hellsten c service

[fbref5269]

hi all,

i picked up a merc c service sec 2 that was owned by jack kugler. he never raced it but can't remember who he got it from. he thinks it won the national when they were in bakersfield,ca in the 80's. i've posted a thread on boatracingfacts and they thought it migh be hellsten's c service. here are some pictures of a very unusual crank and the filler block. can anyone help with the identification of this classic? i raced c servivice sec 2in the 70's myself. was in the roostertail of henry shakshaft all the time.

thanks for your help.

frank

[epugh66]

Pete often ran a two cylinder Mercury in service. His daughter, Kristi often post in the USTS forum, she may have additional info

[STEVE FRENCH]

Wow, Look at the work on that crank/ports!!!!!......MORE pics PLEASE!

Was this heavy padded for alky-hall?

For sale??

Very cool........gott'a run it?.........need any thing to git back together?

100N

[Kristi Ellison]

We ran a 2 cylinder Merc, at least when Chris and I raced C-Service. I will have Chris take a look he was in the shop helping my dad way more often than I was....

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no padding

steve,

the cyls are not padded. it was a c service sec 2. no padding allowed. the plans are to restore it as a c sercive and put it on my '65 restored sidson and go to any show that will let me run it. i'll have the muffler there just in case i need it for an antique event. the block and the crank are gems. i would lke to see if there are any other cranks out there like that. i've posted on brf under tech discussion. the thought is that it may have been worked on by o'brien and may have been owned by jeff younger? any thoughts here?

i like to dsplay the history of the engines when i display them. all of the engines i restore i will run on something. the ultimate will be the 64 marchetti i'm restoring with the quincy 44 looper i've restored. i've put the 44 on a polished bayer tank tower with a polished d quickie.

frank

frank

[T Chance]

Might have belonged to Gerry Waldman or Larry Latta.

[fbref5269]

thinkin' the same thing

tim,

thinking the same thing. there is too much work done on the block to be an lake racer.i'm going to take some pictures of the intake ports and post. lot of work done there too. and a lot of castor residue. may have gone from gerry to larry.

frank

[fbref5269]

intake ports and motre castor buildup

hi all,

here are some pictures of the intake ports. a lo of work has been done on them.
the red stuff in the cyl is the permatex junk i scraped off. as you can see the cys have a bunch of castor build up. the crank is cleaning up real nice. looks brand new.

frank

[T Chance]

Here is another though: It could be the C-Service Mercury of Ernie LaRose from Saint Louis that was built by Bill Seebold, Sr.

If that is Ernie's motor I ran it on a C-Service Runabout at Constantine, Michigan once in the mid 70's.

And by-the-way Ernie was the King of building crud on his engines. By comparison Larry was only a Crown Prince.

[fbref5269]

lots of crud

tim,

this engine's owner had a phd in crud buildup. it's hot today and when i was working in the shop the crud in the intake began to run. gotta love it. maybe it was done for storage....

the only markings on the top of the block is a stamped bell symbol, the number 300 ans the bore size of 2.128. does that mean anything to anyone?

the last c looper in picked up had a stamp of '11duski' on top. looks like stan did some work on it. jerry simison was the original owner of that one. it had an issue with a rod and blew out a nice 3 inch hole in the crankcase.

frank

[T Chance]

11dusky would be Stan Leavendusky, Jr. or Sr.

[fbref5269]

not sure

tim,

the engine was originaly jery simison's back in the 60's i would think from him it may have gone to sr. that is a pure guess on my part. the heads were stan's also. did both make the looper heads?

frank

[bill van steenwyk]

doubt Stan Sr. had ANYTHING to do with this engine

I have very serious doubts that either Stan Leavendusky Sr. or Jr. would have had anything to do with this engine. Sr. absolutely hated the idea of running them with the Speeditwins and in fact wrote some letters to the PRO VP/Chairman of the PRO Commission at the time stating that they should not be allowed to run against or with the Speeditwin. He had ABSOLUTELY no use for the 4 cyl Merc in C Service at that time.

Stan Sr. did make head for the Flatheads of the time, as well as most of the pistons used in Flatheads of that era came out of Stan's mold and shop. Tom Berry's father cast the pistons for Stan Sr. at his foundry in Kansas City.

I have learned over the years to "never say never", but if Stan Sr. touched this powerhead in any way, it was as a Mod motor and not for use in C Service, as he would have run anyone bringing one in the driveway for use in that class thru the apple orchard and off the property.

The reason I am so positive about his feelings about these motors in C Service, is I ran Ernie LaRose's motor at DePue one year when he had hurt his hand and couldn't drive. It took almost a good year before Sr. would speak to me again, and I didn't even own one.

[fbref5269]

stan did not touch the c service engine

bill,

stan did not touch the c service engine. i was talking about the quincy c looper i have that has his stampings on it. that one is in line for restoration.

sorry for the confusion. however i ge the sense that the speeditwin guys cannot stand the merc guys.

frank

[Kristi Ellison]

Probably cause we always beat them