Dad's Original FA-1 Restoration

[J-Dub]

By popular demand, I will start the restoration on my Dad's FA-1 engine he bought new from Quincy. It hasn't been started in more than 40 years, and it's plenty locked up with caster. I am gonna pour a little (Okay, BS, a lot) of gasoline and Marvel oil down its gizzard, we'll see what happens in the next couple days...

J-Dub

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[Master Oil Racing Team]

This is gonna be great J-Dub. The motor actually looks great from the outside, but that castor oil on the inside can be tough. I always preferred lacquer thinner to cut it. If you run into some bolts that are very tough to extract and need a little something extra, let me know.

[smittythewelder]

Not only are the pipes, the megaphones, different with what we're guessing are pre-production pieces, but the elbows too. The elbows mounted on the engine are the standard early model elbows. I just don't remember if I ever saw your dad or grandpa run an engine with those real early ones mounted, J Dub.

BTW, the discussion really makes me miss your dad, and Bill, too, and your grandma. I saw your dad and talked with him at some event or other a few years ago, but the image of him that's in my mind's-eye when I think of him, and of Bill, is from they days when they ran those engines. Them, and their hydros and runabouts of the '60s, I remember all that like I could reach out and touch it. Fun days, fine people. Tell your mom hello from me (though I'm not sure she would have seen much of me unless she was working registration or scoring regularly).

[champ20B]

That's a great looking powerhead! One thing for sure is that castor residue is really gummy and your rings will be stuck unable to pop out of the piston grooves after removal from the cylinders. To remedy this, I always used pure dish detergent and soaked the pistons for about a week. Every day, I would try and move the rings in and out a bit at a time without breaking them. Eventually, they get free.

[Tim Weber]

I didn't believe this until I tried it.

An old time alky racer told me a great way to loosen up a castor stuck motor. I picked up a PR a number of years ago and it was stuck real good.
He said pour some mixed methanol and castor fuel in it. So, I set it on the back of the cylinders and filled the crank case up with fuel and let it sit for a couple of days. Well the fuel began to leak out of the exhaust after a while and I was able to begin to rotate the motor over. Once I got it moving, then I took a squirt can and sprayed fuel in the spark plug holes.
That was the motor I ran it Kingston this past year.

JW, it would be way cool to bring that motor to Kingston this year.

Tim

[Master Oil Racing Team]

Makes sense Tim. The best way to clean up old gummed up Master Oil is to put a fresh coat on top and leave it, then come back in a day or so and wipe it all off. Baby oil or some other oil is much better to clean off tar than using soap and water. So your formula sounds like something good to try.

[champ20B]

soaking in pure dish detergent really cuts grease.....(ie; pots "N" pans).

Mineral spirits may work well too on old castor oil. As a long time artist, my oil paints are primarily lindseed or safflower oil and I use low odor spirits to clean my brush. It works fast and clean.

[DeanFHobart]

J-Dub,

I was at the first race that your dad brought out this motor.... It was at Lake Sammamish in the spring... 1963, or 1964, I think. And, as if i remember your Grandpa Bill also got one.... but I think a little later. Maybe he got a "B".

Deano............................................. ..............................

[J-Dub]

Deano............................................. .....

Thanks for that information. I did not know exactly when he got it. However Dad got a B Looper for himself (FB-6) I would guess in a similar timeframe. I do know Grandpa usually ran a B Deflector, which I had no idea my Dad still had until about a year ago. I too is Caster locked up and likely hasn't been run in probably 45 years or more. I bet Howard Shaw could shed a little light on this... I will reach out to him,

J-Dub

[DeanFHobart]

J-Dub,

Talk to Wayne Seeberg..... He has De-Castored several Stuck Alky motors...... I can't remember what "Solvent" he used. But he has had good results.

Deano............................................. ...................................

[J-Dub]

Just got'r loosened up! Just let it sit with Gasoline in it over night and a 4' pry bar did the trick!:mad: JUST KIDDING!!!!:rolleyes: Thank you all for the suggestions! I had given one last try prior to going to Ace Hardware to pick up some Lacquer thinner.

[smittythewelder]

My guess is that your dad got his first looper(s) over the winter of 1965-66. I started racing in '65, and as I recall it there was big excitement over the new two and four-cylinders over the winter and the next season. And Konigs; Don Hansen got himself a new four-carb (pre-rotary-valve engine) D Konig and a beautiful new Goff hydro and showed it at Clark Marshall's "Custom Auto, Hot Boat, and Speed Show," at the Seattle Center Colosseum during the next winter, '66-'67. I don't think Howard Shaw ran a looper until '69, because (I think) it was on a little Machetti I sold him at the end of '68. In '65, Howard Anderson was still running Merc deflector engines (on a couple of Dave Karelsen's "Fine-Craft" hydros), and he would have been among the first to get loopers, which is why my guess is 1966 for the first year those engines were raced out here. Certainly could be wrong, however.

[J-Dub]

So I asked Howard Shaw a couple questions about the timeline of the engine as my Dad and Howard raced together for years.

"Wow long time ago I want to say it was 1964, I bought my B looper in 67 and I ran ASR for 2 years prior to getting my first quincy motor.

He ran it on the Jonney come lately Hydro then he got the cab over karelson hydro “the rev n newer” and we all ran B hydro and runabout with them.

Your correct Bill ran the deflector B most of the time.



Howard "

[smittythewelder]

Well, I phoned Howard last night. I asked him if the Marchetti hydro I sold him was the first and only boat on which he ever ran his B Looper, and he said yes it was. I said that in that case, since I sold him that boat near the end of 1968 (something I do know for sure), he did not run his looper until 1969 (not '67, as he recalled when you talked to him). He agreed with that, said he refinished the boat (to Myers green), put it in the Clark Marshall show that winter, and raced it during the 1969 season.

He said his impression of when your dad and grandpa started running loopers is for some earlier year than I think, but admits that his memory of it is pretty hazy. So I'm sticking with '66, for now. Howard thinks that Bob Waite had the first four-cylinder looper in the area, and maybe the first looper of any size, but I don't think Waite would have got it much sooner than your dad got his first looper, if at all. Now this might not be right, but my memory is that he got the loopers in the same year he bought the "Revenoor" cabover Karelsen, and I'm sure that was in 1966. I bought a new BSH for that season, and thought it was about the coolest-looking boat ever until I saw Ed finishing up the first of the two of those A/B cabovers, which went to Lee Sutter and/or Ron Anderson.

Does Paul Christner have any sales records? That could settle the question, if it matters.