Real R3!

[mfg]

34 minutes ago, Dwight FitzSimons said:

Shimming up the body 1.5", in addition to using thinner motor insulators, is much more than necessary for the carb enclosure to clear the hood.  Both of my R3 Avantis used only the thinner insulators and the enclosure cleared the hood.  Not by much, though.

--Dwight

Wondered what else made the shimming up necessary?

[mfg]

Dwight… still wondering what else made it necessary for Studebaker to shim up the bodies of their R3 Avantis besides engine  to hood clearance?

[Geoff]

Here is a quote from my uncle regarding motor mounts and 1025, posted to Bob Johnstone's page:

Quote

.....the clearance between the steering arm and crank pulley, The R1, with fresh mounts has almost 5/8 inch, the R2 and R3 with 10 year old mounts have just under a 1/2 inch.

My older brothers R3 with reworked frame mounts, standard ratio crank pulley and new/fresh mounts has 1/4 inch, as they age the settle leaving about 1/8 clearance. His engine has to be raised to install/remove belts, and yes there are rub marks or groves if you will on the steering arm. His front frame mounts were cut and re-welded to add additional clearance for the carburetor enclosure by Granatelli for the prototype R3 engine.

I have a set of R3 front rubber motor mounts here, well Stephen grabbed them actually to help eliminate some of his hood rubbing problems on his R1, they are about 5/16 of an inch shorter. I experienced steering arm rubbing when I used them on my Avanti with the carburetor enclosure, so I raised the body as the original R3 cars did to give the additional clearance. I no longer rub the steering arm, can change belts and have sufficient hood clearence.

I have no idea where the rubber R3 mounts came from. They arn't in the parts book,so I am guessing they are from the reproduction vendors. The factory R3 cars raised the front of the body for the clearence and you can't use the short mounts with the high output pulleys either.

Maybe something contained therein will give a clue?

[mfg]

So, if the short front engine mounts can’t be used if the hi-po crank pulley is used, THAT in itself would be another reason requiring body shimming.

[Nelson]

I think the the short mounts always referred to as R3 mounts are actually six cylinder mounts. The factory R3 mounts are the same as any V8 Stude. Im pretty sure they are needed when the high output blower drive is installed. Also it seems some Avantis with standard engines but R3 blower boxes actually clear the hood surface.