Technical Doing a ring job the old way

before I honed, the groove was there, even deeper, and the engine was burning a quart of oil every hundred miles. But the rings in 5 of the cylinders had a lot of wear on them, too. It was not fouling any plugs.

It sure will be interesting to see how it works when it's done! At the very least, it's a cheap experiment. And if it goes 200 miles on a quart now, it will use half as much oil, which is a significant improvement--it will only take two cases of oil for a long trip, instead of 4.

I did that Corvair a couple years ago, it had two bores with serious rust issues, one of them had an area about 2" x 2" rusted away. It used a quart every 50 miles. I replaced the two bad cylinders, and put in new rings, and it went down to about 500 miles per quart, which I hear is about as good as you can expect from one of those.

 

your small block is a shorter stroke higher compression engine than the Hudson. Jim isn't adding a performance cam bigger carb or hedders ect.. and Hudson engines & parts aint near as plentiful or cheap as a small block. He isn't gonna abuse the car. So good enough will suffice in this instance. I used to hate removing the ring ridge at the cyl top. Until I bought a high dollar Snap On ridge removal tool. It locates down in the bore and a bit cuts the ridge from the bottom up. It will not over cut. And follows the cylinder wall below the ridge. It removes 100% of the ridge even from a out of round bore. and its easy to use and pretty fast. Buy one you will find its well worth every penny.

 

Ah ok- I know of a Hudson collector in London who owns a wrecking yard for big trucks- he is said to have a stash of parts for Hudson’s- if you come up short on something let me know and I will approach him

 

thanks...

I also got a call back from a Hudson guy that's less than 200 miles from me. I will try to visit him sometime in the next few weeks.

 

I got some rings in the mail today, so I'm out there a grindin' away...

The rings are NORS, and they fit a .030 over Caddy 331 engine. One of the oil rings was broken (they are cast, with spring steel rails), so I will use one more old ring than I hoped. Also, the rails are too tight to use without grinding, so I am thinking about just using the old rails, instead. The Hudson has 4 rings per piston, the top oil ring (above the pin) uses the rails, the lower ring (below the pin) does not.

I also took a closer look at the old pistons, they have a ring spacer on the top groove, which is kind of neat...I don't think I've ever seen that before. They're also knurled, which I have seen before. The new rings have decent fit as far as ring groove wear not being too much.

I also stuck an old ring in a bore to see how much gap they had...they had quite a bit! like 3/16" on the one I checked. yikes, no wonder it burned so much oil.

To make the new .030 rings fit the .020 bores, I marked a line 1/32" from the end of each ring with a scribe, and ground to the line with the edge of the grinding wheel on my small bench grinder...then finished with the hand ring grinder, to get it square...and then checked the gap. I'm not to picky on gap, anywhere from .015 to .025 on the top rings is fine, and even tighter on the second, and oil rings, is ok.

 

going back together. I think the new rings are from 1958, anyways, a couple pictures for your viewing pleasure.

 

I like the dual carbs. and I see the relief on the deck to allow better flow from the valves. Its just me however I would weigh the bigger piston & rod and remove some weight from the big end and above the wrist pin on the rod to balance everything.

 

Love it, Leak-Proof
You should be good to go now.
Did you dig up an old labor guide to check to price back in the days?

 

Cool Tool! Any chance you remember who made it?

 

The rod tool is a Blue Point, it's old, and they haven't made them for decades. It's my best "whatizit?" tool

We went out for dinner with friends, so lost two and half hours but the rest of the pistons are in, I'll get the pan and head cleaned up and installed, and see if I can get it running tonight.

 

Jim,
I have never seen a tool like that. Is it to protect the journal when you are installing the pistons?
Bob

 

yes, also lets you pull the rod onto the crank journal....or push the piston out of the bore, if you're removing it. Very handy. I love it

 

I just found a picture of one on line, and I can see why you would like it.
Bob

 

The only problem is it won't fit 7/16" rod bolts. Which I have on two of my engines!

 

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Anyways, the ring job is done, car is running again. It's almost 11pm, so I will wait until tomorrow for a test drive. But it sounds good so far.

 

Of coarse it does! Probably hasn't run that good for a long time!

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Went for a little drive this morning, seems to be doing ok. I'll have to put some miles on it to figure out how much oil it's using now. I also changed the oil, it was kinda dirty after 25 miles, wonder why?

 

Maybe because the new oil has detergent?

 

any full car photos? now that the engine is going to live.....

 

sure...just took one this morning.

 

Needs one of these canvas water bags hanging in the grille.

 

If you are good at keeping them from leaking, you can get the usage down to almost nothing on a fresh build, and a quart a change on a well seasoned one. It takes a lot of practice to keep the oil inside a Corvair engine.

I'm really enjoying this project, and envious of the relatively rust free relics you drum up to play with.

 

Sorry Jim, I can’t resist, but I showed my nine year old son the picture of your car and the first thing he said was Doc Hudson!


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Just from looking at the design, the only way I could see to convert it to use with the 7/16 bolts, would be to butcher this one or build a copy to accept the larger rod bolts.
I guess I'll have to continue using fuel line hose, but this device would seem to solve the most difficult part of removing the rod, and that is, to get the rod off the journal without damaging the finish on the journal. Even with the rubber hose covering the bolts, that is when I am most paranoid.
I like the look of the car, and hope it runs well. It is just my own thing, but I hate sunvisors.

Bob

 

So you guys were undertakers last year in that LaSalle Hearse....what's the motiff this year???

Hornets??? That's actually a nice looking car...I have always been intrigued by how ugly they are but actually quite handsome at the same time. They play with your mind.

 

I hate sunvisors too, I took it off when I first got the car, mainly so I could get the windshield back in place (the garnish holds it in, and was not installed all the way). But my goal with this car is not to make it be the best looking car, so the visor went back on. It has sunburn everywhere except where the visor protected th paint...looks a bit funny with it off.

Not sure about the theme of this car, if there is such a thing. I did get a Doc Hudson mascot, a very badly built (new) toy car, I'll get a picture of it soon, I expect.

I'm thinking about driving the car out to Monterey in a few weeks for the Hell on Wheels rally. It would be totally irresponsible, so it just might happen.

 

And the way the front seat lays down to the rest seat, you can sleep in it! We had one as our family car in the later 50's, Dad would take us boys fishing and we would sleep in it! He had put an Olds V8 in it though.

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The Nashes and Ramblers had lay down seats, but not Hudsons....at least not these ones.

 

Nice to see you extending the lifespan of this cool old survivor. I wonder how many nice old cars like this get passed up (or parked) because the mindset is we have to do a frame off restoration? This is proof positive you don't have to spend a fortune to have and enjoy an old vehicle.