289 Cid Engine to 3xx Cid..

[Zedman]

I thought I'd ask this question here rather than the Avanti Trivia page, where there is a discussion going on about Ferrari engines...   Dwight has postulated a bore-out by 80 thou over would have brought the 289 Engine into the 302-ish realm.   My query is - Surely the ability to change the core patterns for the casting of Engine Blocks would have been a viable, economical and realistic way of ensuring an increase in HP as well as a safety margin to ensure overboring would not be compromised by thin walls.   Anybody wanna comment here? 🤷‍♂️

[Nelson]

That was planned and prototypes or at least one prototype was built. The bore of that engine was 3 7/8 inch. With the std stroke of 3 5/8 the displacement went to 342 ci. Oil gallies on this block had to be moved upward and outward to gain clearance for the larger bore. A longer stroke by 1/4 inch would yield 365 cubic inch. I believe this engine was aimed at the 1965 model year.

[Bob Preston]

I’d say further experimentation and implementation wasn’t in the cards for Studebaker at the time. The  displacement of the R3 is 304.5cu/in (bore 3 21/32) with a rating of 335hp. That, disc brakes, superchargers, innovative styling and numerous land speed records weren’t enough to save a struggling company. 
 

The bore on the R3 is +.09375 when compared to the R1/R2 at 289cu/in. So Studebaker was doing exactly what has been postulated. It just didn’t work out. Chevy engines were used after US production was halted. 

[mfg]

Really too bad it wasn’t in the cards to continue development and production of the Packard V8 engine… which had a very large bore spacing with eventual maximum displacement of up to 500 CI.

Studebaker ‘owned’ this quality engine, however, the years ‘53-‘58 were a terrible struggle for Studebaker… and an expensive engine being built in Utica was, at that time, un-affordable.

General Motors showed interest in purchasing the rights and machinery to continue production of the Packard V8, going so far as to rename it the ‘Mark lll’, but ultimately decided it wasn’t the direction they wanted to go.