Bad gas

Lee ODell

Before I get into the bad gas, I was approached by a doctor while packing up the 52 Hornet for the 5 hr trip to the All California Meet at San Simeon. As I'm loading up, he is trying to buy my car. He wanted to redo everything like new. New paint, rechrome, rebuild drive train ect. It sounded wonderful and was something I could not afford to do. But there was not offer. So I get to keep it on the road. No trailer queen to be.

Back to bad gas. The car had been on stands for about 8 months with approx 11 gal of gas in the tank while working on her peparation for the trip. It started, ran a little ruff. Filled up the tank added injector cleaner and off we went. Cruising along at 60-65 mph getting 13 MPG, where before it was getting 15 MPG at 75-85 MPH. Approaced the steep grade north of Gaviota at 65 MPH and crested the rise at 55 MPH. OUCH! Eight months earlier she could accelerate up a steeper grade with ease. Added more gas and injector cleaner hoping to dilute the bad gas. It helped for the next longer San Luis Obispo grade it was able to maintain 65MPH to the top. Improvement. Still 13 MPG for the rest of the ride to San Simeon. Also, took 5 qts of oil. I was informed at the meet my exhaust damper was stuck in the closed position. Then the counter weight broke trying to free it. It was suggested to drive slower going home so as not to crack the manifold. Added more gas & injector cleaner. Seemed to run a little better. Kept the speed at 50-55 MPH going home. Gas mileage 18 MPG and only 2 qts of oil on the return trip.

She goes back on the stands tomorrow for a rear main seal. It leaks to much oil.
While I'm at it, the center steering bearing will be replace with Gert Kristianson's bushing kit, instal "Retro Belt" seat belts, R&R exhaust elbow to cut out damper butterfly, and new engine & trans mounts.

I hope to have it ready for the Laughlin economy run, Nov 6th. Last year she got 19 MPG on the 150 mile course.

Added more gas today and went on the Apple Run Cruise. There were 5 Hudsons: 47, 50, 51 &52, 50? Studebaker Pu, 40 Ford Covertable, 30 Model A Ford and unknown later model car. Had a good time by all. Finished with lunch at the Route 66 Cafe. Car is running better but still lacking the power it had before. Hopefully the injector cleaner and fresh gas will eventually restore the power it had before.

I'm going to have to downsize on the number of cars I have. Going thru a tank of gas in four cars every month to keep fresh gas in them will be a bit costly. Anyone interested in a very nice 69 AMX or a unfinished 34 Chevy street rod.

Have a good day.
Love driving my Hornet.
Lee O'Dell

HudMotCarCo

I thought that your Hornet negotiated the hills north of San Simeon fairly well. Perhaps I was paying more attention to the ocean and Elephant Seals than to the performance of the car. After making the changes you mentioned the Hornet should run great across the desert. Good luck.

Bill

Richard E.

A frozen exhaust damper really causes engine to heat up and plays hell w/gas mileage. It happened on my '36T and I just wired into the open position! No problems since!

tigermoth

i have had GREAT experience with sta-ble. i had a boat, that because of family crisis, was in storage for 6 years with sta-ble. when i took it out of storage i assumed i would have a mess on my hands.but to my surprise the fuel looked and smelled normal so i installed a pair of fuel filters in parallel and started the engine and ended up using that 30 gallons normally. engine ran perfectly and nothing showed up in the filters. the boat had a 4 cylinder gm block. regrds, tom

Lee ODell

Thanks for the information Tom. How much do you ad to the gas. I'll give it a try. Lee

tigermoth

lee, i just followed the directions on the bottle. that boat had a full 30 gallon tank. regards, tom

Lee ODell

Thanks again for the advice. Lee