Gasser Deuce top speed?

[DutchmanZ]

After several trips around the house of 10 or so miles, I decided to jump out and drive the M35 to work. It’s about 35 miles of 2 lane road, one way. 45 mph was pretty much all it would do. If I back off the throttle some I could manage 48 mph. Without a tach I don’t know engine speed but it just feels like it should pull harder. It was almost as fast to take off in 2nd and then just shift to 5th as it was to hit every gear. What do you guys with gassers run in 1:1? I’m thinking I have something wrong in the carb but it’s a new (old stock) Zenith. Before I go looking for nothing, what do you guys think?

 

[Floridianson]

With a tail wind?

 

[frank8003]

put the GPS thingie on your phone if you wanna study
Otherwise just enjoy Her

 

[cattlerepairman]

She is a beauty! The blue suits her.

The pics totally sidetracked me. What are we talking about?

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[davidb56]

without a tach, you'll never know if you are reaching the redline under load. If you can get 3200 rpms in fifth, thats almost as fast as it goes. I think 3200-3600 is redline depending on Manufacture. (better check before detonation) Often a engine cannot reach rated rpm "under driving conditions" because its wore out, tune up issues, governed, or over loaded.

 

[DutchmanZ]

For reference, it’s a 1953 Studebaker with the 331 Reo. It runs beautifully and has recent tune up parts installed. I’ve read some members cruise at 55 and some say 45. My speedometer is functional and accurate. I know there are a few gassers on the site so I was hoping for a comment from one of them since the diesels differ in trans ratios and rpm range. I have a 24 to 12 volt step down converter so I’m going to try that and a small tach and see if that works. The only load she had was me and a full tank of gas and it’s running 9-20 NDTs. One of my tech manuals lists top speed as 58?! I’m guessing that was down hill with that tail wind. Before I explore a diesel trans swap I figured I’d ask the experts.

 

[fleetmech]

If you backed off the throttle and gained speed, Id say you do probably have a carb issue, probably leaning out at WOT. Do the military variants of the 331 have the vacuum controlled ignition governor that the later civvy variants did?

With that being said, you're not likely to go a heck of a lot faster than 50 no matter how good its running, I should think.

I dont think you'll find much utility in swapping the transmissions, unfortunately. Unless you run really light and on level roads you won't have the power to really make use of OD. I have the late model, uprated 171hp 331 in a an old Diamond Reo, and while its a bit larger than a deuce, theres no way its got enough power to spin OD, except maybe down hill.

 

[DutchmanZ]

If you backed off the throttle and gained speed, Id say you do probably have a carb issue, probably leaning out at WOT. Do the military variants of the 331 have the vacuum controlled ignition governor that the later civvy variants did?

With that being said, you're not likely to go a heck of a lot faster than 50 no matter how good its running, I should think.

I dont think you'll find much utility in swapping the transmissions, unfortunately. Unless you run really light and on level roads you won't have the power to really make use of OD. I have the late model, uprated 171hp 331 in a an old Diamond Reo, and while its a bit larger than a deuce, theres no way its got enough power to spin OD, except maybe down hill.

I suspected a lean condition as well but pulling out slightly on the choke didn’t help as I expected it would if it was lean. The governor system is disabled but it’s possible I’m still having an issue with that on the carburetor. I was having a sticking throttle and it was because of the governor spring. I pulled it out and verified I had WOT still but didn’t actually look at the blades. The governor is not connected to the ignition system that I can tell. The distributor is all self contained with no vacuum/air connections. I had a parts supplier recommend the OD trans. He said it was something they did in the past for the gassers and they would really move. I’m in eastern NC and it’s all flat land so that’s not an issue. Aside from the occasional hay ride or joy ride, hauling anything won’t be an issue either. I do have a 68 M105A2 but it’s just going to be for looks. Thank you for the input and I’d love to see that Diamond Reo.

 

[glcaines]

I drove an M35 gasser for awhile in the Army in the early 70s. From what I remember, 45 was about top speed unloaded and not much power. The M35 I drove was a Studebaker as well, but I have no clue as to what engine. I do remember the truck was very quiet and smooth while driving compared to the diesels.

 

[NDT]

It should go faster after the gear oil gets hot. Advance the timing some, check for dragging shoes.

 

[davidb56]

I suspected a lean condition as well but pulling out slightly on the choke didn’t help as I expected it would if it was lean. The governor system is disabled but it’s possible I’m still having an issue with that on the carburetor. I was having a sticking throttle and it was because of the governor spring. I pulled it out and verified I had WOT still but didn’t actually look at the blades. The governor is not connected to the ignition system that I can tell. The distributor is all self contained with no vacuum/air connections. I had a parts supplier recommend the OD trans. He said it was something they did in the past for the gassers and they would really move. I’m in eastern NC and it’s all flat land so that’s not an issue. Aside from the occasional hay ride or joy ride, hauling anything won’t be an issue either. I do have a 68 M105A2 but it’s just going to be for looks. Thank you for the input and I’d love to see that Diamond Reo.

View attachment 819090

Are your distributor advance weights/springs in good working order? sounds like maybe its not advancing. you could use a timing light and watch it advance on the harmonic balancer as you rev up the engine.

 

[DutchmanZ]

Are your distributor advance weights/springs in good working order? sounds like maybe its not advancing. you could use a timing light and watch it advance on the harmonic balancer as you rev up the engine.

That’s an excellent suggestion. I’ll check that out.

 

[DutchmanZ]

It should go faster after the gear oil gets hot. Advance the timing some, check for dragging shoes.

I need to make an ignition adapter for my timing light. It starts very well cold so I didn’t think about timing. I have gone through the brakes. Some were too tight but that was before the longer ride to work.

 

[Barrman]

It will go faster. My Gasser will stay in the 52-55 range until an up hill pushes it back down to around 42-46. Enjoy any speed runs in the cool weather. I discovered that 48 mph is all I could do in the summer time and not be getting past 210°.

 

[DutchmanZ]

It will go faster. My Gasser will stay in the 52-55 range until an up hill pushes it back down to around 42-46. Enjoy any speed runs in the cool weather. I discovered that 48 mph is all I could do in the summer time and not be getting past 210°.

Thank you sir. That’s what I wanted to hear. Monday was probably in the 50s and my engine temps were under 190 the whole trip. I’ve got good compression and it doesn’t smoke at all so I believe the engine is sound. I’ll go back over it and see if I can figure out issue. I’ll probably work on a tach install first.

 

[HDN]

I wouldn't do over 45 MPH in any of my trucks no matter the age, unless it was a HMMWV. I'd just enjoy going "slow". After all, it gets more looks that way as it's a lot harder to get a good look at a speeding bullet of a car

 

[MuleMac01]

My M275 can hit 50.. 55 if I push it but you know its red lining the OA 331. I cruise at 45 no issues. At 50 -55 it gets loud and scary.

 

[DutchmanZ]

Update. I installed a tachometer on Friday. Once I had everything connected I tried to start it. Nothing! I figured I must have messed up something in the distributor so I went back thru the distributor and checked everything. I had spark at the plug so I pulled the breather tube and splashed a little gas in it. It fired off instantly. Long story short, the fuel pump failed. Another trip to White Owl and I had a rebuild kit for the pump. Reinstalled everything and got it running again. I also checked the throttle blades. Turns out that when I removed the governor spring I created my problem. The throttle shaft doesn’t open the throttle blades. The governor spring holds the blades against a cam that is moved buy the throttle linkage. The only way I was getting rpm was the engine vacuum was pulling the blades open. It accelerates like a different truck now. I run it up to 52 mph and it had plenty more but not on the road I was on. The tach said 3100 rpm at 52 mph. My tech manual says max road speed is 60. It also lists the brake horsepower as 146 @ 3400 rpm. It’s a 1954 manual and only has info on the gas engines. I just didn’t dig far enough for the info.

 

[NDT]

The OA331 can handle 3400 rpms, back in the day, you have to know the GIs would run these all day with the throttle pulled all the way out.

 

[DutchmanZ]

It’s been awhile but I did a mod to the deuce just to see if it helped. I had a big problem with hot restarts and it always felt like the engine was restricted. I went to Advance and bought a universal cold air kit. I made the filter mount and turned the aluminum carb hat forward. It was still running the oil bath air cleaner system prior to this. It seems to have majorly helped the hot restart. As a bonus, I tried it on the highway and got almost 60mph before my nerves made me back out of it. Truthfully, it was more the look of fear on my wife’s face… The engine sounds much happier now and you can feel it pulling and actually gaining speed. Next I’ll tackle the exhaust manifold leak and see if I can insulate the intake from the exhaust. I’m sure the heat riser is all but gone.