Dave Molnar just fired it up after a rebuild.
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The mighty 182 CID Salt2Salt race motor lives again!
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Years ago, in my college days, I met a fellow that was building a 3 liter (183 cubic inch) Studebaker V-8 for Bonneville. His version was a 232" block, sleeved to a smaller bore, using a particular flathead Ford V-8 piston. He needed a stock 224" crankshaft to finish his engine. He lived in Corvallis, Oregon. I had Studebaker buddies in Portland, and, since nobody wanted a 224" crankshaft even in 1964, I got one for him for $5.00.
He had a nice '54 coupe that the engine was going in.
He moved to Salem, Oregon and I lost track of him, so I don't know if the project ever saw the salt flats.
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I know there were at least two other 3-liter V8's built. I met one of the owners a couple years ago at the Michiana swap meet. Both were sleeved 232s but I don't know what their exact displacement was so which one is the smallest ever, who knows. One appeared in a Turning Wheels article. IIRC they forgot to bring their air dam to Bonneville and had to fashion one on the spot out of plastic trash cans.
Ours came about in an odd way. Greg, CT, and I were at Bonneville with a super-charged Ford flathead in our '53 coupe (loooong story). While waiting out a delay in line to start I was thumbing through the records and saw there were two open records for F (3-liter) classic altered coupes in gas and fuel. I called Digger and said that I had a 232 drive train stashed in a barn back in Minnesota for a planned La Carrera car. Did he think we could sleeve it down to get under 184 CID? Yes, we COULD do that but he thought it would be better to de-stroke it and keep as much bore as possible. I told him I'd arrange to pick up the engine and would call him right back.
I called the fellow with the barn: "Marty, I'm going to come over next weekend and pick up that engine."
"Yeah... about that..."
Two days ago a tornado destroyed the barn. And I mean DESTROYED it. Three weeks later I was out at his place with about 50 other people and some heavy equipment cleaning up the mess -- dozens of trees down. When we finally got into the lower barn the engine was still there and safe (whew!) while a Volvo block that was on the floor near it had been thrown into the field a few dozen yards away. I have a crappy flip phone picture of it somewhere.
And it has 259/289 heads just in case someone tells you you can't do that with a 232 block.
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