Hot Rods Studebaker Hop-Up parts

Got a really rusty Stude Lark 'vert in a trade, 289 4 speed, thinking it could be cool to go outside the box, looking for mild speed parts for a off beat driver.

 

Studebaker Lark V8 4 speed, now that is a rare car. Get it on the road and try it out. You may like it the way it is. If you decide to hop it up go through the engine first, make sure bearings, oil pump, rings, pistons, valves etc are in first class condition. It is a very common thing, that an old engine will run fine for thousands of miles but blow sky high in a month if you hop it up.

Studebaker's answer for more power, was a McCulloch supercharger. They continue to be made under the Paxton name. They often come up for sale when someone wraps their 5 liter Mustang around a tree. Might be an idea to pick one up cheap and adapt it to your motor.

They respond to the usual hop up tricks like cam, headers, intake, etc but Studebaker speed parts aren't so easy to get. This is another reason the supercharger may be the way to go.

 

Not much out there.
Offenhauser intake manifolds (small port), port (clean up) the cylinder heads, R2, R2+ cams.

Or you can go wild and have a roller cam made, aftermarket rods, pistons, dampers, (custom built) intake manifold. I built a crank triggered ignition for one of mine. Build your own headers (R3 manifolds available occasionally).

Mike

 

Check the Racing Studebakers forum...

 

Install an R1 camshaft.

 

In the '50 there was a 2 carb manifold .Rare then rarer now.

 

Search for something STU-V, they made a couple versions, this is my sideways 2 X 2

 

Here are some examples of supercharged Studebakers like yours.

63 Lark with 289HP R2 engine and 4 speed -
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/1963-studebaker-r2-lark-superhero/

Completely nutz - 63 Avanti R5 with 2 4barrels, 2 Superchargers and 504HP-

http://www.paxtonauto.com/article.php?id=5

 

Your best bet for finding speed parts and information is to join the Studebaker Drivers Club Forum and check out what your local club might have, or have access to, as well as pick brains from the folks who go to the Pure Stock Muscle Drags with their Studebakers, as well as other outlets. We're not rare. Nash is rare, we're just uncommon. Welcome to the fold. Check out the SDC Forum anyway, they're usually only mildly pestering new folks asking questions about their new Studebakers, to join the SDC, when asking questions on the Forum. http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/

 

Just for grins, here's a current thread going on: http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?95842-Piston-crown-to-head-clearance

 

That stuff is out there. Look for edmunds stuff and an R1 cam. This is the 259 for my 31 Tudor.

 

meet up with some old Studie guys that ran the roundy roundy....they knew how to work a lathe....they were working the rocker shafts and such....made a little HP there.....

 

I haven't looked at the hamb for at least a few years. 5 I think.
The 1959 Lark we raced used an R1 Avanti camshaft in a stock block Stude 259.
I used to build thousands of racing HEI ignitions, transmission adapters, racing cyl heads and big disc brakes for Stude, Hudson,Packard, AMC, Jeep and others. Used on on the Lark and my daily drivers.
For the Lark (and my street cars) I built some ported heads with cut down Manley Pro Flo Chevy valves and cut down rocker stands. I have to look up the valve size, but it was something like this - 1.94 chev intakes cut down to 1.8, or 1.85, or 1.87, or thereabouts depending on what we were doing, bronze valve guides, shortened pushrods to match the lowered rocker stands,...greatly enlarged seats and valve bowls for the big valves. unshrouding.
We used Amc jeep headers re-bent and bolted on an adapter.
Home made pro stock style ram manifold and single holley 4bbl.
Chevy aftermarket hi perf clutch, redrilled and dialed-in Oldsmobile scattershield, borg warner T-10 4 speed trans with straight cut gears, and cogs set for bang-shifting. Ladder bars, a Ford 9 inch rear, and 10.5 in slicks.
We won the Fast Class trophy at Music City Raceway in Nashville in 1992, and surprised many people many times at various strips including racing regularly at the Indy Good Guys Hot Rod Happenings in the 1980's and mid 90's.
The car burnt up along with a couple Hawks, a Vette, and many many spare parts in a shop fire that stopped all our racing activities a number of years ago.
Yes, that one pic below shows me dusting a GTX 440 with an AMC powered GREMLIN at the dragstrip. I took home prize money.
Please don't ask me to fire up the machinery to build you anything.
I have been too busy exploring California on a Triumph Bonneville, hiking up mountains, and wandering around.
Someday I may build something again, but not today!