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Hi folks,

I was having trouble with one of my spark plugs, seemed like it was getting a little bit of blowby, you could see a little bit of oil bubble past the plug after you had run the thing a long time, from what I understand that would be caused by a bad seal at the spark plug gasket. I thought, well, maybe the spark plug wasn't seating very well, and since I had the head off I cleaned out the well and wire-brushed the seating surface, and in pretty much all of the spark plugs the seat, e.g. where the spark plug gasket sits, is rather pitted. I don't think I was having any problem except with that one spark plug, but now that I've wire brushed the paint off in the sealing surface, I can see it clearly everywhere.

I saw that TimeSert sells this tool, kinda pricy. I also wonder if I cut too much of the seat down the spark plug would be sticking out too far and maybe the valve would bash into it:

Time-Sert Spark Plug Seat Reconditioning kit.

I guess I could take the head to a machine shop to take care of this, but that would also be $$ and have the same possible problem.

I will get a picture later and post.

Thanks!

Jerome,

Wild thought and don't know if this would work.....a tap washer reseating tool?

Here's a couple of pictures. Hard to take a good one because of reflections on metal surfaces.

Is this anything to worry about? Is this normal on these engines after all this time?

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First check the issue by putting soap and water around the plugs and starting the motor. Bubbles indicate leakage.

There are high strength metalized epoxies out there that can be applied and sanded.

Those UY-6 plugs don't need to be very tight. However, bubbles indicate gases are getting past the threads and that is a different problem.

This happens when plugs are removed and put back in without replacing the gasket/seal under them. To the question, I’ve not used the tool but on my 1954 Patrician’s aluminum head, I had all the plug holes Heli-coiled and the seats redone professionally.

Good afternoon...A couple of thoughts come to mind.
First, the threads are always just a tiny bid different on different manufacturers plugs. Might pay to get a nut the correct size and try it on some different plugs that will swap into your packard.

Second, ACE Hardware has a product called Pipe Thread Compound TFE Paste. It contains teflon in its mixture. It works on water, steam, natural and LP gas, oils, fuels and dilute acids. A little around the top three or so threads on the plug seems to do the trick...It would be a cheep fix. Ernie in Arizona

So: I did a few things:

1) Cleaned those areas really well with a wire brush.

2) Used a bit of JB-weld to fill the pits, smoothed it out using a tool I made from an extra head stud and bolt, which fit down in there real nice.

3) After the JB-weld had cured for 24 hours, used the wire brush again to smooth it out once more. Truthfully, by the time I'd done all this, I'm not sure any of the JB-weld was left, very little if that.

Took the car for a couple hour+ long test drives and see no problems at the spark plugs anymore.

Thanks everyone!