Greetings Ebbe!
Yes, you are correct, oil brands and usage are a religious experience for many. I live in a warmer climate than you and have always used 10w30 in whatever premium brand was available with good success. Oil has changed a lot since these cars were built and I think the standard back then was straight 30 weight non- detetergant. I dont think there is any magic in using "classic" motor oils except for the extra zinc for new camshaft and lifter break-in. After break-in it has been shown that extra zinc is not necassary. Anyway, plenty of Internet info on that subject.
In my opinion, if the 6v coil is working, no need to change it. If you insist, any automotive 6v coil with the same specs will be fine. If yours has an external resister, replace it with the same type, if internally resister type, replace with the same.

Hi Kerry. Thank you for the greetings and reply 🙂

You are probably right about the Classic oil. What attracted me to that particular oil was the fact that it apparently contains less of the "modern" cleaning additives that, if filled on an old engine, can dislodge old buildups and block oil canals. I don't know if that is a legitimate concern, but it sounds nice in the brochure :cheer:

Regarding the coil, do you know if the 48 six came stock with a ballast resistor? The reason I am looking at the coil is that I have some occasional stalling / misfire problems, and while I will naturally start out by fitting some original-spec plugs, I thought a coil change would be a cheap tuneup for peace of mind.

According to the 48 wiring diagram, no external resister is showing so the coil should be internal resister type.
I would use a good brand of high detergent oil and change early a few times. This should clean things out nicely.
One engine I used an additive cleaner in new oil change and changed again in a 100 miles. The oil was black with crud when I changed it. Did it again and the oil cleared up. That vehicle gained over 5lbs oil pressure according to the gage.

Thanks a lot Kerry. Not a bad idea actually, I think I might go for a clean-out like that as well. According to previous owner the engine has never been opened, so I am rather looking forward to how the oil pan looks 😛

Does there have to be a resister somewhere in the ignition feed? I mean.. couldn't it be without both internal and external resistor, feeding it the full 6V?

Ebbe, here is some reading info--
http://www.burtonpower.com/tuning-guides/tuning-guide-pages/ignition-systems.html
http://www.hot-spark.com/1-HS14BR.htm
http://xwebforums.org/showthread.php?t=8303

Welcome to the Forum, Ebbe!

Your car was at one time owned by Milt Richards of Virginia, who was a member of our local Hudson club here. Milt saw the car listed for sale in The Washington Post, by the son of the original owner, and he purchased it at a very reasonable price. Milt did the painting himself in his backyard. He drove it to several of our club's meetings and we remember it well. After Milt died, the car was sold to the gentleman from whom you bought it. So, you are really only the fourth owner of this car since it was new. I hope you get as much pleasure from it as did the previous three owners!

By the way, my own Hudson -- a 1937 Terraplane -- was shipped to Denmark when new. Its speedometer is calibrated in KM/hr. It was last owned by a mechanic in Copenhagen by the name of Gottlieb, before being exported to America by a gentleman whose business was purchasing old American cars in Europe, and shipping them back to the U.S. to sell. I purchased it in 1971.

Thanks Jon 🙂

I was wondering if someone from the club would recognize the car, and surely enough :cheer:

Some of the documentation I have on the car indeed mentions Milt, and the fact that he did the restoration on the car. I also have a few pictures from before it was painted, that must be from Milt's back yard then. Interesting! Thanks a lot for these details! According to the original build sheet it was originally sold to a Mr. Harry Emlet of Falls Church, VA, and later, as you say, owned by his son, Harry Jr. The car is remarkably original, amd I plan to keep it that way 😛

Interesting history on your own car! Hudsons are extremely rare here in Denmark now, only about 20 of all models and years registered in the motor database (mine is the only 48 Super).

Hi Ebbe - I was just looking at the HET club roster. You are in rare company over there in Denmark. There's only one other Hudson owner listed - with a 1953 Jet sedan.

Hudsonly,
Alex B

Hi Alex. Thanks! Well there you go - they really are rare :cheer: The issue is that there are so few of them over here that we hardly have the foundation to build a local Hudson club. So the Hudsons that are here are in various other vintage car clubs.

Just did another search in the registry. We have a total of 13 Hudsons on record, 9 of which are currently licensed. Mine is in storage for the winter now (just got first snow today), and will be licensed in the spring as #10.

Greetings Ebbe, you don't say what mileage your car has done, but if it has never been opened up, then I would not do anything to it, but I would recommend a high quality 20W-50 engine oil such as Castrol GTX if you can obtain that in Denmark. The last thing a vintage engine needs is vintage oil, and the lubricating qualities of modern multigrade oils is far superior to anything they had back in 1948. It's an old wives' tail about detergent oils dislodging dirt and blocking things up. There is no ballast resistor in the ignition circuit, and I too would recommend not replacing the coil if it is still working. I would check and clean the distributor points and set to the correct clearance. Ff they are not burnt or pitted than you have nothing to worry about. There is more chance of a new coil and capacitor being faulty than the ones on your car. Check that you are getting full voltage to the coil through the ignition switch. Any voltage drop indicates dirty switch or contacts. The original coil packed up on my 1928 Essex in 1978, and I put another original one on,, which is still there. I have had the same condensor and points for over 35 years. I also have a 1953 Hornet and '1954 Jet which both have the original coils. Good luck, from New Zealand,
Geoff

Hi Geoff. Thanks for your comprehensive reply!

According to the odometer the car has done about 85000 miles. I'll take you guys' advice and just do some simpelt tests on the coil - and if aok, I'll keep it. As for the oil, I'll see if I can source that here. I'm sure I can, or at least something similar. I kinda had that feeling about the hole "dislodging dirt" thing, and indeed oil must have improved since then, so it does seem good reasoning to use some more modern stuff.

Thanks again!

Hello Ebbe,

I have had several Hudsons, from 1935 to 1954. None of them had a resistor in the ignition circuit. There has been discussion about which terminal of the coil to connect to the supply, and which to ground. Apparently the internal wiring of the coil is designed to have the - connection connected to the distributor, and the + connected to the ignition switch, even when the car is a positive ground.

My experience is that any spark plug which fits will work well, assuming you select a suitable "heat range" for your use of the car. I have used Bosch "copper" plugs for many years, a habit I picked up when I had a l956 VW Beetle. W8AC and W95 T1 are two Bosch numbers that I have used.

I agree with Goeff about oil. Many years ago I bought a 1954 Hudson in Oregon. Its oil was very dirty and it needed a quart of oil every 100 miles. I drove it across the country to Massachusetts, changing the oil (using multi-weight oil) every 1000 miles. By the time I finished the trip, the engine used much less oil. It did not need any oil added between oil changes.

About ten years ago, while visiting cousins (My father was from Copenhagen) I visited Hans Maersk-Moller in Nivaa. He has a 1935 Hudson of the same model as mine.

Per

Hi Per,

Thank you for your input. Sounds interesting with the coil wiring, I wonder how that works (but apparently it does B) ). But I guess it just means that the dizzy opens / closes the supply circuit in stead of the grounding wire, which is then routed through the ignition switch.

Duly noted on the spark plugs. I'll look for whatever is available / compatible with the original spec, and see how that works out. They're not that expensive anyways. I'd just like to try something different than the Auburns that are in now, since they appear to be non-interchangable with orignal plugs. How do I go about determining what heat range would be right for me?

By the way - you may already know this - the Maersk-Moller family is quite well known in Denmark, being the founders of the huge shipping conglomerate Maersk, which includes the world's largest container shipping company, Maersk Line, amongst others. I myself even work for Maersk.

Hi Ebbe,

Thanks for your reply. There are a lot of Maersk-Moller containers being shipped around here!

The two plug numbers I mentioned both have a center porcelain length of about 1 centimeter. A "cold" plug would have a shorter length, a "hot" plug would have a longer length. I measure this by pushing a match stick (or similar thin strip of cardboard) into the spark plug, until the end of it reaches the inner end of the porcelain. Then I make a mark on the strip where it rests against the bottom edge of the porcelain.

This is a about a "medium" heat range plug. If a car is only driven locally, and burns oil, or is running too rich, it helps to have a hotter plug, so the porcelain doesn't get coated with carbon. If the car is driven fast a lot, a colder plug might be better, to avoid "ping" caused by the tip of the electrode being too hot and igniting the mixture before the spark fires.

Some spark plugs have the center electrode stick out quite a lot below the threaded part of the plug. It is possible that a valve could hit the electrode. I have always looked for plugs which are not like this.

Where in Denmark do you live? I hope to visit again in a couple of years.

Per