Engine: Oil pan/oil filler tube.

[dropdad]

I own a 1950 Champion with a 169ci flat head six that I believe is the original engine. The engine has an oil leak that appears to be coming from the area where the oil filler tube is welded onto the side of the oil pan. Mine looks like someone either added it to the pan or just did a lousy job of rewelding it (like it may have been done while still on the car.). It appears to have been brazed. Does anybody have intimate knowledge of how these were originally?
Does anybody know the availability of an NOS oil pan for this engine/car?

[Ross]

The fill tube should be inserted in a bored hole in the block just aft of the generator. Your engine might be out of a truck; their oil fill went in where the starter sits on a passenger car so someone seems to have made a creative solution. You should have little trouble finding the right pan and oil fill tube. Look for a freeze plug in the skirt of the block just behind the generator. You will need to pull it out and press the correct fill tube in there.

[StudeRich]

You will need to replace the Pan and add the Filler Pipe as Ross described on the Driver side of the Block.
The Fillers were NOT in the Pan.

[TWChamp]

Here's a couple pictures of my 1950 Champion engine.

[dropdad]

The plot thickens.... Apparently I have a truck block or a truck engine in my Champion. There is no bored hole behind the generator; there however is one with a plug (like a freeze plug) behind the starter. Am I screwed on this, or what? Options?

[TWChamp]

Post the engine number, as in my second picture, then someone can tell what year it is.
Or, post pictures of your engine.

[dropdad]

the first is the engine number, the second is looking up at the bottom of my oil pan.

[Mrs K Corbin]

Truck engines were easily converted to car use by removing the filler close to the firewall, and plugging that, then removing the plug behind and below the generator and inserting a car type one there. Keep looking, you should find the plug.

[StudeRich]

That Pan is all completely Wrong. That filler pipe is actually IN the Oil!
And of course it does not belong there at all.

Here is the Six Cylinder Engine Serial Number Identification Chart:

http://www.studebakerdriversclub.com/tips.asp

That's weird, the ONLY Small Six Starting Serial number that would reach to 10,000 with 5 Digits, would be a 1917 Series 18 (ED) Starting at 9,580!

OR, maybe a 1939 Champion Starting at 101?
That stamping looks VERY Factory Original, and clearly 10,229, so I don't know why it does not compute.

One or Two more numbers would change everything.

[TWChamp]

That low number also had me wondering.
Can you post a picture of your engine where the fill pipe should go, that being the left side lower front of the block.

[dropdad]

photo of left side of the engine.


there is no boss plugged or otherwise behind the generator or in front of the distributor. I’m having problems getting photos to upload.

[altair]

That truck engine probably never had a bored oil fill hole near the front behind the generator. There was only one on the drivers side near the rear. The oil filler cap had the dip stick attached to it so there was no dip stick. The starter was on the passenger side. The only recovery for this engine is to get a truck bellhousing and reconvert it back to a truck configuration with the starter on the passenger side and then the oil fill will be exposed under where your starter is now.

[RadioRoy]

EDIT The only recovery for this engine is to get a truck bellhousing and reconvert it back to a truck configuration with the starter on the passenger side and then the oil fill will be exposed under where your starter is now. EDIT

I beg to disagree. That's not the only way. There is rarely ever only one way, especially if one is willing to to ponder the situation for a while.

I installed a dipstick in a Nash engine by drilling a small hole in the lower skirt of the block, slightly angled so as to enter the oil pool in the pan. Epoxied a stainless tube into the hole that just fit around a dipstick. Then I installed the pan, filled it with one quart less than a full fill of oil and marked the dipstick. Then filled it completely and marked the dipstick again. Worked great and looked stock once the tube was painted.

Or, the existing oil pan could be left as it is, but maybe cleaned up a little and sealed.

[StudeRich]

I don't get it, I see a Red Oil Cap right there where the early Champion & Truck Oil Fill Pipe MUST be, and in some years there was a Dipstick attached to the Cap, so you do or could have it all already!
But that does not explain that welded up Oil Filler on the Pan!

What am I missing?

[RadioRoy]

Does the truck engine have the sump on the opposite end, such that the truck dipstick would go into the shallow end of the pan that is correct for a car?

Remember that the 50 has a unique oil pan with the sump in the middle, as opposed to the front or the rear. I have seen other truck engines installed in 50 Champion cars and they had a similar home-made kluge.