Share your Stude Oil consumption stories

[okc63avanti]

Part 1

Back in college I bought my 1st car from my grandmother in 1974, it was a 1961 Lark VI (OHV six). It was running poorly when I bought it. Points were shot, several spark plugs with no post and because the engine didn't have an oil filter, it was pretty gunked up. It smoked and burned oil pretty bad but was mostly noticeable when accelerating from a stop. Because it burned oil, she used re-refined 50 weight motor oil. The inside of valve head and engine was so full of sludge you had to wait for the oil to slowly seep out of the funnel when adding oil.

I dropped oil pan, dug out sludge, removed the valve lifter cover plates and dug out sludge with a pocket knife, then refilled crankcase with kerosene and ran it through engine for about 5 minutes. Dropped pan cleaned it out again and put fresh motor oil in. I found a drop in canister type oil filter from a junk yard Lark. Afterwards she still smoked but ran smoothly as a sewing machine. A mechanic friend couldn't believe how easily it started and how smooth and quiet the engine ran.

I drove it from Tuscaloosa, AL back to Houston, TX for the summer and used 16 quarts of oil during a 650 mile trip (40.6 miles to the quart).

<div align="left">John</div id="left">

<div align="left">'63 Avanti, R1, Auto, AC, PW (unrestored)</div id="left">

[okc63avanti]

Part 2

Once back home in Houston, a Police cruiser pulled in behind me at a red light and you guessed it, when the light turned green I left him in a cloud of white blue smoke and his siren and lights came on. He gave me a ticket for $18.50 for "malfunctioning engine with visible exhaust". The cheapest and looking back the funnest ticket I ever got, worth ever cent. My Dad and I pulled the valve heads off and I had them reworked at a machine shop. I pulled the pistons from under the car and put new rings on them, I didn't bore the cylinders as I didn't want to pull the engine from the car. The smoking was pretty much gone and the performance was much better. I even surprised a friend of my Dad's one day when I passed his Chevy Impala going about 95 MPH on a country 2-lane road.

Share your oil burning Stude story and be politically incorrect!!!!


<div align="left">John</div id="left">

<div align="left">'63 Avanti, R1, Auto, AC, PW (unrestored)</div id="left">

[Dick Clemens]

A lot of you will remember the trip I made from Minnesota to South bend and then home to Arkansas using 7 gallons of oil. Well she just went about 20 miles today and didn't add a drop. We will see tomorrow when I take her to another show. VIVA Baby.

studedick from the lower Ozarks

[okc63avanti]

Dick,

How many miles was that for the 7 gals of oil (28 quarts). The winner of this post will be the one who has the least # of miles per quart consumed.

<div align="left">John</div id="left">

<div align="left">'63 Avanti, R1, Auto, AC, PW (unrestored)</div id="left">

[silverhawk]

28 quarts of oil?! That is real bad.

Dylan Wills

'61 lark deluxe 4 door wagon

[JeffDeWitt]

I had a 57 Pelham with a badly rebuilt engine. Normally the thing would smoke, the oil pressure light would come on at idle, it made unpleasant noises and didn't have much power (OK, with a Champion 6 it never did but even less than normal!, and as I recall used about a quart every 60 miles.

Funny thing though, with STP in it the engine would stop smoking, quieted down, the oil pressure light would stay off, oil consumption went way down and the power came up.

Then there was the time the front seal went out on my 61 Cruiser, went through about 5 quarts of oil in the 100 miles it took me to get home.

Jeff DeWitt

http://carolinastudes.net

[Tom Bredehoft]

And I thought 120 miles on a quart was bad in my 55 President. No smoke, just leak, probably front seal, that's where the drips are. The engine's a 63 289, carries 55 lbs oil pressure at 50 mpg.

[img=left]http://www.alink.com/personal/tbredehoft/Avatar1.jpg[/img=left]
Tom Bredehoft
'53 Commander Coupe (since 1959)
'55 President (6H Y6) State Sedan
(Under Construction 617 hrs.)
'05 Legacy Ltd Wagon
All Indiana built cars

[tutone63]

Yeah, mine has a little blue smoke coming from it...usually when I first start it or when I floor it...but it isn't too bad. My worst thing right now is my fuel pump...she sprays out about one quart every hundred miles or so. (maybe more...haven't really done the math yet.) I have a replacement for it...but I wanted to wait until after drive your stude day so that she wasn't dissasembled on the 4th.




1963 Lark, 259 V8, two-tone paint, Twin Traction. Driven often, always noticed!

[Hippie]

I call mine the "Exxon Valdez", need I say more?

Analog man in a digital world.

[okc63avanti]

quote:Originally posted by JeffDeWitt

I had a 57 Pelham with a badly rebuilt engine. Normally the thing would smoke, the oil pressure light would come on at idle, it made unpleasant noises and didn't have much power (OK, with a Champion 6 it never did but even less than normal!, and as I recall used about a quart every 60 miles.

Funny thing though, with STP in it the engine would stop smoking, quieted down, the oil pressure light would stay off, oil consumption went way down and the power came up.

Then there was the time the front seal went out on my 61 Cruiser, went through about 5 quarts of oil in the 100 miles it took me to get home.

Jeff DeWitt

http://carolinastudes.net

Want you said about STP was true. I used the version for reducing smoke and it helped, apparently they still make it. See their website:

http://www.stp.com/oil_smoke.php

<div align="left">John</div id="left">

<div align="left">'63 Avanti, R1, Auto, AC, PW (unrestored)</div id="left">

[candbstudebakers]

Back in 1958 my very first car a $25.00 Studebaker Land cruiser, with the commander engine, it used so much oil that every morning on my way to school I would stop at Rays pure oil station not 6 blocks from home and get 50 cents worth of gas and refill my 5 gal. can with drain oil and it would take care of me until the next morning, it smoked so bad you could see me coming a mile away, never got stopped, I figured I might have driven about 35 miles a day not bad with free oil lumps and all,
One other time in 1994 on my way the National meet in Minnesota I was driving my Ford truck and pulling my 63 standard and running about 70 most of the way, I was crossing the high planes in Wy. getting ready to pull in for the night I had just driven from Elko Nevada to Cheyenne Wy. in about 10 hours, as I was going up and down these last few hill this little junker of a car would come flying past me on the down hill run and then I would pull past them on the way up the next incline , this little car was smoking about as much as one could but that didn't stop the 2 young girls in it, I came upon this small rest area and there they were with hood up so I stopped and went over to see if they needed any help, they said no as they were just adding oil, what they had was one Qt. of oil and would put in about a cap full every time they stopped and figured that was all they needed, I pulled the dip stick and it read nothing so I told them to dump in the what was left of the qt. about 1/2 full and checked the stick still nothing that was all the oil they had so I went to the truck and got 3 full qt.'s in put them in and bingo they had a reading "full" they said what does that mean?? they followed me into town to a auto parts store and I told them to get a case of the cheapest oil they had and a qt of slick 50, put it in the next time they stopped as it would need a qt. in about 50 miles and slow down and they might make it to New York, with slick 50 in there it might give them a little added protection, and they were off and running smoking up the country side. never did see them again always wondered if they made it home?

Bob Peterson / C & B Studebakers

Castro Valley, CA

[Skinnys Garage]

My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I took my 259 powered '59 to Sioux Falls one day back in the late 80's to watch some 1/8th mile drags. It was 100 in the shade that day and we took the interstate running about 70. We counted 23 dead cars along the road down and back, but the Stude ran great. We cruised SF for a while after the races and put on about 220 miles round trip. I figured my fuel mileage at around 19, but if you factor in the gallon of oil (2qts down and 2qts back) we only got about 17.5!


Skinny
Watertown, SD

[PackardV8]

My first Stude car was a '56 Flight Hawk. Naturally, being a well-used Champion, it had no power and burned oil. On most engines, this is an indication of worn rings. I replaced the rings and it still used oil. Champions need new valve guides more often than rings. Then, as now, the snake-oil cure was, "more STP", so I'd add a quart of oil and a can of STP. The first cold morning, the engine wouldn't turn over, as the crankcase lube with a couple of cans of STP in it was like molasses. Since then, anyone who suggests STP for any reason, I start hitting them with the nearest hard object. Your results may vary.

Second Stude oil burner experience. My '55 E12 224" V8 has never had the valve stem seals replaced, so by now, there aren't any. Driving "normally", keeping up with traffic across town and on the highway, it will use a quart of oil in fifty miles. If I never let off the accelerator pedal in gear, never use compression braking, never back off under load, oil consumption is halved. Gearing down as I come to a stop, using compression braking as one normally would with a 3/4t truck with a load on it, oil consumption doubles to twenty-five miles to a quart. The less vacuum the intake valve stems see, the less oil it uses.

Bottom line, CASOs drive Studes so long, valve stem seals on V8s, valve guides on Champions, are usually always in failure mode.

thnx, jack vines

PackardV8

[Bob Bryant]

Someone told a story about STP being put in each new Studebaker's engine. The cars were parked outside the factory until delivered without any warm-up or idle time and it supposedly was congealed in the crankcase without being properly mixed in the lubricant. It caused a problem at times during a cold South Bend winter. I don't know if the tale is authentic. Having used STP properly blended in older engines for many years, I am not aware of any issues. Neither, can I prove a benefit.

[jclary]

STUDEBAKER'S USING OIL!!! BLASPHEMY...PURE BLASPHEMY!!! KNOCK IT OFF!!! Brand X'er's can read this forum too!

(This message was posted on behalf of the "Skeeter" preservation society)

John Clary
Greer, SC

Life... is what happens as you are making plans.
SDC member since 1975