'62 stude lark wagon, what motor/tranny fits, ideas?

i have this nice little '62 lark wagon with a six cyl. and manual o/d tranny. head is cracked and been looking for a new one. also, thinking of just putting something different in it. what fits nicely? what have ya'll ( all 3 of you 60s stude. folks)done? thanks.
happy new year!
nic

 

If you can find a 65 or 66 "chevybaker" Stude that came originally with a 283 "McKinnon" engine (pretty much a chev 283 made by a GM plant in Canada), the mounts will let you pretty easily put a small block Chevy in there. Or you could fab your own mounts.
There is a guy from the stude newsgroup who put a 454 chev in a 61 Stude wagon without molesting the engine compartment sheetmetal. Here's his website where there is an adress where you can email him. He has a webpage with pix of his 454 Stude wagon:
<a href=http://www.oldcarfart.com/pages/1/index.htm>http://www.oldcarfart.com/pages/1/index.htm</a>


There were some famous "Studellacs" built in the late 50's in calif: Larks with 390 Cadillac engines. I think they got writeups in HotRod and one of the 60s era engine swapping magzines had an article on putting the 390 Cad into a Lark.
You can get lots of help on the alt.autos.studebaker newsgroup. Most of them are OK with people rodding Studes. The national club even has a special show car "Modified Stude" division.

 

whats wrong with a V8 stude motor, they look cool as hell and there good motors, forget that chevy crap, sorry jim. I'm just telling him what you wanted to tell him, nothing wrong with the caddy idea though.

 

The V8 Stude motor would be a good choice. There are guys on the Stude newsgroup who make hot cams for them and guys who modify the easy to find 2 Barrel Carb manifolds, so they can accept 4 Barrel carbs, as the 4 Barrel stock manifolds have become pretty damn hard to find.

 

I've got a Studebaker 259 V8 I'll sell ya, but we'd have to arrange a relay or something.

The Stude V8s are great motors. If I were in your position, thats what I'd be looking for to replace the dead six. A $300 trans adapter lets you bolt up a Turbo350 or 700R4 overdrive trans real easy-like.

 

love them Lark Wagons, here's mine right before I yanked the motor

 

the motor went into the modified

 

I still have the wagon, it waits patiently on the back burner..

 

Hiya 60s Style (Paul)... what intake is that on your Stude motor? More importantly, do you know where I can get one?? I'm always in the hunt for old Stude 'performance' stuff like that...

 

I'll bed that's an Edmunds 2x2 on that Stude. Seems like that's the intake I always see on those old mills. A Caddy intake is supposed to fit if you machine it to fit the different head angle.

 

yup, it's an Edmunds, I found mine at a swap meet, and I guess they are where you find them, I paid two and a quarter for the manifold with carbs and linkage, prolly about average.. price wise.

as for the Caddy intake, I believe it's the bolt locations are slightly different, the ports and angles should be the same..

it looks like the engine compartment would be an easy fit for a small Chevy,
I was thinking of a front half/straight axle and big block for mine though.. someday.. maybe.

Paul

 

Anything fits bro'.
My ex wife had a '63 Lark with a straight six, it gave us no end of troubles. The flex plate kept breaking, it was solid, but it was a piece of junk too. I guess I loved my foxy ex for driving/owning a piece of forgotten history, but 20 years later she's history too. The truth is I've loved ALL my exes, girls are beautiful, even the ugly ones.
By God, she was a beautiful girl back then, the most beautiful girl I'd ever laid eyes upon, kinda slant eyed, kinda chubby, kinda perfect, kinda cheating on her ex with me. If that wasn't a clue about the things in store, I don't know what was?

We made out after a Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert, she stole my heart. I still think about her. It would be eternally gratifying to know that I crept into her thoughts once in a while.

I'm not hijacking your thread my friend, just interjecting that Studeys have a place in my heart.

You already know the best engine on the planet's a small block Chevy, that's what I would do.

Nic, you're a great guy.

 

thank ya'll for the ideas... i'm thinking sbc now.and nads,i love you, too! sorry for the broken <3... but hey, look at us now.
nic

 

I'd go with the stude motor.

 

Lionel Stone's website lists the "Dual Two-Barrel Intake Manifold" for $250. Its shown about halfway down in the Lark &amp; Hawk Performance Parts section.

http://www.studebakervendors.com/lstone.htm

 

How about a hot Stude Champion Six?
Check out Cathcart's Studebaker
http://cathcartsstudebaker.com/

Dave
http://cathcartsstudebaker.com/images/champ%20engine%20RH%20compressed.jpg

 

Nads! Quite drinking and writing! You're making mre cry. Gonna get up and play some Patsy Cline on the Jukebox.

-sniff-

 

[ QUOTE ]
Lionel Stone's website lists the "Dual Two-Barrel Intake Manifold" for $250. Its shown about halfway down in the Lark &amp; Hawk Performance Parts section.

http://www.studebakervendors.com/lstone.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Damn! Forgot all about that one... Thanks!

SBC vs. Stude... hmm... that's a toss-up; there's good arguments for both. I've always been partial to 500cid Caddies myself!

 

well folks, i'm goin' with an sbc. have one sitting around, might as well use it. thanks for all the input. and i still love nads, the whacky paki.
nic

 

[ QUOTE ]
well folks, i'm goin' with an sbc.

[/ QUOTE ]

Might as well- thats what everyone else does.

 

love to go with a stude motor, however, the fact i have an sbc at hand and my car money is going to a '29 sport coupe' project i gotta' go this way.i mean no disrespect to the traditionalists.
nic

 

should be plenty of room in all the right places for it too

 

You might want to look at the following webpage from time to time. A guy from the Stude newsgroup will be posting the progess of his putting an early Hemi in a 62 Lark convert:


<a href=http://lee.cosw.sc.edu/62lark/>http://lee.cosw.sc.edu/62lark/</a>