British Anzani A & B Stock & Alky Racing Engines

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Of all things awful in this world of boat racing is an ignition system that refuses to work consistently to keep the power on! Ever hear of the term known to many of the British engine enthusiasts as "Lucas, That Prince of Darkness"? They most surely are referring to Lucas electronics of that era where simple was made complex and there was no guarantee after it was together your would even get a jolt! On the British Anzani its Funny how it looks like a Fairbanks Morse FM magnetos found on early Merc Mark 55s and Mark 30s! Even the FM discharge coil drops right in and bolts down too!! and improves the Lucas the first time you fire it! I am always on the search for Lucas magnetos, so from this picture of what I received it isn't any wonder why he gave up, put it away and only remembered something when some one spoke of some eccentric looking for something Lucas that didn't work. The picture is what I got...........and they put that on a race engine??? Give me an old USA built FM anytime!

[Mark75H]

John, could I get you to redo one of the pictures? I think one of the crankcase halves is upside down. I think the best representation would be as on the right side of this ... showing the passages to the rotor inlet next to each other.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

I never gave it a thought as to crankcase orientation so proper perspective was assumed on the part of the viewer by me in error. Given nice light conditions in the morning as this gnome does not wish to awaken sleepers too early in the house, on a Saturday morning, I will be out in the garage workshop early after first light to get some more pictures done on things including your request before they nab me to do something cultured like having coffee!!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Lucas magneto ignitions were a troublesome lot as a whole so some one got real enterprising out in the North West and with Roger Wendt's Anzani "cross" some carefull remachining was done to add on the Harrison basis platform for lighter weight ignition. The case was a water spray resistant clam shell kind of housing that sported an aluminum lightweight flywheel with the cast in flywheel magnets and cast in crankshaft core adapter with crankshaft key spline, a Harrison lettered flywheel on top and all Phelon ignition with 20H type points and condenser systems to fire 2 cy;inders underneath. Good setup? You bet! Consistently reliable, that could fire the 40% nitro in methanol mixes the engine would be called upon to use. Not bad, considering it was not a CD system but it could still burn water by any standard and get the job done. Some components are featured in the next pictures.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Sam-75H requested I repost or in this case add to the posts on crankcases used on Anzanis. There was the single carb version that was unbelievably strong running by itself. Then up in the Nrotwest, Sutter, Anderson and Hallum started adding carbs too who was also joined by Bill Tenney too in these mutliple carb adventures that went from one, to two, to 4 and to 6 carbs even feeding 2 cylinders. The most successful Anzanis or which a picture here mounted on a Karlesen hydro is representative of the 4 carb. Bill Tenney was the first to hit the century mark of just over 100 miles per hour iby 1981 and then followed by others running 103 to 107 miles per hour and these hulls were not all pickelfork hydros at this point!

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

These next pictures should help complete the orientation to the differences between a Stock gas/alky crankcase with 1 carb, a Vacturi and then adding the single small barrel HL Series self pumping Tillotson carb on the crankcase directly opposite and in line with the rotary valve inlet face itself. At this point the engine was breathing through dual piston ports on the castiron block being fed air/fuel by the Vacturi and in front of that the HL carb augmented the Vacturi's split stream with its own stream at the face of crank rotary. A very compact an arrangement with excellent results.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

In the old NOA (National Outboard Association) there was room for quite some individualism when it came to Alky classes and engines. Not happy with one powerhead powering up tower and gearcase, Bill Tenney was one of the first or was the first to have a dual powerhead methanol/ntiro burning dual complete engines coupled to one coupler transmission, stacked on one Anzani tower housing, driving a single gearcase with a singular prop. You started one engine with a rope, in effect you started both! Not only was these 2 - 15 cubic inch A Alky motors together to make a dual C Alky engine they had the engines facing opposite and across from each other and had bell exhausts both behing and a second set 90 degrees to those too and the sound was said to be incredible, along with the back breaking weight of the motor and it was real fast! At some point in time Bill Tenney had a minor garage fire hot enough to melt some metals but some couplers survived, some were not so fortunate. 2 however are excellent so I pictured the after garage fire one, the other is appart and being polished to recreate the engine as a dual for later postings.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

The following pictures are that of two carbs for an Anzani dual carb setup that were assembled for use, but never got there to fruitition. The smaller carb is a Tillotson "HL" series self pumping floatless carb with full adjustable jetting to sit on the crankase outside directly opposite the crank rotary valve opening. The larger, A Tillotson "HD" sitting on the cast iron blocks opposite the piston ports and separate rotary valve tunnel had to use a separate pump OMC fuel pump assisted floatless setup with a return to the fuel tank but accellorator pump added the high speed jet circuit to assist in dealing with wide open carb requests that would cause some flatspotting, would be eliminated. Both carbs are jetted to run Methanol based fuels. Both had extended velocity stacks to deal with ram effects. Interesting carb setup that weighed less than the Vacturi and did away with some more of its potential problems???

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

With out a doubt these were and to some, still are one of the most inovative racing gearcases ever desgined and built.

The casting itself was one piece by all accounts and then they sliced off the skeg and nose cone/wedge as one piece and machined its innards upward to the driveshaft stub that used fully sealed and bearing-ed one piece driveshaft and gear setip. Then they machined the remaining part of the large housing to locate a bearing carrier and seal system to carry the propshaft assembly which was also one piece with shaft and gear same as the driveshaft. Micrometer setting of gear lash from above and behind each gearhead on its shaft was sooo easy this way, there was nothing blind in doing so. So what about the one piece cut off nose/wedge cone and attached sked? They trued up the cut off sections and located a dowl pin and an Allen screw tightening setup to mount it back on using a good non hardening aeromotive glue at the long joint for water proofing and she was complete. One major difference with this gearcase you don't find on others is that she was and still is the most slimline gearcase ever built and she wore well when burning heavy methanol and nitro loads on the Anzanis, so where was the oil to keep her lubed??? It was part of the casting to build a resevoir as part of the casting that circulated the oil to the components and around again because the the extreme tight fit, and it worked very well. It lubed everything completely so all you did was drain her after a meet and refill her. Reports of water leaks were supposedly NIL as there was ram feed incorporated that was sealed secure, there were no pumps involved here.

Quite and still is a marvellous and streamlined gearcase.

[smittythewelder]

Whoa, John, up above you state that Bill Tenny was "the first to hit the century mark, in 1981." Actually, Gerry "Fantum" Walin did it about ten years earlier with a Hallum-built B Anzani on a Karelsen hydro, the exact outfit you have in a color photo a few pages back. Walin/Hallum had taken the B kilo record at least a couple of times in the late '60s in the high 80 and low 90mph range. In 1970, a Japanese team working for Fuji (one of the companies that built engines for the gambling races, and which might have been absorbed by World Outboard/Yamato) put the record up to about 98mph.
I think it was '71 that Walin got the 100mph record. This was a marvel at the time, getting into the 100mph Club with a little BOH at a time when the C and DOH records were still in the low 90s, and it was a few years more before the C and D records went above 100mph. By that time, Walin had made his last attempt with a B Anzani, running 106 one-way, but sticking a piston on the return run. I wonder what they could have done with today's props.