Thread: Konig History

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    Default Rick Fales

    Quote Originally Posted by Steve Litzell View Post
    The 6 cylinder was two cylinders 64 mm and 4 cylinders 66. Is was infact the motor Hans won with in OF. As Bill said during this time we had big D's but they were run F class Nationally and CDF locally. We also had 750 or what we called big D. Bruce Nicholson made a 6 cylinder Radial that fit perfect in 750. This was also the time USA changed to cc's as opposed to cubic inches, so any motor over 700 but not 1100 was E or 850. The motors we have here that we call F Konigs are 748 cc's and were legal for 850. hence the VE in the serial number. Their were a few big boys at 67 to 68 mm bore with L rings that were brutal to crank but again these were VF models. I guess we forget when this happened and all A and C motors had 53.5 bores. When we went to cc's we could have the new standard bore motors of 54 mm. So At Walt's place we bore a hell of lot C and FA motors to the new standard bore of 54 mm. This all was done to allow the Mercs have a .030 bore over standard. This is also why our 125 and 250 class have higher bore limits than what is allowed in UIM. 8 cylinder 850 Konig was a stacked motor. I have this motor fro Uli Rochelle in my collection. The rotary valve was first, the reed valve was second, and fuel injected motor was third until UIM said no More of this Konig. Steve
    The radial motor that Bruce N. built is at Bill Fales' sons house, Rick Fales (owner of Power-Mist Racing Fuel). We tested that motor in Hartford, CT back in the days with Mike Schmidt driving our boat. The motor blew two units that day and sent us packing. Maybe Mike could talk a little more about that day. When the motor came on pipe it really screamed.

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    Default A Real Pain in the Gas ?


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    I had one of those 48 ci Konig engines. It was bought from Dick O'Dea some time in the late 1970's. Dick actually replaced the sleeves with a slightly smaller bore as this increases the RMP. It was a brute with so much low end we just wired the pipes all the way forward. We raced it in 1100 (FRR) and then put it on a hydro and ran in the GP races here in the east coast. The GP races were any ci up to 1100 cc or 60 ci. They also payed good money for these GP races. Now it would be considered "Top Hydro" at the US Title Series Races. We took it to the 1987 Pro Nationals in DePue, Ill. and since it was not a true 48 ci engine anymore but was over 700 cc., I actually had no class. The rule book at that time stated that "D" was up to 700 cc. It also stated that "F" was 721 cc and up. Mine was 710. There was a meeting about this and was put in the 1100 class. The rule book was then changed. The engine was sold to a friend of mine who eventually sold it to Tom Goldstone from Calif. I heard they wanted to use it for a kilo run but that was the last I heard of it. It was very hard on lower unit gears. Did not get much life out of a set. We never did reach the potential of this animal. It was as fast as I ever wanted to go. It would have been a legal 850 engine but that class was dropped by the pro category. Somewhere I have some pictures of it laying around the shop........Bob N-96
    Last edited by Bob Rusnak; 01-17-2012 at 03:18 PM. Reason: spelling
    Bob Rusnak

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    Hope you can find the pictures and post them Bob. Very interesting what you said. Indeed, that was during a transition period that had started in the late 70's when we went to CC's, but wanted to revive some of the old loopers and 44 deflectors to bring them back into racing. I'm wondering if Dick's motor started out as a 48 and he resleeved it to the smaller bore as you suggest, or maybe it might be one of the pre 72 motors such as our first F square block which was a 1970 model with the Dykes rings. We ended up resleeving it as well, then got some unfinished pistons from Scott, got some oversized rings and Walt Blankenstein rebored the sleeves, and turned the pistons to fit.

    I was thinking about all this today on my way to San Antonio. I'm going to have to do some research. Find and post your pictures Bob.



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    Wayne, in reply to your question, Dick had two of them when we went to his shop to buy one. We did have a choice of the two. Dick mentioned that he removed the sleeves from the 48 in block and replaced them with smaller ones. When the sleeves were out he did a lot of work inside. He had the pistons made for this engine and had several replacements made. Dick felt the large bore held back the rpm's which was correct. I guess on the runabout it was OK as Doug Bindrim proved but on the hydro, the higher rev's would be better. I believe Dick made this engine for the 850 class which never materialized. We were very successful with this engine here in the East Coast. Almost pulled off the Nationals in 1100 hydro but a broken pipe bracket put us in second to Bill Rucker. Later on we kept loosing the center main crank bearing. The crank was changed several times but felt the block's were not square anymore. I wish I knew where that engine is today. There is a big poster hanging up in my son's garage with the engine on the runabout. This was taken in the East Hatrford Marine Classic event in Conn. I will look through some of my pictures and see if I can find them on the Pugh Hydro.......Bob N-96
    Bob Rusnak

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    Would you by any chance have the serial number of that motor Bob? Since you mentioned crank problems, that reminded me that those early motors came with the black crankshaft. A motor with that kind of power ruined the bearings very quickly. Also the "so called F Konigs" all came with a 1:1 unit. They never lasted very long under hard racing.



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    Alan Ishii was reading this thread and sent me this picture of the big Konig on the Pugh Hydro. This was taken in Lakeland, Fl. in the late 1970's. It had Blankenstien heads on it. It was also a backwards block as you may notice in the picture. I had the 40 mm carbs on it in that picture. I can only imagine what it would do in the right hands. Again we never did slide the pipes, just wired them forward and if we put the big carbs on it who knows. You are right, we had 1-1 gears that did not last long. It had so much low end it was fun to drive.
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    Bob Rusnak

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    Wow Bob...those Blankenstein heads really make that motor. Thanks Bob and you to Alan.

    Jerry, I thank you much for the kind words about my Dad. And you were right. We wanted to beat OMC with the Konigs because of the illegal stunt they pulled at the last minute banning methanol. There were not many of those OE Konigs around, and I remember my Dad wanting you to come. I never did know what happened to your engine until now. As you remember the first three heats were so rough that the hydros did not go out. We were all so proud of Jeff going out in that final heat with a big win. The rest of us had already packed the trailers up.

    There was a funny thread about cheating...accidentally, or on purpose. This was one time us Pro guys cheated as a group. It was a protest, and we had decided to, as you say, misplace the fuel samples. Even if we did decide to run them through the proper tests, it would have been later after winners had been decided. Then the disqualifications would have been after all the spectators were gone. We were mainly protesting the illegal actions of OMC, but the weather fouled up our plans. I had Jeff Hutchins fuel sample in my darkroom for many years. I finally threw it away, but I can't remember when. It was before BRF came about though and my packrat tendencies started to pay off.



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    Default 850 Konig

    Wayne and Bob,
    I have an 850 Konig that I bought from Bunky Bowles who lived in the Richmond,Va. area.
    R.C.Hawie borrowed it to run 1100 Runabout.
    Ed Provini

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    Hi Konig enthusiasts. I came across this thread while searching for more info on Kim Newcombe after seeing the tragic movie about him 'Love, Speed, Loss'. I have to admit I'm not a huge boat enthusiast by any means, but I have followed and been involved with motorcycle road racing since the 70's. When Newcombe came onto the GP scene it was about the same time I had started production racing in canada and was starting to follow my british and GP racing heros via the Motorcycle News papers my mom and other relatives there sent me, and a few Castrol racing movies I had come across here.
    When I first started seeing Kim's name and the odd pic in race results, I had no idea of who it was and assumed it to be some beautiful euro brand of frame (like a Harris or Bimota) with a conventional Yamaha or other motor. And to be honest, I thought that Konig was another German beer sponsor.
    It wasn't until a bit later when I met up with a fellow Cdn at a US track, who just happened to race the same class as me and also lived very close to where I lived. We became friends and travelled to several races together. At some point he brought up the fact that he was going to europe for an extended visit with relatives and hoped to get some racing in over there with the help of his uncle who was also a racer, and his name was Rolf Steinhausen, a name I had never heard of as sidecar racing here was really in the dark ages compared to what was happening in europe with monocoque chassis and F1 like technology.
    Anyway, to make a long story short, here are a couple of pics he brought back for me, as I don't think it was mentioned in this hugely interesting thread. The Konig engined sidecar that won the world championship in 1975/76.
    Tim, if it isn't too late and you would like to use the pics in the book, I will contact my old friend to see if he has others or I can scan these in much higher resolution for you. I have others but I'd have to confirm if they are Konig, Yamaha or other engines.
    Thanks for the memory shake up.
    Mike
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