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Hello,
New to the forum so bear with me. Spelling not to good and sentence structure is a bit off at times.
Please point me in the right direction if some of my questions need to go elsewhere...and I have many as time goes by.
Working on a 1938 Super 8 engine. A one year only engine design. It has had the top end rebuilt twice both suffered from severe cracks and dropped valve seats. Radiator is new. Any ideas?
Is someone reproducing the inside plate for the water jack or does someone have a print of it?
Does this engine us a thermostat?

Hi

Welcome! You've joined the most helpful, knowledgeable and generous group of Packard enthusiasts on-line. Your question about '38 Super Eight engines has arisen before, though no specific conclusions:

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=17084&forum=1&post_id=169675#forumpost169675

More details on the problems you've encountered will help those versed in that engine diagnose the trouble.

Again, welcome!

Steve

G'day DVHRE1,
to PackardInfo. I invite you to include your '38 Super 8 in the Packard Owner's Registry.

Concerning the water jacket, Max has complete reproductions available, see here, and Kanters probably does too. Rather than a thermostat in the engine/head your Packard should have a shutterstat mounted in the top radiator tank which actuates the radiator shutters and controls engine cooling in that manner.

I am not the owner of the car I have been asked to rebuild the engine for the owner. The cylinder block has been rebuild two times. When the owner brought the car to me for diag. Cylinders 2,3,6,7 were not firing. I also noticed at high rpm it had a crank rumble. Long story short what I have found so far. Block had 7 cracks. Cylinders on 2,3,6,7 had turned blue from heat. Water jacket had a jury rigged plate, the holes did not line up with the space between the cylinders. The plate covered about 1/8" of the water pump discharge area. The plate was 3/16" from sealing the front area just behind the water pump discharge. Water pump impeller has been rebuilt but the impeller was 3/8" from the block. The car has a working shutter system, it also had a thermostat. It does have an after market temp gauge mounted under the dash. It will be removed tonight and checked for accuracy.
I have my own theory on the above mentioned but would like to have any input regarding the above topics.
Owner stated it has never been hot damage shows other wise.