"Name That Outboard"

[Mark Suter]

Frank, when I talked to Harry Harden last year, his memory seemed quite fuzzy on some of the "facts" about this motor. While he seemed to have a quick answer to when was it built ("either 1968 or 1969"... I just went with the earlier year), he could not remember what crankshaft he used. So I guess it is possible he could have been in error on the build date. The five head bolts indicate that the cylinders are from a Konig FA motor. When were the first FAs available in this country? The answer to that might help tie down when this "home-brew" was actually created.

[David Weaver]

Frank, when I talked to Harry Harden last year, his memory seemed quite fuzzy on some of the "facts" about this motor. While he seemed to have a quick answer to when was it built ("either 1968 or 1969"... I just went with the earlier year), he could not remember what crankshaft he used. So I guess it is possible he could have been in error on the build date. The five head bolts indicate that the cylinders are from a Konig FA motor. When were the first FAs available in this country? The answer to that might help tie down when this "home-brew" was actually created.

My dad still has his 1969 FA Konig. This was a two cylinder with sliding tuned exhaust. The carbs are located opposite of one another. This is the engine that in John Shubert's image. The earlier versions of FA's used either a can or open exhuast (as did the FB's). The fly-wheel on the subject engine suggests to me that it is based on model predating the 1969 FA. The fly wheel on my dad's FA is similar to those used from the 1970's until the end of Konig.

[Master Oil Racing Team]

I posted a pic our our 1966 FA on Paul Christner's Quincy site. It has the same style crank plate as in the 70's. Also, the pipes were fixed and didn't have a cylindrical center section. They were long tapered megaphones, then at the end there were shorter reverse cones, then the stingers. The FA's were opposed firing, but inline, and while most were aluminum blocks, there were some that were cast iron. We got a cast iron one around 1967 that I think came from Marc Johnson's Dad Randy. I don't know the year it was made though.

[Frank Volker]

Wayne -I seem to recall that the pipes you describe are the ones that were on the opposed A that gave us the spanking in Michigan.

Frank

[Mark Suter]

Dave, my take on the flywheel is that the use of an HRA version was was more related to what fit the crank that Harry Harden used as opposed to what the primary "donor" motor was. I went out and pulled one of the heads off to look closer at the porting and other block features. As noted before, the head bolt pattern was five bolts as in the FA (the HRA has six). The block mounting bolt pattern looks like FA and quite unlike HRA). The block height (from crankcase mounting surface to head mounting surface) is the same as FA and about 1/4-inch less than HRA. The HRA cylinder has a transfer passage that swoops outward in a generous arc which goes well outboard of the confines of the block on this motor. I looked at the porting in this motor and the number and basic locations of the ports are similar to what I have seen in the FA but there are some differences (not enough to make me believe the blocks are not made from FAs). The blocks are iron and have been extensively modified with such changes as elimination of the reeds in the block (probably because he chose to use reeds elsewhere... between the 3rd carb and the crankcase). The other notable unique feature of this motor is that the plugs are offset from the bore centerline. The motor is quite unique and certainly required a lot of development to get it running as well as it did.

Wayne, I have two FAs and they both have iron blocks and slider pipes. This opposed motor may have excelled early on in the life-cycle of the FA because the early motors had fixed pipes. The advent of the sliders may have been part of the reason why the success of this motor was relatively short-lived (to my knowledge, Harry never tried sliders).

[Tomtall]

OK ------------- The #10 engine of this thread is different for sure. It was one of two built and competed with success for many years. The one pictured is of the Mark Suters collection and Mark has provided some interesting informaton regarding these engines from the past. But first we need to know what the heck it is. Can you also tell us what class it may have competed in as well?

Good Luck!

[leehall91]

Well it is a john deere liquid fire snowmobile motor thats all i know

[Glenn Coates]

Kawasaki I believe was the supplier to John Deere.

[Ronny W.]

its 340 cc i would gess it would run 350H and its a john deer snowmobile motor.

[Bill Van Steenwyk]

I seem to remember one of these in the early to mid 80's making an appearance in the upper midwest, maybe Constantine, that was used as an RB. This engine looks to be much more "finished" and cleaner than I remember the one I was thinking of though. Perhaps the same engine with some "TLC"??
Can't remember who had it, but the John Deere brand sticks in my mind. Like the other post, I think it was an snowmobile engine. Nice work on the adapting of the tower housing and lower unit. Very low mounting on the transom of any boat, and the carb on the opposite side for water protection in the corners. Almost looks like something Harry ZAK would do, or had some input into. Looks to be a Konig (Phelan) ignition, and a very nicely fabricated, sturdy pipe bracket for the two cylinder, alternate firing engine. With the inherent imbalance problems that design of engine had at a certain RPM, it would need to be heavy duty. Very Nicely Done. If the owner is around I would be very interested in how it ran, especially if it was an RB.