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What always bugged me about the V-8 is the extreme variance in service records for this engine. I knew original owners who kept their cars as transportation right into the 70's, while others might as well have bought a tow truck as a second car.

If the oil pump and powerplant was no good then the thing would have blown up on the test track. The fact that it could go 25,000 miles at full throttle with a defective oil pump isn't congruent.

The problems seem to show up in moderate usage at speeds well under severe which indicates something more esoteric as evidenced by the numerous service bulletins. Maybe throwing oil at the problem is one way to muddle through and that's great, but I don't think the engineers were looking at the problem from that perspective.

The car's themselves impress me in one way: The torsion bar suspension is unique and has stood the test of time better than any other suspension system I can think of. That those little torsion bars haven't buckled under all that weight is truly a marvel. It is the most advanced suspension design in the world.

The Citroen system (licensed by Rolls Royce) provided a superb ride (especially in the Shadow), but it was nowhere near as trouble free as the Packard. Today I deal with all sorts of stupid computer ride control gadgets that really don't do very much to improve ride. Compared to the Packard they are just Rube Goldberg nonsense.

So I think the engineers at Packard were dealing with something very obscure as regards the V-8 performance issues.

"The problems seem to show up in moderate usage at speeds well under severe which indicates something more esoteric as evidenced by the numerous service bulletins."

U mite have a good point there. My 56 Exec had a worn out pump at 34K miles. I know of (but not personaly) the ORIGINAL owner of the car. I have been under the impression from those that did know him personaly that it was used by the original owner mostly thru slow city drivng conditions.

As for "throwing oil at the problem":
I converted to the Olds pump for a variety of reasons NOT related to increasing oil pressure or volumn. The increased oil delivery was only a peripheral benefit in my case. BEFORE OLDS conversion existed I had tried a variety of Packard oil pump changes as outlined in the SC's and STB's as well as a few of my own ideas. Bought some NOS parts from big name Packard vendors to rebuild pump with. HOWEVER not all parts are available (at that time) and the LATE pressure relief piston was claimed as not existing. Among other problems that i will not bother to piss and moan about here.

About 1 year before Olds conversion was discovered i had a good pump set up in my car:

LATE pump.
NOS input shaft.
Bushing ala Aller pump.
LOWER bushing ala PI "Redesign".
OIl groove to feed bushing ala SBC oil pump design.

It worked great however there was STILL a very slight HIGH SPEED ONLY lifter noise that would religously show up at 2700 rpm after about 5 miles of running.

I got tired of patching together parts from USED pumps with NOS parts and some parts NLA etc etc.

I put the Olds conversion on. ALL problems solved.

Edit: IF ( NOTE I SAID "IF") there is some kind of alignment problem ( due to PMCC foundry/machining) with the distributor shaft to the block and therefore an alignment problem with oil pump AND the pump wears prematurely THEN i go to local discount store and buy a BRAND NEW Olds pump for about $75 and install it same day.

What part of that does anyone not understand????

I've often wondered if the V8 premature oil pump wear/failure/lifter noise is more common among Jr's than Sr's.

Why would you think there would be any difference?

Is it possible that Jr's got parts that may have been built with production parts that did not quite meet specifications and therefore some distributor to engine oil pump misalignment????

My 56 Exec (glorified Jr) has (had) the correct color painted engine block when i got it with matching numbers. BUT it was painted over ivory. So it must have been originaly slated for a 55 Sr.????

THe flex joint of the Packard oil pump shaft sets rather high compared to most oils pumps of other manufacture. That would most likely accelerate input shaft wear especialy IF some production misalignment exists. As a coincidence, the PI "redesign" (as i understand such "redesign") places the flex joint clloser to the pump.

Also look at the end of any Packard V8 oil pump shafts. i.e. tHe end that inserts into the distributor gear. Of at least 8 i've looked at including my low mileage Exec that end of the shaft always shows rather unusual deep wear compared to other engines of other manufactureres i've looked at . Whether that is due to misalignment or excessive load i'm not real sure. Maybe BOTH.

PackardV8 Quote:

Keith brings up an important point that I meant to mention in a previous post. Even if one bushes the two shafts in the Packard oil pump, including extending the driven shaft into a new bushing in a new bottom plate, thicker plate, one is still left with the fact that the gear teeth ends and the circular outer surface that they spin in is WORN. This significantly reduces the pumping efficiency because of the additional clearance. There is no good solution to this problem since NOS pumps and parts are essentially N/A.

A new Olds HV pump is just that: NEW. For no other reason, one would install a new pump when experiencing oil pressure problems or during a serious rebuild.

Craig