Stude Light

For non-performance or performance applications Roller rockers or flat tappet Breaking in a new engine, already broken-in or high mileage (worn) All weather climate or just summer climate Conventional, semi-synthetic or synthetic Budget or no budget The list goes on.... Not trying to be rude as you may be new to the forum but there has been volumes written on this that you can search on and formulate a plan. Most of us just see this question as.... You’ll get as many opinions as there are forum members

Looks like a no reserve auction with no current bids so you can set your own price for now.

I totally agree. But the Smith’s plan for Oldsmobile was just halo cars which put them deep in the red. I see that Cadillac has finally awakened and are offering a couple of high end “halo” cars rather than just rebadging Chevys. With time they may recover the brand image.

The LaSalle was Cadillac’s companion brand from 1927-1940. Early on it had the Cadillac’s V8 but then used the Oldsmobile straight 8. By 1937 it was back to the new monobloc Cadillac V8. The 1939 LaSalle used the 322 cu in V8 that Cadillac introduced in 1936. Cadillac cars had a slightly larger bore for 346 cu in but other than the bore the engines were pretty much the same from 1936-1948. The M3 Stuart and M24 Chaffee tanks from WWII both used two of these Cadillac engines. They are a very smooth running engine. Here is a video of mine.

Looks great!!! Hey, I saw them assemble a Model T in 5 minutes at Old Car Festival so what’s the holdup 😁

It tells me you aren't pumping oil in the cylinders. Like @Bloo mentioned above, it really isn't unusual to find differences in valve colors between cylinders. I'm not seeing a bunch of wet or carbon buildup or two really clean valves in any one cylinder. I recently pulled the head off my 1923 Studebaker which has been running fine and it had some lighter colored valves. Last year I had the head off my 1939 LaSalle that has like 4000 miles on a fresh rebuild and runs like a sewing machine with no water nor vacuum leaks. Look at the valves - it has some differences. No matter what, there will always be small differences in things like oil past the rings, air fuel ratio, compression ratio, valve sealing, cam lobe wear, spark intensity, (you name it) between cylinders that will show up with slight differences in appearance. Just the way the engine was last running before being disassembled makes a big difference (example: extended idle vs a distance run). I've looked at a lot of engine test reports that GM ran back in the 20s on their own products and their competitors and you would be amazed at the differences cylinder-to-cylinder in things like measured power output or detonation rates at max load. If there was a really clean cylinder or one really wet or an unusual pattern, that would concern me to look deeper. Go ahead and look for anything obvious but I wouldn't be concerned.

Among many projects this winter I decided to address the cooling system in my 1939 LaSalle. When I rebuilt the engine, I found the thermostatic sylphon that controls the radiator shutter had failed. After a bit of quick research at the time, many people had the same problem and, since most folks don't drive these cars in the cold northern states in the winter, they just wire them open, so I did the same. Well, I like driving this car and the problem I was finding is that in the cool mornings the engine would just not get off "C" on the temp gauge so I created my low cost "Winter Front" that could be slid in from under the car. Photo below shows this setup (top closeout panel that includes the hood latch is removed so you can see everything). You can also see the linkage setup and shutters. It isn't good to be running your engine cold for extended periods, especially at higher rpms and my piece of cardboard solved that problem but also created another one. As the day warmed up, I had to pull the cardboard out to prevent from overheating. My routine was: install cardboard, drive to destination, crawl under and remove carboard, drive home later in the day. That was getting to be a pain in the rear. A NOS sylphon isn't cheap so I was considering other options: 1) Install a cable I could control from inside the car 2) Add a thermocouple and make a homemade controller that would run a servo (like for R/C toys) that would control the shutters I was planning to do #2 but then got busy with other stuff so decided to just buck up for a new unit. This is what it looks like. This design is common to several manufactures and a few of them use the same sylphon (like Packard). First, I removed the top closeout panel then drained about a gallon of my coolant which is made up of 80% water/ 20% ethylene glycol and No-Rosion additive. This mixture is a good compromise between the higher heat transfer coefficient of pure water and a little freeze protection (~18 deg F). Yes, I have a heated garage for winter storage. Next was removal of the old sylphon thermostat and making a new gasket. The radiator is still nice and clean inside! Now I found a problem. When I painted all this a number of years ago, I painted the louvers open. They were STUCK. It is a project to pull them out so I worked on each one separately and wiggled top and bottom and broke the paint free. Then the next and so on. Then all the hinge points. I found by adding some WD-40 and a drop of SAE 30 to each pivot, I gradually got them all working freely. It was a bit tedious - took about 90 minutes and lots of doing this. Now I had to set up the linkage but I needed to know the range of movement of the sylphon and pivot. It is supposed to start opening at 150 deg F and fully open at 170 deg F. So, off to the kitchen and run some tests before my wife catches me. With the pot and meat thermometer put back and armed with a little data, I was able to adjust the linkage properly. Still closed at 145 deg Starting to open after 150 deg And fully open at 170 deg. Wow, works as advertised! That doesn't always happen for me. I drove to church yesterday at 31 deg ambient and the car's thermostat showed a little over half way between dead cold ("C") and the middle mark (which I calibrated to around 180 deg in the past). I call it a success. Side note: I hate coolant leaks so I used Permatex "The Right Stuff" on each side of that gasket.

I went and checked on my tires, they are actually rated at 51 psi for maximum load. I’m not sure why I had 45 in my head. I actually run at 42 psi. How did I come up with that number? 1) After some drive testing, that seemed to be best for ride quality. 2) The wheels were designed for bias ply tires which spread the load of the tire patch out to a larger part of the rim vs a radial tire which tends to concentrate the load radially around the tire patch. Pressure and tire stiffness are related and a higher inflation pressure on a radial will help spread that concentrated load out to more of the rim. Helps reduce flexing and potential cracking of these older rims running radials. 3) Prewar rims don’t have the safety ridges so the higher inflation rate improves my safety margin, especially during cornering. 4) 40-45 psi was a recommended range by the manufacturer ( personal conversation). 5) The “radial bulge” is almost eliminated at that pressure. 6) The chalk test showed no difference between 35 psi and 45 psi. Both times the center of the chalk wore off quicker - not sure why. 7) I am confident that I’ll calendar out the tires before I wear them out. While I respect your recommendation and reasoning, I am more than willing to compromise quicker wear out (if that happens) for 1-7 above. Scott

Keep in mind there were hundreds of car manufacturers at the time and many were making high end cars. The companies that survived were the ones that made the affordable cars for the masses. While I marvel at these early giants too, you have to wonder how they were planning to survive long term.

Exactly! I think I mentioned this earlier. Also, there is nothing better as a heat transfer fluid than water. Not EG, nor water wetters, nor waterless coolants, nor anything else. If someone tries to tell you otherwise then they are misinformed or trying to sell you something. Your vehicle will run the coolest using straight water - that’s just simple physics. Does EG have a higher boiling point, sure. As does a pressurized system. For my prewar cars that were designed to run on water they don’t get over 212 degrees here in Michigan unless you boil all the water out. It’s diminishing returns when you run glycol, or worse yet, Evan’s. The heat transfer coefficient is reduced which makes your engine run hotter in more extreme conditions but since your coolant doesn’t boil until say 240 degrees then it just runs at a much higher temperature. Also, EG likes closed systems (I.e. pressurized). Open systems introduce oxygen which oxidizes the glycol and it breaks down forming acids. Thus you need to change out your EG fluid in open systems more often than a closed system. I run water w/No-Rosion and I also run EG. In cars a bit marginal on cooling it’s hard to beat water but if you need freeze protection there is no way around it. I swear by No-Rosion in either water only or EG systems. The coolant always looks perfect between changes. If you decide to run straight water I really suggest you use No-Rosion and not cutting oil. It is designed for what you want to do.

My Diamondback Auburn radials on my LaSalle run at 45 psi. That is what the tire rating for maximum load states so that is where I run them.

My two cents on filters…. The most important reason to use one is to keep larger particles from plugging up the small tubes in your radiator. For that the Gano is fine. A secondary reason to add a finer filter is just to clean up sediment. This helps prevent sedimentation of your block if the design is prone to that (I.e. the design has pockets that have no flow and no good option to flush out). Fine particles flowing through your system won’t really hurt anything but it is nice to have the clearest coolant you can get. Once the Gano filters on my 1939 LaSalle stopped collecting much I took them out. It was a fresh rebuild but you never get all the pieces out which is why I used them for the first 1000 miles. Scott

1937-1948 322 LaSalle and 346 Cadillac all have the same bearings.

None of the attachments came through

My two Olds are separated by 41 years. The 1921 Model 46 has a 246 cu in V8 (2-7/8” bore x 4-3/4” stroke) and the 1962 F-85 has a 215 cu in V8 (3-1/2” bore x 2-3/4” stroke). They are both drop top cars!

1922 makes sense as that is when the housing part number changed to the 6 digit format. Again, the housing only part number is not captured in the Studebaker part manual (only the housing with plugs is shown) so the 100134 number was probably just a Studebaker/Bohn reference number.

Water does have one huge benefit over 50/50 glycol mix and that is its ability as a heat transfer fluid which is why I use it in several of my early cars. You lose over 20% heat transfer capability with 50/50 EG, which is huge. Now would I run cutting oil? No, I use No-Rosion for corrosion protection and as a lubricant. I have used it with just water for more than 10 years with excellent results. The downside is there is no freeze protection which isn’t a problem for my particular situation. My LaSalle I run late in the season so I use about 20% glycol to get me down to like 15 deg F protection and only lose around 10% cooling capacity. I use No-Rosion in that car too. Good stuff and designed for this use so there is no guessing and you don’t have to be the chemist nor test engineer.

The 31889 part number included the plugs in the case. Bohn (aluminum casting supplier) would have only provided the case to Studebaker so that 31890 part number cast into the case was probably only referenced between Studebaker and Bohn. The parts book only includes the case with the drain and fill plugs and not the bare case so the info that @studeboy provided should be what you need.

I did some investigating on the Setting the Pace artwork at the RE Olds Transportation Museum. Yes, there was an original painting that no one knows what happened to it. Then there were the first set of copies made for the Oldsmobile dealers sometime in the 1920s. Quantities unknown. That is the one that hung in my office. It is on canvas, is very textured with some micro cracking in that texture. It measures just shy of 24” x 36” Then there was a set of maybe 400 copies made in the 1950s that were distributed to dealers. These were a little smaller in size (I don’t know the exact dimensions). Those usually sell for around $200. The other one in the Museum is quite large and measures 4’ x 5’. It is also painted on canvas but very little texture. It looks to be quite old. The canvas is rather stiff and brittle. Not sure of its history.

While the Limited was the largest, there were other "fairly large" models of Oldsmobiles in that time frame too. Not only the Model Z mentioned above but also the Defender. There was a very nice example of 1913 Defender at the Old Car Festival this past September. Photo credit goes to @Jim Skelly though.

Yes, from a very profitable company to one on the brink of bankruptcy 😉.

I know this post is about the Limited but since it was brought up.....here is an interesting story regarding Olds Hall for you MSU fans. In 1907, the Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.), known as Michigan State University today, constructed a new building to house all their engineering disciplines. The following year they created the Division of Engineering. In 1916, that building burned to the ground. After the fire, there was a movement to have the entire engineering program of this state run college absorbed by the University of Michigan as there was no appetite to spend more tax dollars on rebuilding the program. Further, in the state legislature, there was now talk of annexing the entire college into U of M. Enter Ransom Eli Olds who saw the potential of the M.A.C. Engineering Division to become a world-renowned school. In a letter written to M.A.C. President, Frank Kedzie, Olds wrote, “I have great faith in the Michigan Agricultural College and see no reason why it should not become one of the foremost colleges in the United States.” As a sign of his confidence, Olds personally donated $100,000 to rebuild the Engineering building which was named Olds Hall. At the time, private donations were unheard of and it was the College’s very first significant private gift for a building. Olds Hall is still standing but now houses MSU's University Relations division as well as classroom space. In many people’s minds, Ransom Olds saved what eventually became MSU.

Steve, It is my understanding that some Oldsmobile dealerships were given these Limited vs Locomotive paintings in the late teens or twenties. The two at the RE Olds Transportation Museum are quite old and on a canvas. They are very textured. The one hanging in the conference room pictured below (you can just see it on the far left) is quite large as compared to the one I had in my office. I'll have to get a better picture of it and post it. Scott

While Executive Director at the RE Olds Transportation Museum, I had an original hanging in my office. I never got tired of seeing it. This gives an idea of the size of the Limited With the "limited" sales (pun intended) of "cars for the rich", it's no wonder the Smiths ran Olds Motor Works to the brink of insolvency and were happy to sell out to Billy Durant and get out of the auto manufacturing business. I'm sure Ransom Olds took some pleasure in seeing Olds Motor Works struggle to survive while he was pumping out his REOs on the other side of the Grand River in Lansing.

The Baby REO is on display at the RE Olds Transportation Museum in Lansing. It runs and drives along with its Mama.