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01-28-2023, 10:02 AM #10681
Ron Netzley
Our Evinrude Dealership was located on the Great Miami River in West Central Ohio. We were told we were the Southern most Dealers for Evinrude Snowmobiles.
Early in the 70's when Evinrude introduced a "Rotary Powered" snowmobile we ordered and received one of the 1st production models. When it arrived - engineers from the Dayton Ohio GM Plant
were there waiting to see it. After uncrating it ... they looked it over completely (especially the engine) and told us they'd be back in a couple days with a order for it and a check.
We went ahead and finished setting it up and put fuel in it and tried to start it ... it fired a couple times but after that it would only turn over. We called Evinrude right away and explained the problem and was told to meet "their airplane" at the Dayton International airport the next morning. An engineer would be there with a fresh new engine. He was and I took him to our dealership and he swapped out the engine. As he was doin it he told up they knew the first "production" motors would have trouble due to the assembly people not properly deburring the rotor housings and after a turn over the apex seals would be wiped out! They also knew GM was interested in it.
2 days later the GM Engineers were back with a truck, purchase order, and check. I learned a week or so later that they'd run it around in the snow some then disassembled the engine to "Check it out" They were at the time running their own Wankle type motors for possible use in the Vega Line of cars and wanted to compare their engine with OMC's. (By contract with Wankle thru Canada, OMC couldn't just sell them just a motor - GM had to purchase a whole sled to get it)
When they put it back together they clipped an ignition wire and called to see if I had a schematic they could use. I did and they came and got it so I had to ask "what do you think of that engine?" They told me they were sure they knew what wire they had clipped but just wanted to make sure ... and as far as the motor overall was concerned - they had thought "What does a Outboard Motor Company know that they at GM didn't? After running, and tearing the motor apart and putting it back together they said they had a Whole New Respecet for what the OMC people were doing!
Last I heard one of the GM people kept it for their own personal use .
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01-28-2023, 10:25 AM #106826000 RPM
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Wow - Great Rotary Story
I'll be waiting with baited breath to see how RJ responds to this post. The story is similar to what happens with commercial aircraft development. Airlines who bought both brands (Airbus & Boeing) would occasionally let us examine the competitors product. Take it apart? No. It's very interesting that GM went to Netzleys dealership directly? (paper trail). I'm surprised that OMC didn't freeze all purchase shipments if they knew about the burring problem? Sounds like OMC didn't take enough time to test and evaluate before opening the sales valve to dealerships.
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01-28-2023, 02:20 PM #106836000 RPM
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Interesting. One of the OMC Rotary Engineers; (Ralf Treadway) left OMC and went to work at GM on their rotary program. OMC was far ahead of anyone else in the world on Rotary engines. GM was the cause of the rotary family license breakup. This must have been one of the 150 preproduction sleds/engines that were sent out for evaluation. I was one of the engineers and I didn't go and I know the other 2 didn't also. Must have been a service tech. There is nothing to debur on the rotor has. so that wasn't the problem. The first units had a problem scuffing the side hsg. It was a startup issue and once the engine ran for awhile the problem went away. A molly spray was added to the first production to prevent this problem and was later solved with a special process to the side hsgs.
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01-28-2023, 08:16 PM #106846000 RPM
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The Reins On Brainpower
Intellectual property, knowledge and experience are nearly impossible to keep within the confines of one company. HR organizations are clueless when determining how to make staff reductions or keeping their engineers happy. Not a good idea to distribute preproduction units to dealerships! Who's idea was that?
Last edited by WaterZebra; 01-28-2023 at 08:23 PM.
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01-28-2023, 08:59 PM #10685
From Sea-Way Marine today.
Thanks Mike Nass.
Last edited by lars strom; 01-28-2023 at 09:02 PM.
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01-29-2023, 05:19 AM #106866000 RPM
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After 100 & 100's of hours testing in the lab and running Snow mobiles around on the grass, a pilot run of 150 engines and sleds were made and distributed to dealers in the snow belt free of charge to loan out to actual users. If I recall, none of those 150 had a problem, so I must be mistaken about the above comment. The engines actually had a seal on one of the thru bolts to know if they had been opened. Several of the high hour engines were torn apart after the test was completed to determine if any problems showed up. We were surprised that none of the engines showed any signs of wear or problems. In fact, they look so good not all of the 150 were taken apart. It was the initial production engines that had the scuffing problem. I seem to recall the "excitement" it caused and the sleepless nights trying to solve the problem. The side has. were cast out of high silicon aluminum with no additional wear coating. It seems that in the finishing of the side hsg. wear surface, aluminum was smeared over silicon carbide particles. When the engine was first run, the aluminum would wear off and expose the silicon. If the particle would dislodge from the base, you had carbide particles running around in the engine causing the scoring of the hsg. If no particles came loose in the initial running it would continue to run w/o problems. A molly strip along the outer edge where the button ran was added initially to solve the problem. OMC developed a secret finishing process that was used on latter engines that solved the problem and didn't require the molly strip.
Last edited by Rotary John; 01-29-2023 at 05:26 AM.
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lars strom thanked for this postlars strom, Jimboat liked this post
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01-29-2023, 08:12 AM #10687
More From Sea-Way Marine yesterday.
Thanks Mike Nass.
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01-29-2023, 08:58 AM #106886000 RPM
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01-29-2023, 12:15 PM #10689
Today January 29 is my best friend and wife's birthday. For over 33 years ago I asked Carina to leave Sweden for "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" in the USA.
Probably one of my best decision ever..!!
After many years of living in different fancy motor-homes, boats, ranch/farm, waterfront houses, condos, apartments we changed life style and Carina picked a simple Vibe for this winter.
Thanks, hugs and Happy Birthday Carina.
I was looking for one picture but could not pick the right one..here is a few
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01-29-2023, 12:32 PM #10690
Very proud of this..!!
Rune Månzon, the reporter at Swedish Daily News
wrote this front page story about my brother Lennart and me in May, 1990
Our UIM F3 "The Champ's" team Burgess/Evinrude boats looked like two Jumbo Jet 747..!!..according Rune..
Lennart and I was fancy dressed up to look alike at this promotion for our team.
Carina was our spoke person and we got plenty of attention.
Even more when Lennart was the winner of the Stockholm F3 GP a few weeks later. His older brother could not keep up with him at that time.
Great memories.
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01-29-2023, 05:19 PM #10691
Gina Campbell in her Hodges/Evinrude V8 Nottingham 1984.
Thanks Fast on Water.
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01-29-2023, 08:26 PM #10692
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01-29-2023, 08:37 PM #106936000 RPM
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lars strom thanked for this postlars strom liked this post
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01-29-2023, 08:43 PM #10694
More from Sea-Way Marine..
SST 60 and F1-V6?? class
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01-29-2023, 09:16 PM #10695
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Lake X Kid liked this post
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