Technical Stude Pickup Warehouse Find

I got two with the truck, a ‘57 (made of stamped steel) and a ‘58 (cast aluminum) I was planning on rebuilding one of them and putting it back on, but this engine doesn’t seem to want to come back to life. Now the front seal on the old Jetaway has failed.
I’m not sure what direction to go at the moment. If I could get the engine to run right, I would consider pulling the Jetaway and rebuilding it. It doesn’t come out easily. I would need to modify the trans crossmember to get the trans out or pull the engine and trans out together.
I haven’t given up on the engine yet, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. In the mean time, the FI stuff is bagged, tagged and stored safely.
I’m gathering more Pontiac parts to give me more options.

 

Here’s what I’ve got.
The ‘57 unit

And the ‘58 unit

The ‘57 FI looks pretty crude and mechanical, the ‘58 looks more familiar, more Corvette-like.

 

Rained all morning but when it stopped, I got out there and got going.
Since I found a copper oil pressure line in my stash, I thought I'd install it. A nice easy little task to get the day's rhythm going. There was an odd-shaped, ugly hole in the firewall in a good place for the lines to p*** through, so I made a little plate and used the existing holes. Two fixes for the price of one. I won't bolt it in for good until I get the temp gauge line installed.

I disconnected my temporary oil pressure gauge from the engine and attempted to install the new copper line. The access is ridiculous. The fitting is up against the back of the block where the valley cover seats, under the distributor. I took the old line loose by Braille and installed the new one the same way. When I went to tighten it, it just kept turning but didn't tighten. I wasn't really sure that it ever started to screw on until I broke out the flashlight and mirror. It looked seated.
I disconnected the line and found this.... I've never had that happen before. It figures it happens when you are laying in the engine compartment, across the fender, crushing your nuts. I don't think I overtightened it, I could hardly even get my little ignition wrench on it.

I put a new end on the line. I pieced together some 1/8 pipe fittings to get the connection out from under the distributor and make the access better. I had to take all of the throttle/transmission linkage off to get down in there to install new fittings. That little br*** spot between the distributor cap and the vacuum advance canister is the new oil pressure fitting.
It's not pretty, but I finally got it hooked up.

 

Every time I hear about 57 Pontiac injection I feel ill. In-laws had 57 Pontiac convertible with injection. Went to visit & they had junked the car. Of co**** this happened about 1970 & was just an old car but I knew ( ya I am an old guy )

 

I’ve had a fondness for Pontiacs since I was around 9 or 10 years old, that would be 1959-60. I guess Mickey Thompson and his four engine monster had something to do with my fascination. Adams and McEwen’s Shark Car when it was Pontiac powered was another. I still like anything Pontiac powered.
I think it has the Olds here….

 

Thompson must have been running his redesign heads in that picture. Pontiac center exhaust ports closer together, port layout like SBC. Later build few overhead cam heads.

 

Well, it’s True Confessions time. With a Ferrari Red face, I have to admit that I found the cause of my shaky idle.
Way back, when I pulled off the fuel injection I bought a stock ‘59 Pontiac distributor, rebuilt it, and put it in. I set the crank at #1 TDC plus 12 degrees advance and dropped it in. I snugged the hold down bolt but didn’t tighten it. I guess, in all of the horsing around with linkage and stuff I must have pushed the vacuum canister back. Once it started and ran, I had a bunch of things to watch out for since it hadn’t run for fifty years. I ***umed that the distributor position was close but I never played with the distributor or checked the timing.
Well, today I moved the distributor to install some new oil pressure fittings, then I moved it back to where I thought it had been. I guess I moved it further forward (advanced). When I started it, it ran better. I’m standing there thinking WTF? What did I do? Then it hit me…. I moved the distributor. So I advanced it a little more and it smoothed out more. Pretty soon it was purring like a cat.
My first thought was, “now that’s embarr***ing”. So the ol’ Pontiac runs just fine….and I’m as red faced as can be. Doh….

 

You'd have to be happy with that, a couple more days and you may have had the top end stripped or the motor and box pulled. I'd say that's a win

 

@Rocky would be who I would ask about the intake. He still plays with early Poncho V8 stuff.
Is that a blower motor, perhaps a paxton blower?

That stude truck body is my favorite. The grill is just cool in those. Good looking project.

 

Adams was primarily an Oldsmobile guy back then and it was surprising when their car showed up at Lions with a blown Pontiac. I don't think they ran it very long, most pictures (like above) have the Olds in it.

 

Hey PnB, that is the shroud around the '57 Pontiac version of the Rochester fuel injection. It covered up a whole bunch of ugly. Check out the first photo in Post # 333 above. Would you believe that big old thing was chromed in it's heyday.

 

Wow.
I looked and guessed it was an air box.

 

Ok, so uh, moving right along.... Now that the engine seems to be awake and happy, I need to do something about the waterfall under the bellhousing. They didn't consider transmission removal when they built the truck, no removable center in the crossmember. No matter what I decide to do about the trans, I'm going to have to fix that. I guess I'd better go get some fresh Sawzall blades in the morning.

 

May want to consider the torsion bars fastened to and loaded into that crossmember before you saw into it. Plan ahead

 

Oh yeah. I need to see what it will take to get the load off of them before I do anything else. The good thing is, the new center piece will be stronger than what’s left of the stock crossmember. I’ll see to that.

 

For what it's worth, where your copper oil line goes through that split grommet I have seen that set up arc to the sheet metal when the starter is engaged.

 

^^^^^^^^^Wouldn't that be caused by bad grounding of the engine to the frame/body/battery?

 

I could see that happening. I just put a big new ground strap from the starter bolt to the same bolt that the negative battery cable goes to. And the grommets in the picture aren’t completely installed yet, I’m waiting for my water temperature gauge to arrive in the mail. Then I’ll finalize everything.

 

That is good ! I have seen more than one shifter cable melted where it became the ground.

 

Hey, Bob;
Don't forget a good-sized ground from the cab -> ch***is.
Marcus...

 

If the truck is outside and he’s getting the rain I am, he’s in the shop now!

 

It has a factory looking braided ground strap from the firewall to the engine. You know, the one you always forget to disconnect when you are pulling an engine. Lol

 

The rain. Ugh. I knew it was coming so I got out early and did this….

A bedpan for a peeing Pontiac. It even has a drain plug in case it stays on longer than I plan.
Now at least I can move it around without leaving a trail on my driveway.
I also set the timing and readjusted the carburetor. It’s running nicely.
Tomorrow I’m heading up north to buy the Pontiac to Chevy trans adapter and maybe another 389. But now it’s raining, so I’m done for today.

 

That's great! Now get an electric pump going, and run a hose back up to the fill tube!

 

Now there’s an idea. A 90 degree fitting in the drain hole, some hose and a pump. Just an external reservoir - an open air trans cooler.
It’s supposed to rain through Tuesday here so I’ll probably switch to working on my roadster until the weather allows me to work outdoors on the hoist again.

 

Made it up to Clearlake, Ca. No rain here!

I bought the Wilcap adapter and a ‘62 389. The adapter may work with my ‘59 389 with some minor changes. I can always freshen up the ‘62 short block and use it. At least now I have some options.


We decided to sleep in here tonight….

 

Well, well, look what came in the mail today! A vintage SW water temperature gauge. I cleaned it up some and tested it, all good. I had a window of no rain today but I had to go visit my Mom in the ***isted living place, I missed last weekend being out of town.
Maybe there will be a break in the wet stuff tomorrow long enough for me to get it installed. I hope the capillary is long enough to get to the front of the intake manifold. I may not be able to go through the little plate I made. We’ll see.

 

A little update. I got my new/old gauge installed. I’m very happy to have found a matching temp gauge. I secured my little patch plate with the grommets in place. Everyday stuff but it all needs to be done and takes time.

At first glance, I wasn’t sure that the capillary would reach all the way to the front of the intake manifold where the only temperature port is on the factory Tri-Power manifold. But it fit.

And the plate is bolted in with the grommets. I guess it looks like it’s been there all along.

 

I jacked up the front of the Stude and backed off the tensioning bolts, taking the load off of the torsion bars. I got ready to offload the weight of the transmission and realized that I have no way to lower it down and remove it after I cut the crossmember. It’s too big and ***bersome to manhandle even if I could talk the big neighbor kid into helping. So I ordered a transmission jack. Should be here next week. My “on the lift, lift”….

For reference, to return the torsion bars to where they were, I marked the bolts, counted the turns until the load released and wrote the numbers on the frame. 22 turns on the driver’s side and 20 on the p***enger side. (There, now it’s do***ented here in case I get carried away cleaning and wash off my notes) lol.