Looper "C"

[Ron Hill]

The only Quincy Looper picture I have is this one. This is Freddy Hauenstein's BRAND NEW one, first one from Quincy...Small pipes, Lon Stevens Crank Plate, I think... Lon Stevens mid section (Merc, modified by Lon, Eldridge gearcase... New DeSilva....Summer of 1965...


Bakersfield, California...Jimbo McConnell's trailer in the background...

When I was in Kingsburg, seeing Freddy last month, the rope starter plate and heads for this engine were in a box...along with, I think, the rest of the motor....

[Ron Hill]

Out "WEST" most of us used Lon Stevens mid sections... Who made these "Hell for Stout" pipe mid sections???

Also, do you mean this was Quincy's last DeSilva, as Ralph built Johnny Woods a new 13', Y-100, last year....

Is that a Byer's mid section?? That name "POPS UP" but????

Cool picture...but, notice Freddy's crank plate, having a "GROOVE" and Quincy only having a top on the crank plate....Both worked, but one was West Coast, as my dad made many like LON'S blue anodized, anodizing was "HIGH DOLLAR"...and Quincy's were Mid West....

ADD: West Coast seemed to use Fairbanks mags, mid west used Mercury's mags...Funny, as my dad only liked the Fairbanks mags...Berghauer and that group of Stockers, like Merc's... I see this one had a Merc mag...

I do know that my dad made a centering device for the end cap, so the rotor was in the exact middle, and he would go through 15-20 coils before he found one he liked..He had made a pulley for his table saw and would turn those mags 12,000 RPM's and he'd run them for about 15 minutes with a 1/2 gap on the plugs.... When he found a coil he liked.....they'd run a30-h, 55-H or a Quincy any RPM you wanted...

[Steve Crabtree]

Ron,

I believe Arties C Looper is restored to oringinal condition. That would make everything Quiny built except for the Konig foot, Mercury crankcase cover, ignition and innards. The midsection does look like a Quincy pipe down housing. Quincy made two crank plates, the tall small diameter one thats on the C Looper in the picture and a short large diameter one. I was told that the smaller one would crank the engine faster and the larger one would crank the engine slower but provide more torque for larger bore high compression engines.

[Mark40H]

The old C Looper is indeed a Quincy Looper. I got the motor from a guy named John Fitzpatrick over by Cleveland, OH. This motor is Number 89 of only about 115 C Loopers built. Don't quote me on this production number. But I do know there were not as many C Loopers built as there were other class motors. He told me that he had this motor built in 1968. He told me that during the build he spoke with Jim Schoch on the phone many times about it and that he only spoke with O.F. Christner once.

The tower housing was only 9" long when I got it. He told me the tower was built at Kay Harrison's shop. The lower unit is a 1 to 1 Konig and had a nice Floyd Hopkins prop on it.

The old motor originally had Mercury Thunderbolt electronic ignition on it. It was in pieces when I brought it home. The distributor had a broken rotor in it. Due to the cost of these parts I decided to put a mag on it.

It was also missing a piston. After a lot of looking I called Paul Christner and he told me that Ted Miller in Florida had a piston for it. I called Ted and got the piston. A trip to Jack Kugler's shop and I found 4 new L rings for it.

After a lot of cleaning I took the motor to Mark Hummelshein, a former employee of Quincy Welding, who put it back together for me. The old girl is not competitive any more but she still runs pretty good.

As for the DeSilva boat, it is not the last boat built by DeSilva. It is a 1979 KR Model, 13' long with a 24" bottom. As far as I know, it is the last DeSilva boat that was sold at Quincy Welding. It was bought new there by Denny Fish.

I was going to post two pictures of the motor in parts when I brought it home. We have had trouble in the past and are still having trouble posting pictures. I am logged in - otherwise I doubt that I would be able to post a reply. When I up load the pictures, I get a message telling me I am not logged in, so I log in and try to upload again. This becomes an unending loop. So I am posting the message only.

[Mark75H]

When you log in be sure to click the "Remember Me" button, otherwise your computer receives a "cookie" that has a very short expiration time.

Clicking "Remember Me" before you click "Log In" gives you a cookie that should last your entire session on BRF.

Let me know if you do this and still have trouble.

[Ron Hill]

From your "Studies" have you ever seen a Quincy crank plate anaodized blue???

I really think, every one that is BLUE is a LON STEVENS...

My dad's crank plates, were a hair larger, with Russ Hill stamped on top, like the one (44 MERC) somebody bought on E-bAY, AND ALL MY DAD'S WERE POLISHED....He figured that aluminum wasn't that heavy, and he like high compression....So, a bigger crank plate made starting the motor easier...

Funny, my dad anodized a lot of parts, as there was an anodize shop on Susan Avenue, where Mercury Marine had their distributorship....but he didn't like that the anodize came off when roping the motor, so he polished his crank plates....

[Original Looper 1]

These pictures are of the original, prototype, patented #1 Looper cylinder that my dad, O. F. Christner, made at the Quincy Welding shop at 5th & State in Quincy, IL. I believe it was in the fall of 1964. The engine is a B- 350 cc. Yes, I still have the cylinder in my personal collection.

I remember the trip to Washington, DC in 1963 with my dad to meet with the patent attorney at a huge law firm there about the Looper patent. It really impressed me at the time. On the way back, we stopped to change planes at Chicago. During the layover, at 3:00 am, we saw a bunch of bright lights down the terminal from us and we went to investigate. It was Richard Nixon, giving an interview to the media. Due to the early hour, there were few people there and Dad and I got to meet Richard Nixon and shake hands with him. All in all, it was a very exciting trip that I'll never forget.

I also have the Quincy Welding/ Precision Machine original (and only) serial number log book containing every Quincy Welding/ Precision Machine engine from 1950 till the shop closed in 1984. The log book information includes who the original purchaser was of each Quincy Merc, Looper and R&D engine. It also includes some famous named owners such as Marshall Grant, Gerry Waldman, Jerry Siminson, John Woods and many others.

Enjoy the pictures!

Paul A Christner

[Mark40H]

The following photos show my C Looper in parts as I took it to Mark Hummelsheim for assembly.

[Mark40H]

Thanks, Sam, for your hint on how to post the photos. "Remember Me" did the trick.

[Mark75H]

6 Pages

[David Mason]

Now that is some history there. I never knew there was a patent for Quicny !! I bet they had a heck of a time explaining that one to the patent office !!