Restoration started on the 1936 – 1601 s/n 2600193

I hope you enjoy the process as much as I have.  As another member told me, “it’s not one big job, but many little jobs.”  Good luck and hope to see progress pictures.

Hi Chris: It is not clear if you removed the engine for some general clean up and painting, or if you are planning on rebuilding the engine.  If you are not planning on rebuilding the engine, it is very important to remove each connecting rod cap and push the rod and piston up a bit to clear the crankshaft, then closely inspect the babbit bearing material and surfaces.  Some radial lines or minor ridges are not a critical item. But cracks in the babbit are a major red flag.  Use micrometers or Plasti-Gauge to check the oil clearance.. Original clearance was .001″-.002″.

The babbit can crack and a piece be loose, but retained in the bolted together connecting rod. But the loose piece is not supporting a good oil film/layer, and soon the bearing will fail.  I have driven several very good running Pierce Arrow cars that had no alarming noises, and had good oil pressure.  But when I dropped the oil pan and inspected each connecting rod bearing, several had large pieces of the babbit loose in the rod, and had excess oil clearances.   It is certainly best to discover this and repair it now when the engine is out of the car.

Make sure to check the oil pump carefully for excess gear end-clearance, and excess gear tooth to pump body clearances.  This is a fairly common problem.  For my cars and a few other engines I have rebuilt, I had several sets of slightly oversize oil pump gears made up.  This way the pump body can be used and rebuilt to original oil clearances for the best oil pressure and flow..

Greg Long

You are welcome Chris.   For an engine stand, I used two fairly average engine stands, much like you can buy at Harbor Freight or similar retail outlets..  What I found that worked for me was two similar designed stands, that were made by different companies, but had several features that made them ideal for my project.

First, the stands had the typical vertical post with the rotating mount within a steel sleeve welded on the top if the post.

At the bottom of the post was a cross bar with a caster-wheel on each end, making sort of ‘outriggers’.  Also welded on the bottom of the vertical post was another square steel tube that went forward, under where the engine would be hanging.  At the end of this forward support was another steel tube at right angles with another pair of casters at each end.. So this engine stand had 4 caster wheels.

The second engine stand was built along nearly identical lines, but the forward support was a slightly smaller dimension:  and it fit perfectly INSIDE the other stand’s central support.   I removed the cross bar and caster wheels from the smaller stand, and slid the central support inside the other stand’s  central support..

The result is a telescoping two ended engine stand that will safely hold the very heavy and long Pierce Straight Eight engine.

One note regarding making engine mounting plates to adapt the engine stand to the engine itself:  The engine is NOT symmetrical on each side of the crankshaft:  One side of the engine has the valves, valve springs, lifter assemblies, camshaft, oil pump and oil pump drive. I did not account very well when making my mounts for the Pierce Eight to mount in the engine stand.. So the engine has a definite ‘heavy side’ and can be a bit of work to turn to work on the other side of the engine.

Greg Long