Hot Rods I Just Bought a 51 Studebaker Commander

Ha. Nm. They're just rubber seals. I'm going to remove all valves tomorrow. Then I'll begin to clean up the head with the cable in a chuck and a soft wire wheel for some of the exterior area. Then, I'll begin to port! Muahahaha!

 

My poverty forces me to choose accordingly. I have one head completely apart. I have cleaned up all valves and surprisingly all of them still have a sharp edge. One of the intake ports - the one with the formerly stuck valve - has a pitted seat. So, I am going to lap it, and all the seats with compound (just enough so that the valves won't leak). Then, ( after reading advice from Joe Mondello) I will round and blend the factory machined edges inside the intake and exhaust ports for better flow, and port match the exhaust outlets to the exhaust manifold inlets. After that, I am going to get a 2x2 intake manifold and modify it to fit on the cylinder heads, and port match them. Meanwhile, I will be getting a cam grind, new valve springs, lifters, and new rods. Then, I'll buy a second 2 barrel carb, rebuild both carbs, and make some linkages. After that, it's dual exhaust time. With this plan, I'll see if I can't get 30 horsepower and get to my 150 horsepower goal. It's an experiment, and I'm in deep.

BTW, does anyone know what I should do about the distributor and dual 2 barrel carbs? Someone told me to put the starter and ignition on separate switches, and I won't need vacuum advance. Any ideas? Love you guys!

 

Rather than rebuilding/modifying your 232 why not look for a late model full flow V-8? Should be no problem to drop one of these into your car. The later 289 is a better engine and there are better heads and the like. As far as multiple carb intakes these are available. Dave Thiebault and Jeff Rice have a lot of this kind of stuff, including heads, etc. I don't have their contact info right here, but again you can get it by going to the websites mentioned earlier. Join the Studebaker Drivers Club and your local SDC chapter. The information on this is at http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com/index.asp

 

There was a Stude Forum here on the HAMB, but it's been pretty dormant.
Have a look around. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/social-forums/studebakers.157/
(And, Maybe you can kick some life into it!)

 

Have you taken off the other head? Or are you sure those cylinders etc are in good shape? It would be a good idea to take it off and inspect before you do too much work or spend too much money.

Speaking of spending money. You keep saying you don't have much. So do yourself a favor and keep the engine completely stock at this time. Go ahead and lap the valves, clean parts, put in new valve seals and gaskets, change oil, tune up but leave it stock for the time being. Get it on the road and driving first. You have to build the foundation before you build ivory towers on the roof or the whole damn thing will fall down.