Facts about Evinrude/Johnson racing outboards made my OMC

[WaterZebra]

The path from the bell mouth to the end of the megaphone is what they are compensating for although not quite making up the difference if its thats simple.
Mr Brucato was the man behind this

Brucato sold the spacers as an accessory to his system but I never understood what they were for? Compliments to Andersson for doing the R&D to make them work. Earlier comment about the "little guy"...........some teams have deep pockets and simply write the checks to pay for the results. You can accomplish anything you want if you throw enough money at it.

[powerabout]

Brucato sold the spacers as an accessory to his system but I never understood what they were for? Compliments to Andersson for doing the R&D to make them work. Earlier comment about the "little guy"...........some teams have deep pockets and simply write the checks to pay for the results. You can accomplish anything you want if you throw enough money at it.

What are you referring to there, everyone is using them and have since Merc started selling Brucatos design 25 yrs ago

[lars strom]

Christmas 1954 – A Year To Celebrate


1954 had been a banner year with Johnson building outboards 24-hours a day in three shifts. Two milestone motors were at the heart of this consumer excitement: the revolutionary “quiet” Sea-Horse 5½ hp, which would outsell every other model of outboard made in a single year in industry history to that date, and the new electric start Sea-Horse 25.

[Instigator]

My dads first real pleasure boat was a 18’ plywood cuddy w/twin 25 hp E-Rudes.

I was very young at the time but clearly remember one being pull start (a ‘53) and one being electric start (a ‘54)!

As luck would have it, he only had trouble w/one starting and it was the rope start!

They we’re tough enough to pull (Ive owned a couple) start that if it didn’t start on the first or second pull, you were in trouble!

One weekend my brother (10 yrs older than me) brought one of his high school buddies, who was a body builder.

When that motor didn’t want to start, my brother and dad were excited to turn the body builder loose on the starter rope.

He broke the starter rope on the first pull!

I remember on mine, I kept in perfect tune and told my skiing partner if it didn’t start on the 2nd or 3rd pull you were doing something wrong!

That was at the end of the rope start era and would have people approach me at the ramp to tell me they knew I wished I had an electric start.

Id smile, not say a word, pump the pressure tank a couple more times and start it on the first pull ��

Christmas 1954 – A Year To Celebrate


1954 had been a banner year with Johnson building outboards 24-hours a day in three shifts. Two milestone motors were at the heart of this consumer excitement: the revolutionary “quiet” Sea-Horse 5½ hp, which would outsell every other model of outboard made in a single year in industry history to that date, and the new electric start Sea-Horse 25.

[Muskoka2]

I believe Brendon Powers in Fla is building a bunch of them.


looks to still be 2.5 based but I’m sure with as much billet unbotanium that oil money can buy!

And Alex Hledin up in Hudson Quebec does Rusty Wyatts and I thing Bartek Marszelek's! His brother Peter runs Skater! Alex is a dentist by day and mad 2.5 scientist by nite & on weekends!

[WaterZebra]

And Alex Hledin up in Hudson Quebec does Rusty Wyatts and I thing Bartek Marszelek's! His brother Peter runs Skater! Alex is a dentist by day and mad 2.5 scientist by nite & on weekends!

Alex Hledin cooked up a giant 3 butterfly 2.5 inlet that at WOT literally opened up the entire reed gallery of the engine. It made Brucato's rig look like a coffee straw. It was great for quick reed cage inspection............just mash down on the throttle. I don't know if Hledlin's stuff ever made it on OMC engines but Wayne Taylor's MAD EFI equipment sure did and Velden was a customer.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

Hledin has been at it a long time. I figured he would be retired by now. He did work for Seebold a long time ago.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

There were two people in South Carolina back in the day that could build and modify OMC race engines that would match anything OMC could put out. D.F. Jenkins cross flow V-4's were legendary for being giant slayers. Earl Bentz early success was powered by Jenkins engines. Also, Dan 'Pop' Piggott was another engine wizard who built some wicked fast OMC 3 cylinder engines. 'Pop' was charging $1500.00 in 1982 for his 3 cylinder powerhead modification service. You supplied the powerhead.

[Muskoka2]

Hledin has been at it a long time. I figured he would be retired by now. He did work for Seebold a long time ago.

Over 80 I believe!

[WaterZebra]

Hledin has been at it a long time. I figured he would be retired by now. He did work for Seebold a long time ago.

The only way you could buy Hledlin's stuff was thru Seebold

[WaterZebra]

There were two people in South Carolina back in the day that could build and modify OMC race engines that would match anything OMC could put out. D.F. Jenkins cross flow V-4's were legendary for being giant slayers. Earl Bentz early success was powered by Jenkins engines. Also, Dan 'Pop' Piggott was another engine wizard who built some wicked fast OMC 3 cylinder engines. 'Pop' was charging $1500.00 in 1982 for his 3 cylinder powerhead modification service. You supplied the powerhead.

What kind of work did they do to these engines?

[lars strom]

Merry Skee-Horse Christmas


By the early 1960’s OMC was highly diversified. Its varied divisions were building: diving compressors, tent campers, snow blowers, all-terrain vehicles, golf & commercial carts, turf equipment, chain saws and boats. In 1964, they added snowmobiles to this diverse list.

OMC’s Sled Ride – OMC made three brands of snowmobiles, OMC Snow Cruiser (Canada), Evinrude Skeeter & Johnson Skee Horse (US), which were introduced in winter of 1965. OMC was the first manufacturer to use a 2-stroke engine with opposing twin-cylinders in their sleds. It had a neutral gear for ease of starting, not common for the 1960's. The sleds weighed 369 lb, which was 100 lb more than most other snowmobiles at the time and had a hard time in deep snow due to the weight. They could reach a speed of 30 mph, and were reliable in all situations, uncommon in the 1960's - except for deep snow. Over time, through constant improvement the sleds became considerably more sophisticated and provided better performance.

1968 Christmas Ad – As mentioned in the ad below, several upgrades were made for the 1968 models including more horsepower.

[Mark Poole ModVP]

I never heard exactly what the secrets of Jenkins V-4's were. There were rumors that he figured out how to cut slots into the sleeves, designing his own type of finger porting on these engines which would have been some trick on a cross flow. As far as Mr. Piggott's 3 cylinder mods, I heard he cut additional power ports in the sleeves and pistons as well as coming up with port timing figure that worked really well for sprint racing. Pop would never talk about what he knew. If you wanted to know what he did you had to pay the money for his work.

[WaterZebra]

I never heard exactly what the secrets of Jenkins V-4's were. There were rumors that he figured out how to cut slots into the sleeves, designing his own type of finger porting on these engines which would have been some trick on a cross flow. As far as Mr. Piggott's 3 cylinder mods, I heard he cut additional power ports in the sleeves and pistons as well as coming up with port timing figure that worked really well for sprint racing. Pop would never talk about what he knew. If you wanted to know what he did you had to pay the money for his work.

As I have said before..............you can accomplish anything you want if you throw money at it. I'm surprised that Jenkins and Piggott's work were not reverse engineered into other OMC engines. OMC probably knew about it but their modifications were not cost effective for model production.

[2us70]

I raced against D F Jenkins in the 1966 Orange Bowl 9 Hour race. They were almost as fast as the OMC factory supported boat that won the single engine outboard class. They were from tidewater country in South Carolina. The boats were often named "Wild Geechee".