Studebaker Progress

I have been picking away at the Studebaker, it's hard when there's a shop full of work. I don't put all the jobs I do up here on the blog, in addition to the '55 Chevy I also did a complete brake rebuild on a 1959 Chevy pickup and so much more. I am just so excited to be building this car though, I always seem to find a few hours a day to throw at it.

Since last time I finished up the turbo piping, the entire air side is made from 2.5 and 3" aluminum mandrel bends that are cut and welded together. Here's what it looks like.

The compressed air is blown out of the turbo and into this 2.5" aluminum pipe. From here it goes into the inner fender well, and around the corner into the intercooler.

Here's the front of the car, you can see the air to air intercooler, the pipe leading into it and the 3" pipe leading out of it. That pipe also makes a turn into the inner fender well on the other side, then back into the engine bay. Also  note the blow off valve attached to the pipe on the hot side of the intercooler. This valve releases pressure created by the turbo when  the throttle is closed, like between shifts.

The cooled air is blown past the mass airflow sensor (MAF) which measures the amount of airflow and airflow temperature, then past the throttle body and into the engine. The fuel is injected at the very end of the airflow stream, using special 60 pound fuel injectors which will support about 700 horsepower on gas. For comparison the stock fuel injectors are 19 pounds.

The stock SIlverado 5.3 came with an alternator and power steering pump on the same bracket. The bracket is this huge cast aluminum thing and not very pretty to look at. Since I only need to run an alternator, I sliced, diced and trimmed the stock bracket until I came up with this. It's not shiny billet but it works perfectly and I'm done!

I also finished up the downpipe, this is the pipe that is attached to the back of the turbo and connects to the muffler under the car. This thing is very long, the design was required to fit the confines of the Studebaker undercarriage. To get it in is a whole procedure/