As It Turned Out, "Hudo's" Engine Was Road Kill
As of our last update, Heidi was again (the fifth time to date) forced to send the Hudson in for major engine work. After reviewing a number of earlier updates covering that topic, these earlier repairs were supposedly completed as "once and done" efforts, but the results indicate otherwise. They were obviously done more than once, making them done"on the fly".
Fortunately the most recent breakdown occurred at the "right place" at the "right time". It was also undertaken by a team of experienced mechanics, machinists and restoration and preservation experts.
Preservationists Tell Heidi "Our Way or The Highway"
On numerous occasions, we've noted Heidi is very headstrong and often unwilling to change plans or take any advice that does not meet with her protocol. We've also reported these mechanical breakdowns seemed to reflect a pretense for her to drive too hard and too fast, especially when attempting to "make up ground" as a result of these increasing delays.
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Club officials meet to review needed repairs |
Discovery Leads To "Demands"and Thorough Repairs
Again, we are skimming translated notes, but he overall consensus appears to reflect the cause of these repetitive engine failures, wheel issues, the lack of properly functioning brakes (the list goes on) were the result of Heidi driving at speeds far above the capacity of the car.
It seems the Club officials also "demanded" Heidi agree to refrain from driving as if the Hudson were a 2016 Land Rover once they released "Hudo" back to her. In an effort to add some levity to the situation, we present this shortened clip filmed about the same time the Hudson was new. (It covers the three main points-not 100% sure what the trip will be, no brakes and going too fast.)
The estimated time to complete the repairs was about a month, which included time to do a full tear-down of the engine, complete block repair, re-boring the cylinders, machining the crankshaft and acquiring all of the necessary parts. There were likely more repairs completed, but as all but brakes were excluded from available details, we cannot determine what they were.



The Club's mechanical team went to work by pulling the engine, then disassembling and examining all of the internals. If you have been following our posts, you will recall the straight-eight relies on both a pressurized and splash oiling system.
You may also recall that on more than one occasion, the splash oiling cups attached to the connecting rods had been thrown free from their press-fit home. Evidence of these occurrences were quickly discovered. The root of the issue was caused by exceeding appropriate RPM levels. This led the mechanics to look for previously overlooked secondary damage. It did not take them long to find it. They also found an undersized and pinched oil tube which added to the oil starvation damage.

Doing some additional research of our own, we learned two things about the straight eight in the car: the heads were aluminum, not cast iron. That meant the engine was the higher HP version. Second was a weakness of this and most other straight-eights; the torsional rigidity of the crankshaft and camshaft causes them to deform at increasingly larger amounts, the faster the engine spins.
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Straight-eight engine with firing order 1-4-7-3-8-5-2-6 - Source - Wikipedia |
Wikipedia
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The valves were in similarly poor condition showing signs of cracks and excessive wear |
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"...welding work done in Mendoza" |
Our most recent article which featured some photos from the repair in Mendoza did not mention any necessary block repairs, but it wasn't until we translated each photo footnote did we uncovered this, "In the oil pan initially finds Heidi one of the two broken connecting rod from the shovel. The search for the second, unfortunately, remained unsuccessful."



Until Next Time
Garagistry Out