Hot Rods I Just Bought a 51 Studebaker Commander

The threading of one plug, when I dug my fingernail into it, crumbled off at the edge. A few of the spark plug ports revealed rust on top of the pistons. The others looked fairly clean -- metal with no rust. I oiled the cylinders, so I am going to try the breaker bar tomorrow, see if the engine moves.

 

Ok. I'll get some pics tomorrow. Thanks for everything.

 

Rust on top of the pistons is not good. Could be mainly old carbon flaked off. Try blowing out the spark plug holes if you have compressed air to get it out. Oil cylinders, try to turn engine over (don't force it). Take off valve covers and check valves before you turn it over, if any valves are stuck you could bend the pushrods.

Worst case you have to take the heads off and maybe clean out 1 or 2 cylinders. Minor pitting is not a death sentence but real bad rust is. See if it will turn over first.

 

I'm sorry . Stevie wonder mistankly bought one before too

 

Ok, thank a lot. I do have compressed air. I'll blow out spark plug holes, and take off valve covers and check the valves as you described. Will oil cylinders and try to turn over. I have to pick up a 1 1/2" socket tomorrow. It sure is a tight fit between the crank pulley and the fan!

 

Your link isn't functioning.

 

I tried removing the head on the driver's side today. The exhaust manifold bolt closest to the steering column is giving me real trouble. I can't get access to it. Do I have to remove the cylinder head with exhaust manifold attached?

 

I have a 289 in my 31 A coupe meyers studebaker makes a great kit to use any gm automatic
i run a turbo 400, as mentioned above petronix kit in a delco dist is the way to go
ihave a edmunds 2x2 intake with two demon 98's
offy valve covers spruce things up
Im also in the process of making a blower intake for a 4-71
good luck with your stude
being different is fun!!!

 

And then there was this guy.....that raced a 50/51 for years.....it was a terror - black if I remember....anyone rec-collect the guy's name and pic of it ?

 

Can you jack the engine up enough to gain room? Loosen the motor mounts.

 

Chicken Hawk?

 

Hey guys, I got the bolt off. Just barely. Tiny turns. Real small space. I took off the driver's side cylinder head - which took a couple of hours since it was stuck on - and looked inside the motor. Very clean! I was real happy. However, the reason the engine wouldn't turn over is because three valves are stuck. I'm going to compress the valves and do some cleaning up. Anyone know of a good place to find valve guides for a 232 V8?

 

I'd like to use a different tranny and do an upgraded cam, re-curve the distributor, dual 2s and dual exhaust.

 

I checked out the kit. Pretty cool. A little pricey, but really a great option.

 

Sorry to hear you had to pull the heads off your motor. Good to hear it was only stuck valves and it is clean inside.
Now that you have the heads off, I would take them to a good machinist and have a 3-angle valve job done on them. Now is also time to check the bores for signs of broken rings and for an excessive ridge at the top. It probably doesn't need rings at 75k, but ya never know.
Valve guides are easy to find. You can probably get them cheapest from Rockauto.com. Other sources for parts are myersstudebaker.com, fairbornstudebaker.com and studebakerparts.com.

Did I mention, we need pictures?

 

Oh, I meant to add, Chuck your push rods up in a hand drill and give them a spin. You will know instantly if they are bent. Push rods can be mixed up but lifters must be kept in order.

 

Ok, thanks! One of the valves is really stuck. Rust. The others came loose with ATF easily. They travel smoothly now. BTW I have enjoyed pulling heads, and boy are they heavy. Do you think that I should do any porting on the heads? The intake ports have room inside of the gasket marks and have imperfections but no real decay. Should I port them and the intake manifold to match? And the exhaust ports are very small. Should I port them and the exhaust logs to match? I was wondering if a cam, minor porting, and a larger 2 barrel, or perhaps dual 2s, re-curving the distributor, and dual exhaust would give me a bit more power. Not looking for much, just a hair more fun. What do you think? Cylinders and pistons look almost new, BTW. The previous owner told me that the car was only driven up to the small town and back. Can the cam be removed while motor is in car? Thanks so much. I'm having fun!

 

BTW I removed all the valve springs today and I'll get you pics tomorrow!

 

Inspect the cylinders for rust or scoring. Notice the ridge at the top, it indicates the amount of wear. If you have a micrometer you could measure the cylinders, up to .007 taper is acceptable. Otherwise if the ridge is no thicker than a piece of paper you are good. You may need to scrape off a bit of carbon to see the ridge.

If cylinders are good and not too worn, you can fix the heads and put them back on. Resist the urge to port them or do any other changes. Remember what I said about keeping it stock if you want it to last?

A good way to check pushrods is to roll them on a flat surface. If they are bent you will see it. A sheet of thick glass like an old car side window is good for this.

While the heads are off check the passage that carries exhaust through the intake manifold to warm the carburetor. They often get plugged with carbon. Poke and blow out. In stubborn cases an old piece of speedo cable chucked in a drill makes a flexible wire brush.

 

Hey, Rusty, thanks a lot. What did Sosebee do his 51 that held the land speed record? What were his modifications?

 

The Chicken Hawk was dark blue. And this is what it looked like after its final run in 2009. Amazingly, Ted Harbit (the then-74-year-old driver) survived the crash and continues to race!

 

@shedhouselife I would resist the urge to do any port work on your heads. Not only are Stude heads heavy, as you have found out, but they are made of some incredibly hard and dense cast iron. The minimal power gains you would get out of port matching wouldn't be worth the time spent doing it on an otherwise stock motor. I still think a good 3-angle valve job would give the best bang for the buck as for cylinder head modifications.

 

@shedhouselife the mods you describe are always going to give a power gain. The question is: how much power are they going to make for the time/money involved.
Cam, there no aftermarket cams for Stude V8s. Camming your Stude involves removing your cam (or procuring a good core cam) and sending it out to somebody like Schneider or Barry to be reground.
Porting, see my note above. Not worth it on a 232.
Carburation, The easisest/cheapest way to upgrade, is to find a cast iron 4-barrel or late 2-barrel manifold. The either manifold should be cheap and easy to find. Then you can run a WCFB or AFB(Edelbrock) carb. If you must have twin deuce carbs, I would suggest a 2x2 to 4-barrel adapter such as this.
https://www.ebay.com/i/351916433310?chn=ps&fl=a
Distributor, install a Pertronix and call it good. I don't know anything about recurving one so I won't give any such advise.
Dual exhaust, absolutely!
I think for your budget, a 3-angle valve job, improved carburation, up-graded ignition and a dual exhaust, should give you the extra zip you want to get out of your 232 and not break the bank (or your transmission).
A cam and porting the heads are just not worth it in my estimation.

 

I don't know exactly. The story I saw, which was a report of the Speed Trials from 1951, mentioned that it had twin carburetors which took it out of the showroom stock class. This was a speed trial on the beach, not the stock car race.

The car was at most a few months old. The Speed Trials were held in January 1951 and the Studebaker V8 was new that year, probably introduced in september 1950. If I had to guess I would say it had the twin carburetors and probably dual exhaust which was a common mod on V8 cars. It may have had a reground cam but probably not.

This was Mr Sosebee's every day transportation, a new Studebaker Commander 4 door sedan.

For comparison, the fastest showroom stock car was a 1951 Chrysler New Yorker sedan with the new hemi head V8 and Fluid Drive transmission. It made 100.13 MPH on the same beach, the first stock car to top 100 since the 1937 Cord.

 

Shed, if I may call you by your first name. PLEASE do NOT do any modifications to your motor at this time. Get it on the road in stock condition and try it out. You will have your hands full getting it running, fixing brakes, getting new tires etc. This will take a lot more time and money than you expect. Set your sights on getting it running and on the road this summer. Map out your plans accordingly.

When you have driven the car for a while make up your mind if you want to modify it, and how much.

I would not suggest doing anything to the stock motor. As others have pointed out, it is small in displacement and has small ports and valves, small exhaust manifolds, etc. Later versions of the Studebaker V8 are much improved from a performance standpoint. Once you get the car on the road if you find performance disappointing you could look for a newer, larger motor to rebuild.

Of course, this would be doing things the hard way. The easy way would be to put in a late model Ford or Chev V8 and matching transmission. But if you did that you would need to modify suspension, rear axle, brakes, etc to go with.

These decisions are for the future. Get the car on the road before you make any decisions. If the engine is too far gone to save that is another matter. But if you only need to free up a few valves you should be able to get it going for not much more than the cost of a gasket set.

 

Some rusty stuff

 

Anyone have a suggestion as to how I should remove the valve stem seals?

 

These guys