Projects 1960 Studebaker Lark Gasser

Tony, I hope you and Jake do visit with John. He is a wealth of Studebaker knowledge and like all us old guys he won't around forever. Someone needs to carry on. It may as well be you guys. Just the McCulloch part his expertise is awesome.

 

Minimal progress, but progress none the less. Picked up an aluminum Evans intake, the correct water pump housing and crank pulley for S/C setup. I have a s/c mount being fabricated as well.

I have an appointment for some fab work to get done next week on the cage/radiator mount/trans crossmember etc. hopefully after that it’ll be time to rock and roll on plumbing & wiring.
I’m also waiting to hear back on a complete fiberglass front end.

When I began this project I was young and dumb, planning to run no front brakes with the spindle mount wheels. However life is significantly more important to me now, so I bit the bullet and decided to run the speedway disc kit which arrived in the mail a couple days ago as well.




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Mmmm.

See my "conversation" note.

Mike

 

WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

WHY BE ORDINARY ?

 

Mike Sherer (sp?) Lark w/a Dick Datson street-ram manifold + a single 4bbl tunnel-ram top piece on it. Thing sounded absolutely wicked, almost a stacatto-tone coming from the stude mill at wot. Wish I had an accurate recording, stand the back-of-the-neck-hair straight up. Lift the front wheels every launch, as desired. Sadly, the car burned up in his garage a # of years ago, don't think Mike ever rebuilt it/another one. One of my favorites. Marcus...

 

Tony, Did you find the heavy duty water pump used with the S/C . Can't remember the exact difference right now, bigger bearing I think.

 

I have not yet. I believe it has more gusseting cast into it? Likely a larger bearing as well. I think the guy I bought these parts from has one. Waiting on some other info, I’ll ask then.


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We may have an extra one here, I know Jake has one he's not using. Good luck on the front clip. Front brakes are a good idea!

 

Quick update. The car is at a buddies shop for some of the last major fab work. Hopefully it doesn’t get pushed to the side and is back home soon.

I got my spindle mount brake kit, but need to send the spindles in to be machined first.

Also found an R3 airbox which is on its way, picked up a Mcculloch vs57 today and will send it out for an overhaul/sn60 conversion asap.



Any other necessary S/C parts will be borrowed until I can replace them (thanks Zachary’s).




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Almost forgot to thank my helpers


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Let me know if there was anything I missed when I gathered the parts. I think the water pump was a NOS one I found on line. When you get the Mc Cullochs back for JE you'll have the Nevada market cornered! Those look like dependable helpers. If my dogs had thumbs I wouldn't allow anyone else on the place.

 

Unfortunately JE is out of the question. Already lost 2 over there.


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We'll get 'em. Such a sad thing to see. Did you take any pictures if them before you took them or when they were there? Makes you wonder who the rest of them belong to.

 

I have a picture of the vs57 but not the Paxton. I don’t even recall what model it was.


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Motor bars in and radiator mounted
I also have an electric fan setup that I will likely install soon even if you tell me not to.





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Looking good!
r


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Nice welding.

Mike

 

Waisted the weekend on a yard overhaul But the spindles are going out for machining to accept disc kit tomorrow. Supercharger is out for a rebuild. Once I find a belt and fill the cooling system I can break in the cam.



I’m getting excited!


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Me too! I get a ride. It's my turn to ride in your car.

 

I’ll have to install a tape deck first


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Still have that one tape if you don't still have it memorized. To Passo and back, that is a lot of repeats.

 

Got some mail today. Freshly converted rebuilt by Solanki Performance.


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Hightone -

Something to keep in mind, once you get the car running, and get things sorted, you might consider a longer set of headers.
Your primary tubes are pretty short for a lower rpm engine like the Stude. You've got a 9000+rpm set going on there. The collector length appears to be a good length.

Depending on your cam, you would be better suited to a set of about a 32" to 34" primary tube length set.

Mike

 

Anything happening here? Time to put the snow tires on it.
For the "nay sayers" : https://www.hemmings.com/blog/article/americas-best-v-8-engine-studebaker/

 

Nothing good happening. It has sort of taken a back seat since we picked up a Corvair van. I spent too much time trying to fix a water pump leak which I think is finally under control and now I believe i have an intake leak. I haven’t messed with that anymore yet.

My next problem are the spindles. I’m not sure if I misunderstood something or was given bad advice but I sent them in to be machined and now nothing works/fits and nobody at Speedway or Radir knows what’s going on. So I have another set of factory spindles to go pick up and try this all over again.


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Someone said, "We learn from our mistakes." But they never said what we learn. Hopefully it would be not to make that mistake again but I've found that it is more likely we learn to drink and cuss. I'm pretty good at making stuff not fit.

 

I’ve got a couple updates. Finally got some motivation again!

I got the cam broken in, pulled the motor to finish some firewall work and stuck it back in. Got the SC mounted and got my brake/spindle issues sorted. I’m feeling confident that things will start coming along.

I’ve also decided to try to ditch the carb and picked up a FiTech setup. I know it’s been done before so hopefully it’s fairly straight forward!




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Impressive! I think the FiTech is a good idea. I assume it comes with a wide band O2 sensor and the self tuning will hopefully sort out the extra fuel needed under boost. Will it need the box? Great to see you back at it!

 

Yep, handles fuel under boost via in-tank pump. It will also control the fans and timing. I plan to keep it hidden in the box still.


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