The Harrison Racing Outboards - Legendary Birmingham Metal Products Alky Outboards

[John Taylor]

With many thanks to Smitty-The-Welder I have scanned his documentation of these famous Birmingham Metal Products Inc. HARRISON ALKY OUTBOARD RACING ENGINES for archive posting on this site. When I was a teenager in stock outboard racing, these fast and record setting Alky racing engines went head to head against the British Anzanis, The Quincy/Merc Padded Block and Third Port Deflectors and soon enough the Quincy Flathead Loopers in Alky Classes A (15 cubes) and B (20 cubes). These engines could race so close with their loop charged counterparts it was a toss up as what would win on a given weekend. For those of you having these engines, cherish them. For those who might have a box of parts, here is a chance to take them out and re-assemble the engine. For those that have pictures of these great engines in competition with the other famous and great ones of their classes, we encourage you to post your pictures and tell your stories of where and when you were there with these engines competiting and the good times you had at the events as I did when I was a novice racer watching these engines being driven by some of the greats of Alky outboard hydro and runabout racing. :)

[John Taylor]

Harrison Parts And Price Sheets.

[Mark75H]

Thanks, John & Smitty! :)

I interviewed Kay Harrison a few years ago about these. Basically he and his father made them for about 2 years consuming the remaining supply of Anzani crankshafts when Anzani stopped production. They had been making (casting) many upgrade parts for Anzanis in the US for a few years prior to that.

[John Taylor]

In examining all the Anzani pistons both used, new ready and new unfinished, fully half the pistons have the casting marks "HRP" (aka Harrison Racing Products) and "Lodite" on the underside of the pistons skirts. Is "Lodite" the casting company? If so? Does anyone know where they were located and if they are still operating?

[John Taylor]

British Anzani - a company history ( The Harrison Connection?)

1953 US ad for the Minor Outboard motor production became Anzani’s biggest selling (and perhaps best known) item over the years and numerous models were produced: the Minor (1955-79) a small ½hp general purpose dinghy motor, Super Single (1942-79 158cc, 5hp) the engine that was produced for the longest time and arguably the best known - another general workhorse. Jet (Single, 60cc, 3hp) a fibre glass cowled engine with ‘guarded drive’ protection for swimmers etc, Sports Twin (1950-51) 316cc 14hp, speedy but short lived, Unitwin (1951-67 Twin, 242cc 10hp, and 322cc 15hp, plus full race versions of both) the most advanced engine of it’s day, powerful and reliable, Pilot (Single, 60cc, 2.5hp) another general purpose engine with the distinguishing bar around the cowl, Seamaid (Single, 60cc 3hp) fibre glass cowled general purpose engine, Startwin (1960 Twin, 344cc, 18hp) renamed Magnatwin, powerful twin featuring ‘Contrastart’ electric start with instant forward or reverse, Supertwin 15 (Twin, 322cc, 15hp) streamlined fibre glass cowled Unitwin, Fleetwin 20 (Twin, 344cc, 20hp), Triton (1960 3 cylinder 30hp, 492cc), Magnatwin (1958-1960 Twin, 344cc, 18hp) a large electric start model which could be remotely controlled, Model 65 (1964-67 6.5hp), Model 180 (1964-67 18hp), Model 400 (1964-67 40hp) which were the Oliver/Perkins engines. There was also an inboard version of the 4hp Super Single called the ‘Dinghy Motor’ (1952).

From 1957 to 1963 the Unitwin was imported to the US by legendary racer Bill Tenney of the Aeromarine Co. of Crystal Bay, Minnesota and they soon started winning races. Tenney added his considerable expertise to their development by communicating regularly with the factory making suggestions for improvements many of which Harrison incorporated. You could buy a full race Anzani Unitwin for $595 or $495 for the standard engine. Later the Anzani marque was sold by Millie and Kay Harrison of Birmingham Metal Products of Birmingham, Ohio who also added their modifications to the imported engines. When the British factory ceased production (c1967) they bought the remaining parts from England and assembled the engines themselves - making any missing parts in their factory - and sold the hybrid motors as ‘Harrisons’.

[John Taylor]

In the not too distant future it will be my pleasure to take this thread further than the brochure stage already posted to an actual re-construction of a Harrison racing outboard with full pictures and commentary on the project that made Harrison Racing Products (HRP) famous. It too had crescent shaped exhaust stacks not unlike Anzani but it was its own engine that made its point and its records on the oval race tracks of North America.

[Mark75H]

As much as it was "its own engine" Kay Harrison humbly told me he was just assembling parts and making replacements as he could, until the supply of Anzani cranks ran out ... the end of both versions. Basically he extended the life of the Anzani 2 years beyond original factory support. Before the "Harrison" motor, Millie and Kay were making a lot of aftermarket upgrades that found their way to racer's Anzani's. With the end of British Anzani manufacture of the engine, these parts allowed the Harrisons to continue assembling and selling motors.

In the 1960's you could not race a home made motor, you had to race a factory built motor with specs submitted by the factory each year, even in alky. With British Anzani out of racing, Millie and Kay had to "become the factory" (much the same way that Lyle Swanson became Hot Rod) and submit specs. Some of the parts the Harrisons made were just replacements that had become unavailable from British Anzani, but in many cases parts that had been Harrison aftermarket upgrades became standard parts on the motors.

[John Taylor]

That sounds very much like the way it was I only learned that here. At races in the 1960s I was at, racers very much registered their hydbrids being that is what you are saying they were . I iwould not have known that then what you have clairfied a few times here before, so I assume once they had the Harrison block assembly running it became a Harrison engine. So the distinction was made very publicly by announcers at these races that there were Anzanis, Harrisons, Quincys and Konigs racing in the fields of entries in A and B Alky then. It must be assumed then that few but racers who prepared and raced them knew that. Stock outboard racers like myself could only assume they were different though they had similar exhaust stack configurations that led most to assume they were some well engineered distinct engines of some similarity to Anzanis but different being Harrisons. Back then most racers unless they had intimate knwoledge assumed what most like me did.

It will be of quite some interest when a Harrison is re-consructed and pictured here to show how Harrison used Anzani and their aftermarket HRP products to produce a very viable racing engine that set some outstanding records in their day.

[Tim Chance]

Kay Harrison has given me eight 4 inch thick ring binders of Harrison Racing archive scrapbooks dating back to 1927 for me to post on the internet. Some I will be posting when I get Hydroplane Quarterly.com up and running again. Other material I will be posting here as time permits.

[John Taylor]

Tim: What great luck and an honor being given and accepting such a historical task by Kay Harrison. From any standpoint in this historical effort a great big thank you is due Kay Harrison from all that enjoy the sport and its rich history that is being slowly and carefully being logged and disseminated. :)

[John Taylor]

Tim: From the brochure pictures already posted here and since then pictures of Harrison components from other readers since passed over to me there seemed to be some kind of evolution at work for some time as the amounts of Anzani parts left to consume wound down as Harrison engines evolved and spread out. Back in the late 1970s when I got my first Anzani, I always questioned why the cast iron blocks? From that some information came up where it was mentioned that aluminum blocks with steel or cast iron liners was tried but not that they were the HRP Harrison products but they must have been the HRPs. The other point is that they were tried but could not take the high nitro loads full cast iron blocks could time after time and stay in one piece. Still, Harrison set fast competition records. Will this information in the form of binders from Kay Harrison shed light on the HRP design, production and evolution of the blocks and then the crankcases as they evolved for Harrison racing engines?

[Tim Chance]

Tim: Will this information in the form of binders from Kay Harrison shed light on the HRP design, production and evolution of the blocks and then the crankcases as they evolved for Harrison racing engines?

John - I'm leaving this coming Thursday am for the USTS race in Raleigh. In the meantime I'll go through the info in the binders and find what I can about the motors. Kay should be there at the races and I'll try and find out as much more as I can for you. - Tim

[John Taylor]

Being able to rub shoulders with the man that was doing it and having the binders to refer to in all this is going to make one great story. Please don't read the binders while you drive or race, the cell phone companies might scream unfair competition! :)

[John Taylor]

Its one thing to have donated Harrison brochure copies to post on this thread, that started something. Soon it will be possible to see actual Harrison era engine components here too thanks to some un-named history buffs making that possible. I never got to see one up close from any mechanical perspective but they were around out there roaring around the racecourses amongst Anzanis when I was a teenager. I hope as the components pictures get posted anyone having some knowledge on them will lend comments to what is seen.

[John Taylor]

The question of what the term "Lodite" meant on some pistons castings undersides seems to be resolved. I believe Mark 75H indicated that it had to do with a particular alloy mix used as the casting material some time ago. That seemed in isolation until some Harrison (HRP) products turned up and had the same casting marks on different major and minor items in addition to the "HRP" (Harrison Racing Producs symbol. The same "Lodite" marque appears on HRP produced pistons, exhaust elbos, cast aluminum racing megaphone exhausts and now too on Harrison aluminum class A and B engine blocks. There must have been some qualities to this type of alloy being used in engine and engine parts castings that made it the alloy of choice for some reasons remarkable?

[Mark75H]

The alloy referred to before was "Lynite" ... I've never heard of "Lodite"

[John Taylor]

I suppose I have Lodite imprinted on me pretty bad because now that I am looking for it its found as a single imprint on the Harrison HRP cast aluminum outboard racing products. Sorry, but I thought it was you that came up with the name association and alloy explanation to it. I kind of remember that other alloy a bit too but that was a while back in posts.

[John Taylor]

The following 2 pictures are the Harrison Class B Loop Scavenged 3 carbuettored Alky by Kay Harrison, of Birmingham Metal Products - HRP (Harrsion Racing Products)

[John Taylor]

The following picture is a Harrison Class B Alky with expansion chamber exhausts.

[John Taylor]

The following pictures are of the Harrison (HRP) class A Alky block. This particular block was designed to be mounted on a British Anzani class A-B crankcase and tower housing. It was only in these most recent times on this website that I came to learn that Harrison engines though I seen them in the 1960s amongst Anzanis was truly the Britsh engine's American cousin! Both engines shared the crescent shaped exhausts systems leading most onlookers to think the design was so good that 2 different brands of engines adopted similar design technologies or they were the same engine as Anzani that was mistaken and described as a Harrison. Harrison in fact was making aftermarket parts for British Anzani engines in America for quite some time and the name Harrison in the UK was associated with Anzani as Anzani was associated to Harrison in the USA. Kind of confusing but the facts were these engines were awful fast in their time and set records proving that. :)

[John Taylor]

Why there are there right and left side of Harrison block carb inlet holes for air / fuel? The Harrison engine blocks unlike the Anzani cousin's cast iron loop block is aluminum alloy with ferros (cast iron or steel) cylinder sleeves fitted.

[John Taylor]

The following picture is the typical Harrison (HRP) class B Alky outboard racing block. Only one carb opening on the block though??? The block was cast of aluminum alloy same as its smaller class A version with ferrous metal (cast iron or steel) sleeves. The Harrison was a loop scavenged engine same as its British cousin, the Anzani with some departures and refinements.

Instead of rectangular or squarish ports the Anzani used through out the engine block Harrison kept to squarish exhaust ports on the inside and rounded the exhaust port to the outside for easier exhaust pipe matching. On the inside the Harrison incoming to cylinder air / fuel transfer ports to cylinder proper were very well rounded and almost twice the size of Anzani.

Harrison also made a very concerted attempt to angle intake transfer ports upward for the Schnurle effect in loop scavenging that was more effective in charging fresh air / fuel into the cylinder area upward towards the combustion chamber and sweeping out residual exhaust gases better than the conventional 90 degree loop scavenging Anzanis still used quite effectively.

Bill Tenney must have really kept an eye on Harrison development as his answer to the Harrison refinements to loop charging was to develop the 6 intake port Anzani loop engine that used 2 additional ports to additionally charge air / fuel and sweep out residual exhaust gases from a different angle and perspective. Both Schnurle improvements in the Harrison and the addtion of 2 additional ports to the Anzani by Tenney was indicative or the competitive spirit involved between these 2 competing though related A and B ALky racing engines. :)

[Mark75H]

Excellent posts John! Fantastic pictures!

[John Taylor]

I would be no where without much of the originating background information you and others posted here to the site on the subject. Other annonymous readers provided me with some of the detailed pictures you see and in others having some of the components allowed me the same privilege. When a body has some of the parts on hand, Tim Chance being able to get Harrison materials directly to examine and speaking to Kay Harrison to compare what they were doing and why plus being able to speak directly to engine developers like Jim Hallum and having Lee Sutter posting here and soon perhaps to Ron Anderson too is bringing what they were all thinking and doing to life even where some have passed away like Bill Tenney. Its a rare privilege to be able to re-construct some history like this for all to see and participate in. :)

[John Taylor]

The following picture set is the typical earlier Harrison B Alky piston set. The piston crown is converx but not as much so as Anzani owned to the Schnurle approach to through the port air/fuel transfer. These were the aftermarket pistons intended for Anzani replacements that also became the Harrison piston. Cast with the HRP marque on the underside is also the Lodite casting marque. These piston's skirts were knotched at the intake piston port beneath the carb to create timing overlap to minimize the heavy pulsing waves that cause carb spitback at various rpms that occurr in pistons ports merged into a single barrel carb intake port on the block as the B Harrison was.

One later innovation not present on these pistons was the use of the Dyke's rings or 'L" rings as they were called that came later. Harrison did use a narrow rectangular racing ring though that was superor to the earlier squarer cast iron rings found on Harrisons and their cousin the Anzani. In the abscence of "L" pressure back type rings compression as all pistons with rings of this nature was brutal and immediate with 14 to 1 compression ratios common and very hard to pull over and start. As time progressed the Harrison pistons saw the addition of the "L" ring on top of the existing rings and then later still the engines would sport a single "L" piston ring per piston only, where the "L" of that ring was as much to control exhaust port timing by its location but also was a pressure back type that made starting the engine so much easier too than the older rings ever allowed.

Some later additional modifications were made to the piston to introduce "boost port" openings windows in addition to the big transfer windows that are 180 dregrees apart on each window on the piston's skirt.

[John Taylor]

The Harrison cylinder head was typically made from aluminum alloy made hollow for water jacketing through out with head bolting done with appropriate cap bolts and washers and in come cases studs were installed in the block. The head alternatively was also or could be washered and cap nutted down to locked in block head bolt studs.

The Harrison head was fastened with some differing head gaskets made from sheet metal goods like copper and head gasket cement. There also were head installations using a very strong glue without a sandwiched in head gasket before fasteners were turned on to hold the head covering 2 cylinders down simultaneously.

The combustion chambers were typically shaped similar and made offset to induce "squish" from the cylinder as a whole off to the side to the small hemi combustion chamber proper to the well proven cousin's design of the Anzani. Where Anzanis had some head leakage problems that required special measures to equalize bolt torque and head to block seal the Harrisons had those problems well worked out and prevelent but never the less there was some minor problems due to the nature of these racing engines though between the 2 cousins, a little different.

Typically Champion L84R, their A/C and Autolite alternative brands of sparkplugs that were cold heat ranged made for racing spark plugs were the sparkplugs of choice for these engines.

[John Taylor]

Revolutionary to outboards in particular racing outboards was the introduction of the 2 stroke loop engine by Anzani and out of close grained cast iron to. That made for a very heavy block and it also made for some very difficult machine work to set the block up for racing. Similarly as Anzani wound down operations and production in the mid 1960s and Harrison ramped up to finish using up Anzani components in an engine that evolved into the name brand marque the Harrison, HRP found it had to cast its own blocks which they did of cast aluminum alloy.

Processes at the time found many on and offshore engine companys casting engines both with liner in situ and later finish machined or liner installed afterward with machine work done before the liner was forced in fit with sealing material to make it impervious to water, air, fuels etc. Harrison installed their liners finished machined as a dry sleeve installation encircled by the machined fit of the aluminum block bored to fit the liners where engines like Konigs later had wet sleeve installations suffering some water sealing problems in the process Harrison did not have. It was typical to have the Harrison cylinder sleeve frozen cold for maximum contraction at hand and the aluminum engine block heated for maximum expansion prior to installation using a press and done quickly before the metals equalized their tempertures locking them together with friction even closer.

The cylinder map for Harrison made for larger intake ports that were angled, round and at least twice the size of Anzani on the intake transfer ports where on the exhaust ports both engines being cousins to each other were similar and quite squared for a very fast working exhaust port.

British Anzani engines being cast iron blocked loop engines could withstand huge nitromethane loads in the fuel to compensate for poorer breathing than the Harrison could. Typically a Harrison loop engines with its larger and better designed and breathing Schnurle intake cylinder transfer ports, alloy block and ferrous cylinder liners would not last long where nitro loads were present in percentage done heavily in Anzanis. It seemed each engine traded off something to compete with the other without mechanical failures increasing to get there. The Harrison was truly the modernization of the Anzani on the long term. Where Anzani held kilo and mile speed records going over 100 miles per hour by the early 1970s the Harrisons held competition records where average speeds around the course in competition exceeded 80 miles per hour during the same era.

By comparisson todays Super E gas modified engines of 49 to 60 cubic inch displacement have hit 70 mile per hour average speeds this year 2007. Harrison and Anzani engines from the mid 1960s had already exclipsed that barrier with less than a third to one half the engine displacements. The key to much of that is engine overall design & metalurgy and most of the rest was superior port design.

[John Taylor]

Harrison variants were very much indicated by the hardware they carried. On the ignition side there seemed to be evolution going on that went the gamut from using the Anzani Lucas built gear driven magneto when they the Lucases were plentiful to when they became scarce Harrison went to other battery as well as self energized ignitions like Phelon / Repco and so on.

Featured here is a top part components section of a Harrison self engergizing ignition system for a 2 cylinder racing engine? very much reminding readers of what Konig breakerless ignition systems appeared to be the basis of. Nothing ever stopped Alky racers and developers from taking ideas from each other or adapting from other brands of engines, generally who made better or more readily available parts or products.

Enjoy the pictures. :)

[Mark75H]

By comparisson todays Super E gas modified engines of 49 to 60 cubic inch displacement have hit 70 mile per hour average speeds this year 2007. Harrison and Anzani engines from the mid 1960s had already exclipsed that barrier with less than a third to one half the engine displacements. The key to much of that is engine overall design & metalurgy and most of the rest was superior port design.

You are comparing gas motors to alky & alky nitromethane motors .... and the Super E rules restrict the motors to many stock parts including standard fishing version carbs ... its not due to magic in the Anzani/Harrison motors, its due to rule restrictions on the larger motors.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

John:

If you are assuming that the ignition assembly pictured was originaly furnished with the Harrison engine, I am almost sure that was not the case. Not absolutely positive, but 95% sure the ignition pictured did not make its appearance until after Kay and his father were past the Anzani/Harrison adventure. I may be wrong but I don't think so. Following is my information/knowledge about the ignition pictured.

At a race in Florida in the mid to late 70's I believe, one of the Small brothers was badly injured when a self excited ignition being furnished on the Konigs had the magnet portion of the flywheel disintegrate while the motor was being started and reved on the bank. The pieces struck him in the top of the shoulder, close to the neck area as I remember and severely injured him. The PRO commission at the time had an immediate meeting to address the issue and came up with a mandated guard around the rotating parts of the ignition so as to capture or attempt to contain any loose parts, if it happened again. To the best of my knowledge it never did, or at least I never heard of another occurance, but as a result of the accident several motor manufacturers/tuners came out with guards that could be retrofitted to the ignitions already in use. This IS NOT to say the ignition pictured never was used on an Anzani or the Harrison derivitive, only that it was not, I don't believe, designed for the motor to start with. The ignition components were manufactured by Phelan I believe, and I heard were originally used on a chain saw or other small engine and were not really designed to withstand the higher RPM duty of the Konig racing engine. I have at least two if these ignitions that were used on Yamato 80's in the RB class. Each ignition module or "porkchop" as it was called fired two coils on the Konig, one each for both the top and bottom cylinders and four coils were used. Only two porkchops were needed as the top two and bottom two cylinders on the Konig fire at the same time as I am sure you are aware.

Kay of course could be the final source of information on the ignition, but as I stated previously, I believe the first time these were used was after the accident in Florida. The ignition itself was quite satisfactory, although there were some of the "porkchops" that were supposedly better for higher RPM than others. I think they had a mark of some sort on them but I don't remember now what it was.

Your photos are great and I look forward to more on these engines.

[John Taylor]

That is a given that the Anzanis, Harrisons, Quincy Flatheads, Quincy Mercs and Konigs were all fueler type engines mean't for and built for racing where todays Super Es are race adapted Modified from stock engines still on gasoline being raced. Sure, It was an unfair comparisson. I was shooting at the time periods between and how small displacement wise these old Alkys and how high their speeds were by comparison to some of the wine bottle bores things are running today on gas and going real fast too. :)

[John Taylor]

The porkchop ignition may have been on a Harrison crankcase which I do not have to compare to but it would not fit the normal Anzani crankcase without some kind of adapting. What throws me is that Mercury belt drive ignitions like Fairbanks Morse FM and Mercury P4Ds were very plentiful and could have been easily adapted. That caught on in the North West USA in the late 1960s and 1970s once everyone really got tired of no parts Lucas mags or got tired of the Lucas prince of darkness period when they stripped too many bakelite gears then they realistically went to Merc belt drives right up to the Merc CDI making the engine and ignitions very reliable. What I never heard and maybe was not done was hanging the Anzani gear drive machined on Merc ignition systems shafts. The odd Konig gear drive 2 cylinder magneto did make it on to some but how widespread? Seems very few.

In the North West they got tired of pressurized fuel tanks and went over to the remote OMC fuel pumps found on 30 and up horsepower Evinrude and Johnsons versions that were and still are very good and parts plentiful even today.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

John:

After reading my post about the ignition, and your reply, I wanted to clarify one part that may be slightly confusing. The ignition components themselves such as the flywheel, porkchops, etc., were furnished as OEM on the Konig engines of the times direct from Germany as a replacement for the previous battery, points, condenser ignition. It was after the accident previously mentioned that a large number of them were converted for safety with the aluminum guard made by Harrison so as to contain the parts in case of disentegration of the flywheel. The Konigs also were furnished from that point on with an aluminum guard from the factory, and other racers made their own of various design.

Did not mean to imply that the components themselves were not furnished on the Konig if that is what you meant.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Don't forget Bill, that someone discovered that the magneto and coils and porkchops were made in Massachusetts I think. And you are right. They were made to fit on another type of two cycle engine rather than an outboard. I was thinking chainsaw also but it could have been a snowblower or something else. I am thinking the original flywheel was full circle and Dieter cut half moons out on either side of the magnet to reduce the weight. Other than that, everything else was the same.

What happened that caused the flywheel to disentigrate and injure Tim Small was that the flywheel was modified to fit a Yamato and that left three holes on each side of the flywheel in perfect alignment with minimal spacing between each hole. As soon as the engine fired up, there was not enough meat left on the flywheel and the centrifugal force caused the heavy magnets to break off at those weak points.

It was Ray Hardy who found out for us where to buy the replacement pork chops. They were significantly cheaper when you cut out the shipping back and forth to and from Berlin, less two middlemen, less exchange rate (which the dollar VS D-Mark was not good then), less tariffs.

I have an extra guard made by Harrison along with coils and I think porkchops that came with my old D motor that I bought. I'll dig them out and see if I can find any clues. I'm thinking all this new ignition started popping up around 1978.

[Original Looper 1]

Wayne & Bill,

I think the porkchop flywheel coils you are referring to originally came on a Poulan chainsaw. It was made by Phelon in Lomira, WI. The part # I have for my extras is 10436SOA, which has the red ignition ground wire for which I was told insures it is a higher RPM capacity coil. They are getting extremely difficult to find since they are no longer manufactured, but some are still out there in parts inventories if you take the time to do some searching.

thanks,

Paul A Christner

[John Taylor]

The two posts clarifies things a lot. Because Lucas mangnetos are very scarce and hard to come by for the Anzani and Harrison made ones for what I want to do here I have obtained a number of Fairbanks Morse FMs. In discussions with Steven Roskowski it seems the easiest way to go to get some of the original look to them I am going to try to adapt a belt cog under the flywheel and run the Mercury belt drive to the magneto and just ground out 2 of the spark discharge wires to ground and use the other 2 to sparkplugs and use them that way. The FM mags bear some resemblence to the Lucas but are one lot more hardy, uncomplicated and reliable. I was thinking of re-machining the output shaft of the FM mag to accept the Anzani gear drive but I am not sure you can spin the FM magneto in reverse to what the belt drive would do successfully as it seems that is not the design of that FM magento to spin backwards and work any good? When a Lucas magneto spins on a gear it spins opposite to what a belt system does. But the Lucas magneto was designed that way which is opposite to a Mercury FM or P4D magneto. Its all a tongue twister. :)

[Mike Schmidt]

The Harrison Igniton in the photo was built to fit the Yamato 350-500 motors. In the early to mid 80's Kay was very heavy in to Yamato's. His casting and they bought the igniton parts form Phelon, just like Konig. When Kay went to Motoplat on all his engines, I bought all the castings and parts for use on customers Konigs. There are several Harrison ignitons around that have been welded up and machined to clear the Konig belt drive.

Lodite is the name of the foundry that did all Kay's castings.

Harrison engine # 001 is still owned by the original buyer and not for sale.

Michael D-1

[David Weaver]

The Harrison Igniton in the photo was built to fit the Yamato 350-500 motors. In the early to mid 80's Kay was very heavy in to Yamato's. His casting and they bought the igniton parts form Phelon, just like Konig. When Kay went to Motoplat on all his engines, I bought all the castings and parts for use on customers Konigs. There are several Harrison ignitons around that have been welded up and machined to clear the Konig belt drive.

Lodite is the name of the foundry that did all Kay's castings.

Harrison engine # 001 is still owned by the original buyer and not for sale.

Michael D-1

Following up on Mike's quote, the first yar that I went to Constantine Kay lost a fly wheel while testing a 350 or a 500. It stopped near our pit space in the water. I walked out, picked-it up and returned it to Kay. The photo above could have been taken at this same race, as it appears that the fly wheel left this crank.

[John Taylor]

This picture was taken right here a day or 2 ago and sure it does look like something Alky Konig or Yamato that lifted and broke away. It came to me as part of a package with Anzani and Harrison components. I thought it was Konig or something familiar right away but you know the way racers are, they are the mothers of invention when the need suits them. They will try anything at least once.

If anything it will make a nice framed wallhanger behind them as a backdrop when the A and B Harrisons are reconstructed/restored here. :)

[John Taylor]

From the available pictures and sample of the main carb I have here that says nothing on it as to manufacture I am assuming that the rotary barrel carb on Harrison A and B Alkys were Konig carbs and made by whom, konig or some other supplier? Anyone?

Are these smaller rotary barrel carbs still available amongst Konig or other motor users?

[Matts]

Very interesting reading & pictures John!!

[smittythewelder]

As far as adapting ignitions from sources outside of racing, I believe Harrison did that for their later engines. I have a B Anzani block and head bolted to a Harrison front-end. The ignition is a big aluminum flywheel magneto that has evidence of cooling fins that were milled off. The fact that it is aluminum would lead me to fabricate a steel scatter-shield to surround it, if I were ever to run the thing. I believe this was a Harrison ignition at some point, but maybe someone else will know.

I remember Hallum and Anderson were looking at a couple of sizes of Pioneer chainsaw flywheel mags at one point. I think they also were made of aluminum, and must have had fins. Pioneer was an OMC company, and Hallum was a mechanic at an OMC dealership, and had built a racing chainsaw or two. I don't know if they got around to trying one of those ignitions before going to the Merc electronic ignition.

Didn't Elmer Grade produce the 4-cyl. Konig ignition of choice, in the mid-'70s?

[Mike Schmidt]

John Schubert was with Lawn Boy, also an OMC company. He was the connection for Pioneer igniton parts. Pete Helsten had it on all sorts of motors. 125's, 250's and C-Service. Nick Birbarie showed me how to set them up. Super simple and bullet proof. I ran them on my A konig in 1983. Raced in 25 races, won 22 of them and finished 2nd twice and 3rd once.

One of my friends races pulling tractors. He is building a Honda CR 500 based twin cylinder engine, twin engine tractor for next season. We are putting the chain saw igniton on to save weight over the MSD system that he is using now.

When Tom Small got hurt, Elmer reacted much faster than Deiter and made up the scatter shield that latter came stock on all 4 cylinder Konigs.

Michael D-1

[John Taylor]

Who ever (I assume Ron Anderson had something to do with it) prepared Roger Wendt's winning Class B Anzani / Harrison / Merc / Koing hybrid Alky they installed a Phelon flywheel magneto system with cast aluminum and magnetted flywheel with under flywheel points, condensers, ignition coils and this all has a cast surround like scattershield that surrounds the flywheel. The rope plate marque has the words Harrison Racing cast on it. It uses the late model next generation Harrison heavy duty crankshaft with Konig rods machined fit into the Anzani crankcase. It's cast iron block in ways mimics the Harrison aluminum block for exhaust port transition to pipe porting and tunneling but this Anzani block that Wendt used had the biggest carb opening (44 millimeters), intake transfer and "T" type exhaust ports I have seen on any Anzani block most of which I refer to are the ones that are here now.

Looking at the Wendt Anzani loop engine block in terms of development and then Bill Tenney's late model Anzani version of a 6 intake transfer port loop block when it comes to combined port areas for loop scavenging made for some serious breathing and exhaust capabilities between the two. Very impressive. It would be interesting what those would develop horsepower wise if they could have got to the stage where some real good expansion chambers could have been hooked up to the both of them.

[John Taylor]

The following pictures are the fine Harrison design engineered components cast by Lodite for HRP and finished machined by Birmingham Metal Products aka Harrison Racing Products (HRP) engines. Key to these products pictured are that they were meant to be added to existing British Anzani racing engine core parts stocks to make complete racing engines for North American Alky A or B class from the remaining stock of Anzani parts left over from when production had ceased overseas at Coventry, U.K.

Featured here are the engine A and B Alky blocks of aluminum with ferrous dry liners and their peripheral parts to complete them including pistons that are then mated to existing Anzani crankcases, connecting rods, rotary valved crankshafts, ignitions, flywheels, towers, clamps, gearcases etc. to make a working Alky A or B engine. Everything was so closely matched in these early models that a racer could use the Anzani casted pistons in the Harrison block or could use the newer Lodite HRP cast pistons as well. There were many British Anzani engines already using Lodite cast HRP pistons and HRP exhaust components like aluminum cast HRP buttressed type aluminum exhaust elbos and HRP aluminum megaphone stacks when Harrisons started to appear as an aftermarket parts add on and then later as a distinct Harrison engine of its own.

That gives huge testament to the Harrison builders in how versatile they were and how versatile these engines really were and they were very fast in their day laying claim to strings of falling records in their wakes racing with or against the British Anzanis. For a time back then in the mid 1960s they were the only engines in A and B Class Alky that made the difference, the engines to beat. Quincy/Merc padded block Alky deflectors would have to modernize to compete. Konig Deflectors were in no better competitive position than the Quincy/<erc Deflectors. It would be some time in the second half of the 1960s that Konigs and Quincy modernized with loop scavenging of their own or in Quincy's case the looped Flatheads came on as loop scavenged engines turned out to be the only viable answer and would arrive to dominate A and B class Alky in the second half of the 1960s and later. For the six previous years from 1959 to 1965 it was the Anzanis that revolutionized racing with Harrisons loop engines being the second loop makers out of the gate that held a strangle hold on the competition and posted and held records way into the future in competition and in straigtway. That had to and would change later as other makers also took hold of the loop scavenged revolution and went with it.

Enjoy the pictures. :)

[John Taylor]

Second batch of pictures. Enjoy! :)

[John Taylor]

Third Batch of Pictures. Enjoy! :)


Some HRP aluminum stacks to be added soon.

[John Taylor]

The following 2 pictures are closeups of the Harrison Intake to Cylinder Transfer Ports. The port work is remarkable in many respects as it seems hard to determine where the machining aspect of it started or ended with the hand finishing also involved.

[John Taylor]

Pictured here is Harrison's answer to covering / tunneling the intake to cylinder transfer ports on a B Alky engine block and on the other side the casting it was developed / made to hold 2 separate ignition coils for a "Motoplat" type self engergized ignition or similarly for a battery powered point/condenser type ignition system linked/initiated at the crankshaft.

Enjoy the picture. :)

[Mark75H]

1920's ... Schnerle ... gas

[John Taylor]

I will sit on sack cloth, dump ashes all over myself, weep, wail and knash my teeth for a whole 24 hours plus the common Hail Marys expected of me too! :) Pennance enough!

[John Taylor]

When I got the Harrison A block the cast iron liner had been pushed out. The liners they used and installed are typically a dry liner. I suspect it, the cast iron liner was ported before it was pushed into the block that already had the aluminum ports already in it ready for the liner's installation. There is no sign of any cement or sealant being used as part of the liner installation. The aluminum deck the liner fits into has been deburred after the liner was pushed out. (heated or cold removal is unknown)

Now I want to put it, the liner back in. The liner has been crack tested and its okay. The liner has been tested for constant outside diameter and its okay.

Should I be using the method where the oven heated block and frozen liner drop in method with a hydralic press doing the honors without any sealing cement applied either to the block?, to the liner? or to both? and what sealing compound if one is used? Looking for best, safest advice. Anyone with that experience?:)

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

John:

Someone very knowledgable about PRO engines/resleeving is Don Nichols in Baton Rouge,, La. He has a number of years experience in this type work, including V-6 Merc and OMC engines. Let me know how to contact you personally and I will have him get in touch with you.

That being said I had the occasion to have sleeves replaced several times in both Konig and Yamato engines by Harry ZAK. He always used the hot block and cold sleeve method and used clearances that allowed him to resleeve by hand placement of the sleeve in the block and then let the temperature differental lock the sleeve in place. He did at times use "molycoat" on the OD of the sleeve to build up the diameter for a good fit if the sleeve was what he felt was too loose after everthing had cooled down to normal. I also was aware of him using O ring seals on the bottom of the flange of the sleeve to prevent water leakage around where the exaust port was, as that was a potential source of leakage in some Konig engines. I never knew him to use any type of liquid sealant such as permatex or anything like that. He always got the correct interference fit with the addition of molycoat if needed or in some cases even made new sleeves from scratch by purchasing a blank without ports, but of the right dimensions from LA Sleeve, and then cutting the ports himself. Unfortunately I don't know what clearances he thought were proper. The O ring material he used was "Viton", a high temperature material.

I would think that the precision of the job would also be dependent on whether or not you actually wanted to run the engine again, or just display it. If it was never going to be actually run perhaps that would be the determining factor as to trouble and expense you might want to go to.

Good Luck

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Jack Chance did the same thing Bill Van explained regarding the hot and cold. And like Harry's system, it did not require a press. One thing Bill Van failed to bring up was removal of the old sleeve. Some people pressed them out. Jack took our blocks to his brother-in-law who was an excellent machinist and he made them slim enough to peel out. Seems like he did it lopsided where one side was thinner than the other, and that's where Jack started peeling.

[Tomtall]

I never knew him to use any type of liquid sealant such as permatex or anything like that.

I would think this was never done as it would cause a barrier between the sleeve and block and would effect heat transfer from the sleeve to the block when running. Just a thought.

The following is what Google produced on resleeving process.

http://www.cyclewareables.com/pages/street_cylinder_sleeves/cylinder_sleeve_install.htm

[smittythewelder]

One of Zak's applications for molycoating was certain of the sleeves in early Yamato 4-cylinders. These were 2-part sleeves, with standard iron liners inside a cast aluminum sleeve that formed the floors of the transfer ports, giviing those ports a nice sweepiing curve. From the factory, these 2-part sleeves were bedded-in with what looked like Yamabond non-hardening #4 (which wouldn't seem to be very good for heat-transfer; in fact, I wonder how good that two-part sleeve was for heat transfer. Aluminum is better than iron, but the interface would seem to be problem.).

The trouble with these sleeves is that, with aluminum on aluminum, they tended to gall when pressed out. Zak's answer, when it was time to put the sleeves back in the block, was to clean everything in detail, then spray and bake molycoat on the outside surface of the sleeves, .002-.004" thick. The moly, a dry-lubricant, allowed the sleeves to go in and out without galling, and the thickness of the build-up kept them in place. All of this is from a phone conversation 25 years ago, but I think it's correct.

I wonder how this would have worked on the early Quincy Loopers. Seems to me I heard that holding the non-stepped sleeves in place was a problem for some owners. Maybe a thick build-up of moly would be an answer (if there is indeed a problem).

Yet another fix: Some owners of old Brit-bikes were troubled by porous castings, including crankcases that would seep oil right through the walls (other owners take a perverse pride in such distinctions)! There was/is an outfit in California that would immerse your set of NOS or used, vapor-degreased crankcase halves in a vat of Loctite and draw a vacuum on it, pulling Loctite into the porous metal. More to the point for us, this operation was also performed on cylinder blocks with either pressed or cast-in-place sleeves to fill the voids between liner and block. The idea was that while Loctite might not be the greatest heat transfer medium, it was better than air.

I started getting parts for various projects molycoated from about 1966, by a company that did a lot of this work for Boeing. In the mid-'70s, the heyday of 2-stroke roadracing motorcycles tuned and modified by do-it-yourselfers (wild-eyed port-grinders!), a company called Kal-Gard started offering molycoating supplies, running big ads in Cycle magazine. Piston skirts were the most frequent application, but there are many others. With the sad passing of roadracing 2-strokes and those who loved them, Kal-Gard went back to its core clientelle of gunsmiths and industrial users. The company split up, but if you want to try your hand at molycoating, have Google look up KG Industries and Gear-Kote (formerly also sold as Piston-Kote). Ask for Chris, who will soon run the company, and tell him Smitty sent you.


(possibly the last several posts here might serve a wider group if they were pasted in one of the Tech forums . . . ).

[John Taylor]

That last time I had a liner installed was in a Mercury 40H back in 1969. A big end rod bearing got loose wiping out the liner. The new liner was done by a friend through a friend who did it at some off time at Standard Aero Engines. When I got the block back the liner was in it without the ports cut back in and he wanted all of $80.00 for doing it excluding the 24 of beer we drank in his garage looking at it when I was picking it up. Pritchard Machine re-cut the intake and exhaust ports so nicely you could not tell that Mercury had not done it to begin with. That was another $100.00 bux for the ports and leveling out and knotching the new liner in the crankcase side so that it matched the other 3. The 40H ran flawlessly with the liner replacement from there on. Interesting was that this replacement liner was brighter metal as finished honed than the original liner material.

Concerning the Harrison A, when the liner was pushed out some gauling was present though not severe. I have since run a slow fine grit hone with thin penetrating oil down the aluminum bore hole without any ketching incidents serveral times, each time cleaning the bore hole and inspecting it for smoothness and roundness with a bore gauge. The outside of the liner has been cleaned to a fine finish and checked for flaws. The inside has been lightly honed with no problems found. There were no apparent reasons so far was to why the liner was removed to begin with. I will be picking up the liner from crack testing next week to deal with any flaws the eye can not see.

No kidding here, but I was thinking of heating the block in the oven to 450 degrees, freeze the liner in dry ice and use some liberal coating of mixed up JB Weld on the liner and gently re-install the liner using a small 20 ton press in as big a hurry as possible before the temperatures could equalize or the JB could setup! I really like your sprayed on molycote idea a lot better! I got a couple of cans of molycote spray and I can get a Sony or Sansui record turntable for a couple of bucks from a used store to spin and spray the liner evenly, let it all dry and then do the heat and freeze with that method you have all indicated was a well used method to do the job well.

I would like to see the engine not only together but also being able to run too, on occassion, so its just not some lookeesee sawhorse queen. This re-install with molycote sounds quite doable with an engine becoming again runable. Thank you all very very much! :)

[John Taylor]

At a recent small 2 stroker (sled) parts sale and swap meet I purchased a NOS, what appears to be near complete 12 volt DC electronic powered up exhaust (twin pipe) water injection (European) kit that uses the pressure pumped pressurized bottle and solinoid regulated method of injecting 2 racing stacks, with every manner of controls, adjustable jetting, plumbing and all. It is highly compact in sizing and looks like it cost a fortune to make with heavy duty quality through out. Does anyone here have some experience to relate how this type of stack water injection system could be adapted to a 2 cylinder loop engine like an Anzani, Harrison, Konig, Yamato etc. similar?

This is unlike any Quincy Loop Flathead water injection setup I have restored. I have no experience on any other water injection system on any other pipes outside of the singe Quincy Flathead type. There is no dating on the kit but it appears to some to come from the 1970s to early 1980s. I am going to take pictures to post and may be trigger some information on this kind of system and its installation?

[Mark75H]

I know PWC's use something like that. Their market may be the source, but I doubt the age is prior to 2000

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

John:

Go to a thread entitled "water injection questions from the Quincy forum". You can find it under Technical Discussion Topic on BRF, page 6, date 1/21/07. Those comments/information might be helpful to you. The original idea seems to have orginated in the 60's because of research being done to try to increase power on early jet engines on commercial aircraft for takeoff. When injecting a water/alcohol mix into the engine, in front of the compressor blades I believe, they found that the noise level was also affected greatly, namely it quietened the engine down considerably. The reason was that the water/alcohol mix cooled the incoming air and also the combustion process somewhat and that changed the wave form distance in the sound waves being emitted by the engine. As you probably know, changing the distance the sound wave travels from the reflecting point on an exhaust system also changes the power band, and from there it was a short step for people who became aware of that research to try it on exaust systems on 2 strokes, first with megaphone exaust and then on expansion chambers. This research was widely publicized at that time, and I remember calling Harry ZAK about it. This was about the same time that Christner put water injection on the Flatheads and Harry also used it on his first ZAK pipes as they did not slide and he needed a way to change the powerband, which that accomplished. I really don't know who was first and don't think it makes much difference, but that was the time frame involved, so it is not a new concept, and as a lot of other things that speed freaks pick up, came from the aviation industry.

[John Taylor]

I kinda walked over to the table with this kit sitting there and asked myself the question if this was some kind of fancy fuel injection setup for some snowmobile engine that blasted something exotic before or after the carbs to make the engine act as if there was an afterburner tied to it and with that I questioned the guy, the seller and he said "you never seen a water injection system for 2 stroke racing pipes"? My answer was "nothing like that"! He said well, its dated, its new, its basically all there, just the wiring harness missing and he thought the price was right! I looked at the tag in shock, used my pocket change (and I do mean coins, not bills) and just paid the man, his first sale that afternoon, put it in a bag for me and I went and locked it in the trunk of the car! Get a load of this!

[John Taylor]

Sorry about that!

[John Taylor]

Last Picture

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

John:

The two items with the hose outlets on them look to be electrically operated solenoid valves, which would give a positive opening and closing of the water path to the exaust system when actuated, eliminating the problem with the suction of the pipes at high RPM sucking water from the bottle, resulting in the problems I mentioned on the other thread causing piston damage. I would stongly suggest if you plan on trying the system on anything that you use them in line to the exaust as they will eliminate a lot of potential problems with this type of system, including engine damage if the water would be sucked back into a cylinder because it was getting into the system when not wanted. Looks like a very professional system that was probably designed specifically for something, perhaps a PWC as Sam mentioned.

[John Taylor]

Unfortunately the picture does not show the 2 discharge nozzles deep in one pocket of the foam packaging that also have a kind of overpressure? return circuit to them.

What ever the discharge or transfer lines were made of are also missing from their section of the packaging but their size seems logical to match.

What bothers me is the large 12 volt DC black pressurizing pump that sits there as well as that control box. There was no wiring or liquid circuit diagram so it leaves one to ask if the pump was used to precharge? or instantly pressurize upon triggering? Do the bottle contents come from another liquid source for a electronically controlled burst to the pipes at some given pressure and is it meant to refill itself but from what when its for a snowmo sled, I assume as the seller only said 2 stroke?

The bottle is thick high impact plastic with a pressure cap. That control box and solinoid system may have some sensor features to them? I looked at my Quincy Flathead water injection diagrams sheets with its single 12 volt solinoid valve that when triggered delivered pressurized water from the gearcase outflow to 4 nozzles at once, each aimed straight backward from the exhausts with the nozzles located on shoulders on the exhaust elbos. I suppose with Quincy 3rd generation bell stacks there was little chance the water was going to get sucked back once the power was cut? When I tried that engine on rebuild I tooled with the water injection a bit but I was not satisfied with the water output or pressure then. It all seemed weak. With this system perhaps there is something more automatic and way higher pressure about it given its complexity?

Would you, Mark 75H or any reader have some kind of schematic that shows the water and power circuitry to a basic bottled water stack injection system similar to this? It would give some guidance in figuring out how it might work leading to test bedding the thing to see how it actually does work without first installing it on any engine and prehaps damaging things going that route when it can be found out otherwise?

It is a very interesting system. I ask myself why some one did not use it as there are no marks on the connectors (still bagged) or components that would show it ever was hooked up and ever tried? Maybe it already scared off somebody for some reasons not yet revealed? When you get something this inexpensively its like something too good to be true? The rule is that it is generally that. (too good to be true)

Here is to hoping for more info. :)

[John Taylor]

Bill wrote a technical article about water injecting pipes. I copied it over here just to refocus what has been said to figure out this system for its pros, cons and potential uses, missuses and problems.

advantage and disadvantage of water injection in pipes

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As Sam has mentioned in his earlier post the injection of water into the exhaust system cools the exaust gas and makes the engine think the pipe is longer than it really is while the water is being injected, giving you more bottom end/torque allowing you to pull a larger prop through the tough part of the power band, which is just when the boat breaks over on plane and puts a load on the engine. Larger prop at peak rpm equals more speed. I set a Kilo record in the mid 80'd at almost 91 MPH with a Yamato Model 80 on fuel with ONE 25mm CARB, using water injection as an aid to keep going after breaking over on plane and continue on with a larger than usual prop, thus achieving a speed that would not normally have been possible.

We used a ordinary aftermarket winshield washer system purchased at an auto supply store consisting of a plastic container that held about a quart of water and had a 12 volt motor mounted in the bottom of the container. Real neat and tidy and easy to mount. Ran two hoses, one to each collector pipe for each expansion chamber with a capability of inserting bing carb jets in the stand off pipe brazed in the collector so as to adjust the amount of water injected when you pushed the button. Used a small 12V battery from a portable VCR that weighed about a pound so very small and lightweight for power.

The Disadvantage: you needed a very good check valve in the line or two was better for safety as the motor would have a tendency at high RPM to suck water from the tank whether the switch was activated or not because of suction developed by the expansion chambers. In addition to slowing the motor down if this got into the pipe at the wrong time, you could actually suck the water vapor into the cylinders where it turned to steam immediately and the additional pressure of the steam plus normal combustion would crack pistons like walnuts. We destroyed several pistons before Harry ZAK finally figured out what was happening and got some decent check valves in the line to stop the problem.

Another disadvantage was that if you had it hooked up all the time, the tendency was to use it too often, sometimes mistaking a non-connected engine problem with loading the engine by thinking you had a little too large a prop on and trying to get the motor going when that was not the problem at all.

Short and sweet, for the right reasons it was good to have but easy to overuse if you weren't careful, and could be hard on the engine as mentioned.

[epugh66]

On the topic of sleaves. On our Yamato 250's, we just put the half block in the oven, let it bake till the sleave fell out. Had the new sleave in the freezer, reheated the block, dropped the new sleave in, making sure to align it fast. Once it clamps down, it's start all over. After that, have the block bored and smooth out the ports.

The problem with bottle water injection systems is, you eventually run out of water. We used two systems.

One was based on picking water up off the sponson bottom and controling flow with a 90 degree ball valve. Casting for ball valve mount was made by Birmingham Metal Products, you could also use ZIP ties, but that wasn't Kay's style. Even at just on plane speed, it provided enough squirt to boost a 250.

The other used a water tank from an '80's Mazda car. Allyn Stevens buily a tester to test the output and PSI of all the water pumps he could find( really, he did). The two down sides was you had to carry a battery(and charge it) and it would wind up empty. My solution to the empty bottle syndrom was to tap into my cooling water intake to refill. I put an over flow hose out the side of the boat for excess.

Yamato put an end to all that nonsense by installing reeds.

[John Taylor]

I did some asking around this morning about what was going on with these kinds of bottled injection systems in SnowMo years past.

It turns out that this stuff was being adapted for snowmo drag racing in particular for running unlimited classes for 1/8 th mile drags on grass and snow/ice. No one apparently ever used it for oval racing.

Some used this kind of stuff to inject fuels like nitro, water & methanol mixes into the carbs air/fuel streams (before? or after?the carb not known) and using knock sensors to deal with timing issues when the system was triggered on. On SnowJets Thunderjet 440s systems like these were used with the Yamaha mechanical fuel injection to deal with some of its shortcomings which were apparently frequent piston meltdowns problems.

Some injected water into the expansion chamber racing pipes and the bottle was the ideal size to handle the length of the typical drag races.

Weirder still was some racers tried injecting hydrogen peroxide into the carbs air/fuel streams. Stories to these systems seem to abound.

Evidently with rules changes bottle injection for what ever purpose went out of use for SnowMo some years ago.

[John Taylor]

MSD amongst others makes and sells water injection kits for 2 stroke performance exhausts uses in marine 2 stroke applications. The kit pictured in this thread is not an MSD system but resembles the component relationships anyway, so it must be some one else's kit for sale to the public for 2 stroke use.

Their (MSD's) (circa 2007) article can be summarized as follows:

Water Injection Control Systems

Injecting water into an exhaust system fools the engine into thinking it has the best of both worlds.

Exhaust systems cause racers to compromise their engine’s power. Exhaust systems are designed to be tuned to deliver maximum power within a specific rpm range. Performance can be gained by using the exhaust pulse waves to create pressure variations which have an effect on the rate as the exhaust gases exit the combustion chamber. The problem is that you are limited to that one power band which compromises your power!

Fortunately, *** offers the Pulse Width Modulated Water Injection Control Kit that allows you to modify the exhaust at programmable rpm points by injecting water into the pipe. Introducing water to the exhaust alters the exhaust pulses thereby modifying the back pressure! With this technology you can “tune” your exhaust system throughout the rpm range of your engine.

For example, by injecting water into the exhaust chamber at lower rpm, the density of the exhaust pulse is increased which slows it down. This has the same affect as lengthening the chamber to increase low to mid range torque and power!

The ******** Kit takes the engine rpm signal and processes it through a digital controller which pulses a solenoid to allow water to enter the exhaust chamber. The system can be installed on virtually any watercraft and features dip switches for easy adjustment of the rpm activation points. There are also bright LEDs that alert you as to when a solenoid is pulsing water into the system and to confirm a solid trigger signal from the ignition.

It seems the 2 stroke water injection kit I purchased and pictured in Harrison Racing Outboard thread is something older and less developed than what is around today made and distributed by "Snow" or "MSD" and others that are now very programmable and digitally controlled too boot! One thing is for sure when you see their (MSD's) price lists is water injection for what ever the purpose is not inexpensive by any stretch either.

[smittythewelder]

Back when the idea was new to Reg. 10 racers, and the first experimenters were cobbling together their homemade water systems, Jim Hallum, as usual, went for extra sophistication. Instead for trying to spray water through a jet (or just a hole!), he came up with an agricultural spray-head (for insecticide, I suppose) that had a little spinning deflector inside that would break up the water into a nice fan-spray patter. I don't think he used it on Anzanis, but on the 125cc and other motorcycle conversions. For Anzanis, he had the exhaust valves.

Ed Karelson, whose son John (a good boat-builder and a very bright kid who would have been a force in this sport) was lost to us in a testing accident, told me about the trouble they had had with a C Yamato John was running. Ed said the water injection worked fine for getting on plane, or out of a slow corner, but that the water wouldn't clear the pipe completely for up to a lap and a half, so they quit using it. It didn't occur to me until a while later that what must have been happening was that once the flow was initiated, it would continue to siphon water up the line until the siphon was broken or the supply tank was empty. The cheap fix would have been a very small hole in the line to admit air, breaking the siphon.

[John Taylor]

I was talking to Jim Hallum about the stack water injection system tonight. He went right back to the basics on how it worked and how they went about trying out and testing it back then using automotive plastic tanks, windshield washer pumps, various nozzels and hookups. There is no evidence to show that Bill Tenney ever ventured into water injecting the stacks on Anzanis in the Midwest USA either and it was very much the same with Anzanis in Region 10 NorthWest USA. They went after trying different exhausts systems, like gated exhausts eventually leading into expansion chamber racing exhausts. You can only wonder what could have been, had they got into water injecting early expansion chambers?

[epugh66]

I was talking to Gary about this thread today. I reminded him that he was perhaps the last one to try to qualify a Harrison "B" engine at a national championship.

At the worst APBA National Championships in the 20th century, LaCrosse, Wi., Kay had brought a Harrison engine to run in the new RB class. Gary was unable to get it on plane. After Todd Brinkman ran into a storm drain and Cheney Street was nearly run over by a tug boat and barge, the race was postponed and run at Acworth, Ga. (a place with it's own set of problems) The Harrison RB engine was not brought back.

[ProHydroRacer]

I was talking to Gary about this thread today. I reminded him that he was perhaps the last one to try to qualify a Harrison "B" engine at a national championship.

At the worst APBA National Championships in the 20th century, LaCrosse, Wi., Kay had brought a Harrison engine to run in the new RB class. Gary was unable to get it on plane. After Todd Brinkman ran into a storm drain and Cheney Street was nearly run over by a tug boat and barge, the race was postponed and run at Acworth, Ga. (a place with it's own set of problems) The Harrison RB engine was not brought back.

Eric,
You forgot my son Bob, at the time called “the Head” it was nearly his first race. All you see of him was a head sticking out of the Boat and a large rooster tail of water blowing thru the bottom of the Boat as he sped by.

[John Taylor]

Just got some basic information on the water injection system pictured. Depending on the twin nozzel sizes on a Snowmo sled 2 cylinder racing engine the system was designed to give a 10 to 15 second jet nozzel burst of pressurized water from the water tank via the system's pressure pump to each pipe that should theoretically empty the water bottle. The system is not mean't to siphon nor will the water control solinoids allow any leakage siphoning when the power is cut to these water controls.

Given that these racing sleds engines would be wound up past 10,000 rpm running around 100 miles per hour at the end of the 1/8th mile drag race, would that the current water bottle be enough water for a 350 to 500cc Alky outbaord raceboat coming out of a turn down to the end of an average straightway?

How big were the resevoirs mentioned like the Mazda windshield washer tanks? What amount of pressure time and water volume with what discharge nozzel size/pressure did the pumps used by outboard racers supply to the raceboat engine before it was shut off again?

Seems this water injection for 2 stroke exhaust pipes even from a well developed kit without the basic instructions in its complexity is not for the fiant of heart! There must be a lot of cut, paste and testing that would go on even for a kit like this one for a sled and one whole lot more for a racing outboard.

I may have tracked down hookup and electrical diagrams I will be getting next week to post. That should make this 2 stroke pipe water injection kit one lot more interesting yet!

[Mark75H]

A windshield washer tank would probably NOT be big enough. I have water injection set up on my FEH and it uses a little more than 3 quarts in a normal race, a long course would need more than a gallon.

For a while I just let the tank run out, then I hooked up a refill/over flow arrangement, but it was hard to vent and fill - sometimes I filled the boat instead of the tank. I settled on a 12 volt solenoid between the pipes and pressurized water from the lower unit, simpler and less water & parts in the boat

[Prop Rider]

The lodite logo on the Harrison Racing Parts refers to a casting process used by the foundry that made most of our castings. The Lodi Foundry in Lodi, Ohio. Most of the castings were made from a material called AL Mag has a # but i don`t remeber it right now but it`s a comiination of magneisum & alum. Pistons were made out of a high silicon material # A132 and heat treated.:)

I suppose I have Lodite imprinted on me pretty bad because now that I am looking for it its found as a single imprint on the Harrison HRP cast aluminum outboard racing products. Sorry, but I thought it was you that came up with the name association and alloy explanation to it. I kind of remember that other alloy a bit too but that was a while back in posts.

[smittythewelder]

All right! Kay Harrison, the ultimate source and settler of arguments, has just checked in!

Mr. Harrison, I'd like to hear about one of your creations that never appeared in Reg. 10: the bottom-steering towerhousing. For those who didn't see it, and all I've seen is the photo in the company brochure, this was a cast aluminum towerhousing with the usual provision for kick-in/out, but with the powerhead fixed and only the lower unit being swiveled.

We here had a couple of speculative arguments about this tower. One side assumed that the motivation for building it was to greatly reduce torque at the steering wheel. The other side said, no, it just makes it easy to run the pipes forward into the boat instead of hanging them out back as usual, and that there would be no reduction in steering effort. Please enlighten us!

I'm hoping John will acquire and photograph another of your innovations, the early bounce pipe towerhousing that had the pipes built into a big tank (was it for fuel? Water? We never saw one of those out here either).

You would have enjoyed seeing the pack of onlookers surrounding Buzz Thorsen when he showed up at an Oregon race early in the 1966 season with the first Harrison we had seen. Those were good times.

[John Taylor]

Wow! Having the builder, Kay Harrison here is a pure pleasure. Thank you and then some more! Having acquired some of your engines to restore for posterity is a recent dream come true for me with the help of people I have never met in person who saw I had the drive to do something I could not afford or obtain in my youth but still wanted to do. I was just a kid helping out, pitting and meeting Alky racers at boat races when Anzanis and Harrisons were mixing it up with engines that didn't have crescent shaped exhausts that made Anzanis and Harrisons so unique and memory imprinting on me. I had no idea that Harrison and Anzani were associated until recently but I always loved their pipes and to see them run, beginning, with just being a help at the races and being a pitman for my neighbor who got me into outboard racing too.

Like Smitty, I too heard about and seen from time to time different engine towers on Alkys that were nothing like those found on anything C-Service or Mercury Q and H series racing engines I was getting used to locally. Names like Anzani, Harrison, Konig, Quincy/Merc (engines), Quincy pipes and Curtois pipes and towers along with the smell of the burn't methanol fuels and caster oil were so exotic and un-available to us up here comparing to number 1 leaded pump gasoline and Mercury Quicksilver Formula oil stock outboards used. I like Smitty and many others here are going to enjoy your prescence and participation. It sure is going to help me amongst other things to restore with better accuracy what you at HRP did for racing. :)

[John Taylor]

I just acquired some technical information on water injection for 2 stroke engines. It is for that pictured system and it turns out that it is from 1995.

With that it is more appropriate and fitting to get this water injection for 2 stroke pipes subject out of Harrison and British Anzani engine threads which go back way further in history and return this subject to the Technical threads of BRF to be shared with readers there. That is where I will immediately post Electrical as well as Flow diagram aspects of the 1995 "TA" *tm system I acquired recently for readers to see there.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

It was great to see Kay post something. Hey Kay....I got my e mail working again.

John, Debbie was clearing out a bunch of old videos and throwing them away and almost trashed some boat racing ones because it wasn't labeled. I had them transferred from old 8mm to VHS about five years ago. When I was looking at them this morning there was one race course I could not figure out, but it was a national race because numbers were from all over. Right at the tail end of one segment just before the film ended was a white hydro with either an Anzani or a Harrison with the same pipes you have on the motor in your avatar. I couldn't find a remote with a pause button to ID the driver, but I'll see if there is a way I can get it transferred to DVD.

[John Taylor]

Transferring the VHS to DVD will allow you to lift the image and transfer it to the Harrison of Anzani threads. Would be great! To me it is always a paradox when there were so many of the crescent shaped stacked engines around so few of the racers, the pitman and even their families took so few pictures because they were so busy racing them and helping others who were racing something else. In my home town (Selkirk) archives there are years worth of black and white negatives from Howard Robinson Photography who religiously year after year photoed the racing scene here from the 1950s into the mid 1960s that I am hoping to get into with a pair of silk gloves some time soon. I saw them once when I was around 20 when they were being transferred to secure storage and there were negatives into the hundreds of pictures of outboard racing then with everthing imaginable being run of which the Anzani and Harrisons were the easiest to pick out. Here is to luck into hoping we can all succeed into getting this history out and getting it into computer storage and then posted. :)

[John Taylor]

I have been examining a later model heavy duty Harrison crankshaft that is the version that is full circle and used Phelon points type flywheel ignition, aluminum flywheel with Harrison logo on rope plate with cast in magnets, Konig connecting rods with wide roller bearing top and bottom bearings. It is the same type installed in Roger Wendt's hybrid 2 carb Anzani. In Wendt's engine the Anzani crankscase was machined at the end caps to oversize to fit the bearings systems of this crankshaft that fit into the Phelon ignition system and on the bottom a special end cap was machined to replace the Anzani standard bottom endcap.

The Questions are? Was this crankshaft the first or second generation to machine fit specifically a Anzani crankcase before Harrison came out with their own crankcase? or was this a retrofit to the Anzani crankcases after Harrison had their own crankcase casting to also fit Harrison's own A or B Alky blocks?

I am trying to figure out where this crankshaft and ignition assembly fit into the scheme time order of things to be able to re-assemble a specific A or B Harrison using which crankcase and with how many carbs? I have no idea of how many Harrison A and B variants there were and how each may have looked or did look like other than the ones pictured in the thread now.

To make the confusion clear, Wendt's hybrid Anzani block spray painted aluminum to cover its cast iron resembles so closely a Harrison aluminum block in so many ways including its aluminum plugged and then machined round outer exhaust outlets when its assembled with that crankshaft, its Harrison elbos and then Harrison aluminum stacks and that ignition it would seem some one retroed an Anzani to look like a Harrison?

To make it more confusing I have NOS Anzani cast iron class A blocks that have original cast round exhaust ports (not rectangular as earlier version that required aluminum plugging to make square) that resemble Harrison but there is no way of telling if those Anzani class A blocks are older or newer than the rectangular cast in exhaust outlets that required the aluminum plugs to make them square or the Harrison A or B aluminum blocks! Its very much a situation of having parts but no date order of production and no pictures to make up engines that are copies of the variants running at that time when Anzani and Harrison were running together confusing people because they both had similar crescent shaped exhaust stacks systems. Confusing and confused? Yes, very!

[John Taylor]

Pictured here appears to be a class B Alky Harrison or Harrison/Anzani hybrid engined hydro at speed. The make of the hydro is unknown but it is a Region 10 USA Northwest raceboat. Close photo scrutiny of the engine shows the individual ignition coils clamped and mounted typically Harrison B block aluminum casting like right next to the sparkplugs. There are also 2 of the front mounted and spray shield covered Tillotson HL pumper carbs identified that were in addition to the block side mounted 3rd carb of this three carbed Harrison B class Alky engine.

[Prop Rider]

:)[/B]This Pictured here appears to be a class B Alky Harrison or Harrison/Anzani hybrid engined hydro at speed. The make of the hydro is unknown but it is a Region 10 USA Northwest raceboat. Close photo scrutiny of the engine shows the individual ignition coils clamped and mounted typically Harrison B block aluminum casting like right next to the sparkplugs. There are also 2 of the front mounted and spray shield covered Tillotson HL pumper carbs identified that were in addition to the block side mounted 3rd carb of this three carbed Harrison B class Alky engine.

[Prop Rider]

Sorry guys had some of your questions answered and about the time i was going to send it it went to never never land will try again tomorrow night.

Kay

[smittythewelder]

Buzz's boat was built by McDonald or MacDonald in Oregon, who also built one or two of the last Starflite Kilo boats, driven by Gerry Walin to set the X Outboard kilo record for OMC. Entrop designed those kilo boats, I believe.

There were local boat-builders all over who, like McDonald, didn't build in great numbers and maybe didn't get a lot of national recognition, but who are fondly remembered by the old guys in their region. Often their boats were fully competitive with the big name builders like Swift, Sid-Craft, Marchetti, DeSilva, Karelsen, Hedlund, Butz, and Craig-Craft. And it was always fun when a racer in your region showed up with one of these unfamiliar boats from somewhere else. Charleton was a builder in the Southeast, I believe, so when Bill and John Myers brought a Charleton hydro to Seattle, it got lots of attention (Bill, in his fifties at the time, about 1967, ran a deflector B Konig on it, which added to the wow-factor).

One hopes that in each case at least one example of the work of these local boat suppliers has survived and will be kept in good shape.

[John Taylor]

Gene Strain had a MacDonald and it was a real good handling hydro. His son, Billy demonstrated one of Gene's Anzanis by running it exhibition with the D Stock hydros where Billy just ran the outside of the course at high speed and lapped the whole field. Where they did 3 laps with the DSHs, Billy completed the 4th lap. He just kneeled sitting there on his heels bolt upright in the wind otherwise right up at the wheel and lapped them all. He looked like he was out for a Sunday drive. :)

[John Taylor]

This is what has to be found to be able to restore these engines, be they Harrison, Anzani or any other vintage racing engine. Sometimes it just plain luck that people put their hand up and say I got some of this stuff sitting there gathering dust. Who wants to acquire the stuff? One well known from the Midwest USA racer who got an Anzani 348 stock B racer managed to get new gearcase new shafts with gears to overhaul his back into running condition that way. There are numerous examples of this happening and I hope that continues. Its something that restorers and collectors can help each other out on to pool parts from time to time to restore vintage engines.

What I find worrisome to the sport if how much of this stuff has gone by the wayside by those at times inheriting old motors, thinking them junk and the parts ending up at metal recyclers getting melted down. In one case a few years ago in Chicago 2 complete Quincy 4 cylinder Flatheads ended up at a pawn shop where they were found and saved by pure accident where the buyer ended up with them becoming collectors pieces again with that new owner who appreciated them for what they were and then after shows them since to the public at events. That was pure luck all the way around.

[John Taylor]

This closeup shows just how tough Harrison built their tower and clamps tough for A and B class Alky engines. Unlike Anzani that used heavy cast iron blocks and very narrow clamping across the transom and snapping off or cracking their midesctions at the tower's neck flange at the crankcase bolt to tower section quite often Harrison (HRP) went heavier still on their designs irrespective with their engines being lighter on that overhang rearward side by using aluminum blocks with ferrous cylinder liners. You never heard of a Harrison ever having that cracking or breaking off problem Anzani did.

[John Taylor]

The march toward putting together an A and B Harrison is progressing through the accumulation of parts to make their assembly as accurrate as possible step by step is coming. Through some swapping I now have a Harrison transom clamp system though again it is somewhat different than what is already pictured so it might be a generation difference?? Not sure but things are coming. Hoping for more parts as we go along with these projects as these were pretty unique engines.

[John Taylor]

Talk about hands across the seas and names being intertwined with British outboard racing engines and their American cousins the following. - Just recently the dispersal of some part of the Harrison estate (they worked with British Anzani over in the UK and are related to the Harrisons in the USA?) engineering documents turned up concerning British Anzani racing outboards. With that also turned up a racing engine too that the new owner wants to restore and get running again. The only 2 people I know in the UK that are enthusiasts with these engines are Ron Champkin and Corin Huke. Where are you guys? The new enthusiast needs your expertise. Email me at - catwerx@hotmail.com for more details. :)

Nice to see that more of these engines are turning up! :)

[John Taylor]

There has not been much to post on this thread for a while other than the previous featuring of some of the Harrison A and B Alky parts. Sice those opening features some more parts have been obtained that will make at least the assembly of one engine, the class B nearly possible. That restoration will be featured in a staged process this spring hopefully with the second one shortly afterward. In the meantime if any readers know of any Harrison parts assemblies lying there loose that could assist in the assembly of another Harrison motor I would sure like to hear from you to that end.

If any one has some pictures of Harrison racing engines they could post on this thread, please do as there were variations of the same class engine be they As or Bs. :)

[John Taylor]

Question?

I just bought 2 Tillotson HL series carbs to make up a 3 carb Anzani, the 2 carbs are converted to Alky and were used on some alky racing Kart engine at one time. I have not asked Jim Hallum yet if the Tillotosn HLs used on his Anzani projects and seen on other Harrison engines are also Alky conversion carbs or just gasoline versions seeing that the main block carb was already Alky version? Was the Alky conversion on the 2 HLs necessary seeing the main carb was feeding alky for both cylinders anyway? Does anyone know off hand?

[John Taylor]

Anyone ever try to reed valve the main carb inlet on a Harrison or Anzani?

I broached the question if anyone had ever tried to reed valve an Anzani or Harrison's main block mounted carb with Jim Hallum? When expansion chambered exhausts were being tried way back then in the later 1960s the main carb spitout increased significantly as the pipes turned on bringing that experimentation to an end retaining the open pipes to get the records that resulted. That carb spitout demonstrated the supercharging effects of modern day pipes that without question put 2 stroke loop engines over the top on the horsepower they develop today. Anyone toy with those reed valves on these engines? There is little doubt they could have killed spitout and improved power then?

[John Taylor]

I was looking at the Harrison flywheel that covered the Phelon/Repco points, condenser and coil setup. The flywheel is of alumium casting that enclosed the steel hub core that had the keyway and taper machined in to fit the Harrison crankshaft that had the cam ground on to activate the points. Thw flywheel magnets were nicely cast on the perimeter of the flywheel itself on the outside rim. Does any reader know about who actually did the castings of these for Birmingham Metal products? And what variations they came in?

[Mark75H]

Was the Alky conversion on the 2 HLs necessary seeing the main carb was feeding alky for both cylinders anyway? Does anyone know off hand?

You don't have to do anything to an HL to switch it back and forth between gas and alcohol, just turn the hi and lo jet adjusting screws for proper mixture for the fuel running thru it. That's one of the beauties of the Tillotson diaphragm carb scheme.

Why don't you ask Kay Harrison himself about the casting?

[John Taylor]

The thing is that the Anzani/Harrison hybrid with 2 carbs here as well as the exploded remains of the 2 carb Anzani, here, both their Tillotson HLs are larger jet and jet pipette converted than the HL gas version I have since received but they (the enlarged jet versions) were parked adjacent the rotary valve opening window where the Harrisons in many pictures have theirs planted on reed blocks right on each crankcase half adjacent the crankshaft. What the Hallum versions of HLs I have yet to ask Jim Hallum. Makes you wonder which version of HL would be safest when you have Alky conversions already being used. Using gasoline jetted versions for show may be fine but for the odd go, I am reluctant.

When it comes to the Harrison aluminum & steel flywheels question, I have no way of knowing who is around reading when they are so I toss it out as a general inquiry to those who might or would know. If Kay Harrison is seeing this and answers the question, that would be first source. Tim Chance having access to Harrison company materials from Kay Harrison would be next and any old employees or racers who made or used Harrisons would be on down the line but if they are not on line like the rest I have to wait too, so that is wha

[John Taylor]

The only completely enclosed Harrison Flywheel Magneto ignition system (Repco-Phelon) I have ever seen to date is the version that was machined on to Roger Wendlt's (North West USA) B Alky engine which is a hybrid (Anzani (crankcase & block) (Vacturi (OMC) carb & Tillotson HL carb) -Harrison (crankshaft & rods & flywheel and ignition system) -Konig (gearcase) -Mercury (clamps & saddle)(steel stick tower) class B Alky 2 carb version he ran which is now a museum piece here. Its a nice tidy affair of an engine and on top not unlike a Merc's 20H but with aluminun castings in the flywheel, base plate, base plate cover collar that was screwed down once the flywheel was in place with its embosed Harrison ropeplate bolted on the aluminum lightweight flywheel.

This Phelon-Repco flwyheel magneto style Harrison system is the only one I have ever seen until some parts came in and now there is now here a complete second one, but from an A or B Harrison??? I don't have a clue or the vintage either for that matter but like the Wendt 2 carb hybrid it used the Harrison heavy duty crankshaft and it all fits down nicely on the end of the Harrison crank. The person I got the parts from does not have a clue as to what vintage or version (class) of Harrisons these parts came from. He got them some years ago at some swap and sell meet. Do you have some insight on what class and vintage of Harrison Alkys these nicely cast systems were used on??

I will shortly photo and post pictures to help out with the questions. :)

[John Taylor]

Some pictures of very recently acquired Harrison Class A - B Alky parts. I have no idea of the vintages of any of them. From what I see there is still the use of an Anzani crankcase it all bolts up to though the crankcase is machined out to fit a model of Harrison crankshaft to go with the aluminum light weight flywheel and flywheel magneto ignition system which uses Repco/Phelon components/parts. Kay Harrison, you looking? Anyone else have any info on the vintages of these components?

[John Taylor]

Some more parts pictures.

[John Taylor]

We got out first spring rain from a very relatively not much snow winter and we got our first spring rain today. I was going to do a picture shoot on Harrison pistons and variants but due to the rain will put it off for a couple. Harrison was long making pistons for Anzanis and then they made their unique differences for their own. Seems that the Harrisons advanced porting systems made differences to how the ring design and positioning decisions were made that mde differences in terms of how the crown contolled port timing. Pictures coming as soon as the sun arrives shortly. :)

[Mark40H]

John; Just got a new Antique Outboard news letter. Guy has B Anzani pistons, rings and wrist pins for sale. Thought you might be interested phone number is 631-754-2763.

[John Taylor]

Thank you Mark 40H. :)

I will call and also spread to the news to the other Anzani restorers I know too. Its great to be able to pool parts and information when its available.

[John Taylor]

As many readers know Harrison HRP - Birmingham Metal Products was making Anzani replacement parts for Anzani engines already as Anzani was already phasing out of production itself that eventually led to the making of the "all American" Harrison Alky racing engines for the North American market. That included pistons, rings, aluminum exhaust elbs etc.

During this time of transition where Anzani declined and Harrison took over there was the era of the Anzani/Harrison hybrids. Pistons for Anzanis becoming scarce found Harrison/HRP/Lodite aftermarket pistons in Anzani A and B Alky engines. All Harrison pistons as were Anzani made from aluminum castings of what was then considered good "piston grade" aluminum alloys. To date I have yet to see and even hear about any diecast aluminum pistons for these engines though all the major motor manufacturers for the consumers market was making diecast pistons for some time.

During this same period of Anzani decline, transitions and hybrids piston ring development went hand in hand in terms of numbers, types of and even ring placements on the pistons. In the end of that development cycle for both makes of these first cousins of engines the single ring type pistons came about finally for both of Harrison and Anzani. Harrison's final ring design on the piston was a single rectangular ring one rings thickness distant from the piston crown proper leaving the aluminum crown sides to control port timing. Anzani on the other side went with the single "Dykes" L type ring where the top edge of the ring was at piston crown height leaving the ring as the controller of the engines porting. In both styles wear and tear dictated how good the port timing stayed accurate. Each had its following and in many cases many drivers used many of the varied number and styles of rings through the full use of the engines until they were themselves no longer competitive in racing due to obsolesence.

The following pictures show how some Harrison/HRP/Lodite pistons appeared through their history and they were many and varied just as the Anzanis. were.

[John Taylor]

During the transition period where Anzani parts were running down, Harrison was making aftermarket substitution parts for Anzani and for the Harrison which became more a Harrison hybrid and then became the "all American" Harrison as the Anzani parts ran down and no replacements of any sort were to be had.

During this hybrid or transitional period (mid 1960s) Vacturi carbs were used almost exclusively on the hybrid engines along with the Tillotson HLs where multi-carb setups were running. It was during this period that saw the introduction of the rotary barrel carbs on Konigs. They were a very simple and reliable carb that dispensed with the use of any butterflys given that the rotary inner barrel did the whole job. There was a singular high speed jet with a singular high speed needle right under the jet within the rotary barrel. Hybrids and later models no longer used the DelOrto remote fuel bowl to imitate a gravity feed tank required by Vacturis that still used floats within their fuel bowls. This Harrison rotary barrel carb had 1/4 the parts in use of the average Vacturi AO500 and weighed 1/2 as much overall taking some more overhanging weight off the engine that had the same looking exhaust systems of Anzanis taking some more strain off the aluminum towers used to support the engine.

The following are multi-angled pictures of this remarkably simple and reliable rotary barrel carb that Harrisons used.

[John Taylor]

2 More Harrison rotary barrel carb pictures.

[Mark75H]

Awesome!

[John Taylor]

Thanks. There is so much more to come for the Harrisons yet. That is pretty much realized when you sit down with the parts, look at some fuzzy and some better pictures to try to make decisions on how to duplicate a hybrid you are trying to visualize through all this realizing there are never going to be enough parts to make a strictly Harrison engine. :)

[Gstillwill]

John heres a listing on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Johnson-Evinrude-Harrison-Outboard-Racing-Mercury-Clamp_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ111122QQihZ009QQi temZ190223631370QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

[John Taylor]

Thanks for the heads up. :)

[John Taylor]

When one compares Harrison crankshafts to it's cousin the British Anzani all one has to do is compare the bearings it ran on both on top and bottom and that tells the story entirely. In the pictures everything large is Harrison A and B Alky where everything smaller is its older cousin, the A & B Stock Racing and Alky racing Anzanis.

[chip keeling]

Hello, I found your site looking for info on my Harrison, its not an A-B like yours I think its a C class.It's numbers on the cylinders are VC 67140.....And C 269. I really enjoyed the info you have up here. I live in ohio, not that far from Birmingham.I'm gonna try to put some pics up,it turns over nice, but just missing alot of pieces. Ok thanks for any info...Chip,AOMC member.

[Mark75H]

Chip, those are Harrison clamps, but the motor is a Konig 500cc racer ... "VC 67140" the 140th 500cc V series Konig, made in 1967.

I'm pretty sure this was one of the first rotary valve Konig opposed 4's

[Tim Chance]

Chip, those are Harrison clamps, but the motor is a Konig 500cc racer ... "VC 67140" the 140th 500cc V series Konig, made in 1967.

I'm pretty sure this was one of the first rotary valve Konig opposed 4's

Sam is 100% correct. How do I know? I had one. Also notice that this early rotary valve motor has the same style heads as the 4-carb piston port model (had one of those too) and has six volt ignition.

[John Taylor]

The pictures just go to show you how far a racer will go to use HRP racing products. A Konig piston port engine on the Harrison HRP tower/clamps. That is another example of the inventiveness in Pro - Alky racing. :)

[Mark75H]

Konig piston port engine on the Harrison HRP tower/clamps.

This is a rotary valve motor

[John Taylor]

I think I needed more coffee to wake up on that one. Missed the carbs and belt driven rotary valve entirely!!

[chip keeling]

Thanks for the info guys, at least now I know what I'm dealing with here..... OH and to think, the guy I got this from was gonna cut it up for a bike engine! (or so he thought) Good luck with all your projects. Thanks,Chip.....

[Mark75H]

It wouldn't be the first Konig that became a bike motor ... Konig actually had a version that was built with that in mind.

[F-12]

Not only a very FAST road raing motorcycle...........an amazingly unstable midget race car also had one of the Konigs in it. Walt Blankenstine was working on the car while I was working for him. I think it was a 700 powerhead.............and from what I heard was an animal.

[John Taylor]

Chip: If your ever going to make it an all Konig racing engine and shed the Harrison tower and clamps to do so, please remember there are those of us out there restoring Harrison 250 and 350 engines who would want that tower not to disappear so we could use it to restore another Harrison. Drop me an email - catwerx@hotmail.com - if that ever is going to be your future intention.

[John Taylor]

Back in the 1960s when the odd Harrison would turn up at racers up this way they had the Tillotson carbs but I can not recall ever seeing a Harrison sporting a Vacturi AO500 carb like Anzanis used. Did that ever happen? or Was it always Tillotson singles, then twin Tillotsons and finally the 3 pack where there was 2 Tillotsons on the front on the crankcase and a Konig type rotary barrel carb on the side of the engine block?

[John Taylor]

Finally I am at the point where mockup of a Harrison class B Alky is about to make the transition to an actual working Harrison B class "HRP" racing outboard powerhead. To that end a pictorial would be appropriate to show just how these great 2 cylinder outboards probably went together. Though not complex and individually made, these motors were precision from the getgo as there is no way one engines parts would fit another without some significant re-adjustment or re-machining. That feature was really no different than what was going on with most racing engines of the period as well. Lots of innovation and lots tinkering that got spectacular results at times. :)

[John Taylor]

I am about to push a liner into the aluminum cylinder of one Harrison. What has me bugged is the exhaust port machining. Its major top part of the port is flat but going to the exhaust port splitting bridge both sides are irregular and even jagged that also leaves 2 different port widths. Does anyone know if the final porting was done by Harrison or was finish porting left to the engine's owner? The cylinder that is still in looks great, evenly machined but clearly the liner that was taken out was the one that was in there but in no way resembles the machining at the exhaust port of the liner still in. Were they all machined ports wise with the cylinder liners in or out? Does it matter if the ports are matched with one liner out duplicating the other before setting it in?

[John Taylor]

While doing the A and B Alky Harrison blocks today, they used tremedous head bolting in terms of size and thread type. Six headbolts on the A head and ten headbolts on the B head. Then when I got to the transfer ports covers on both blocks they were simply corner bolted at their extreme transfer port cover corners in each blocks case with one - quarter inch bolt per corner with nothing in between to hold the middle down from either side. That is about a 6 inch expanse per transfer cover with nothing holding the covers down in between. That would be going from 4 bolts per cover to 6 or better at 8 which is the number Anzani used per side. Clearly these two different classed Harrisons that used Anzani front crankcase assemblies with crank but different ignitions and were run without apparent air leakage but how well is not apparent, there is general wear but no exceptional damage to either.

In the 1960s when I saw my first Harrisons and there were few maybe two or three per race meet comparing to the Anzanis which were into the dozens, these early Harrisons were problematic when they did run with the odd one in class A or B Alky went fast and won. None of them at the time used more than one carb on the side of the block similar to the Anzani. At that time I had no idea they were kissing cousin engines, that enlightenment happened right here on BRF in the past couple of years. :)

I am gearing up for assembly pictures as soon as machining and parts washing post pre-assembly is over. Even as mixed Harrisons are in their early forms with Anzani parts one thing that is immediate is the weight. The Harrison blocks are aluminum alloy with ferrous liners, the Anzani blocks are dead weight cast iron. The Anzanis could handle large percentage nitro loads in the methanol fuel mix, what Harrisons were mixed out to is a good question but it was well known that aluminum blocks with ferrous liners could not do the same thing for too long.

[John Taylor]

I have the Lodite cast HRP (Harrison Racing Products) pistons in one box and the other box has factory issued British Anzani pistons. British Anzani factory pistons fit Harrisons and visa versa.

When I opened both boxes they both contained 1, 2 and 3 ring pistons. Some are narrow specialized rings, some are single L (Dykes rings)ring , some are rectangular standard shaped ringed crowned with a single L ring, some are single rectangular ringed. They are all over the map in terms of rings.

When it came to transfer windows on the skirts, none were opened up as large as the crankcase picture you supplied in here but some did open these windows just a little bit taller but not much.

When it came to skirt knotching at the carb to crankcase intake port to create intake overlap, increase power and cut back air/fuel pulsing blowback through the carb. The other box produced 250CC knotched pistons that went from 50 thousands of an inch cut back to 3/8ths of an inch. It was also the case with the 322CC piston sets.

Where pistons were not knotched back at the skirts, the North Wester USA developers drilled 2 to 4 boost ports above the rectangular transfer ports windows to get an extra puff of air/fuel timed higher and from their wear and tear they must have worked.

The only ring problems that seemed to present themselves were the single L (Dykes) ring pistons on single ring pistons. If the exhaust ports radius became sharp again during use the ring would snag and spit the fragment out the exhaust port usually damaging the piston's only ring grove. The L ring are made of metal softer than the cylinder wall so at the exhaust port generally there was little if at all damage and would require re-radiusing anyway when another piston with ring was installled.

There are 2 interesting 250CC pistons where they used to run 1 - L ring and 2 standard rings below but they removed the 2 bottom rings and cut ports in each side like you find in Quincy Flathead pistons. That too must have worked as both pistons saw lots of wear this way setup

The following pictures illustrate all the aforementioned things they did going away from an original Anzani or HRP Harrison piston. There is one cutaway piston I received from a reader that shows a good cross section of what an Anzani piston was about, the Harrison is not really any different. All the castings from Harrison or Anzani are first rate, carefully done and finish machined. evidence shows from piston skirt trimming different weights were tried in pairs matched and piston weights vary all over the place in pairs.

E