1956 Packard Panther Project

Heavy Duty Oil System Modifications

The Packard V-8 oiling system has been previously discussed here. The purpose of this Special Project is to describe the heavy-duty modifications made to the Panther engine.

Oil Pump

removed vacuum pump
replaced bottom plate with 1/4-in steel plate
machined bottom mating surface for 0.002 clearance with plate
installed bronze bushing in pump body for driveshaft
rotated stock pickup tube 1-1/2in higher than stock (not shown)
replaced driveshaft with stock length plus 1-1/2in driveshaft

Pump adapter

The next oil system modification was to machine a 1-1/2in spacer to lower the oil pump that amount into the oil pan. Lowering the oil pump emerses the driveshaft entry hole that much lower in the oil and reduces the hydraulic head pressure on the pickup side.

This spacer serves an additional purpose which is to reroute the pump output outside the engine. The purpose of this is to mount an external full flow oil filter. It could also be used as the scavenge side of a dry sump oil system.

The stock partial-flow oil filter is actually a LEAK in the oil system! It takes its oil feed from the end of the driver side cylinder head as indicated by the red arrow in this diagram:

Internal Oil Lines

Early mockup of internal oil lines

NOTE: Final oil line configuration

Drilling & Tapping Oil Holes

There are a couple of ways of getting the pressurized oil from the pump to outside the block. One way would be to modify the oil pan for bulkhead fittings. A more elegant way is to enlarge the already existing fittings and holes provided for the (now unused) vacuum pump. The minimum hole diameter needs to be 1/2" and the minimum tap size needs to be 3/8NPT.

I made up a couple of crude, but effective jigs to guide the hand drill. Here's the jig for #4 main web:

The jig bolts to two oil pan holes to hold it firmly in place. The wood spacer (meat in the sandwich, so to speak) is to get enough thickness to hold the drill bit firmly in position.

Here's the one for the outlet side:

I drilled the holes in the block in stages. First 1/2" all the way through. Then 9/16" as shallow as possible as a pilot hole for the 3/8NPT tap. The engine block is cast iron which has some carbon (graphite) in it. Because of this, the drill bit self-lubricates, which makes the drilling relatively easy.

I hand tapped the 3/8NPT, "sneaking up" on the depth that I needed. I went with the minimum depth possible to retain the fitting snugly, The thickness of the block in those areas is sufficient, if you're careful. Here's a shot of the finished results:

External Oil Lines

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