Studebaker startup after 17 years

[Dendiol]

Cracking video...

[175yam1]

great when the old buckets start,

[Kagaines]

Sounded good for after it cleared up. Shame to replace it but I think some of those motors werent very powerful. From what I hear anyways

[MM00SS]

goooood ^^

[EgaoNoGenki]

You guys seem to need to install an aftermarket catalytic converter.

[mouserorignal]

nice job

[DeserTBoB93535]

I hope all that oil smoke was from oil squirted down into the cylinders. There wasn't anything wrong with the ignition; it was a fuel problem. It sounded pretty solid once the manifold cleared out. Cylinder balance sounds good, too. The Stude V8 was way overbuilt, so this isn't surprising..

[bombero42]

@DeserTBoB93535

I wasn't going to save the engine, so I didn't put any oil in the cylinders. It wasn't out of gas, so, unless the carb fuel feed got plugged up, I assumed it was the points. They burn up pretty fast when running 12 volts.

There is no market for those 232 engines. I offered it for $50 on the Studebaker web site and got no bites. I saved the rods, cam and rockers and junked the rest.

[johnsenkenn]

@bombero42

Have you junked the car ?

[bombero42]

@johnsenkenn

No, I restored it as a hot rod.

Look up "My dad's old Studebaker on YouTube to see it finished.

[soopermv]

was there any really old gas in the tank? cause im in a similar jam. my dads 79 porsche 924 has been sitting in our garage for 18 years and were tryin to get it to start. is there any way u think to get it to run with out having to flush the tank. my dad let it sit with 3/4 of a tank in it.

[DeserTBoB93535]

@soopermv These days, due to cracked base stocks that make modern gasoline, any gas over 3 mos. old is bad. You'll need to pressurize the tank and get ALL the old crap out and send it to a waste disposal site...it's classed as toxic waste. Then, you'll need fresh fuel, PLUS solvents to de-gun the whole fuel system. Dumb, parking a car with gas in it. Same goes for oil.

[BreathDoctor]

Points man, points.

[JeffDeWitt]

THAT'S what a car is supposed to sound like!

[tomsriv]

I'm the kid with the camera in the video. We found a crack in the threaded fuel inlet to the carb. It was letting air in with the fuel and was probably what caused the drivability problems that caused the former owner to park it for 17 years.

[brandondallas]

SWEET VICTORY. I want that car.

[dmellow45]

so he just sets the spark plug on the engine to ground it out? never done that..

[bombero42]

@dmellow45

Yes, that works well if there is no thick paint where it's laid. If the spark will jump the .035 gap in the plug, it will certainly jump the smaller gap from laying on the engine.

[harley1450000]

that's a strong motor,the smoke cleared up real fast.nice car,thanks for sharing

[Oldsmobile442Estella]

the engine start up gave me more shivers than an 11000rpm pass of a honda civic man.... i wanna have a studebaker GH!

[musiclvr427]

What a sweet sound!!! Studebaker was a great company that produced some really hot cars!

[rdadal]

Studebakers of that time were one beautiful car. Tho, admit, a lot of people thought they were junk.

[blackprealis]

smog check and great car i have a engine like that with all new parts

[ridinged92]

you CANNOT beat the sound of that low growl noise..... better yet you cant beat any classic car idle noise!!

[AMCtilldeath]

this is why i love old cars... specifically the independants

[winston5610]

Amazing that it started and sounded as good as it did. The 232 is a great engine in the context of its time, and had far more potential than the horsepower ratings would suggest. Studebaker's OHV V-8 beat the Ford Y-block to the market by three years, and Chevy's small-block by four.

[masterfryman]

the engines r built so differently now....cant believe u guys got it 2 start!!!!

awesome

[bradhogan123]

that is so cool

[PeteRosenburg]

Is that fuel injected, or just some sort of wacky carburetor?

[bombero42]

That is the stock two barrel used by Studebaker. It looks funny because it has a right angle bend. The large air cleaner would not fit under the low hood. The air cleaner tube had another right angle bend and the main body of the air cleaner sat to the side of the engine.

[introvertical71]

Great... Now slap an old McCulloch blower on that puppy!

[siciliaussieguy]

DRIVE IT TO AUSTRALIA.

[deanmerc]

Great car! That engine sounded great once it smoothed out.. I wouldn't replace it. Besides, the car will lose half its value if you do. But great car and good luck, thanks for saving it!

[PAINTANK]

My father restored Studebakers.

My first memory of him is riding in a bullet nose coupe sitting on crates because there was no interior yet.

[deepfreezevideo]

56 Power Hawk same situation. The old man who owned it hadn't driven it in years and it started up and purred like a kitten.

[gregwddriver]

It smoothed out nice after a second. I usualy check for spark at the points. Its easier than trying to hold a plug while it cranks.

[bombero42]

I was starting it with 12 volts. That can fry the points real quick. Once it died, I never tried to start it again, because I had already planned to replace the engine. I was just curious whether it would start.

[kreigsmann]

why would you replace the engine in a antiqe car like that?

[bombero42]

To put a much more powerful Studebaker engine in it.

[kreigsmann]

where would you get a studebaker engine from?

they hadent made one since 63

[bombero42]

Follow E-bay, or better yet, join the Studebaker drivers club or one of the Studebaker discussion groups. There are lots of engines available. There are a great many Studebaker parts available, some NOS. Rebuild parts for engines are readily available from several suppliers. The early V8s only bring about $50 used. the 62-64 full flow engines are harder to find and start at about$400 in rebuildable condition.

[kreigsmann]

Really?

that is amazingly cheap.

well good luck with that.

[Dreambro1]

dang,, i know of some cars 15 years old or less that wont crank if u let em sit for more than a week.

[HeadTater]

My dad has a '62 Dayton Lark. We had a '64 Wagon, but we had to get rid of it. About a month ago, we bought a '60 Lark Convertable for something around $2000. Came with TWO engine/trans sets (V8), an extra dash and two new doors. It had been sitting for 23 years. The starter wouldn't crank, but both engines turned like they had just run yesterday!

[laverda1557]

did what your doing 25yrs. ago with a '60 hawk,thanks for the trip down memory lane!

[MuerteQuerida]

she's whispering me buddy...

[MS85ToyotaCrown]

Spray some aerostart down the carby.

[bombero42]

It was an ignition problem, not a gas problem.

[blownglasslide]

hahahahahahaha.  Carby

[LordSamuelJ]

cool! I just got my 59' Hawk to start after nearly 20 years of being abandoned in a field! All I needed to do was replace the fuel pump and the car started right up. These old Studies are tuff!

[zappatx]

Wouldnt do that without using AMSOIL...

[3bar]

Good job. It deserves a second life!

[spaceliner62]

i had a 53 v8 commander that i started after 10 years. i couldn't believe it either . . .

[believr77]

it's alive!

[bombero42]

Hi Masstax, No I did none of those things. The stock engine is a 232 cubic inch engine that I had no intention of keeping. They also have no value other than for some parts such as the cam. I put a later Studebaker engine in it.

[masstax]

Should of had more dialogue, I doubt 17 years and racing an engine..Did you check oil levels, spark plugs etc..You should have mentioned all this...

[crusadex]

I started a similar studebaker that had not started in 15-20 years.The body was gone but a little gas,some oil in the cylinders and they start right up. Tough engines.

[70mstang]

17 years huh? i tip my hat to you sir

[bombero42]

You can see it after the restoration with it's later Stude engine, under " my dad's old studebaker"

[rikerlee]

Now, isn't that more rewarding than ripping out the old engine and dropping in a brand new Chevy crate engine?

[Boubala24]

might not meet emission standards but that's cool that u got it going.

[russellcase]

hahaha. How cool. Loved the initial popping sound from the pipes.

[barndoor55]

Heay at 2minutes & 15 seconds you filliny made it start after all that cranking I like the sputtering of the initail starting up of and engine and I used to sput, sput like one to inherit a nicky name while out in the schoolyard as all the other play mates used some sort of nick name as a code?