drags and Beach Hop

essexcoupe3131

Hi all, have decided to take the old girl to the drags next week, they are having a Mopar only dfay, and have decided to put a cat among the pigeons by taking the coupe:D

I remembered that you guys have spoken about Chrysler owning the naming rights to Hudson and Essex so I emailed them to see if I can run and they came back and said absolutely



They only issue is that I didnt tell them that I was running a small block Chev, so I can see that there will be a few dummys being spat when they open up under the engine bay:eek:



Iam booked into the Dyno next Wednesday for the major tune up and see what we can get out of her, she has had a 1000 miles put on her so should be ready to go



I have no big expectations on the strip picking that I should run maybe a mid 14 especially now that i have found that shes carrying a bit of Fat and is a lot heavier than I thought, and we still have to put all the upholstery in and carpets



Iam trying to get my son to come and do a video but we will see



The following week after that we are off to the Beach Hop for 3 days in Wangamata Beach which is a on the East Coast of our North Island and about a 2 1/2 hours drive and have a showing for the Club, last year there

was 1675 cars and rods registered



This is 1 of the premier events in hot rodding and people start arriving 3 days before the start, last year they had 3 mustangs that you could win by entering, lets just hope the weather is fine and so far this summer we have had 1 of the best summers for a long time, Iam not sure what they have up for the przes (cars) this year but its all about partitapation

I will be seeing my brother down there in his 57 Chev 4 door

I have got 1 off the 300 premier tickets for the car which lets these cars into special areas and if they close off the main town streets like they did a couple of years ago only these cars can parade up the streets

In the bright yellow she should stick out like a sore toe:D



Mike

Lee ODell

Hudson308 wrote:

I still think it'll do at least low 13's, Mike... if you can hook up at all.

I'm going to quess it will be in the 12's if it hooks up and the dyno verifies the estimated HP. I am eager to hear the results from you.



Lee

essexcoupe3131

thanks Guys, Cant wait for the big day tommorrow at the dyno will be a sleepless night LOL

essexcoupe3131

Hi all, went to the dyno yesterday, we found that the carb was well over jetted and on the first run it blew out huge amounts of black smoke so we changed the jets down by 10 sizes on the secondaries and 2 sizes on the primaries,

the engine started at 265 BHP and after 5 more runs we got her up to 293 BHP

which equates to about 353 Hp we came up with a equal amount of torque as the BHP which was quite good, the engine broke down at just over 6000 with running out of octane rating as we were running (96) which would be approx maybe 91 in your country, we had a loss of HP with the headers as just block huggers

which the dyno guy said could be worth 15 -20 BHP and a gain in the octane rating if I do a mixture of 20% av gas



This is a long way off what the Edelbrock company advertisers this engine at and is very disappointing considering that they supposibly run there tests on your 91 octane

I don't know if they test there engines with open headers to gain HP but I would think this shouldn't be the case as they are promoting there engines in cars

Thoughts!

When we had it on the dyno we found that the tack is out @ 4k on the tach it is only 3K on the dyno so you guys weren't too far off the mark in that regard



At 6k the old girl was spinning the rears at 137.99 miles an hour which is not a place am willing to take the old girl to at the moment or maybe even in the future

So onwards and upwards to Sunday when we take her for a run on the strip

my guess is that she will run in the high 14 low to high 14s time will tell



Mike

Lee ODell

Hi Mike,



I'm pretty sure they put the engine on a engine dyno, with 4 into collecter full length headers. I doubt they dyno all their engines. Dyno one and advertise the rest using their test. They may not have any accessories hooked up either.



I imagine most people are disapointed when they have there cars dynoed and find out the numbers do not meet their expectations. But now you have a base HP and Torque to improve on.



Block hugger headers and mufflers kill alot of HP and torque. The size of the exhaust pipes and mufflers can also affect the performance. Even tire/wheel weight will have an affect on performance.



I put an X pipe in my exhaust, expecting and improvement. However, it quieted the noise alot but it killed bottom end torque alot. Not what I expected. Hot rodding is one experiment after another and costly.



As your motor gets some miles on it, the motor will make more HP as the rings wear in.



Is the motor just as Edelbrock assembled it or have you changed any components?



I think your car will do better than you expect.



Good luck at the drags. Keep us posted. Lee

essexcoupe3131

Hi Lee, this is the same as they did it but had to do a rebuild as was shoddily put together and the rings wouldn't bed in, and the valves never hammered into the heads properly, so we had a specialist head guy reseat them all and ccd them to make sure all was even (this guy had had training at Edelbrock and has 40 years of experience) the only real change is that its 30 thou over now because when they put the torque plates on the block to check the roundness of the bores, they found that the bores where oval (and this would have happened any way when the heads where put back on)and we put in a new double roller chain as there was so much slop in the factory 1

If I was in the states I would be there, shoving it up where the sun doesn't shine:D

Mike

Lee ODell

Wow. You got burned bad. What a lousy job they did. Sorry you had to go through all that trouble. If Edelbrock was behind me, I would not want to be between the two of you.



I had a similar experience when I decided not to build my next engine and let a professional do it. I gave him all new, top of the line parts. They broke in the engine on a dyno and up to 2500 RPM. It made 225 HP with the blower at that RPM. After installing the engine it was not long before I had to do like you did, and tear it down to fine out what was wrong. What wasn't. They had switched all may parts with used left over parts in their shop. The pretty painted used block bore had a sleeve, to much piston clearance, the used crank snout had .010 run out. I'm lucky the ballancer didn't snap the snout at 6,500 RPM. Cam lobs worn out, junk connecting rods with oblong big end and wrist pin holes...ect ect ect. The only new parts on the engine were blower, carbs, valve covers and pistons. Big $$$ for junk. I know how you feel.



Sounds like you have a good engine builder there. I hope your car performs well for you. I still believe, with the right combination, you will have a 12 sec. car.



Maybe sometime down the road you can find someone that can build you a set of equal length long toob headers. You would be surprised at the performance difference. Shorty headers are not much better than stock manifold. But they do look better and fit in tight places.



Good luck. I'm looking forward to read how well you do at the drags. I wish I could be there to see it run. By the way, have you determined what the gas mileage is?



Have a good day. Lee

essexcoupe3131

Hi Lee, now we have changed the jets and no longer blowing it out of the rear Iam expecting better will fill the tank after the drags and do a milage check and let you knpow as most of my running is short trips but with the Beach Hop nextweekend we will get some good open roads

Mike

essexcoupe3131

Hi All, went to the drags today, went were I imagined it was going to be did 6 runs, starting at 14.75 on the quarter and we have a problem with octane breaking down at 5800 revs worked on the old girl and the best run we got was 14.32 still with the octane coming into play



It was a fun day and next time I go I will take some av gas and do a 20% blend, the biggest problem that we had was a flat spot when stamping on the gas , so next week we are going to change the cam on the accelerator pump and see if we can get rid of it



Did a dial in time of 14.4 in the play offs but got too keen as I was running against a much slower car that dialed in at 17.7 and red lighted so got dumped out:mad:



I must admit the old can launched herself very well and was very stable under acceleration and braking in the 94 mile an hour mark was very surprised at the smoothness all the way down the track, here i was expecting to hang on to the steering with grim death but was far from the case



We were by far the oldest car there and predominately all the 60s and seventies the shape of the old girl doesn't help in the least but it was a good learning curve as this was the 1st time I had been on the strip in about 27 years



As they say on wards and upwards



Still got heaps of good feed back about her, everyone just loves the color and want to know what special color we had blended for her



Mike

[Deleted User]

Well done you must be on a real High for your 1st run for some years keep us informed on your future runs

cheers:D

Lee ODell

Congratulation on your maden voyage down the trak. I'm glad you had a good time. Would like to have been there to cheer you on. Just have to do it here. Go Mike go! Go Go Go!



Keep us posted. Lee

essexcoupe3131

Hi All,saw a guy from the drags today, and he told us that we had won Best

Hot Rod at the Drags but was forfeited as we weren't there to pick up the prize

Bugger

Mike

[Deleted User]

Always the way dont know how many times missed on trophys over the years along with the hundreds of raffle tickets oh well:rolleyes:

lsfirth

essexcoupe3131 wrote:

Hi All,saw a guy from the drags today, and he told us that we had won Best

Hot Rod at the Drags but was forfeited as we weren't there to pick up the prize

Bugger

Mike

Yeah...bummer....but nice job!! I'm actually suprised since it was a mopar meet :-)

essexcoupe3131

Isfirth, my understanding under the NHRA rules that the Essex/ Hudson naming rights is now owned by Chrysler so this lets these old girls play with the Big boys and there big toys

I had seen this on a previous thread here so I applied and they said Absolutely



There was a very nice 70 Challenger street car there with a 604 making in excess of 1000 horse power and making 1200 lbs of torque Phew

Drove it there changed the tyres threw in some Av Gas and then proceed to do about 15 runs during the day and does this every year I have been told



Mike

essexcoupe3131

Hi all went to the beach hop over the weekend with 1100 cars pre registered, on the Saturday they reconded 40,000 -60,000 people turned up to view the cars, I had very good look around and out of all the cars I could only find 2 other Essex/Hudson/Nash and that was another 31 4 door sedan,

1x Nash Neapolitan and a couple of Ramblers no Hudsons



Got heaps of good feed back and we stood out like a sore thumb in our bright yellow even had people asking the mix of the paint, she sure looked pretty under the street lights at night and I spent Saturday night just cruising in the rumble seat with my brother taking in the atmosphere and having a lot of cold 1s as we had my best man driving us around as a thank you for all the help he has put in on her,

It was a real buzz y weekend



PS A 57 Chevy took out the Best car called Albino and had pure white interior and exterior was very sharp and the guy had been working on it for 7 years

better than the other 32 Ford coupe fenderless , huge buck billet job:mad:

Best bike was a old Indian in perfect condition



My wife got a call yesterday and it was from the people at the drags and they still decided to keep the prize for us for best Hot Rod and are going to deliver it to us at work this week



I have gotten the bug at the drags so we are off again in a couple weeks

to the Nostalgia Drags and have another blast, which I think I can pull the old girl into the mid to high 13s especially after seeing some of my reaction times the slowest at .554 and the fastest at .011

again only time will tell



My friend (Tony) is working on me to deck the heads 15 thousand to lift the compression from 9.4 up to 10.25 and put a set of tuned headers on but that (headers) is going to be a nightmare as there is just no room



Mike

essexcoupe3131

Hi All,just got the NZ Hot Rod mag today and there was a picture of my coupe in there from the Beach Hop, with it stating that the coupe nearly made it in the top 5 cars, and this is with the upolstery missing, so maybe next year we might get her in there, not to bad considering that there was a total of 3500 different cars there over the weekend



Mike



PS off to the upolsteries on the 3 of May to get finished

Lee ODell

Hi Mike, haven't heard from you for awhile.



Did you get your car back from the apholster?



Have you taken it to the track lately?



Always like to hear about the progress on your car. Lee

essexcoupe3131

hi Lee, I think its been about 7-8 weeks at been at the upholsterers and only has 2 weeks left on the warrant of fitness, hes saying I will be able to take it home before then, hes doing a amazing job but taking a lot longer than I thought,

I have to paint out the rear window frame as it just looks wrong in yellow, I haven't seen her in 3 weeks this Saturday, the carpet was needed to be installed next so the side panels could go in, all the seats are shaped including the rumble seat ready for the upholstery and the patterns for all of these have cut ready for stitching.

I am hoping a major shift forward when I see this week, I was supposed to go to a HET meet here this weekend which is a bugger and was looking forward to it 1st time out fully dressed LOL

Will post some pics after I see it this weekend

thanks for the interest

Mike

[Deleted User]

Mike! I'm so sorry I missed this thread before now! Wow, sorry you had such a bad deal with that engine from Edelbrock. I've usually had good luck with their products, though I've only bought their carbs. I bet they are crate motors that are built in the States by shops like the one that built mine. They said they built a lot of crate motors for big resellers. But sounds like your getting it dialed in now. I bet its fun running down the track! I've never done it but would like to try it sometime. Not that the Dodge would get that fast of numbers, being a stock motor 0.030 over and a mild cam regrind. But when I get the Hudson done with a nicely done rebuild on my 331 Hemi, that should be fun down the track! Don't know if I'm going to put dual 4bbls on it, or a street blower. Just gotta have someone teach me how to do it without blowing up the thing halfway down the track! lol

Keep us updated!

essexcoupe3131

Hows it giong Jay just getting an email ready to send to you, with some luck will have some pics for you to see later in the week

Mike

essexcoupe3131

hi all went to see the coupe and the upholstery on Sunday and this is where she is at pics don't really do it justice

Will put some more on another page

thanks for looking

Mike

essexcoupe3131

more

1st seat will be ready this week

Mike

bent metal

Very nice, clean work!:)





I like how the roof seam meets the corner seam. Nice attention to detail, throughout.



Beautiful. Keep the pictures coming.:)

[Deleted User]

Are those storage pockets on the sides by the rumble seat? Very sweet work dude! Are those stock visors, or an aftermarket set-up? I like how they kind of fold up out of sight.

Beauty Man! Keep the pics coming!

essexcoupe3131

jsrail wrote:

Are those storage pockets on the sides by the rumble seat? Very sweet work dude! Are those stock visors, or an aftermarket set-up? I like how they kind of fold up out of sight.



Beauty Man! Keep the pics coming!

Hey Jay, they are storage pockets and they will have a power point in each 1 for a phone or the charges for the i pods etc and also there will be a release wire in each1 with a ring on it in case the central locks ever play up, plus you can put your hats in there before they get left on the road.



The sun visors are from a 1963 Vauxhall Victor (English car) and we just reshaped them care of my brother, you will see them just in the top of the window screen, the only reason we have them is for a warrant of fitness



Scott is an artist and has done a lot of work on Rolls Royces and Bentley's restorations and a lot of vintage tin, when he 1st saw it he couldn't quite get his head around the shape of the Essex, but now he has had time on it he can see all the different swag lines etc and has really started to grow on him



I cant wait to see a seats in, she is going to be snug, at least I wont fall out but will have to make sure that i don't put on huge amounts of weight LOL



Bent metal always a pleasure and getting a complement from you means that Scott is doing a great job as you are also an artist with metal

The main aim with this upholstery is not to over cook the interior' suttle and classy



Hudson 308 i am not a hot chocolate sort of person and I prefer Jack or Canadian Club but on these sites you have to be a little PC correct LOL



thanks all



Mike