engine & trans swap in a 49 hudson?

HUDSONBROTHER1

I have had a Pontiac V*8 in my 1953 4 door sedan since the late 1970's. I now have 400 ci. / th400 with tripower on it. I have run as big as a 464 Pontiac in it. My friend in southern Oregon has had a 455 Buick in his 1953 Wasp since the late 1970's also. I have seen 2 cars set up with caddy 472 ci motors in so Cal.These cars handle the power well. My 47 super six coupe has a dual quad 445 Buick with nos plate under both carb's. The car ran a best of 12.83 in the 1/4 mile at Carlsbad raceway. There are a lot of motors that will fit.

Frankvintagefullflowcom

To the list of "The best engines ever built" I'd add the Ford 300 inch six.......but I still wouldn't put any of them into my Hudsons. I'll walk right on by a hundred Chevy powered hot rods at a show to spend more time looking over an unrestored, restored or whatever vehicle. Anybody can stuff a huge engine into a car and go like H***.....who cares? IMO, keep your Hudson all Hudson. It will cost more and take longer but the rewards are worth it.......it is to me, anyway.
Frank

50C8DAN

Frank it might interest you to know (and maybe you do already) that the Ford 300 is as close to a push rod Hudson 6 you will ever find. Apparently, the design was originally worked on by Bernie Siegfried in his basement while a Hudson engineer. I believe it was his hope that Hudson would move the Hornet to push rod power in the mid 50s. When Hudson merged with Nash Bernie got to keep the engine and off he went to Ford. This is info from him and those that knew him.

Frankvintagefullflowcom

I'm interested in almost anything with pistons.....mmmmmm...weed-eaters, no so much, though.
IMHO, The design similarities betwixt the Hudson 6 and the Ford 300 pretty much end at being an inline six. If the Hudsons were a short stroke, oversquare, 7 main bearing, overhead valve (I guess that one doesn't count here) I'd be more inclined to agree.......but they weren't.
Do you know of any documented info alluding to the connection?
I bumped into a guy at the local NAPA one day when I was driving our Jet. As it often happens, he wanted to talk "old cars" and subsequently told me that he has the original paperwork to prove that Hudson got the design for the Jet through negotiations with FMC......if he could find them. Yeah.......riiiiight. I should have suggested we go to his house and look for them but I really just wanted to get away from this guy.
I don't doubt that Bernie had visions of taking Hudson in a new direction for it's powerplants, and an OHV six and/or eight was a logical notion. I wouldn't argue against any similarities in his proposed designs to the 240/300 but I'd make a small wager (a buck is my limit) that they are coincidence. We shall forever wonder where that would have gone had it gotten out of that basement......
F

50C8DAN

Frank below is an email from an HET member that I had correspondence from back in 2008. I do not have permission to use his name so it is left blank. He was a personal friend of Bernie's so had the info from the horse's mouth about the OHV 6 he worked on at Hudson and the Ford 300.

Dear Dan:

As you already know, Bernie and I were friends. Over the years his friendship progressed to the point he shared with me some of his personal experiences at Hudson. One of those experiences was his disappointment with Hudson's management over the introduction of engines. The last being his attempt to introduce the OHV 6 engine to the HUDSON line. He did in fact build a running prototype which per Hudson direction was to be destroyed after failing to get management approval for production. He asked and was granted (lower level but superior manager) permission to continue his investigation of the motor for future consideration. His offer included using his personal facilities. In other words, the engine was removed from the Hudson facility and in the end not returned.

One day while visiting Bernie, he asked if I would like to see that engine. I did and he showed me where he had it under a work bench in his Liberty Mo workshop. That engine had been used to power several of his Ford pickups. As you may already know the engine design was the basis for the 300 Ford 6 which Bernie designed for Ford. Bernie felt that the 300 Cu in OHV Ford engine was one of the best 6 cylinder engine ever built. Wonder why! The last vehicle I ever saw Bernie Drive was his Ford Pickup with 300 6. I know at one time he was thinking of putting a 300 into his 50 Hudson Coupe.

I do not know what happened to the prototype engine, much less the other experimental parts Bernie designed and built for the Hudson engines he raced. I know he experimented with cams, intake design, as well as the use of stroker cranks and different types of pistons.

Best Regards,

Frankvintagefullflowcom

Cool! That's as close to true verification as one could get. I didn't realize from the earlier discussion that Bernie had moved on to Ford so the possibility of the 300 design originating with him and having grown out of the proposed Hudson engine is very plausible.
My favorite line to hate: "It's only a six".

Frank

50C8DAN

You can apply that dollar to my bar tab the next time we both show up at a HET National.

SuperDave

I suppose his work on the Hudson OHV engine would have been a stepping stone ,so to speak, Therefore the two engines may very well be different in many ways. I remember him talking to us at the banquet at The Indy meet. (when was that?) He was a hoot to listen to. From what I have heard, he was a forward thinker and given the opportunity to design a new engine for Ford, and having just built one for Hudson. I am sure he had plenty of improvements in mind. Second Generation OHV 6 ?
I can't recall ever designing something and building it, that I didn't have second thoughts about doing it different the next time! Nothing as complex as an engine though!

50C8DAN

It would be cool to have that engine on display somewhere!

Since only one living person I know has ever seen this engine we do not really know how much different it is from the production Ford 300. There is no reason to assume that what Bernie was working on had any resemblance to the Hudson production 6s other than it being an I6.