Valve seals

There is an early commercial type that Studebaker did highlighting the features of the Avanti. It is available on DVD from the Studebaker National Museum. Anyways, it shows an early R2 with a black Paxton.

John Poulos wrote:

An early Avanti, with the mirror on the dash, was road tested in the July '62 "Motor Trend" magazine. Pictures are black and white; but the valve covers don't look chrome, (maybe yellow). The supercharger looks black. It's an early "SN", with a cut down "VS-57" badge to cover the solenoid hole, rather than the foil "Paxton" sticker. There's a color picture of an Avanti "R2" engine on the cover of the Nov. '62 "Hot Rod" magazine. It has chrome valve covers. The fan, belt tensioner, and coolant tank are orange. Crank, water pump, tensioner and supercharger pulleys are yellow. The power steering pump reservoir is silver. The early Lark "R2" engine used in the "Excalibur" prototype came from a display chassis, and also was detailed with unusual colors. Your Avanti, almost certainly, left the factory with an orange supercharger. Technically, they were "SN-60" type; but serial #'s for the units made for the Avanti started with "MS". They have only the necessary mounting bolt holes drilled; and are different from the "ML" units made for Larks and Hawks. Universal "SN-60" superchargers have often been substituted. They have mounting bolt holes drilled and tapped all the way around, and were painted black. Serial #'s start with "SN-60". I've seen them with extra mounting holes filled with bondo; and painted orange. John Erb says he fills the solenoid holes on "SN" superchargers. He also shortens VS-57's, removing the variable pulley. They can then be substituted for SN-60's. Folks have certainly drilled holes in "MS" & "ML" superchargers, too. Mike M.

Recently, John Erb went through the Paxton on my 1963 R2 Lark. It is an early car which I mentioned to him. He told me th e blower should be painted black since it was an early car and that the early R2 Larks had black Paxtons. I elected to go with orange because it looks so much better but was curious about him telling me that it should be black. I tried to find information in my literature library but came up empty.

On a slightly different topic, when I did the R4 engine, learning that painting it blue was correct was pointed out to me by Nimesh. My guess is the reason the R4's were painted blue and the R3's were painted red, is that Granatelli could tell them apart once the heads went on since both engines used the same heads but different pistons.

John Poulos wrote:

John Erb has a tremendous amount of experience with Paxton and McCulloch superchargers. I've seen pictures of Lark/Hawk setups with black superchargers; and wondered if any left the factory painted orange. Is yours an "ML" like I described? The idea of painting R3 & R4 engines different colors for identification makes sense. Although the R4 crate motor at the museum is blue, the "Car Life" article about the only R4 actually installed at the factory, mentions that the engine is red! In my posting above, about the odd colors on the "Hot Rod" engine, I didn't mention that the supercharger is black, with the cut down medallion; like the one in the early road tests. It's probably a universal SN-60, rather than one made for Studebaker. Here's a picture of the Excalibur engine:

. As I said, engine and frame were originally specially finished and painted by Stude for a car show display. Obviously, there were modifications later, to build the roadster. I don't know if the colors were from the Stude display; or an outrage committed by the builders of the Excalibur! All of these are exceptions to the usual production colors. They are prototypes, or display models that have suffered the attention of the Art Department. Mike M.

I am in Richmond VA this week Mike due to work training, but will check it out when I get back to FL and see that the Paxton serial # has on it.

Mike wrote: