Inliners International Forums General Discussion AMC/JEEP 308 Hudson

Does anyone have a source for freeze plugs for the 308 Hudson engine? I really need a complete plug kit for the engine. Thanks in advance.

Wouldn't they be standard sizes?

I've never bought a set of welch plugs, just individual ones for the sizes I've needed.

hud,

i doubt if you can buy a 'set' of freeze plugs, but my local NAPA dealer has every imaginable size of freeze plugs. a while back we found all we needed for a friend's '49 flathead six ford.

Thanks guys. I was hoping to find one already put together. I guess I will go to napa and go through the stock. Thanks again.

hey hud

back in '57, i had a buddy who drove a really hot 3 carb, full house, '51 flathead ford. few cars in my home town could out-run him. one night he tangled with one of those 2-carb, 308ci hudsons. that hornet out-ran him so badly that we thought his car had quit! he begged me not to tell anybody, but it was too much for me...i told everyone i knew about the race!

Thanks for the info Dennis. We are planning to run a Clifford 4 barrel manifold with a 500 Ebrock. Also have a set of Clifford headers to go with it. We are hoping to have just a good running engine. I doubt if it sees any severe use. My son is working on a stroker and it will be the one to see some severe usage.

what kind of power do these 308's make when pumped up real good? I looked at that uncommon engineering, a 357 stroker, wow! wonder what kind of hp and torque it makes.

There's one in a blue 41 coupe (with a 'trick' Hydro.) that set a lot of records, back then and is racing today.

It's in So. California area.

Happpy trails.

When I was 17 I raced my 56 Chevy with a 235 with three on the tree at a track the called the tar pits.I had an exceptional quick 235 and I beat everybody in my "L" stock class except-----------you guessed it an old Hudson with the 308. Being I was just a kid and no money I had to run as is---if I could have put some deeper gears in it the story would have been different. I would eat him up out of the hole, but as we were approaching the traps he would catch me and beat me by a half a fender.It happened every week, he would push it to the line cause he had a broken head bolt and water would pump out. Just as the lights were to go green he would fire the beast up and drop the clutch------what fun times---both his back windows were covered with trophy stickers---I wished he would have stayed home a weekend or two. His was two tone black and red and my two door post was sherwood green metalic----enough ramblings.........52er

I got the 308 completed in Oct. of last year. Have been driving it ever since. It is a complete rebuild of a stock engine. Had to go 40 over on the bore to clean up cylinders. New pistons and a complete valve train replacement. Had the rotating assembly balanced. We used the Clifford 4 bl. intake with Clifford headers. Put a EB 500 on it. It runs great. It has torque at the low end. The hp rating on these engines are not impressive, it the torque. My son and I worked on it most of last summer. He put the engine in his 49 coupe. He had to do some tweeking on the carb. and the engine is very responsive when accelerating. He is in the process of building one of those stroker 308. It is going to have all those good parts in it. He has posted pictures of the rebuild over on Ol Skool Roz board. He goes by Hudsonator. Check out his gallary pics.There are guys out there that still race the 308 and they are impressive.

Gentlemen;

There's a couple of nice videos (Hudson) on Jay Leno's Garage website.

FYI: A 262 head fits a 308 and raises compression is one of the 'highlites'.

Happy trails.

The 232 head fits as well, and raises it even more.

Dany