Quote Originally Posted by rumleyfips
Google tells me that European motorcycle racers were far ahead of outboards with exhaust tuning. Norton used a megaphone in 1934. Dieter Koenig put megaphones on an alky engine in 1957 ( maybe 1956 ). I think Koenigs were still deflectors at this time Smitty. Erick Wolf put expansion chambers on a DKW in 1951 or 52. Outboards didn't have expansion chambers for another decade.
Rumley, I've not seen a photo of the B/C deflector Konigs with anything other than open exhausts, no pipes. The exhaust flanges were drilled and tapped, but I'm guessing that was to hold the manifold used with the Stock-configured engines. Probably there were owners here who did make themselves a megaphone set-up at some point. But I don't think the Konig deflectors got used for very many years, not like the alky Mercs. There's another Boat Sport article from about 1957 telling all about the B/C deflector motors, and toward the end it mentioned that the 3-cylinder C motor was shortly to be replaced by a 2-cylinder model. This had to be the loop-scavenged FC, and maybe at the same time the FB engine which used many of the same or very similar parts replaced the deflector B. In 1957, Konig already had a looper A engine, which I think was also his first engine with megaphones.

Have you ever seen the insides of a deflector Konig? The air/fuel makes its way from the crankcase to the combustion chamber through windows in the piston skirt (Anzani did this as well). Might help cool the piston, but it looks pretty restrictive to my eye, and I wonder how well it could flow compared to the Mercury side-transfer passage. No easy way to make direct comparisons, I guess, because the bore/stroke combinations were different between Konigs and Mercs.

As you say, roadracing motorcycle engine technology was, so far as I can tell, a generation or two ahead of even purpose-built racing outboards at every point (at least until now), though occasionally our side had something pretty slick, such as Konig's disc rotary valves and slider pipes. And though it might not quite have been 2-stroke state-of-the-art even when new (I'm trying to remember details of the Suzuki X-6 and the 250cc Yamahas of that moment), the Quincy flathead still is amazing for the clever way Christner worked around the limitations (bore spacing) of the Mercury crankshaft, which meant that racers could recycle a bunch of their Merc parts and go real fast, real cheap!! And they were easy to work on in a home shop; incredible!!

Gene, for you I will happily use any spelling of any word, just to keep you talking, LOL!! I did see that ad for the Quincy throttle, but don't think I ever saw one out here. Leonard Keller was building all the hardware in his little north Seattle shop. He was a very good guy, one of many such that made any new kid feel welcome.