On my 37 Hudson straight 6 212ci splasher Engine I need to adjust the valves. I have a couple questions pertaining to this process. 1) I will be adjusting valves with the engine cold however factory specs are for a hot engine adjustment. Thus how much more gap should I add since it’s cold? Factory specs hot were; Intake 0.006 & Exhaust 0.008. I have seen anywhere from 2 to 4 thousand added on both intake & exhaust. Changes from the stock engine which may or may not play a role: compression up to 8.5 from 6.25:1, new modern alloy valves with new iron guides, and running 91 octane no ethanol gas. 2) The firing order is 153624 on the straight 6 engine. I’ve only had one person recommended adjusting the valves this way, so is it truly possible to do this method below? I was told with #1 piston at TDC of compression stroke, I can adjust intake valves 2, 4, 8 & exhaust valves 1, 6, 10. Then with #6 piston at TDC of compression stroke, I can adjust intake valves 5, 9, 11 & exhaust valves 3, 7, 12. The flywheel has a mark for TDC so it’s very easy to find it for #1 piston. Hudson called it UDC or upper dead center, which you can see lined up in the photo. The white line is the advanced timing line. From what I’ve read it how straight 6 Diesel engines are done. To me this method is way easier than trying to get every piston at TDC or chasing valves positions. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Sound like you have got yourself a cool Hudson! I have no specification for a s Hudson, but the way described is exactly how I am adjusting my Chevy stovebolts. I guess I would not add anything because of the cold adjustment. Once it is broken in I´d just check the lash while the engine is still warm and see if it´s fine...
From what I remember about the history of your Hudson, it has very few if any miles. If it were mine, I'd use .007 & .010. Remove cap, rotate to #1 TDC. Adjust #1. Rotate to #5, repeat. Rotate to #3, etc. If the seats are ground .050 - .060 int. & .060 - .080 exh., your adjustment should be good for many miles.
Here is how I coach newbies to adjust valves on an inline six. It makes for less mistakes and is straightforward and fast. Taken from the www.fordsix.com web page. Adjusting the valves on a SIX is EASY. For beginners I recommend writing down the firing order, 153624, thusly: 1 5 3 6 2 4 With a breaker bar or long handled ratchet and a 15/16 socket rotate the engine damper until the timing mark comes up to top dead center. Watch #6 cyls and #1 cyls rocker arms as you do this. On one of these two cylinders the exhaust will just be closing and the intake will start to open as you approach top dead center. If that happens on #6 then adjust #1. If it happens on #1 then adjust #6, because these two pairs are matched, as in the diagram above (5 & 2 and 3 & 4 are the other two matched pairs). So lets say you just adjusted #6. The next cylinder to adjust in the firing order is #2. Rotate the crank about a third of a rev, watching #2's buddy, #5. The exhaust rocker for #5 will be closing and the intake starting to open as you get to TDC. Adjust #2 when the two #5 rockers are in alignment, one closing and one opening. Continue this process until you go through all six, then go through it again, to double check. With this method you can adjust all six cylinders with only two revolutions of the crank. To speed things up you could mark your damper in three places spaced 120 deg apart. But any more I dont even look at the damper. With practice you can run through your valves in five minutes. It will take you longer to remove the valve cover than to run the valves. Whats more you wont even have to look at the damper, just find the cylinder in the overlap cycle and start from there, adjusting the buddy cyl. Good luck. THE FRENCHTOWN FLYER
Go with what Frenchtown Flyer said except you won't be watching rockers just the valves 1-6 2-5 and 3-4 are companion cylinders both are at TDC at the same time one on compression one exhaust. By watching exhaust close and the intake just start to open set the valves on the companion cylinder.
Well... I adjusted the valves since I had replaced the cam thrust washer & now the cam was not moving for & aft, well I thought so. After all done I briefly ran it as no radiator or coolant in it. I now was hearing a whirling & bit of a whine but still some lifter noise. Puzzled I put a dowel on the timing cover, fuel & oil pumps and all sounded the same with basically the same noise level. Ok, off comes the harmonic balancer & timing cover again. Off came the aluminum cam gear which I thought was giving the whine, thinking it wasn’t quite meshing well with the crank gear as both are used but were from different vehicles. After looking things over, trying to not open this up again I decided to re-read the instructions for installing the aluminum cam gear as it was a retrofit but done often. That’s when I remembered there should be a cutting back of a curved area so the new aluminum gear would lay flat on the cam head. Looking at the spot where it should be cut back I found a grove starting. Compared to another photo from the 1st time it was apart I could see it had grown longer & deeper! Thus the whirling sound was the aluminum rubbing on the steel & the whine was the gear being raised on one side by 0.030” & an off angled gear rubbing against the crank gear. So, the easiest solution was to grind down the ring which was rubbing on the backside of the cam gear against the steel. A playdoh check later & all was good on the gear. The other thing to confirm was the two bolts under the cam gear. Playdoh revealed now that the gear was truly flat on the head of the cam head, I needed to remove more off the bolts heads to prevent interference with the cam gear. Removing the locking washers & adding Loctite is the solution I’ll be doing shortly, then re assemble everything again & hope all is working as it should. Lesson learned today, assume whoever worked on a car before you get it didn’t do it right & then check everything! Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
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