Getting my old 37 Hudson on the road is going much slower than I’d hope & as many before me, I’m struggling with some “should I” questions. The latest question I’m pondering & could use some advice on is, to re-grind the cam or not? The goal of this project has been to just get the coupe back on the road & make some memories with my twin daughters before they are off to college in a year. Background: I’ve been working for a couple years to get her back on the road after sitting for a couple decades while kids & life took priority. While I got her running again, she was not running well and when I opened her up it turned out to be a blown head gasket. I also discovered the cylinders were glazed & needed attention. Since she was still standard bore, she was given a hand honing & new rings were found. Pistons & rods cleaned and thoroughly checked, a polish of the rod journals on the crank was done along with locating a high compression head to install which I’m estimating will result in 8.25 to 8.75 to 1 compression. The valves were the originals & once removed I realized I needed new valves & guides. I’ve found new production valves & guides are being made and I can change to valves with 11/32” stems from the original 3/8” stems without any other modifications, since I’m also changing the guides. Tappets were pulled, cleaned & checked for wear, lubed & re-installed. A retired mechanic friend felt the cam looked good with minimal wear so initially I didn’t plan on doing anything more. Finally the engine is still in the car & I have not wanted to remove it in fear of it leading to “Since the engine is out I might as well...” and too much time will be added to bringing it back to the road. As I said my main goal has been to just get the old coupe on the road again to make some memories with my twins before they are off to college in a year. Which is why I still hesitate to do a cam at this point, however the hot rodder in me keeps thinking about doing one more thing to go fast.... Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Personally, I would not pull that engine! You have a short time to enjoy those girls. You WILL "lose" them when they go away to college. Button her up and DRIVE. Can always be pulled later. My 2 cents worth. Ben
Time is not on your side, do what it takes to get back on the road as soon as possible, it may or may not be the smart thing but if you can get in the time with your girls it would be advisable to button it up and hit the road. HRP
Forget the cam. It probably won't make that much of a noticeable difference and will lead you down the road of making more changes. Put it back together and hit the road with the girls.
Wait until the girls are in college and one calls up and says ,Daddy that old coupe would be so awesome to drive while at school . Then you can tear and thrash the coupe double time.
wait until you're going for a drive, and you get beat from a stoplight by a hondacar, and your daughter asks "why didn't you put a cam in it, daddy?
HuskerNation, I would not re-grind the camshaft. The radiused lifters Hudson used and the small camshaft lobes are different that most everything out there. Finding a someone with experience with re-grinding one of these can be difficult. I looked for someone about 10 years ago and Colt Cams in Canada was the only one that would look into it for me. The man at Colt cams had never ground one for a older splash lubed Hudson but was willing to look into it. If it was mine I would use it as it is due to you might get another .020" of lift and maybe 10 Degrees of duration out of it. Not much of a gain at all.
Thanks everyone for your feedback, it means a lot!!! I’ll hold off on it & git-r-dun to make the memories! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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