Cold weather & Hudsons
Comments
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Based on experience with "Mom's and my" '37 Terraplane in Northern Indiana in the early fifties: Two cold weather issues . . . thick engine oil made it difficult for the starter to turn the engine, and thick oil in the transmission made it difficult to change gears, especially for the first mile or two. Snapped the gearshift lever off at the base one very cold morning.
The good news is that the T always started on the cold mornings, while Dad's '41 Chevy didn't! I loved it when he had to ask Mom if she'd drop him off at work.
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My wife and I drove Hudsons year round, hers was a 54 hornet , mine was a 46 Commodore.
Both sat outside in northern Ohio winters. Never missed a day of work , or shopping.
Maintain them , with good battery , not a problem.
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I posted this here in July 2007:
"It's deep winter here in the South Island of NZ with day after day of
hard frosts (-6 to -12 celcius) and snow on the mountains, and my '36
Terraplane had been parked in an open carport for the last two months
untouched.
I suddenly panicked about whether it had
enough antifreeze as well as the battery going flat, so I took a walk
down the hill to the stables where it lurked. After getting in, turning
the key and hitting the starter button, with a fair bit of that
distinctive Hudson
"GGGGGRRRR....RRRRRRR......RRRRR....RRRRRR......RRRRR" at a respectable
rotation rate considering the temperature (about -1 C) it fired up
beautifully as if to say "what's the problem, don't you trust my 1936
technology in the middle of winter even if I have been sitting unused
for two months?
OK, so one problem had evaporated, but
what about the radiator water? Well, it looked like pretty solid ice in
there when I looked, but on dipping a finger in it was just half-solid
slushy ice. After warming up for a few minutes, it turned back into
water with no leaks apparent. A nice drive later followed by a longish
drink of anti-freeze plus a battery charge top-up it was back into
hibernation until spring".
The oil was just the normal Castrol GTX20-50 and the choke was manual. There is an encore to this, it later sat in the same carport for 17 months untouched, and started up fine with no battery charge, fuel bowl prime or anything, and this on high-compression too. It has a good conventional Hella Endurance battery and the big 6v cables.
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My 51 super 6 sits under a tent all winter in the nice cold northern Ohio weather. We have been having below 0 temperatures lately and just this past weekend I went out and started it after it has been sitting for a month. Even with the straight 30 oil in it, it turned over after just a few cranks.0
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I fuel injected mine so it starts just like any other car in my driveway!
;-)
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My Hudson's rest under a cover in my shop. I go out on a regular basis, uncover them and with the heat in the shop at 70, I start them up and go for a drive. That is what old and retired is all about?
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I thought, "what the heck," despite it being around 20F outside today (February 22), "let's see how well the Super Wasp starts in this cold weather." Upon sitting in the front seat I noticed that the left rear tire was completely flat. No problem, I'll just back the car out of the garage a bit and air it up.
Car started in the cold much better than I figured. Pretty much as if it had been a warm day out. After letting it warm up for a few minutes I slowly backed it out and as I did this I heard something straining from the front of the car. Realizing what it was, the little Battery Tender, I immediately stopped the car to see if was still intact.
Nope, the poor thing had the wires completely pulled out of the charging unit itself leaving the long wires and clamps still attached to the battery. Lesson learned. Leave the darn car sitting through the winter without starting it up 'till it's warm out like in April. Who cares if it starts in the winter, I'm not going to drive it anywhere anyway!
Dan
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You actually do more harm than good by cold running an engine for short periods, because the acids and moisture do not get a chance to burn off, and you can damage the cylinder bores, valve seats, and bearings. A simple procedure can be done before storing a car, either pour some oil into the carburetor throat until the exhaust smokes, then turn off, or else if the engine is hot, hold your foot on the clutch, rev the motor and then switch off, and release the clutch. This will distribute oil through the motor and the clutch facings. Even better - wedge the clutch pedal down. This does not seem to have any detrimental effect on the clutch springs. I have installed electric pumps on my Hornet and Jet, in parallel with with the mechanical pump, so I can prime the carby before starting. Also as a back-up if the mechanical pump should fail. A small toggel switch under the dash actuates this.0
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Good advice, Geoff. I was one for pouring oil down the throat of the carburetor of my 1950 Pacemaker for winter layup. However, seeing that my Super Wasp's engine is due for a rebuild in the not too distant future, I'm not that worried about one winter startup just to see how well the car performs.0
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Great information guys! I was hoping I wouldnt need to install a Webasto diesel fired coolant heater on my future Hudson if I wanted to take it down the road. Perhaps I can just get away with an inline 750 watt coolant heater if the need arised,How do these cars handle in the ice and snow?
Chris0 -
Chris,An easy solution if things get really, really cold is to put a space heater under your hood, a blanket over the grille, and let it run overnight. Heat will then come out of the car's heater very soon after you start the car!Per0
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