Winter Time Projects & Photos.

Happy Holidays Ed!

Not only were you driving with snow on the ground, but also on a gravel road? Shocking! If this type of behavior becomes contagious we might even see some lunatics actually driving their Pierce-Arrows to Annual Meets.

What kind of example are you trying to set?

Dave

(Answer: A damn fine example!)

Arnold, driving Santa in a PA makes you a hero!

Enjoy the holidays!-John and Sue

Eleanor, our 1601, is in the shop this month for new brakes, driver’s side front fender paint and a new coil. Interestingly, all the brake shoes on the car had the same red 12/11/35 date-stamp and we can only guess they were the original brakes on the car with 33k miles now on the clock – asbestos linings and everything!

The original brake shoes were re-lined by

Brake Materials and Parts, Inc.

800 Sherman Blvd.

Ft. Wayne, IN 46808

(260) 426-3331, contact Scott Bethke

and this Co. was referred to us by Ft. Wayne Clutch

Greg,

Anyone with a German Shepherd, a Pierce AND a backhoe is King in my book. Man’s best friend, and two of the best toys in the universe make for a happy guy! Congrats.

James,

If that is your Pierce engine in the foreground, you may want to support the front ASAP. That’s a lot of weight on a few threads. I made the mistake of doing that with a lowly 312 from my ’56 Thunderbird, and it caused the rear cylinders to get out of round. The 312 only weighs in at 600 lbs or so. That straight 8 is almost twice that, and has a greater moment around the rear of that engine. Just a thought…

My Winter Project started out pretty easy. I am re-finishing the intake and exhaust manifolds on the 1931 Model 43. It just go more interesting today. When the Intake manifold came back from media blasting to remove the remains of the porcelain, a thin spot in the casting had perforated…leaving a hole. This is the area where near the flange where there is clearance in the casting for the “D”” shaped clamp plates. Don’t need a huge vacuum leak like this! I am off to the cast iron welding shop tomorrow for the repair.

Happy Motoring and Happy New Year!

Chris”

That’s a pretty big hole! Personally, being a “function over form” guy, I wouldn’t risk a rare manifold with welding that has a high risk of creating more problems than it solves. An intake manifold only has to resist about 12 psi vacuum max, on the same order as the pressure that an .032 thick aluminum skin resists keeping a 5ft diameter light business jet fuselage from exploding when pressurized. My first idea would be to use a thin strip of .016 aluminum or even thinner .012 stainless glued with high temp aircraft fuel tank sealant (used to be MIL-8802) to seal the leak. I think it would be pretty innocuous appearance wise after painting black to match the porcelain. Apologies for second guessing, as they say, free opinions are worth what you pay for them!

Jim

You may release a sleeping tiger if you try to weld that unit. How about some JB weld. The intake manifold does not get too hot and the epoxy may be enough. Don’t reporcelinize but use carbon fibre type paint.

For what its worth, and for other potential repairs, I looked up the numbers for high temp aircraft fuel tank sealants mentioned above.

The MIL-S-8802 spec Class B is available as a PPG aerospace product number PR-1440 Class B. “Class B” is a thixotopic paste (thick and doesn’t run) polysulfide that cures to a dark grey rubbery consistency with very high adhesion. It is used for aircraft applications exposed to hot fuel (oil as well) to 250F continuous 275 intermittent. That temp range should be adequate for an intake manifold, but there is an alternate formula PR-1750 Class B good for intermittent excursions to 360F. Peak temp on an intake manifold would most likely occur after shutting down on a hot day and heat soaking from the exhaust manifold. I would prefer the polysulfide over epoxy adhesives for repair because it is more flexible over time and better able to accommodate the flexing from the manifold’s expansion and contraction with heat. A thin steel “Band-Aid” patch would probably be better than aluminum in order to better match the thermal expansion rate of the cast iron.

Companies supplying aircraft repair supplies should have it, my distributor is Bergdahl Associates if you want to google it.

For using in fuel tanks, I don’t how resistant it is to alcohol – will try to find out as I will want to use it in my future fuel tank screen.

I used PR-1440 very successfully (still works 30 years on) on a number of items including sealing a cracked cast aluminum oil pan. A retired chemical engineer from the Mare Island Naval air repair station put me on to it.