Allite more on Lowere units
Well I decided to do a little more looking into the lower units on my engines. The early 25SS engine I have has the classic deep skeg lower unit. This engine has the square exhaust opening in the tower housing. The later 25SS has the short skeg with the single water inlet hole and an exhaust snout that is round. My early 25XS has the exact same tower housing and foot while the late mode 25XS has the very short tower and the lost foam foot. I guess the lost foam unit is a result of the tooling to make the classic die cast items to be either worn out or scrapped in a cleanup. I can take some photos if anyone would like.
Alan
Thanks for the Picture of the Gold Long Skeg Foot
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MTECHMARINE
This 20h has a very small "1956" steel stamped between the model and serial number on the id plate.
Serial number 790039
pretty sure it has the original gearcase. :D
The only long skeg 20-H foot I ever saw was just like the one posted in MTECHMARINE picture. That was just like I remembered it. We sanded the gold paint off and painted is 30-H.
That 1956 stamp gives me thoughts....the first 20-H I ever saw was Stu Down's 20-H and we took it to Pep Hubbell and ran it on the dyno. That was in the spring of 1954 I was 10.
By 1956 wasn't the Hot Rod beating the 20-H all to hell??
Thanks for all the great posts!
20H in marathons against hotrods
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mark75H
There were so many more 20H's than new Hot Rods set up with championship proficiency that at most you could say they were competitive. By 1957 the top Hot Rod drivers were getting things dialed in, but still, the sales numbers were low. At many races there just weren't any new Hot Rods showing up and the 20H generally ruled over KG7H's, Martin racers & older Hot Rod B's. At the big races in '57 & '58, well set up Hot Rods started handing Mercs their butts ... and Charlie and Edgar went to work.
By the time the conversion kits were delivered to market, the overall Champion Hot Rod Outboard company had folded ... no new motors were being sold; the inventory was boxed up on railcars to clear the buildings and property for bankruptcy sale. It sat on those railcars on an unused rail siding until it was rescued by Swanson and he assembled motors from previously manufactured parts from those railcars in the early '60's.
The 20H was a better choice in the marathons. The hotrods suffered in its early stage due to limited choices on props. Prop pin was in different place than mercs.
The 20H showed its worth as a marathon engine but suffered with a high gear ratio in short coarse against the hotrod and was shy by a horsepower or so.
Changiing Times: KG-7. Mark 20-H Then the Hot Rod
My dad had "JUMPED" on being a Mercury dealer in 1949-50. When the Hot Rod appeared being a dealer seems to make sense. Problem was times they were a changing. People in California were having great fun racing their little Mercury motors (Damn Mercuries to the "Alky" racer.)
Let's say SoCal had 25 BU's with KG-7's. When the 20-H came out we dropped to 12 BU's. When the Hot Rod came out we dropped to 6 BU's.
A Champion Hot Rod weighed 43 pounds. They sold for $430 or ten buck a pound. Buck Parrish who was a Bakersfield cotton farmer/oil man, called the Hot Rod a "TIN CAN MONSTER" as you need four engines to run a weekend race in BU and BSH.
The expense and the cost of rebuilding the Hot Rod basically killed B Racing in SoCal.
Johnny Alden in Oakland, California modified the Hot Rod and made it go faster than anyone would believe, then Harry Bartolomei moded them and made them faster. But the John Q. Public had given up on them...
By the time the 20-H Kit came alone the Hot Rod waws in complete pieces....but opened the exhaust on a Rod 1960 at Beloit proved the Hot Rod could beat the 20-H if someone allowed them "OPEN EXHAUST"...Seems either John Van Epps or Roger Stearman "SMOKED" the 20-H's for a few laps...then pulled off.
Stock Outboard racing was in a "TAIL SPIN" but 1960 of which they have never recovered.