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

The owner's manual describes "regular" and "premium" oil both of which are presumably suitable to use.

"regular" for "moderate" service and "premium" for "more severe" service.

They also recommend SAE 20 or 20W oil for all except the most extreme temperatures.

30 is recommended only when daytime temperatures are above 90 or the car is used for extreme high speeds.

10W for extreme cold.

So 10W30 premium oil would cover practically all occasions.

I don't know why the don't mention multigrade oils.

Rusty: I have a 1954 Chevy owners manual. I think Chevy also recommended straight weight oil be used.

I have an old Mobil oil chart from 1963 up in the garage. I am going up in the morning and see what they recommended back in 1963 for some of the older cars.

John F. Shireman

This thread got me questioning my own ideas about oil. When did multigrade oils become available?

A Google search revealed the following dates:

England: "In 1951 the first multigrade oil, Price's "Energol",was developed at Battersea. Increasing demand for this highly successful product led BP to remove all the lubricating oil business to their oil refinery at Grangemouth in 1954 and rebrand it as their own products; this ended Price's hundred years of involvement with lubricating oils."

United States: " 1952: Jersey Standard introduces Uniflo motor oil, the first multigrade motor oil recommended for both summer and winter use."

France: "Before 1955 (the year of the first multigrade oil Mobiloil Special) car owners had to switch oil with the seasons."

So multigrade oils must have been generally available by the mid 50s which would square with Packard first mentioning them in their 1956 owner's manual.

"Premium" or "Heavy Duty" oils go back even farther. The first detergent oils may have been developed to protect engines with hydraulic lifters. These were first widely used in the 1936 Cadillac. I think they were in use by 1947 anyway.

From the Caterpillar Company's official web site.

According to this motor oils contained natural detergents until a change in refining methods about 1930.When they discovered that the new oils were ruining motors, they quickly started putting detergents back in. So detergent oils date to the early 30s.

"Just as diesel power was beginning to take hold, the world caved in on the young industry. Engines that had gone 3,000 hours without ring sticking or liner scuffing were suddenly dying at 300 hours. As the piston rings got stuck in their grooves, the engine lost compression. As the engine lost compression, it lost power. Eventually, there would not be enough compression for ignition and the engine would not run at all.

The engine manufacturers blamed the oil companies and the oil companies blamed the engine manufacturers. It took several years before everyone realized that a new refining process introduced in the early 1930's had removed naturally occurring detergents from the crude oil. With the detergents gone, there was nothing to inhibit the formation of combustion by-products in the ring grooves, which eventually led to the ring becoming stuck in the groove and not sealing. At this point, a serviceman would have to pull each piston and scrape off the accumulated sludge after applying a boiling bucket of chemicals to the piston. Caterpillar knew there had to be a better way. In discussions with the Shell Oil Company, a chemical was identified that did not require boiling to remove the sludge. It was a chemical detergent. One enterprising serviceman started putting the chemical in the engine crankcase just prior to each oil change. As he drained the oil, he also drained the dissolved sludge. This process quickly evolved into adding small amounts of the detergent to the oil to replace the natural detergents that had been present in the crankcase oil just a few years before. From that point, the Shell Oil Company started adding the detergent during production back at the refinery."

One thing I haven't seen touched on in these discussions of the automotive motor oils of the 50s/60s were the various grade designations (before the API grades came into use). As I recall, they were ML, MM, and MS with regard to the additive packages, meaning "mostly light", "mostly medium" and "mostly severe" service. Anyone else have a recollection of this?

WOW I guess I really got some info on my question on what type of Motor Oil to use on my 327 ci. And I thank all who answered.Now as for the auto trans fluid what is B and M fluid and where would I get some? PS dose any one know the correct color of the Motor on the 1952 327 ci.

All 1951-1954 Motors (except the 1954 359) are gray. Both Kanters and Bill Hirsch have the proper color.

See my project blog for pictures of when I repainted my motor.

B&M TrickShift is available at any local parts store. (In the U.S. that is!)

B&M is a famous maker of high performance and racing transmissions. They have been in business since the 1950s.

They make 2 fluids, a regular and a synthetic. The regular is better for your Ultramatic. All this is from a thread that ran last week, you should be able to find the original thread.

Packard recommended "Type A" fluid. This was the same fluid General Motors used. It was replaced by "Dexron" about 20 years after Packard went out of business.

I remember ML, MM, MS designations. The difference in price was pennies a quart so I always used the good stuff without going into details.

So let's see what would have happened when the new owner of your 52 Packard went back to the dealer for its first oil changed.

The dealer may have recommended Uniflow multigrade oil, the latest thing out at the time. If the customer thought that was too "avant garde" he would have got 20W20, detergent, heavy duty oil as the factory recommended. Unless it was summertime in the desert, over 90 degrees, in which case he would have got SAE30. Or winter in the north, well below freezing, and he would have got SAE10.

I know if he brought the car to any garage in the 60s he would have automatically got 10W30 unless he specifically requested 20W20. A few old timers did, maybe one customer out of 20.

No one got good ol' straight #30. The people who bought that stuff didn't change their oil.

What I am saying is pretty much any postwar car has used nothing but detergent oil or multigrade oil for the last 50 years. There is no reason to change to an inferior oil at this time.

Thanks I am learning new ting each time I ask a question, as I wish to make sure my Packard stays running. My 52 which I just purchased,has a 327ci, with 62,000. I am the Forth owner and the engine and compartment are spotless! So why would the motor be painted GREEN instead of GRAY as it should,it is a different motor or did the original owner how had it for 30 years just paint it GREEN? I know that you can't second guess the reason just wondering, how difficult will it be to repaint the motor back to it's original color GRAY? Dale