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I friend of my is sure that Studebaker at one time bought and installed Chevy engines in some of their cars. Could this be true? I know that Studebaker built their own V8 in 1951 and used some form of it for years. I realize this is not exactly the place to ask this but with Packard buying Studebaker in 1954 maybe someone here knows the answer.

The last year or 2, Studebakers were built in the Canadian Studebaker plant after the South Bend plant closed. With no foundry or engine assembly line, they were forced to buy engines. They tried different ones but the Chev worked out best. They were actually supplied by McKinnon Industries, a company that made engines for Chevrolet of Canada.

So yes, a 1965 or 66 Studebaker came with a Chev engine either a six or V8.

A quick search turned up this:

http://billstudepage.homestead.com/files/engine.htm

It reminded me that in addition to using Chev engines in 1965 and 66, they used Packard engines in the Golden Hawk one year only (1956).

They also bought Perkins diesels to use in Lark taxicabs and light trucks, and other makes of diesels for the heavy trucks.

The web site above does not mention it but Studebaker made nearly 200 thousands of Studebaker US6 heavy trucks for the military in WW2 and later, using big 6 cylinder gas engines from Hercules.

Most of them wound up in the Soviet Union as lend lease shipments. The Russians loved them, here is a web site about them.

http://www.autogallery.org.ru/gstuder.htm

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That's interesting. I never heard that before. Another question along the same lines. I remember seeing a car around 1976 that I think was a Studebaker that had a packard engine in it. Don't know what year the car was but I think it could have been a late 60s Lark. Did SP ever produce a Studebaker with an engine built by Packard? Just on the surface of it it seems the answer would be no. From what my failing memory remembers the engine was probably an OHV 6 and not an 8.

Note: I just read my own post and it occurred to me that what I saw was a Lark with the Chevy 6 in it and not a Packard engine at all. I just remember that it seemed odd at the time.

The two engines offered in the 65 & 66 Studebaker are as follows.

194 cid inline 6 cylinder, 120 hp at 4400 rpms, 8.5:1 compression ratio.

283 cid V8, 195 hp at 4800 rmps.

John F. Shireman

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You know that is probably what I saw. Sure would like to have one today.

The 283 cu. in. V-8 engines used in the Canadian-built Studebakers assembled in Hamilton, Ontario, from 1965-1966, were manufactured by McKinnon Industries under license by General Motors.

The 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk hardtops alone were the only Studebaker model to ever use the 352 cu. in. Packard V-8s. They were also available with the Packard Twin Ultramatic automatic transmissions.

Stude also used Chevy rear ends in 65-66 instead of the usual tapered axles.