Oil leaks and gas additives

DODGETRUCK

What are the most common oil leaks, I have a leak under my hudson, also do I need to add a lead additive.

railknight

Rear main seal leak on the Hudson "big six" engine (232, 262 & 308) is quite common.  I've had two replaced on my Hudsons in the past.  

BigSky

Everything leaks on these old Hudson engines!  
On both splasher & 308 engines I've had leaks around distributors, fuel pumps, oil pumps, oil pans, head gaskets, timing covers & thermostat housings… to name a few that have leaked on both engines.

Permatex “The Right Stuff” is a must have tool to stop the leaks, even with new gaskets.  Just be judicious in how much you use.

lostmind

It's a work horse , all horses " Sweat" Think of the oil as sweat.

When I worked at a Jeep dealer the area service rep told that to a customer.
In the 70's you could get away with more then today.

tigermoth

Leave the snake oil lead additive on the store shelf. The stuff is toxic and serves no purpose other than enrich some clown and poison the atmosphere and harm people.
regards, Tom

Old Fogey UK

The best way of avoiding the consequences of oil leaks is to hide from your wife after you've left your Hudson on the driveway !

50C8DAN

I agree with that one.  I caught hell recently for my C8 leaking on our driveway!

Old Fogey UK

50C8DAN said:

I agree with that one.  I caught hell recently for my C8 leaking on our driveway!

We're just about to have fancy brick paving blocks installed on our driveway.
After that's been done, I doubt that I will be allowed to bring the Hudson out of the garage ever again.

cheyenne7271

Might have to have puppy training pads hanging under your car from garage to street lol

railknight

I suspect a lot of us have one or more of those large aluminum, car oil, drip pans to protect the garage floor(s) from the fluid leaks on our Hudsons.    

Val

railknight, I know I do! I use Marvel Mystery Oil in the gas tank. 

Toddh

In my experience, there are a number of areas on Hudson engines and transmissions that one can expect to see leakage.  Almost all of these areas can be addressed without a major overhaul or yanking the engine out (although pulling the engine and trans does make it easier)

The oil pan and transmission drain plugs are common areas.  I use a bit of plumbing pipe thread sealant that works great and I rarely see even a drop now

The oil pan seal; on a splasher, there’s an upper and lower pan. The upper is the “dipper” oil reservoir.  There’s two gaskets and using a judiciously light coating of Permatex non-hardening #2 gasket sealant AND cleaning & torquing the bolts to proper spec has eliminated the weeping I used to get there.  On my 34 there was also a pin hole in the bottom pan that I found and fixed too.  BTW: The Mechanical Procedure manual says the you need to drop and clean the pan every 10K miles on splashers. Good advice. 

Timing cover; Again, judicious light coating of #2 on the gasket and cover, clean threads and good fasteners properly torque cleaned that area up. Check the shaft/cover seal and make sure it’s not worn out and/or there’s not a groove worn in the shaft

Other areas are more problematic to address like the rear engine seal and the trans seals without yanking the engine out but it does give you the opportunity to see where it is leaking and, if your so inclined, detail the engine, check the throw out bearing, check clutch and clutch disk, etc. 

A good over the winter project.  I’m about to do that on the 46 convertible I purchased this spring. I plan to pull the engine in November 

Old Fogey UK

Most of my leaking problems come from the oil pan edge, despite proper gaskets and Permatex and correct torquing.
 I have running in oil in at the moment but when it comes time to change it, I may experiment with just silicone sealer - although not Permatex which I've found to be disappointing. Permatex Copper Seal head gasket aerosol sealer is worse than useless and I won't be using that again either !

Toddh

Old Fogey UK said:

Most of my leaking problems come from the oil pan edge, despite proper gaskets and Permatex and correct torquing.
 I have running in oil in at the moment but when it comes time to change it, I may experiment with just silicone sealer - although not Permatex which I've found to be disappointing. Permatex Copper Seal head gasket aerosol sealer is worse than useless and I won't be using that again either !

Well at least on the 212, none of the 5/16” pan bolts thread to the inside of the engine requiring thread sealant. Besides the possibility of a bent/warped upper dipper pan or damaged lower pan lip, there are areas on the oil pan that can be an issue if not dealt with correctly: the oil drain at the center rear and the oil pump feed pipe connection on the center right side.  I’ve seen a number of Hudson engines where someone went way over board using silicone gasket sealer causing partially clogged oil drain and bits of hardened sealant in the sump which is why I now only use the non-hardening stuff and that sparingly.  Personally I have had nothing but stellar experiences with the Copper Seal head gasket aerosol but as they say; your own mileage may vary.  

BigSky

I have had great success with these two products.  I really cannot recommend them more highly, I've thrown out all my others rtv’s & only use this now, it’s that good. It comes in Grey too.  The only difference is the dry time to put into service again.  

Geoff

Loctite grey gasket is good stuff too.  

Old Fogey UK

BigSky said:

I have had great success with these two products.  I really cannot recommend them more highly, I've thrown out all my others rtv’s & only use this now, it’s that good. It comes in Grey too.  The only difference is the dry time to put into service again.  

I don't think either of these two are available in the UK.