A "Do-It-Yourself" Outboard

[Rocket]

A "Do-It-Yourself" Outboard

Hey Ron
My point exactly the DIY outboard motor is already here--- it is cheap, it has history, it has hop up and replacement parts and look even you were able to put it on the back of a hydro --There is no need to scab together some old outboard motor parts---just take some aluminum or steel drill some holes and bolt a very simple midsection together..Even a piece of round rod and a couple bearings can be used for a prop shaft etc. etc.

[seagull170]

Ron did you ask the motor manufacturer if they made a vertical crankshaft version of this motor, that used the same components, expect difficulty with communication but if you can find an engineering student at your local uni that speaks the same dialect, some of these manufacturers can be very helpful.

[ricochet112]

Will the cowling over heat the motor??

Yes! Very quickly unless you had at least a 6' opening front and rear.

I'm surprised these cheap Chinese knock off Honda engines holding together any length of time...I've seen a few in the shop, they work ok for a couple of seasons of real world use and abuse, but pale in comparison to a real Honda, Briggs or Kohler engines.

[tylorechols]

Ron

I think this a great idea for the future of outboard racing. Thanks for the engineering and hard work I REALLY hope this works and we can make changes in the future. Thanks Ron

[Ron Hill]

6 Feet???

Yes! Very quickly unless you had at least a 6' opening front and rear.

Honda engines holding together any length of time...

6 inches? Fidencio was working on the cowling when I had the motor facing the other way. Now, I think the hole in the front, can force feet air through the starter area, like the motor is designed....

I also considered a scoop on the top.......Seems to me, if anyone where ever buy anything, it needs to look "TITS"....Cool sells!

[ricochet112]

Ron did you ask the motor manufacturer if they made a vertical crankshaft version of this motor, that used the same components, expect difficulty with communication but if you can find an engineering student at your local uni that speaks the same dialect, some of these manufacturers can be very helpful.

Vertical engines rely on the lawnmower blade for flywheel inertia, most have a light flywheel, some models made for pressure washers and log splitters have a heavy flywheel so the engine can be run stand alone.

[ricochet112]

6 inches? Fidencio was working on the cowling when I had the motor facing the other way. Now, I think the hole in the front, can force feet air through the starter area, like the motor is designed....

I also considered a scoop on the top.......Seems to me, if anyone where ever buy anything, it needs to look "TITS"....Cool sells!

Air cooled engines need a lot of airflow to cool properly, especially if they're going to have a high load, like a marine application will provide, and even more so when the engine is modified. I would be scared to not have at least a min 6-8 square inches of air intake and you would be cautioned not to idle for very long.

This over heating, especially at idle, was one of the factors that killed the Briggs & Stratton boat motor.

[seagull170]

This motor is a little big for an 18" or 22" cut lawnmower perhaps into the realm of small ride ons, don't they have clutchs & rely on the flywheel fan blades for cooling, so there's a good chance the flywheel is the same part number. A few years ago I watched an engineer at a construction hire company replace the crank, rod & piston in a Honda generator with parts stripped out of a clone as the whole motor was cheaper than new Honda parts, then a couple of years after I was told Honda was using the company to make their motors.
Have a look on the net at their workshop equipment, very few companys in the western world are prepared or can afford to make that level of investment in high tech machine centers.

I think we've got every right to be scared, while we were talking about it they got on & did it!

[ricochet112]

This motor is a little big for an 18" or 22" cut lawnmower perhaps into the realm of small ride ons, don't they have clutchs & rely on the flywheel fan blades for cooling, so there's a good chance the flywheel is the same part number. A few years ago I watched an engineer at a construction hire company replace the crank, rod & piston in a Honda generator with parts stripped out of a clone as the whole motor was cheaper than new Honda parts, then a couple of years after I was told Honda was using the company to make their motors.
Have a look on the net at their workshop equipment, very few companys in the western world are prepared or can afford to make that level of investment in high tech machine centers.

I think we've got every right to be scared, while we were talking about it they got on & did it!

Yes, most 8-10hp verticals and up have a heavy flywheel.

[ricochet112]

You are correct Ron, 6 inch hole.

[STEVE FRENCH]

At Hill Marine we sell a lot of hunting props called weedless for Mud Motors. I was working with one manufacture and he told me he had a 14 foot John Boat going 31 MPH with his mud motor on it. His mud motor was a 15 HP four stroke.

I got to thinking, if he could go 31 on a "JOHN BOAT", I should be able to go 40 MPH. SO, I build my own motor...

You Tube of the 31 MPH John Boat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZUtv...e_gdata_player

Best of luck Ron!....I was involved with try'n the Honda 15HP 4-stroke....It had potential.......this look's like YOU .....could make it werk!!!!.....I salute you!..........100N>

[Ron Hill]

I Have Always Been A Dreamer

When I was a little kid, I'd sit backward in our arm chair in our living room, and pretend it was a C Service Hydro. I would ride my trike down the street sounding like my brother's KR (A) motor, I even four cycled when I backed off.

We raced on TV for 39 weeks straight, I was on the Mickey Mouse Club Newsreel, we traveled the country.

Boat racing was always family friends and fun....Don Hagral saw me in Bay City, 1997 or 98. He had not seen me in 20 years. He told his friends and me, that I hadn't changed a bit.....I was still a kid. In April, I'll be 68.

Since Chad quit racing and teaching to run Hill Marine full time, our company has become a real company, we built more than 4,000 propellers last year not counting hunting (weedless mud Propellers) props.

I consider myself in "Management" BECAUSE I REALLY CAN'T DO MUCH IN THE WAY OF "REAL" WORK ANYMORE.

But, I do talk on the phone and email all the time. I listen to our customers, daily. There are D-IT- YOURSELFERS" out there.

The "COOL" part about selling "MUD MOTOR" propellers is that more than half of our customers have made there own motor. They buy parts (CASH), they buy a motor (cash), hey call and buy a PROP from Signature Propellers, for cash. Well, maybe credit card, but no bank loans. Small boats, with working people owning them.

After the war (WWII), the last war we won, my brother wanted to race, but there were NO MOTORS for sale. My dad bought 22 HANDY BILLIES FROM THE NAVY surplus. Handy Billies were Johnson Outboards with a water pump hooked to them to fight fires on Navy ships.

My dad made the patterns, for the exhaust stack, and the lower unit. My dad and brother built them a KR A themselves. I'm proud to say, my brother won the 1949 William Randolph Hearst Regatta, 32 A Hydros in that race, with the motor my dad and brother build.

I honestly feel, that there are thousands of people wanting to race boats, but are clueless how to get in, everything seems SO EXPENSIVE, so difficult. Big trailers are cool, but sometimes they scare off a guy that might want to carry his boat on top the car.

I'm not sure where this DIY Outboard will go, but I'm going to make a cast mid section, making clamp brackets, right now, saddle is finished. I plan to build more than one motor. I've bought a five boat trailer to haul these DIY outboards around.........We'll see. Thanks for the encouraging words, I wasn't too sure that I wouldn't be laughed out of town....here on Hydroracer.net

Here are a few pictures of my brother's 1949 A Hydro and motor. Rub Goldberg would have been proud of that water lines, but my dad and brother made them themselves, and they worked!

[Ron Hill]

I Did NOT Talk to A Manufacture

Ron did you ask the motor manufacturer if they made a vertical crankshaft version of this motor, that used the same components, expect difficulty with communication but if you can find an engineering student at your local uni that speaks the same dialect, some of these manufacturers can be very helpful.

When people are selling to Wal Mart and Harbor Freight, they won't answer an old fart who wants to buy ONE motor.


I do have disillusions of getting my DIY Outboard working, at least HALF-ASSED, then going to the motor manufacturer and seeing if they'd build a million of them.

BUT, I have a good friend who speaks Chinese, works for a Chinese firm, and he thinks, that unless we can sell a million, probably should just build them here....

Anyway, I didn't want a vertical shaft because I've seen belts work on Harley's and I don't see why they won't work on an outboard.

But, I did consider using the "A" OMC gearcase at $1,195 or the Yamato 302 gearcase at $350 plus or minus.....I decided, that a gearcase is too expensive for what I've been dreaming about...

There are a lot of parts out there for this vertical shaft motor....Racing flywheel, heavy duty valve springs, big carb......I'm going to make a billet valve cover......stamped metal ain't cool enough.

An "A" OMC gearcase does look cool. Tomorrow, I'll post my "BLUE PRINT" of the DIY Stage II.

[Rocket]

A "Do-It-Yourself" Outboard

You are right about the lower unit, there are much cheaper ways to make something for the prop shaft to run in ---also there are after market clone aluminum flywheels with cooling fins machined in them, they weigh only 3.3 lbs ---they cool so good you have to tape the vents on the starter shroud, engines will idle for hours that way. I don't think a cover for the motor would hurt the temp much especially with the engine being run at high rpms
----- it looks cool too.

[seagull170]

I think it's fairly safe to assume, that if there was a cheaper, simpler, more efficient way to transmit power from a motor mounted on top of the transom to a prop just below the surface of the water, one of the numerous outboard manufacturers that have existed over the last 110 years would have made a fortune from it.

The only possibility for that title would be the Thai long tailed motors, but the fear of lawers, stops the western world using them in a racing context. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRvVOMPtwiI

Lawers are like unguarded drive belts they both love their pound of flesh.
I find it hard to imaging how guarded belts, pulley wheels & the prop shaft with it's support bearings, could ever be as hydrodynamic as the ugliest fishing lower unit.

Wouldn't the cheapest way to solve this question be to bolt this powerhead onto a used 12 hp leg, machining an adapter plate & a drive shaft adapter & buying a 20 year old leg can't be that expensive.