stop the flow of cooling water to the engine (cracked valve seats and block the sure result) unless the internal baffle of the side plate is modified accordingly.

Wednesday 18th June 2008

At the workshop started by taking down the wired up parts painted Monday. Then assisted Wade, after he'd installed the oil filter conversion, as he was cranking over the 34 engine with the plugs out to ensure oil was flowing following the filter conversion. He has rigged up an oil guage to measure the pressure once he actually fires the engine up and in this cranking stage is looking for signs only that the oil is flowing. So while I stood on the right side watching the guage Wade connected the battery and cranked the engine over. Nothing, not even a flicker on the guage(this was somewhat expected because it's only turning at starter motor speed). So the guage was disconnected along with the outlet pipe from the oil filter and this time struck oil, as I was now poised with a plastic dish to catch any flow from the oil filter, which occured right at the end of the crank cycle. At this point the battery was dying so it was put onto the charger and would be caught up with later.

Went back to tidying up all the previously painted parts. However before I got too far along with this task Noel arrived in his '39 120 Sedan. Wade had arranged with Rick to use his hoist for the work planned which Noel had teed up with Wade last week. This was to cover the right rear shock link which had become detached, a new pinion oil seal to solve the oil leak there and looking at the horn which was tooting intermittantly all on it's own accord! That was to be the plan but, like many things planned around Packards, things don't always work out. First there wasn't a replacement shock linkage. I think Wade thought he had one but I don't think he did or the ones he had were different to the one required. Then the replacement seal Noel had turned out to be a rear transmission seal and not the diff pinion seal required. There was also no joy in trying to track down where and why the horn was tootling way. And along the way it was found the transmission stabilser rod was broken. I found this out courtesy of a Noel practical joke having mentioned that I was looking at one on eBay for my '41. He called me over at one stage to say I could have his stabiliser rod because he was getting a new one from the US, and at that stage I wasn't aware his was broken. On seeing the stabiliser rod under the '39 saw the front end, the part I needed, was drooping down because the ball had popped out of its rubber case. Thanks a lot Noel, get a guy's hopes up then tear them down! Then learned from Tony, Noel's mate who's helping him with his '41 Coupe restoration, that in fact the rod has the Packard front (which has now failed) but he had grafted on a Datsun tie rod end at the back because there wasn't a back piece. Tony is a retired panelbeater and he's also making engine side splash shields for both of Noel's Packards. And he's going to make me a new front fender lower brace because one of mine has been bastardised to make it fit after being broken. So although big things were planned for Noel's '39 in the end not much happened except Tony was able to access it easily to measure up for the splash shields.

After Tony, then Noel left, I removed the timing gear cover and cleaned and painted it. Also cleaned the gasket surfaces on the block and sump in preparation for the installation of a new crankshaft oil seal. And talk about watching paint dry, so left that and back to helping Wade with the oiling up of the '34 engine. This time I was poised with a rag and, after a looooong cranking session and just as Wade stopped cranking, oil bubbled out of the fitting on the right side of the block I had my attention on. So after connecting up the oil guage again to this fitting some further cranking was tried but by this time the battery had had it. So it's on overnight charge and Wade will do and check it again tomorrow. Wade also cut some threads on the rods welded to the top of the left from frame above the steering box where the battery will be mounted. This is where the long term former owner, from '61 to '06, mounted the batteries in all his Packard which came with underseat batteries.

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And Dave,

Wade and I actually talked today about the feedback he's been getting in regard to his oil filter conversion and we both agreed it is far far better to be getting this advice than not. We took it as advice and not criticism and, if there's anything which might impact on the operation and performance of the engine, nows the time to air it and not afterwards when it would be too late. So I'll make sure Wade's aware of this issue, but I'm pretty certain water is still circulating through the oil cooler housing and it hasn't been blocked off. And again,

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