Cyliinder Heads on the Twelve

Fear not! Cast iron heads were used exclusively through 1935, with any 462 heads being interchangeable.

If a 1936-38 still has original aluminum heads with problems there are some new reproduction heads still around the P-A community. Many if not most later cars have been changed to cast iron.

The only issues found in our 1933 were due to poor maintenance by previous owners and easy to address once diagnosed. These are tough engines and compared to Packard 12’s are easy to work on if issues do arise.

Despite being a Packard Club member for 3 decades I would never buy a later Packard 12. Fortunately I got into Pierce-Arrows and the Society before I made such a mistake!

Dave Stevens

Pierce Arrow cars of any vintage don’t have any issues, if properly restored and sorted for driving. I have driven my 1936 twelve about twenty thousand miles since the restoration was finished in 1995. It burns LOTS of gas, especially when going down the highway at high speeds………over 60mph. Around town and back roads…….I get 8mpg. About the same as towing it with my GMC dually diesel. If you gotta worry about the gas bill, you don’t want any Pierce. I do run an electric fuel pump at all times on my 12’s, as todays modern fuel will boil at 117 degrees, and the under hoot temperature far exceeds that, so on shutdown the carbs boil themselves dry. Thus is lots of cranking to fill them with the mechanicial pump, or purge the system with an electric before starting. While I’m a purist it just isn’t worth not running an electric today.

Stu……I try and not do sales pitches here……even though I am not longer working with John on a daily basis. I sold him all my spare parts about three years ago, so now I just help him out at Hershey. I have the oversize line on all my cars, and they never have vapor lock issues. It’s amazing how going up one size on the line virtually eliminated all the problems. My best, Ed

Scott, you might want to contact Lynn Kissel regarding vapor lock on 12’s. He has a beautifully restored ’33 (he took first in class at Rohnert Park) that has had problems with vapor lock. He installed thermocouples and tracked what temperatures and conditions will bring the onset of vapor lock (I wonder if he got any deductions for his thermocouple leads?). He also installed a clever fuel vapor return system to alleviate the problem. In my articles I mentioned that I didn’t think a fuel recirculation/return system would likely benefit vapor lock partly because the recirculating fuel would heat the fuel in the tank. Lynn’s system is designed to separate the vapor at the carburetor and return only vapor to the tank. That could mitigate much of the heat gain problem.

Jim