engine running hot 47 packard super clipper

Hey JIM, check your timing, as mine had a similar problem pulling up to the 5,000 foot level on Spring Mountain, Check your dwell and put a vacum gage on it while adjusting the distributor, sounds like yout timing is late when your vacum is decreased on a long pull.<P>Bill Uhouse<BR>Pahrump Nev.

Jim, Packard straight-8s had a water distribution tube to aid in cooling off the cyls furthest from the water pump. Did you inspect/replace it when you had the engine out? If the tube is corroded/blocked it will cause a cooling problem.

New Old Stock Dorman water distribution tubes

I have new old stock water distribution tubes. I have Metal and Brass in most instances. If you’re motor needs one please send an email to Oldcartech@gmail.com

I will need the year, make, Mod, & eng 6 or 8 cylinders.

I cannot stress enough just how important it is for your motor to distribute water properly. It is absolutely a must that water is distributed around each cylinder as required by the motor manufacturer.

The above posters are right as rain. When you say new radiator, do you mean NOS, recored, or? Some shops will "fix" a leak by pinching off the offending tube. Also, if recored, make sure it has five rows of tubes per factory.

Never hurts to flush the block again while reaming a length of welding rod in and out of the left-hand rear block drain to make sure there's still no detritus, esp. if you can do this while balancing the outflow of water from the engine on fast idle with a garden hose filling the radiator while the radiator petcock is closed. Then put the plug back in the block, drain the radiator again. Refill with soft water and a quality rust inhibitor.

A wee Packard tip that might bore some of our casual readers: Consider threading a brass stand off pipe with a drain at the end in place of the simple block plug. This way, doing future maintenance, you don't have coolant splashing out over the dipstick and starter motor.

Tho' your temperature gauge should register per the '47 owner's manual, if you don't need antifreeze, if your car will never be exposed to two consecutive nights of a hard freeze, avoid the stuff like the plague. Antifreeze degrades over time and leaves a film that inhibits heat transfer. Again, if you don't need antifreeze, just use soft water and a quality rust inhibitor like www.no-rosion.com

No, i'm not affiliated with No-Rosion, but i've used it in my '47 Super Clipper for years, as have friends with Cords, a real problem with their aluminum heads.

BTW, never use distilled water in a cooling system. Distilled water is ion-hungry, so it leaches minerals, including the solder in your radiator. Mercedes-Benz issued a warning to their North American service departments in 1989 to this effect, and a Chrysler engineer member of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club warned about antifreeze, per above, in the A-C-D Newsletter 20 years ago.

Duuuuuuuude, Packards rule!