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I am thinking about rebuilding an 120 engine that came with the car when I bought it.
Question: What is a good engine stand to rebuild a 30's Packard straight 8.
I have a KR Wilson stand for Fords and I have heard that there was an adapter but I have not seen one
At this point, I am old & fat and I don't enjoy wrestling with an engine on a bench or hanging in the air so I need a stand that you can turn.
Thanks
Will

This one was modified (Kansas Jack, I think), but you will need to find something to hold both ends. I believe Packard actually used a stand where the engine was attached from the side.

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Engines are very heavy and long so to be safe you really do need something to support the engine from both ends or the side. Here is the stand Packard made available and suggested their dealers use. It supports from the side.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... .php?post_id=181039#forumpost181039

As mentioned in that other post, I built one for a modern stand similar in construction to the Packard version. IIRC, Ross has a photo or two somewhere on the forum showing something he has made. I believe his has a piece which drops down so bolts can thread into a couple of threaded bosses cast into the lower forward center portion of the block. IMO, a combination of the two approaches would be easier to work with where there is a long strip welded on top of the lower piece so the engine can bolt to the cast in threads on the bottom and also have clamps around each end. That way there would not be as much stress with bolts being only at one small location.

The advantage to supporting from the side is much less space is required and the danger of a long engine tipping the stand or breaking one of the mounting holes is reduced. There is also less finagling to find the exact mounting position needed at each end of the engine for two stands to rotate in the same plane.

Disadvantage to the side mount is the stand must be fairly high to start with. The pivot and center of gravity needs to be positionedy on the adapter so the engine can rotate easily without being off center and very heavy in one position. The height is needed so the ends of the engine will not hit the stands center leg.

i used a four leg, 1500lb heavy duty engine stand. it wasn't so much the weight, but the length of the weight. here is a picture of the motor with most parts on it. you can see i had a wood block at the bottom right that was supporting the front from sagging a bit. the wood block was on a jack so i could jack up and relieve the sag.

it was not easy to rotate the motor, but it did rotate. bolting to the back of the motor was also a huge challange as it does not seem to be a bolt pattern my stand liked to play well with. not sure if you can tell, but the motor is off center from the rotation assembly.

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Howard that is just what I was looking for. Your picture shows a KR Wilson engine Stand with a Packard 8 adapter. I got the stand, now if I could only find the adapter.
Thanks again
Will

There was a bronze model for sale of the old engine stand. I don't know it looks like it would be bottom heavy.
Wes

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Also you might want to checkout this link:
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... um=4&post_id=142597#forumpost142597
Wes

Is that model still for sale?

There really isn't an inexpensive (Harmful Fright kind of price) engine stand that will adequately support a straight 8 engine. The best thing to do is buy two inexpensive V-8 type engine stands (which you can buy all day at HF) and make runners between the two stands out of tube steel or Unistrut. Picture two V-8 engine stands facing each other, their rotation plates at the outside. You run a piece of steel tube inside the lower, long leg that runs parallel to the engine block to the inside of the opposite stand and lock it in place with a bolt on each side. You can fabricate the horizontal pieces out of tube steel (easy if you have welding equipment) or out of Unistrut, you can buy the generic "B-line" equivalent at Home Depot. You need to make two (nearly) identical pieces that look like this:


l________________________________________l


the short legs sticking upward need holes to bolt them into the rotation plate on the stand.
THe shop I worked in did so many pre-war engines that they actually had stands like this fabricated from scratch.
It is unsafe to use a V-8 type stand, I have seen a few hillbilly set ups with a straight 8 on a V-8 stand with a 2 x 4 at the front of the engine. Not recommended.

Sorry, I didn't see the model listed on eBay any more. But I did find this one and it is sweet!
Wes

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