Salvaged Standard

It takes time.
It takes hard work.
It takes money.
And it takes a little help from your friends.
Just ask Bob Engle what goes into restoring a rare American engine.
His rescue of one of the few Standard marine engines was 20 years in the making.
But the finished restoration — on display for the first time this year at the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show — is worth every hour, every drop of sweat and every penny as far as Engle is concerned.
“It’s a museum piece,” Engle said Thursday of the Standard.
The four-cylinder, 25-horsepower engine is the same 1910 model that powered the first presidential yacht for Woodrow Wilson.
“This is a rare engine,” said Leon Ridenour of Knoxville, Tennessee, who worked on the restoration with Engle. “There are only two or three in North America, and I’m not sure if they are running.”
Engle’s saga with the Standard began with a phone call from a friend who had a transmission shop in Florida, where Engle spends about half the year, dividing his time between Florida and Tennessee.
As Engle tells the story, a “kid from Vermont” had traveled down to Florida when his transmission went out.
Once the repair work was done, the kid couldn’t pay the $750 bill.
Instead, he offered to trade a pile of parts from what had once been a Standard marine engine.
The mechanic, who knew of Engle’s interest in old engines and old cars, called Bob.
“It was in pieces,” said Engle. “I looked at it and scratched my head, and I paid the $750.”
What he had for his money was both a project and a puzzle.
“You can’t get any detail on this engine,” said Engle, 80.
Finally, he resorted to hiring an engineer to figure out how all the parts were supposed to go back together. That was another $750.
Over 20 years, off and on, Engle and Ridenour worked on the Standard. Engle said he did the rough work, while Ridenour did “the precision stuff.”
They also enlisted assistance through contacts made at the Tri-State show.
The engine’s heads were cracked, but through friendships made in Jay County Engle was able to get those repaired through a high-tech, heat-treatment process. That was another $250.
“We did a little bit each year, and we finally got it running this year,” said Engle. “It’s been a group effort for a lot of people.”
With the Standard running, Engle can now turn his attention to another project, the restoration of a 1992 Studebaker convertible roadster. “It’s a four-year project for me,” he said.