An Amazing Story

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Hey folks...Bill Van was the original Mr. NAFTA. He had an idea of mass producing good hydros very cheaply in Mexico across the river from Rio Grande City. The idea was an inexpensive way for beginners to get into pro racing with a hydro and Yamato. It was all coming together when Bill Van figured out the drug smugglers thought a hydro might be a good way to move some goods. Bill Van never cleared a fence quicker than that. We also had a project going down there at that time with Ray Hardy and it cost us a bundle. Between politics and drug smugglers, the border area is a very bad place for outsiders to do business. I don't know how much Bill Van lost, but with us it was around 600K and 4 years wasted.

Bill, I didn't realize that the idea came from you, but the fact that it was thought out because the ZAK pipes wouldn't slide makes sense. As far as I know then, only you, ZAK, Ray, Tim, Jack Chance, me and my Dad ever messed with one. The first three generations were very erratic like you said. I don't know if you ran a fourth generation. Ray did a major design change and it eliminated so many of the variables that could cause it to malfunction. Then it was just a matter of getting the balance right and which rotary valve to use.

And you're right about my Dad's kitchen. That was the focal point of his home. He didn't have any plans when he built it. He stood on top of the caliche hill overlooking the race course and figured out where he wanted the kitchen. Then he took a stick and drew the rest of the house around it for the builder to see where to put the stakes. The two main bedrooms entered directly into the kitchen as well as the living room and bar areas. When Hurricane Celia blew the house down, the contractor was able to put everything back together except the roof. Because there were no plans, they could not figure out how the builders did the original roofline. The way they figured it out was I blew up some aerials I had taken of the original house.

There have been so many racers at our house I once thought of putting together a list, but I don't know if I could remember all of them. They were from Australia to Germany and Canada, Seattle to Lakeland, Bakersfield to Ohio and all points in between. I cherish the times you, Eileen and others spent with us. If I could remember the recipes, I would start a thread on Baldy's House with some pics and stories. There are many, many members here on BRF that my Dad entertained there.

[ProHydroRacer]

"Bill, I didn't realize that the idea came from you, but the fact that it was thought out because the ZAK pipes wouldn't slide makes sense. As far as I know then, only you, ZAK, Ray, Tim, Jack Chance, me and my Dad ever messed with one. The first three generations were very erratic like you said. I don't know if you ran a fourth generation. Ray did a major design change and it eliminated so many of the variables that could cause it to malfunction. Then it was just a matter of getting the balance right and which rotary valve to use."

Count me in, I had one of those super dupper do-fram-us too! My first one that Ray made for me and I ran for a year or so actually was sent to ZAK (because he didn't have time to make another one)to send to your Dad for an upcoming important race. It took Zak 6 months to make me a replacement then he charged me for it. Go figure.

Bill
ProHydroRacer

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Wow, Bill! I thought we really held that one close to our vest. I bet maybe Bob Rhoades might have had one too. Although, the guys mentioned are all mostly midwest with close friendship with Ray. Do you remember what year you were talking about when you sent yours to Harry?

[ProHydroRacer]

Wow, Bill! I thought we really held that one close to our vest. I bet maybe Bob Rhoades might have had one too. Although, the guys mentioned are all mostly midwest with close friendship with Ray. Do you remember what year you were talking about when you sent yours to Harry?

Ray, made mine before his disparture from the Mid-west. I quess I had the "do-fram-us" for another year. Ray was in Texas by then. I got a call from ZAK one very late night asking that I ship him my "do-fram-us". It was before a worlds or national event don't remember.

Rhoades MAY have had one too. Harry had said Rhoades and my engine where the same (but what I didn't know at the time, that Rhoades was also running nitrous oxide as well as a few other of our highly reguared racers) Of course Rhoades engine developed way more acceration than mine.

One team had the nitrous tank inside the fuel tank and they had to change the tank every heat.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I didn't know Bob ran nitrous. He DID have good acceleration coming off the corners. I didn't know about the others either. AND I didn't know we got one of your Do Fram usis. Sounds kind of Chicken you know what. I hope it didn't mess you up Bill. Looking back at my test book, I am kind of remembering some stuff.

After Ray sold his hard chrome plant in Chicago and got a divorce, he came down to Texas to help us put our business plan together for a hazardous waste disposal facility, then manage it. He worked days at our machine shop at Alice Specialty and spent many nights past midnight at my Dad's working on the plan. That machine shop is where he built and improved the Do Fram Us.

According to my test sheet, our original was built by Larry Haufler, a machinist in Corpus Christi, and pit man of Steve Jones. So Steve had one version or another himself. That first one of ours apparently didn't work very well and we got one from Harry. According to the book, that one had tolerances that were too close and swelled too much when tightened down. Our first test with it was on a B Konig in December 1974. As I was out of the cockpit most of 1975, we didn't do much with it. Ray came to Texas in 1974 or at least early in 75 I think. Our third unit, and a redo of Harry's original was a pull type, rather than push. It was erratic and would work only one lap then stick at the top end position. By the end of December 1975, I was back in a boat and Tim was down testing with us. Our CAV no IV was back to the original ZAK push design, but with more clearance. Bill, I'm thinking that this is the one you sent . We were getting ready for the UIM OA,OD and OE World Championships coming up in February. I think Harry hustled you to get it to him because he and Ray Hardy were both probably there for the testing also. And if Harry and Ray were there, that means Bill Van was too. Since Eileen was a stewardess, Bill Van could fly anywhere he wanted. He would pop in for a popsickle in July.

Ray made a better Do Fram Us later that was a completely different design, and it took the erratic behavior away. I still have the complete setup we ran on D41994. Of everything we sold to Harry Bartolomei, that was one of the things we kept. I also have one of the ones like you sent us, as well as a ZAK carb spacer. I was going to post some pictures of that stuff earlier in the year, but Joe said No. That was a secret and we decided to keep Rays invention to ourselves. Well at least a half dozen guys have kept it too I guess. We never showed it to Dieter either. As you know, you can't see it unless part of the motor is disassembled.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

Billy and Wayne:

I don't remember the year exactly (all the excitement at the time I guess) but there was a lot of experimentation between Harry ZAK and I with Nitrous. Wayne, I'm suurprised you don't remember that as your Dad and I had a few conversations regarding the pro's and cons of it's use. I had read some articles about the use of it in the ME-109 fighter plane in WWII and then the Nascar guys fooled around with it in the 60's I believe, so Harry and I discussed it and decided to try to come up with a workable system for a Konig.

As you may know, it does absolutely no good to put Nitrous in an engine without adding extra fuel, as the purpose of the Nitrous is to add Oxygen to the mix and without extra fuel all you accomplish is leaning out the fuel/air mixture and sticking and burning pistons, which as you know is easy enough in a two stroke anyway without any extra help. So in addition to figuring out a way to add the nitrous and extra fuel, IN THE CORRECT AMOUNT, it worked out to be a project. Harry made an adaptor that fit between the carbs and the rotary valve housing with fittings so as to have a way to connect the nitrous bottle and another fuel line, and to meter the fuel we just simply used some bing carb jets and put them in the fuel line at the entry port. Crude but it worked and the simpler the better trying to prove the concept and get it worked out. We first used a normal metal bottle of the same type and size that a scuba diver would have normally used, again just to try and prove the concept, as hiding the system was not a priority in the testing stage. We got some technical help from the nitrous system supplier we bought the gas and valves from, but basically we were on our own and in uncharted territory as we never heard of anyone else trying it on a two stroke, or at least that they would admit, and in fact the supplier tried to discourage us as he said it looked to him as there would be many problems with both a two stroke and a boat. We didn't know what he was getting at until we tried the system and then it became pretty obvious, as if you propped the engine for regular methonal fuel mix, it put out the amout of power it always did. Hit the nitrous button and all of a sudden, lots of punch but you ran out of prop very quickly and I mean quickly. We calculated about a 40% power increase with the amout of nitrous/extra fuel mix we were adding to the engine, and especially in the days of two blade props, it was very easy to blow out or spin the prop and not go anywhere with the extra power availiable. If you tried to run a larger prop on the regular fuel mix (without nitrous) you couldn't pull the prop without the nitrous on all the time, and you could neither run the engine that long without damage, or carry enough nitrous to run it continously if that were possible without either burning pistons or destroying the crank. As to whether Rhoades ran it, I never knew that he did, and we were pretty close at that time, with me running one of he and Jim Daniels boats and Harry doing all the engine work for both of us. That doesn't mean he didn't, just that I was not aware of it. I know Harry was never that enthused about it and if you knew Harry, if he worked on your engines, he was VERY dissaproving if you didn't treat them properly, at least as far as he was concerned. I suppose Rhoades could "confirm or deny" as they say. We simply decided it was more trouble than it was worth and dropped the project.

Not long after Baldy promoted the race at Dayton that has been discussed previously on this site, namely the OE I believe it was (memory again) anyway where OMC showed up with some tunnel boats to compete against the Konigs on hydro's. Because of my familiarity with the nitrous system and how it would look if it were being used, Baldy asked me to be the "fuel inspector" for that race. He even bought me a bright red T shirt with that on the front and back. Because of all the controversy Wayne has previously discussed about that race and hydro's against tunnel boats and other issues at the time, I also was required to take a fuel sample from all the participants, giving special attention to the tunnel boat entries. I did this, and gave the samples to Baldy, but as Wayne has previously mentioned, something happened to them after that, but as they say, that too is another story.

A little postscript to this experience and the things Harry and I learned about trying to use Nitrous:

Within a year or so after our experience testing with it, as you all may recall this was the time of the "factory wars" between Mercury and OMC in the OZ class. One of the St. Louis races at that time was sanctioned as a UIM world championship and because I knew Billy Seebold pretty well, I would always go to his shop when the big boys came to town, and take a look at all the equipment. When I pulled up at the boat shop there was a guard type fellow at the door, only letting in "approved" people as there was some real secret stuff going on inside, not for anyones eyes except factory personnel. I remember Billy apologizing for my not being allowed inside, but it was "factory orders" I later found out that they were trying to get nitrous working on the engines but were having a lot of burning and sticking problems. Someone, I forget now who,later said they weren't putting any extra fuel in the engines with the nitrous, and if that was the real scoop and the cause for the problems, they ran off someone who could have put them on the right track. Oh well, I always had trouble spelling engineer, much less talking to one.

Within a couple of years after this, the PRO Commission banned the use of "any fuel that does not exist as a liquid at normal atmospheric pressure."
I have always liked the PRO division better than any other because of the run what you brung, bore and stroke philosophy, but based on all the trouble and expense trying to run nitrous would have cost the PRO membership, I felt they made the right decision.

[Mark75H]

So it ain't really run what you brung?
RichardKCMo

Correct, no nitrous oxide, no nitromethane and no superchargers. "Fuels that exist as a gas" at room temperature are excluded as well ... no propane either.

Is it time to take off the no supercharger rule and allow them on 4 strokes instead of the 1.5 motor size handicap? Maybe a .9 motor size factor for supercharged 4 strokes to encourage people to start experimenting. To my knowledge the 1.5 factor hasn't brought them in yet.

The no supercharger rule came to be in the time when superchargers were very expensive and there wasn't that much public domain information about using them. Much has changed since then.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Bill Van--I don't remember the nitrous tests at all. It was probably when Debbie and I were living in Denton, and Jack Chance was getting into retiring from racing mode. My Dad would normally dive in head first about something with that kind of potential, but maybe this time he thought twice. What I do remember is the conflict with the fuel and nitrous oxide with OMC. I have a ton of correspondence between us, Dieter, Gary Garbrecht, and many foreign racing organizations. They pulled a slick one and we lost. Money and power. I did later have a real good talk with Jose Mawet at one of the conventions and we began to work together to keep that from happening again and to increase UIM participation of U.S. drivers. Unfortunately, I quit at the time we were getting that off the ground.

Sam--My Dad had invented and patented a device that would increase positive air pressure without any moving parts. We used them on our trucks as a safety device to work in refineries and sold a few across the U.S. and Canada. Because of Harry Pasurczak's connections, we were able to get a set of 250 cast aluminum housings instead of building them out of sheet metal as in the old days. It was just a favor for someone to cast only 250 sets. Harry made the mold out of wood and it was a beautiful piece of work.

We thought about modifying it to fit our Konigs. It would have to be reduced about 4 times, but the principal would still work. Basically for every 250 cubic feet of air that went into it, the device would expell 3000 cubic feet. And not one moving part. Only some hoses and check valves. Our plan was to put it behind the carbs so we wouldn't have to worry about metering. Sometimes I wish we would have built one to see what it would do.

As far as allowing superchargers or turbochargers, I would never rule out looking into it. I always liked the Pro division because of the things you were allowed to try. But, it saddens me to think of what's happened to the 500, 700, and 1100 classes. I wouldn't want any supercharging effect to lead to speeds so fast that we would also lose 350. In fact, with the speeds the way they are, I would rather have shorter courses and more turns than throw in restrictions. Lot's of turns are better anyway

[ProHydroRacer]

Ray made a better Do Fram Us later that was a completely different design, and it took the erratic behavior away. I still have the complete setup we ran on D41994. Of everything we sold to Harry Bartolomei, that was one of the things we kept. I also have one of the ones like you sent us, as well as a ZAK carb spacer. I was going to post some pictures of that stuff earlier in the year, but Joe said No. That was a secret and we decided to keep Rays invention to ourselves. Well at least a half dozen guys have kept it too I guess. We never showed it to Dieter either. As you know, you can't see it unless part of the motor is disassembled.

The best part of the Do-Fram-Us was that racers thought I had something special and looked and looked at my engine and could never find it. Poor Larry must have spent hours looking at that 500 and never spoted it. It still a secret all these years later. Ray wanted that way.

Bill
ProHydroracer

[Master Oil Racing Team]

That's right Bill. I even kind of hesitated to mention it, but unless you or I or someone else puts up a photo or drawing, the secret is still good. Funny thing is, you could look right past it. But, you're right about Ray wanting it that way and that's why we all kept it quiet. RIP Ray--the secret remains

Sadly, Ray had some other inventions that would have been money makers because it was something the mass population could have used and some unscrupulous company lawyers cheated and stole his ideas.