Technical Odds & Ends
By Dwight Heinmuller
I have a Packard with weak hood springs. I'm very careful whenever the hood is up, because if it came down by itself, it could cause lots of damage to the fenders, or itself (or me). Nowadays, I leave the hoods up on all the cars in the garage, assuming that the stress-relieved springs will now last longer, and retain their springy-ness. It may also be a good idea to do this with the trunk lids of 1956 Packards, due to the special nature of the trunk lid springs, which are different from their predecessors. Good 1956 Packard trunk lid springs are designed to "pop" the trunk lid open, when the latch is released, to create an opening gap of about 8". This makes it easier to lift the lid up all the way. When the trunk lid is up and you pull it down softly, it will "hover" at that same 8" or so, before it is pushed down all the way.
One of my Packards used to, regularly, loose some coolant during ordinary trips, and in moderate weather. (Everything about the cooling system seemed to be in order, and it did not overheat). So, I found, at NAPA, a coolant-recovery radiator cap and, at another store, a coolant recovery bottle, which I mounted in an inconspicuous place in the engine compartment. Now, no more wasted coolant. These coolant-recovery caps are available from at least 1941 through 1956.
While we're talking about cooling systems, it is imperative that the coolant be changed at least every three years, preferably every two. Reason: the coolant becomes dirty and creates a silt-like substance that fills the water jackets with crud. My '54 had so much silt accumulation in the water jackets that the engine pinged, regardless of timing or engine load, and ran much hotter than normal, although I didn't realize it, due to an erroneous low reading on the temperature gauge. During a rebuild, the crud was removed and now it runs normally with no pinging, (except briefly on a hard upgrade), on 93 octane. Prior to the rebuild, the temperature gauge was reading about a 1/4 right of C as normal. Now, a normal reading is just right of center. The cooler reading resulted from improper circulation of water at the head, at the rear of the engine; the water was simply not being exposed to the lower parts of the water jacket surrounding the cylinders, which were not being cooled because water could not circulate due to the crud. The current post-rebuild temperature reading is normal because the water is circulating throughout the engine, as it should, resulting in overall lower engine temperatures, which practically eliminated the pinging. The temperature gauge barely moves closer to H during hot weather or when the air conditioning is on. This experience tells me that when everything is close to factory specifications, Packards run exactly the way they were designed to, which is to say, as safely and dependably, under all conditions, as our modern cars.
"Overheating" is simply not a normal situation with a Packard, even in the summer, with the A/C on. There is always a cause, which can be corrected. Overheating can also be in the mind of the owner, rather than as a reality with the car. I believe that overheating does not necessarily have anything to do with what the temperature gauge says. Manifestations of real overheating are boiling of coolant, loss of coolant, and excessive temperatures at the radiator or engine head, as determined by a modern, laser thermometer. If your gauge says HOT, and you have no boiling or loss of coolant, then you are not overheating. In this situation, the temperature gauge is giving a false reading, which may be due to its failure or a failed temperature sender.