My thoughts on the R-11 plug
This plug (and three others I have) are spares that my Dad had
for his Johnson PR race motors.
The more common plug used in the PR was the R-1
The R-11 was one heat range colder than the R-1. Fact it was the coldest racing plug Champion made.
The replacements for these plugs were the K series. They were the same heat range, but could not be dis assembled.
K58R = R-1
K55R = R-11
The K58R was the plug recommended for the early Champion Hot Rod's.
Ron:
I can't be sure of this but I think after the war Champion did not make any more take apart plugs.
I remember my Dad having lots of R-1 plugs that were take apart and also crimped.
Apparently Champion had lots of race plugs left from before the war.
But the war stopped most racing, so they put the left overs back on the market after the war.
Although I'm not sure, I think the K racing series that replaced the R series, came along in 1950 or 51
The fact that the plug came apart had nothing to do with heat range.
My guess is that they were made that way prior to engineers figuring out some way to crimp them without cracking the porcelain.
I still have my old Champion gap tool for setting the gap on those internally grounded plugs. Without the tool you couldn't do it.
As a side note my first Yamaha GP race bikes were still using internal
ground pins into the 70's. Most common race plug was the E54R.
A 14mm long reach plug.
Ah, the good old days! I never paid for a Champion racing plug in my
life. They gave them to us. They attended all the national races in the
seventies.
Then things started changing and "exotic" became the buzzword. Platinum -- Chromium -- most likely even "cryptionite", although I never had one of those! hehe
My last modern GP roadracer was a Honda RS 250R, 2000 model.
It was "state of the art", and so were the plugs.
They were custom made for Honda by NGK. They were stamped
NGKRS10.5. And they cost $55 bucks each -- and that's if you got
the discount. Retail was 95 bucks!!:eek:
Geo
1 Attachment(s)
My Home Built AU/BU runabout
More adventures from my "misspent youth"!! :)
12/13/10
I was going through all the pictures in the Harrison CD that James Gardner sent me a while back.
The first time I went through these pictures I spotted it – and was pretty sure it was Chris Erneston’s boat. Now, with a second look, I’m positive it is!
He was one of the top guys in AU and BU back in the early 50’s in Fla. As I recall, he raced out of the WPB area.
He built the boat himself. And he also built one for Jack Sellers, a racer from Tampa.
I knew Jack quite well and he let me measure up his boat. And I built one for myself. It was FAST. But not so good in windy conditions. That was my fault as I managed to get a bit of a rocker in the last couple of feet of the bottom. So it tended to ride real high!
It worked well with my KG4H, but not so well when I got my Mk20H.
I did a bit of swimming when I tried to run my 20H on it!
I ended up fixing the bottom and sold it to a local racer from my area. He had good luck with it until he made a trip to a race and didn’t tie it down properly on his trailer.
He was following me up to Lake Haar in Georgia for a race. And I remember noticing in my rear view mirror that it seemed to be a bit unstable. Before I could warn him, it did a back flip off the trailer and landed on the road nose first.
It split wide open right down the middle into a couple of pieces and went flying off the road. Luckily it missed the car that was following him.
Of course, there was not chance to repair the boat. Way too many pieces ! We never even found them all! :D
George