1955 Studebaker President

[moparnut]

1955 Studebaker President - $23,900 - Athol, ID - California car.
1955 rebuilt Chrysler Hemi.
331 cu. in., balanced,
Hot Heads Research mild cam, lifters and intake with Edelbrock 500 cfm carb.
Ross High Performance forged pistons which give 10:1 compression.
Electronic ignition, rack & pinion power steering.
Mopar 518 4 speed automatic with overdrive.
Narrowed Mopar 8 3/4" positraction with 3.92 gears, turns 2300 rpm at 70 mph.
3 core radiator with dual fans.
Motor has less than 1000 miles.
NEW...Tinted windshield, upholstery, urethane Blackberry Pearl paint,
Painless wiring and all new Stewart Warner gauges in a 1959 Hawk dashboard.
Fresh rebuild of front suspension and brakes.
No rust.
Would consider trade for a nice 1956 Plymouth Fury.
If you are interested in this car or have any questions, please contact the owner,
Cliff at 28-683-5103 or 208-561-1319




Link to ad on Hemmings.com

 

[68R/T]

A 331 Hemi mated to a 518 AOD trans.....:hmmm:....somebody spent a lot of time and/or money putting this together.

 

[Dr.Jass]

Early Hemi, Poly, and LA engines all share the same bolt pattern for the bell. Pretty-damned cool ride, though, I must say. Finally, a Stude that actually Mopar-related... I'm going to dub it the Stude Muffin. :dance:

 

[68R/T]

Bolting it together would be the easy part. Getting the electronics to work for the AOD involves either a pricy kit or a degree in electrical engineering. A lot of other engines would have been a lot cheaper to build and produce better power, but those big heads in that studes engine bay has got to be impressive.

 

[Dr.Jass]

An A518 requires an SPST toggle switch to engage/disengage the overdrive and nothing else. The 47RE, on the other hand, is electronically controlled.

 

[68R/T]

Rather than a toggle switch, I would prefer to have it work the way it was intended. At some time or other, someone else will drive it. Even though you may explicitly explain to them about the OD switch, there's always that time they forget. :doh:

 

[Dr.Jass]

If someone else is going to drive it, it's pretty easy to rig a switch onto the throttle where it's automatically disengaged at a certain throttle position. If you really want to get fancy, you could rig up a Hobbs switch so at your chosen vacuum level it would disengage. Both are simple solutions, yet neither was used in the original application; everything ever built with an A518 had a manual switch to defeat the overdrive. It's all hydraulically controlled; as long as there's voltage at the transmission it's going to engage overdrive. The only thing that told the transmission to disengage was the TPS or the manual switch, a solution that obviously didn't work. That's why so many trucks burned 'em up back in the '90s--owners didn't read the manual and didn't disengage the OD under heavy loads such as towing or racing.

Realistically, unless you're warrantying used cars you sell or letting people take your Hemi-powered Stude for a ride without you in the car neither of your arguments are valid.