Giving a Bezoat a Second Chance

[DeanFHobart]

Question for those in the know.
Is there any real safety benefit to running a higher cowl on the rh side like the more modern boat seem to run? I can’t see it doing much to stop a boat coming at you at speed. Or is this primarily a styling choice.

I would suggest keeping it the way it is.... Changing it would take the nostalgia out of the design. The cockpit sides and cowl are just fine in my opinion.... The cowls on runabouts are now sometimes higher or longer on the right side... but not necessarily on hydros.

[Carruthers]

The answer to someone’s post on boat measurements. The bottom width is 35” and transom height is 15 1/2” with a 1/4x 16” relief in the middle I am likely the one who Luc refers to as the boatbuilder

[Albert]

The answer to someone’s post on boat measurements. The bottom width is 35” and transom height is 15 1/2” with a 1/4x 16” relief in the middle I am likely the one who Luc refers to as the boatbuilder

You are the brains of this operation, the rest of us are just running sanders.

[ZUL8TR]

I believe you mean coaming not cowl. These days the left coaming is cut down (more than this boat was) to allow the driver to crouch low and lean into the Left Turn Only on the race course. So getting around the corner is faster while still keeping the sponsons clear of the water (takes practice with balance). No protection head on with higher right coaming, cut down left side protection reduced from hit on that side, right side protection better with high coaming but too high and left turn aero affected by side wind. Extra strength is the reason coamings are mostly carbon fiber plus wood in some designs.

All in all driving a hydro at high speed is inherently dangerous and safety equipment required at all times as well as a rescue boat and do not leave the good judgement and common sense at the shore.

As noted in my comment in #9.1 and Dean's post in #14 pattern that cowl. To do the deck correctly it needs to be removed so the deck can be installed underneath the cowl edge that contacts the deck. If not the blend will be a poor fit requiring filler.

[ZUL8TR]

The answer to someone’s post on boat measurements. The bottom width is 35” and transom height is 15 1/2” with a 1/4x 16” relief in the middle I am likely the one who Luc refers to as the boatbuilder

Assuming the 15.5" transom is vertical not slant dimension assumed taken from outside the tunnel bottom that will require about a 1" shim to get the Y80 at 1/2" depth of the level prop shaft below the bottom (not the tunnel). Final fit and testing will probably change this shim thickness. I would add about 3/8" to the transom as a permanent piece because the Y80 does not have deep clamps like the 302 and you do not want the 80 clamped too close to the top of the transom to prevent low orbit engine ejection ;-) That safety thing again.

[Albert]

Pete,
I think you’re right on a couple of counts here. Firstly I was confusing cowl for coaming. In fact I went to grab this picture from earlier this summer of two of Carruthers boats for comparison, but your right the difference does seem to be more on the LH side then the hight of the the RH side. Here’s a picture of an 80’s Carruthers boat compared to a present day.
I think the ticket might be just a little more room on the Rh side, as I did find myself getting over far enough to have my elbow resting on the decking at times.



As for safety, all Motorsports involve some risk, other than the additional danger of a prop which I don’t see being much more dangerous than a snowmobile track spinning at 100mph with 200 carbide tip studs in it rolling over you, or even coming off a motorcycle at speed. At least on the water the only thing you need to worry about is hitting other boats.

As for safety gear if anyone has a good used cut suit or expired lifeline vest for a 5’10 Frenchman who weighs in at about 170lbs shoot me a message. Last weekend I tried a few boats with a helmet and proper borrowed life jacket but If I was on the water with a full contingent of boats I think I wouldn’t mind the proper gear.

[bh/]

-we have a '70s BZ being restored in Ottawa, a 'shovel-nose' , x/Jeff Hutchins. Oddly enough, it came out of southern NS.

[Albert]

Brian,
Feel free to throw up a picture or two.
As I said in my first post in this thread, outboard racing was once very popular out here ( as I understand it was across North America) guess I just missed it’s hay-day by 40 years or so.

[bh/]

Brian,
Feel free to throw up a picture or two.
As I said in my first post in this thread, outboard racing was once very popular out here ( as I understand it was across North America) guess I just missed it’s hay-day by 40 years or so.

SSOA runs 4/5 races /yr , most within 200 miles of the NB border. BZ, search on this site under 'TomSki', about 4 months ago, for pics and comment on his 70s BZ.

[Albert]

Brian,
You are the third person in as many weeks to mention the ssoa to me.
Carruthers has attended some of those races in the past with some success, and I believe 31-ce out of Nova Scotia has as well.
Won’t commit to being able to make it out next year, but it looks like Standish is only about 6.5 hours away.
Who knows in a year or two we may be having some of our American cousins come up here instead.

Also just looked it up, looks like Tomsky did a beautiful job on his boat.

[Albert]

Also looked up Tomskys rebuild, looks like he did a beautiful job.

[Albert]

I’m sure it’s mundane to you folks but my 80 is rings and final torque away from being a complete power head. Hopefully they will arrive before the weekend. For today I had to settle on making some performance (by which I mean yellow) plug wires as the old ones were trashed.

[deeougee]

Your running resistor wire and caps. Plugs too? Your engine is a points motor. No need and nor do you want resistor components on that engine to get the most spark and performance out of it. A word on resistor components on combustion engines that aren’t automotive. They are not the same. Automotive wire cores are made of carbon and fibreglass and are a poor choice for use on 2 stroke engines. It should be a wire core, copper, stainless, etc. a core that is highly conductive. Suppression is used on cdi engines for a variety of reasons related to electrical frequency feedback. You need to check your ignition components often because they corrode and you lose spark. Wire ends should be cut back from time to time to ensure you have a clean non corroded contact with the coil and cap. Spark plugs are disposable components also, so change them out frequently also, I would suggest indexing them also.

[ZUL8TR]

Luc

That 80 looks like it has a 14mm head by the plugs 1/2 out and no visible 18 to 14 mm reducer, that is good. When you get it all apart to ring it do the alignment of the block to the exhaust and that combination flat to the tower and set the megaphone parallel to the tower top. I set the meg to be a about 0.004 above the tower flat to allow for gasket squeeze to get a better seal. Also check the head for flatness which goes a long way to seal it on the block.

The manual is on Ric Montoya's site and explains the alignment of these pieces.

Inspect the cam on the points for a crack near the key way slot, vulnerable area for a crack here, how do I know this? They relocated the slot on the 102 what were they thinking on the 80???. The cams are made of unobtanium if you find one for reasonable $$$ grab it.

[deeougee]

14mm heads are easy to spot on the y80 since the head is flat around the plugs versus recessed around the plugs on the 18mm

[Albert]

It was already all appart, this is just a quick mock up while waiting for rings to come in.


Had to get a new rod so it got new rod bearings and crank bearings while we were in there. Unfortunately the thing and probably some of the needle bearings made their way over the piston and really did a number on the small plug head. I’m still trying to polish out all the damage but I think I’ve got it to a state where it’s going to be salvageable. It may not cc out to exactly what the other cylinder does...but it will be close enough to run.

[Albert]

102554301_246348659994308_5091220829891514786_n.jpg 118681838_142890660828633_6248245036277710102_n.jpg 118651147_1220784221617652_2240862115677960832_n.jpg Still waiting on rings to arrive so I thought I would share some of the carnage from the motor side of the project. This was apparently a strong running 80 until the rod bearing let go, as you can see by the photo above some bearing material or possibly a piece of ring made it over the piston and played pinball. When I bought the motor it came with a 18mm replacement head. The 18mm head also had some pitting in the chamber, although no where near as bad, but it also looked like it had been decked quite a bit. Either way I decided to try and clean up the combustion chamber on the 14mm head.
The pictures speak for themselves, will this cylinder be down a little power...likely. But with no sharp spots to cause knock it should be safe to run. I'm about 80 percent done polishing. Need to level off a few high spots, but I'm pleased with how its come out considering the moonlike cratered surface I started with.