Hot Rods Low Buck 308 Hudson Engine Build

I picked up a 1954 Hudson 308 engine just before Christmas & I am trying to see if there is a way to rebuild this on the cheap.

The engine is pretty stripped down to just the block. No intake, carb, exhaust, water pump, fan, starter, generator, or side covers and the distributor is broke where the rotor sits. It did come with the 308 cast iron head & a 262 cast iron head and both have only been surfaced .015” to .030” maximum. A buddy checked cylinders & found 0.0015” maximum on both out of round & taper. It has 0.040 over pistons & only one cylinder shows any pitting which my buddy thought could be honed out by hand with a 3 leg drill hone & possibly not need to be over bored.

My goal would be to use in a 37 Hudson instead of the existing straight 8. Ideally I’d like a hot 7X performing engine. If this is feasible then I’ll need bigger valves & cam plus the 7X reliefs from valves to cylinders. I have not dismantled the engine yet to see the condition of the internal components. With this said I am currently trying to see what I can do for pistons that aren’t custom made but also aren’t the original 4 ring slugs either, as the current ones have pitting in the aluminum tops.

 

If both cylinder heads are in good shape use the 262 head. It'll give you a bit more compression and a noticeable bump in power.

 

Clifford Research in Corona? California. Nothing is inexpensive, but you can try.

 

As far as pistons go if I recall correctly you can start out with chevy 283/307 pistons.

 

I remember being told that Hudson engines were cast from a really good iron alloy.

 

Studebakerjoe, that was my plan as the 262 will give a nice compression bump & still take pump gas. I appreciate the idea of the 283/307 pistons, I’ll check it out!

Jimmy six, I spoke to Larry at Clifford yesterday & they still make an aluminum intake & header. Definitely not cheep but made!

Gold mountain, definitely a very hard block!!!

 

Found 283/307 pistons but in standard size is 3.875”. The engines current 0.040 over pistons are at 3.8525”, so is the only option to bore out my engine?


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Small pits in the cylinder will soon get filled with carbon and cause no problems. Small = not big enough to snag the rings. I wouldn't worry about pitting in the piston tops unless it is real bad.

If this is a budget build you may end up making your own header and intake manifold. Other low cost tricks would be a shaved flywheel and reground cam. The stock distributor can be recurved and converted to electronic ignition. I would go on the mild side with 2 carbs, dual exhaust, mild cam and lightened flywheel. It should be a simple matter to get 150HP or so which is plenty for a light car like yours.

 

Well this Sucks! I was cleaning up the top of the valves & area around them only to find a crack in the block from the intake valve into the cylinder. I haven’t magnafluxed it but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s double what I can see with my naked eye & into the valve seat as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was into the water jacket which maybe the reason for that cylinder having all the pitting as well.

I don’t think it’s worth the money to fix it since more are around & it’s not like it’s a super rare 7X block or one raced in a nascar stock car.

 

I knew the title of this thread was an oxymoron.

 

No doubt!!!

 

A buddy on the east coat was just telling me he has a 308 engine & hydromatic trans from a 20k mile car. It also has the Twin H dual carbs & he would sell it to me.... although he didn’t say how much!

 

Smokey Yunick used to build Hudson motors be back in the day, might be worth researching to see if any of that information is available.

 

Smoke was not allowed to alter in ports but there was no rule they had to be raw as cast..... so he coated them .. instant polish. You need to read the “gray area”
of the rules and it ain’t cheating until they change the rules...

 

& for some reason I'm thinking these were the mills he also converted to reverse rotation. Flipped the rear axle over, said drivers never knew. But had better torque utilization coming off the corners. Leave it to Smokey... probably the most scrutinized guy in racing. & probably more rules re-written due to capabilities of contemplation of the "grey" areas. " .
Marcus...

 

Here’s a link which has a ton of information on the 308 (big 6) engines. It also has an article of an interview with Smoky where he talks about some of the inventive things he had done, including those described here. He was definitely a master at thinking outside the box!

https://hudsonrestoration1948-54.com/Engine.htm



Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.