Outboard Class A Engines.....history

[Peter Crowley]

Those who have raced in the 50's might know these answers.... I have a "collection" of new and old racing engines. It hasn't gone without notice that MOST of these engines are "A Class" engines! I need some blanks filled in as to the history of the "A class" outboard engines- specifically the most competitive engine model of each year (Nationals winner, records etc.) In STOCK Outboard racing, the engine of choice was the one that was approved ie- KG4H, OMC A....

To start this process:
1928 & 1929 Lockwood ACE
Caille (Model ?) ???
1930-195?) Johnson KR (post war could add Hubbell/ Johnson KR
1957-? Konig (Model ?)
195?-? Anzani (Model ?)
19?? Jones/O'Dea Modified KG4?
19?? Quincy deflecter (Model ?)
19?? Harrison (Anzani type)
19?? Quincy Looper (Model)
198? Konig (Model FA)?
198? Konig (Model ?) four cylinder
198? Harrison/ Yamaha (250cc)
198? Yamato RA-1 piston port
198? Yamato RA-1 first reed valve
199? Konig (Model ?) 2 cylinder with rotax clyinders
1992- 1998 Yamato RA-1 (92RA-1)second reed valve version
1997-present Rossi (Model ?)

There could be some interesting stories here... There were special adaptations or modifications that set one persons engine above another like the Hallum/ Anzani. Dan Kirts had a VERY competitive Konig/Rotax engine where the rest just weren't quite there.... Some engines resurfaced after we though that they were obsolite. In the case of the earlier Harrison engines, they were patterned off the Anzani. Different brand engines might have dominated the runabout class while another dominated the hydro class. Bring out your ideas and recollections. I am focusing in on the BEST engines of each year... Then maybe your vote for the best engine of the decade!

[Mark75H]

Peter, the only Caille A class motor I've found info on was the 1931-32 Model 35.

It claimed 13.91 ci and 12 hp

I have conflicting info on whether it weighed 52 pounds or 43 pounds

Doubtful if the 35 was truely competitive if anyone showed up with a KR.

OMC did not produce any KR's after 1937, but it certainly continued to dominate racing until the KG4's were being converted by Quincy and Hubbell

The model name of the early Konig A was "HRA"

The model name of the early Anzani was "SOR A"

I think the Harrisons were only made in 66 and 67 when they ran out of spare Anzani cranks (one of the few pieces they did not make themselves).

[Peter Crowley]

Thanks Sam.

The "hot Caille racers" were B class and C class engines I guess. I didn't know if they had a fast class A engine too.... The caille engines were pretty slick with the "sometimes" dual carburetors and tractor lowerunit.

The original KR was an opposed engine ('28) which I didn't know about until I saw that photo you had put in this section. Then they produced the alternate firing KR that was able to make the Lockwood ACE obsolite.
It wasn't long before every "factory" race engine had to be extensively modified in order to be truly competitive.

This summer I saw a 60's vintage Harrison B engine in the Clayton Museum.

Of course later on there were occasionally special "one-of-a-kind" racing engines that dominated for a period of time. One that comes to mind was Mitch Meyer's piston port Yamato RA with reedvalves from a motorcycle welded in place. The next year, Yamato offered it's first reed valve version engine.

[Peter Crowley]

Eventually, this question will force me to get all of my old rule books out and go through the records. This will give me a vague manufacturer's name, but not the model engine or anything that might be special about that particular engine. Perhaps some of the old Propeller magazines will provide me with more information.
I remember seeing Jane Smith run when I was young. She was probably at a Connecticut race.... she had a Quincy engine.
Another image that comes to mind is the famous photograph of Bill Tenney. The photo showed the back of his cover-alls. He had a Mercury patch and above it was embriodered the words that said something like- I will never run a "Mercury Outboards". Bill was one of the last Champion racers to still use the Johnson KR engine.
In 1980, when I went to the Camden, N.C. race with my ASR (KG4H) to try to win the Waldman Award that year. I remember being pitted near Malcolm Harden. I remembered his equipment and the shear speed of his 250ccH. It was "truly impressive".
Skip Barbari had an FA Konig on his Yale 250ccH when he won the World Championships in the late 70's.
Of course having mentioned the Waldman Award, Gerry Waldman was impressive with his Quincy engines.

[Mark75H]

Kiekhaefer was giving away cover-alls that said "Move up to Kiekhaefer Mercury" Tenney had his altered

[Peter Crowley]

Sam- That is the photo that I remembered! I didn't notice before that he was leaning on a Johnson KR engine! This must have been in response to the Mercury engines that were converted to alcohol and then heavily modified. These modified Mercurys would be a great story to read about. From this group of Mercury "mechanics" (Jones/O'Dea) must have emerged O.F. Christner and Quincy Welding Co. The Quincy engines became the "ultimate Mercury modifier"!
Eventually Bill Tenney had to join the wave of European engine imports. Konig was one of the first to come here from Europe and have his engine "approved". Evidently, the rules weren't as "open" as they are today. Later, in order to beat the Konig engines, Bill became involved with Anzani.

[David Weaver]

How many styles of FA's were there? Was there ever a PRO engine produced in greater quantity?

In my family we had a 1969 model with two pipes and carbs that mounted on opposite sides. Still have this engine.

We also had a couple of one pipe versions. Sometimes with point ignitions and sometimes with the CD ignition.

Later Konig also produced another two pipe version of the FA.

Malcom's single pipe FA beat the new 4-cylider Konigs for several years. I believe that Mr. Hardin bought a 4-cylinder 250, tested it and then converted it into a 350 in short order.

[Mark75H]

I think Steve Litzell would be the one to answer that question. Steve??

[Peter Crowley]

Steve would be a great person to share his personal knowledge of A Class engine dominance. Particularly because he has been around PRO racing for so long AND because he has been an inspector at the PRO Nationals and record races in FLorida. Steve is a big guy (Ron Hill too!)..... last time he probably had a 250cc engine was when he was 12 years old!

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Peter & Sam,

I'm actually building a Jones/O'Dea Red Head being assembled by Cooper Jess with the tight sand cast crank case. I don't recall any Jones/O'Dea REd Heads evr really competing in competition other then the one Dick had installed on one of my 20H's in 1954 or 1955. It didn't run bad, but we ran it on gas. In the second heat at a race in Carlstadt, Nj I was about to pass Vic Scott, a regular "B" class winner at the time & blew my Jacoby over getting a ride to the hospital with a twited ankle. The Jones/O'Dea Red Head never received approval to run in the Alky division, so that was it's demise. They might have been able to run in NOA but I'm not a NOA historian. And, by the way, they were only made in a 20 c.i. version that I know of.

[Tim Chance]

I think this thread needs to become active again. Personally I have owned the following: Quincy KG-4, Quincy Flathead A, Alky Hot Rod A, Konig HRA, Konig FA, Konig VA, the last piston port Yamato 250 imported into the USA, and currently have two MSR 250 Kawasaki's, and I still have the FA and wish I had all the rest.

[Steve Litzell]

Steve would be a great person to share his personal knowledge of A Class engine dominance. Particularly because he has been around PRO racing for so long AND because he has been an inspector at the PRO Nationals and record races in FLorida. Steve is a big guy (Ron Hill too!)..... last time he probably had a 250cc engine was when he was 12 years old!

How Many Fa's were made? Good question as this motor was made from early mid 50's and offered to drivers until I believe 1985. From 83 to about 85 VA and Fa A motors were sold. In the Konig history thread at about page 7 is a picture of one of the early types. Look at the crankcase as it is the same as the last one made. The H series motors had a modular type of crankshaft with pork chop type counter balance and internal rotary valve(s). The center main of the H series was tooth splined so it could make the the twin cylinder motors and 3 cylinder 75HP C motor. These motors used a one piece center crankcase and the center of crankshaft was build inside of this housing. The H series also made up the first 175 and later the Konig midget for USA. The F series and what was called the RA ( Very early motors) had a one piece center of crank and the crankcase center was 2 parts vertically split and then the end caps added similar to the H series. All FA type motors had a shorter crank height and crankcase height than the H series. The H series motors also included FB FC and FD 2 cylinder motors as the crank and crankcase was made same as earlier HR and HRA B motors. FA's were by themselves on how they were made. The Ra was I believe the first loop charge motor and the B followed as the cylinders just needed to be changed. The Fa cylinders were made from cast iron then aluminum then back to cast iron. Ra's (mid 50's) had exhausts on one side of block. First Fa's had a exhaust and carb on both sides of block. this design was used until 1971 when the last version was made. Cylinders through the years were modified so motors did not have to go through the approval process as these were superseded parts. All FA's had same cylinder bolt pattern on block for 5 holes but one was moved a little but did not require and new crankcase. FA's are very difficult to identify as years as many times a rod would let go and wipe out the original serial number but not all. Some guy's in 71 just bought new cylinders and exhaust to convert to new motor that was so fast out of box that the Quincy motors really had to work hard to compete. The saving grace was the Konig had very weak retainers and were only good for maybe one race. Later the bearing size was increased and still later Walt Blankenstein found a Suzuki bearing that was better still, but the crank pins needed to be changed to latest type from Konig. I hope this answers most of your questions. Steve:rolleyes:

[Master Oil Racing Team]

One thing I remember about the first FA we got in 1966 Steve was that you would have to bolt the two halves of the center crankcase together around the center main bearing, then bolt the upper and lower crankcase halves to the center section. While it was easy to do, it may not always result in perfect alignment. I believe it was Walt Blankenstein who showed us how to make sure everything was aligned. Jack Chance had a shaft turned that we assemble the top, middle and bottom pieces of the crankshaft around, and following Walt's instructions we tightened the pieces up then made a tapered hole all the way through the three aluminum flanges of the crankcase pieces, then hammered a tapered stainless pin in. Whenever you go to reassemble, you get all the bolts tightened, but before you do the final tightenening....you hammer the tapered pins home, and you got a perfect alignment top to bottom. I can't recall whether Dieter had alignment pin holes already there, but I do remember having to use a tapered bit on the holes back in the mid sixties. I don't remember having to do that on later engines.

[Steve Litzell]

One thing I remember about the first FA we got in 1966 Steve was that you would have to bolt the two halves of the center crankcase together around the center main bearing, then bolt the upper and lower crankcase halves to the center section. While it was easy to do, it may not always result in perfect alignment. I believe it was Walt Blankenstein who showed us how to make sure everything was aligned. Jack Chance had a shaft turned that we assemble the top, middle and bottom pieces of the crankshaft around, and following Walt's instructions we tightened the pieces up then made a tapered hole all the way through the three aluminum flanges of the crankcase pieces, then hammered a tapered stainless pin in. Whenever you go to reassemble, you get all the bolts tightened, but before you do the final tightenening....you hammer the tapered pins home, and you got a perfect alignment top to bottom. I can't recall whether Dieter had alignment pin holes already there, but I do remember having to use a tapered bit on the holes back in the mid sixties. I don't remember having to do that on later engines.

You are correct Wayne, Early motors did not have this and I think that Deiter seen what Walt was doing and thought it to be a good idea and easier for mechanics to get cases lined up. Steve

[smittythewelder]

Steve, maybe I'm the one getting it wrong, but I believe that it was the 2-cylinder B deflector engine, which used individual iron cylinders, and a bolt-together crank, and that three of these 10 cubic inch cylinders were used in the deflector C engine, which also shared crankshaft and crankcase parts with the 20" B, but not the 15" A engine. The later loop-scavenged 2-cylinder FB and FC engines also had the bolt-together crank. Apologies if I have misunderstood you or just don't know enough about this Fifties stuff. Did that deflector C triple really put out 75hp?!! Amazing!

About the A motors that were built for so long (piston-port intake, later with added case-reeds), I have a block from one of the first 1957(?) versions (unhappily, someone cut it in half to make an M engine). Loop-scavenged, and it is approximately the same block as used until the mid-60s, but it lacks a boost port. The water-jacketing, if you can call it that, consists of holes drilled around the outsides of the cylinders; the holes do not connect with each other, and the water could not flow, but sort of shake in place!! I have to learn to post photos so y'all can see this thing! Surely this feature was quickly revised, and I've seen the next version of this block, which looks like any block from the next ten years; the water jacket is cast-in so that the water can actually flow around the cylinders, but there still is no boost port. These engines had the pork chop counterweights on the top and bottom crankshaft sections, and I think this feature lasted into the early 60s.

Somewhere in the early 60s, the 25mm slide-type Bing (and maybe some Amals??) carbs got reoriented from vertical to horizontal.

Around 1966(?), the gear driven Bosch magneto was replaced by a heavy but otherwise very good energy-transfer type of flywheel magneto. I saw one of these on an FC, so they might have come on FBs and FCs at that time, but I don't know. At least some of the A motors at this time came with 25mm Bing butterfly-valve carbs. These little Bings were also used on the new piston-port C and D four-cylinder Konigs, and Mikuni versions (license-built, one assumes) of this carb were later used on Yamato 80s and the first RB and RC Yamato fours. Also about this time, the A Konig cranks had full-circle throws which were also thinker than before, and the crankpins, where they pressed into the throws, were increased in diameter form 17mm to 18mm. This made it less likely that you'd break a crankpin (done that) and more likely that you crack the thinner edge of the hole the pin pressed into (done that).

I think it was 1968 when Konig brought out the aluminum block A. I've talked about this somewhere else; a can of worms that didn't last long, though it certainly could be made to work. Besides the new block, this engine had a new crankcase, which used long studs in the center section to affix it to the block, and this case was used from then on, I believe.

Was it 1970 or '71 when the last generation FA arrived here, with an iron block, and for a few years siamesed exhaust elbows and a single pipe. No change in the crank, I don't think.

Oh, I should have mentioned the progression of big-end rod bearings, which started with nice long rollers and steel retainers, then (maybe 1964) went to little stubby rollers with rounded ends riding in retainers of (we thought) "beer-can" aluminum. These were revised very slightly when the stubby little rollers were given just slightly more length by squaring up the rounded ends, the aluminum cages being broached with squared-up holes to accomodate them. After my short time fooling with this stuff, I understand that the last of the FAs went back to long rollers and steel retainers; true?

[russhill]

Somebody above said the first KR was 1928. That's not really correct. The 1928 opposed 14 cu in was called an A but the second digit R didn't appear until 1931. That was the KR55. It was and alternate firing 14 Cu in, internal rotary valve. The KR55 was really the only KR ever built. It was a 1931. The subsequent engies were just selling off inventory or built as required.

The numbering system was:
KR55 =1931,
KR60 = 1932, etc. until KR80 = 1938.

It is noteworthy that th K series were only 14 cu in. It wasn't until about '51 the we raised the allowable size to 15 ci, to "let" those Mercury guys with their KG4s run with us. In 1961 Jack Leek set a 61 MPH record with a modified Mercury KG4.

Pep Hubbell, and maybe some other people made the 15 inch blocks. The KR55s had a 2.125 bore the 15 inchers had a 2.44.

[Steve Litzell]

Steve, maybe I'm the one getting it wrong, but I believe that it was the 2-cylinder B deflector engine, which used individual iron cylinders, and a bolt-together crank, and that three of these 10 cubic inch cylinders were used in the deflector C engine, which also shared crankshaft and crankcase parts with the 20" B, but not the 15" A engine. The later loop-scavenged 2-cylinder FB and FC engines also had the bolt-together crank. Apologies if I have misunderstood you or just don't know enough about this Fifties stuff. Did that deflector C triple really put out 75hp?!! Amazing!

About the A motors that were built for so long (piston-port intake, later with added case-reeds), I have a block from one of the first 1957(?) versions (unhappily, someone cut it in half to make an M engine). Loop-scavenged, and it is approximately the same block as used until the mid-60s, but it lacks a boost port. The water-jacketing, if you can call it that, consists of holes drilled around the outsides of the cylinders; the holes do not connect with each other, and the water could not flow, but sort of shake in place!! I have to learn to post photos so y'all can see this thing! Surely this feature was quickly revised, and I've seen the next version of this block, which looks like any block from the next ten years; the water jacket is cast-in so that the water can actually flow around the cylinders, but there still is no boost port. These engines had the pork chop counterweights on the top and bottom crankshaft sections, and I think this feature lasted into the early 60s.

Somewhere in the early 60s, the 25mm slide-type Bing (and maybe some Amals??) carbs got reoriented from vertical to horizontal.

Around 1966(?), the gear driven Bosch magneto was replaced by a heavy but otherwise very good energy-transfer type of flywheel magneto. I saw one of these on an FC, so they might have come on FBs and FCs at that time, but I don't know. At least some of the A motors at this time came with 25mm Bing butterfly-valve carbs. These little Bings were also used on the new piston-port C and D four-cylinder Konigs, and Mikuni versions (license-built, one assumes) of this carb were later used on Yamato 80s and the first RB and RC Yamato fours. Also about this time, the A Konig cranks had full-circle throws which were also thinker than before, and the crankpins, where they pressed into the throws, were increased in diameter form 17mm to 18mm. This made it less likely that you'd break a crankpin (done that) and more likely that you crack the thinner edge of the hole the pin pressed into (done that).

I think it was 1968 when Konig brought out the aluminum block A. I've talked about this somewhere else; a can of worms that didn't last long, though it certainly could be made to work. Besides the new block, this engine had a new crankcase, which used long studs in the center section to affix it to the block, and this case was used from then on, I believe.

Was it 1970 or '71 when the last generation FA arrived here, with an iron block, and for a few years siamesed exhaust elbows and a single pipe. No change in the crank, I don't think.

Oh, I should have mentioned the progression of big-end rod bearings, which started with nice long rollers and steel retainers, then (maybe 1964) went to little stubby rollers with rounded ends riding in retainers of (we thought) "beer-can" aluminum. These were revised very slightly when the stubby little rollers were given just slightly more length by squaring up the rounded ends, the aluminum cages being broached with squared-up holes to accomodate them. After my short time fooling with this stuff, I understand that the last of the FAs went back to long rollers and steel retainers; true?
The B motor was both Cross flow and later loop charged. These changes were made as tech knowledge was learned. Many racers converted their cross flows into loop motors. The early A motors were called RA and did share a similar crankcase top and bottom as H series in appearance but bolt patterns were not the same.This was done so SEM Mag or Bosch Mags could bolt on. On Aluminum cylinders there were two types, Early type was piston port only and each carburetor opening had a channel that connected the opposite cylinder to it. Later versions had same lay out as described but also had a single reed like the late iron type. The late iron type came out in 1971 in USA and was made up until 83\84. At this time it was possible to buy either a FA or 4 cyl VA. And yes the three banger was rated at 75hp. They are even listed as such in the old Champion Sparkplug books as 75hp 3 cyl racing motors. The B and C 3 cylinder had a stroke of 59.6mm were as the A motors were 54mm stroke. Your early iron motor without the boast port is just that early as later versions had the boast port. Hope this helps Steve:D

[Mark75H]

The Konig ads say the triple was 45 hp

[smittythewelder]

Not trying to be argumentative, Steve, but for three of those cross-flow B cylinders, with the dinky little carbs and open exhausts that I think they used then (saw one picture of Dieter on a visit here with a C), Sam's 45hp seems more likely than 75 hp. Are we talking about different engines? Was there a triple that used three of the later loop-scavenged B cylinders? If there was, and it had something like the later 32mm carbs, and megaphones, 75hp would sound more reasonable. I don't think Hu Entrop's first Mk75 that he went 107mph with made any more than 75hp. How much power did the FC twin that superceded the triple and was used until the mid-Sixties make? I wasn't around any of this in the Fifties, and only know a little about it from having seen or accumulated some of the old stuff.

[David Weaver]

Here are some photo's of my dad's FA 250 circa 1969. All original with the exception of 1 replacement pipe. I am not sure about the lower unit. It is a Konig, but I did check it carefully.