Studebaker 259 V-8......

[Farmer]

Hey tell me what you know about the Studebaker 259 V-8 and the automatic transmission that came behind it. I was told the motor I'm asking about if from a '55 Stude. and the tranny is an automatic "borg warner" deal? Hop up parts, reliability, horsepower, etc.....educate me!

[cosmo]

Engine good, hop-up stuff exists, get with the Studebaker Driver's Club. There's an Avanti running some big numbers at Bonneville with a Studebaker V8.
Trans not so much. Expensive to rebuild, and not so good at that.
Cosmo
Oh, BTW, both very heavy.

[Paul]

might want to lose the auto and get the heavier 3speed OD

I'm using the '61 259 with a 3 speed in my uh, T bucket thing..

they were pretty hot little motors in their class.

Paul

[drgnwgn289]

ok...you asked for it.
All of the stude V8s have the same external dimensions (224,232,259 and 289).
As for strength, all stude V8s have a factory forged crank and rods. The blocks are cast steel with a really high nickel content. If you have it machined, make sure the machine shop knows this...or you might come back to find a huge bill and a block thats only half done. The stude V8s have more rod bearing surface than a sbc, and more main bearing surface than a bbc. They are solid lifter, gear drive cam. If you put a nasty cam in it, you'll want to get some r-2 valve springs and an aluminium cam gear to replace to stock fiber gear.
As for hop up parts. You can get all kinds of stuff for these motors if you look hard enough. Offenhauser still makes valve covers for these motors. There are several differnt intakes that were made for stude motors. Wiend made a 2x2 for 4 bolt carbs and edmunds made a 2x2 for 3 bolt carbs. Tom Branch knows more about intakes than I do, so if this is something you really want to look into you might want to ask him. Lionel Stone Studebaker is recasting the R-3 intake (single four barrel) in alumium. Also, early caddilac (331, 390..pre 63 cad motors) have nearly the same intake. With a little modification you can put any of those manifolds on a stude.
Headers are basically non existant. I run avanti R-3 headers. These are being reproduced by Lionel Stone as well, but they are a cast iron header, not a tube header. Flt-Blk made his own stude headers.
All the parts you'd need to freshen one up are available, i.e. water pumps, fuel pumps, seals, ect. A good place to look for parts is the Studebaker Driver's Club website, they have links to studebaker venders.
The transmission...I don't have a clue about. I've always had manuals...
Power: In my 54 wagon, I'm running a 289, bored .030 over with Keith Black pistons (8.5:1), an Erson mid range cam, R-2 valve springs, R-3 intake and headers. Its got an AFB (625 cfm) and a paxton supercharger that makes about 8 psi at 6000 rpm. I've never dynoed it, or even run it on the strip, but I'd guess I'm making about 290-310 horsepower. They aren't cheap to build. You could build a way hotter small block chevy for cheaper...but oh well.

[drgnwgn289]

Oh yeah, reliability...I've been running mine for about 4 years now. I drive it from Carson City, Nv to Lubbock, Tx and back twice a year. Not to mention all over Texas, New Mexico and where ever. Its only broken down on my once, and that was the crappy Napa alternator.
All in all, they are a really stout, well built realiable motor.

[NealinCA]

John -

My dad has a Stewd T-86 3-spd OD trans that is supposedly a fresh rebuild.

If you are interested, let me know.

Neal

[Farmer]

sent you a pm

[Skate Fink]

..............we had the 259 "Bear Cat" V8/ auto in our '55 Stude and it WAS a bear! O/D trans would just start settling down around 75 mph and if you pulled it down into "low," it would through you through the windshield. Loaded with torque. Heavy car and we drove it from MD to OH through the mountains and it averaged 21 mpg for the trip.

http://www.weirdtrip.com/shots/studehist36.jpg

[drgnwgn289]

yeah, fink is right...stude 259's and 289's make tons of torque. A few people have brought up the 3 spd o.d. trannys and I thought I'd clarify a little. The stude V8s came with two different 3 spd o.d. trannys. One is a Borg-Warner T-86. These aren't bad trannys, and they'll last forever if you just drive normally, but seriously, who does? I went through 4 T-86 in about a year. The other one they offered was a T-85, thats the one you want. These things are bomb proof. When they made the super T-10, they based it on the T-85. Some studes like larks, avantis and some hawks came with 4 speeds too, and they were Super T-10s. If you want to update, its not too hard to put a T-5 on a stude motor either. Tom Branch put a Chevy style T-5 on a stude and I put a ford style on on my stude. The biggest issued when you swap trannies on a stude block though comes up if you switch bellhousings. At the factory, each bellhousing was aligned to each block. If you switch bellhousings, you have to check the alignment, and if its off, realign it. Its not very hard, just time consuming.

[flt-blk]

I have around 30k and several drag race sessions on my Stude 289 and it has never let me down. Parts are avaliable, if not make your own.

Here is my motor with an ElDorado 2X3

[flt-blk]

Here is DrgnWgn289's motor with the Blower. Don't mind the dirt, this car is his daily driver.

[flt-blk]

And my hero Tom Branch who has way too many intakes. This
motor inspired my homebuilt headers.

[flt-blk]

Lastly here is a shot of my headers, I think the buildup is in the tech-O-Matic section.
TZ

[Paul]

thanks flt-blk!

that Tom Branch motor is sweet!

here's my little s'dude,

stock except Edmunds 2x2 intake with a pair of stock carbs

[Farmer]

thanks for the pics and info guys!!! keep it comin'

by the looks of the pics, the stude motors don't look too big. is it just an optical illusion? That motor seems to fit nicely in your rod 60's Style....

[Skate Fink]

.......HEY Tommy........where 'ya at?? he's got a sweet one......

[drgnwgn289]

i think it must be an optical illusion...stude V8s are pretty big...especially with finned valve covers, they are really wide. My car came with one and I still had to make more room in the engine compartment.

[hoosierdaddy22304]

Greetings. No one has mentioned that a factory Paxton supercharger was available as a factory option on the 259 and 289 Stude engines, going back to 1956-57. They even installed a few in their Lark pickups and station wagons, as special orders in 1963, along with the Avanti package front/rear sway bars and disc brakes.

Regards,
Clarence

[Rusty O'Toole]

The auto trans was developed by Stude and Borg Warner and introduced in 1950 or 51. Ford adopted it, so did American Motors, and a lot of English makes.

Borg Warner made them in England and sold them to Jaguar, Austin, and a lot of other car makers over there.

So many were made for various apps I expect parts are still available from the usual antique auto trans specialists.

The stude engine was rather small in displacement and down on power compared to larger OHV engines. But super tough and long lived.

Would make a great conversation piece in your rod.

[aircap]

Check on the forums of the Studebaker Driver's Club and Racing Studebakers for more details and answers to any questions.

[46stude]

7 years after the original post! Holee cheet, talk about diggin' up an old one!

But yeah, Stude v8s are damned good motors.

[hoosierdaddy22304]

The DG-200 and DG-250 series automatics have a reputation for being pretty tough. I'm having the DG-200 Borg-Warner in my 51 Stude Champion rebuilt now. Those parts are pricey and it's a challenge to find someone who knows how to work on them, but get it done once, and good to go for a long time. My DG-200 has three bands and both a front and rear pump - very beefy. And it came with a lock-up torque converter, many years ahead of the Big Three offering one. If you want a first gear start, look for the suffix -M (DG200-M, DG250-M), the ones without a suffix start in second gear, with first gear existing only on the L selector position. Parts are available through Fatsco, Studebaker International, and a few other places.

[RichFox]

I had one in my Hawk. Had no difficulty finding a local (old) rebuilder. He told me they were used in several makes and at that time (2001) parts were easy to find. Worked well for me. I sold the car two months ago and it was still going great. Now i have a 2011 GMC and can not figger out the shift pattern. Keep going the wrong way to find reverse. Have one of those transmissions sitting on my porch right not waiting for the buyer to get here.

[fleetside66]

I had one in a Lark convertible back in the 60's & loved it. Mine had a 3-speed column shift. It had lots of torque & reasonable power, similar to a 265 or 283.