Tillotson converters from butterfly to flatslide carbs?

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

Recently heard that on Ebay someone was making and selling some kind of carb mount kit that could convert butterfly carbs like Tillotson to slide throttle from butterfly increasing air/fuel flow by some 15%??

Evidentally you remove the throttle shafts and stopper those holes along with the removal of the butterfly. With that done you bolt the carb to the flatside throttle body mount that is all less than 1/2 inch thick that uses braided cable pull actuation and your off to the races with this flatslide conversion for what was a butterfly carb. Kind of cool, a flatslide Tillotosn KC carb with ajustable low and high speed jet needles!! Anyone one have a picture or any information on the makers of this gadget?

[daveswaves]

Hey John, did you know they named a school after you in WPG.
Doesn't sound like a difficult fabrication for the slide plate, why not make your own?:)

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

In my sordid youth in the off season on boatracing (winter) I was a martial arts freak whose couple of girlfriends, a couple of martial arts freaks too at the time went to John Taylor Collegiate in what was the City of St. James at the time! :)

And yes only a couple of blocks away here in Valley Gardens district they accuse me of having a street named for me because I was bribed by the local counsellor when I moved into the area so I wouldn't run for public office but I tell you all it is all untrue! :)

I agree that those slide throttle base attachments can be attempted now that I have seen some pictures of them. All it takes is a decent milling machine, some good fly cutters, borers, setup and some good aluminum, brass and hard plastic stock with some Konig rotary barrel concepts to look at to make a rotary carb barrel flat in operation and your off and running to some prototypes to try to get to some standarized ones at the end. The only question remains if any rule will let you use them and where? Some 15% increase in efficient carb velocity is nothing to sneeze at.

[daveswaves]

In my sordid youth in the off season on boatracing (winter) I was a martial arts freak whose couple of girlfriends, a couple of martial arts freaks too at the time went to John Taylor Collegiate in what was the City of St. James at the time! :)

And yes only a couple of blocks away here in Valley Gardens district they accuse me of having a street named for me because I was bribed by the local counsellor when I moved into the area so I wouldn't run for public office but I tell you all it is all untrue! :)

I agree that those slide throttle base attachments can be attempted now that I have seen some pictures of them. All it takes is a decent milling machine, some good fly cutters, borers, setup and some good aluminum, brass and hard plastic stock with some Konig rotary barrel concepts to look at to make a rotary carb barrel flat in operation and your off and running to some prototypes to try to get to some standarized ones at the end. The only question remains if any rule will let you use them and where? Some 15% increase in efficient carb velocity is nothing to sneeze at.

John, we all had a sordid youth in St. James. I grew up there when the sign at Polo Park said "Welcome to Sunny St. James", you couldn't get to Charleswood from there unless you went to the perimiter or all the way back to polo park. I went to Silver Heights collegiate and had friends at JT.

I think 15% may be overstating it, granted you don't the shaft in the way but when the butterfly is wide open the two resulting "halfs" will increase the velocity as well due to the narrowing of the passage at that point. You would have to but both on a flow bench to see. Certainly a cool factor though.
The other thing to consider is that the slide body is effectively a spacer for the carb and may be influencing the velocity as well. As far as rules go I would think it would be considered a spacer.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

At the time I lived there from the begiining of the 1970s and got married I used to live in Crestview with my backyard facing on to Saskatchewan Avenue!! Had an office downtown so going to work with the sun in your face each way was no fun. When Oldsman's Creek would flood I was cut off a Ness and at Portage so had to go around the city perimeter highway just to get back downtown again. Thats why I moved to the North East against CAN-USA highway 59. Easy to get to mother-in-laws and easy to get to Selkirk and elsewhere handly to test or race etc.

Where were you when there was racing on stock outboard until 1983? In any case nothing has improved much here in this city other than people wanting more instant gratifications and having virulent cases of the "greeds"! Still!

I know that its a spacer in reality even if it contols throttle but I have this thing for Merc 44 FE Mods and after talking to Tim Kircz about his building 4 carb versions of that motor I am looking at anything that could be developed that could enhance a 3rd ported 44 block other than just a velocity stack on each carb to help ram it more, so you see my interest in those slide throttle gadgets? :)

[daveswaves]

John, I have seen your back fence, That was me racing around on my snowmobile in 70 71 sorry about that. I used to skate on Sturgeon Creek in the Winter and fish by the Woodhaven culverts in the summer. Left Winnipeg in 71 for Toronto, lived all over Canada since, and Winnipeg twice since, 92 and 95-98. Job brought me back east in 99 after an auto accident, broke my back. Took early retirement so now my speed is less than 60 in my bass boat. Never officially raced, but in true flat lander spirit if we could bolt an engine on it and make it go we tried it. In the 60's That included aircraft engines on 3 ski crafts behind which we ski,d on a tow rope on the Assinaboine river in January. The same engine got bolted onto a flat barge during flood time. Straight pipes and a pusher prop boy were we popular!
If it had a motor we played with it. At one point we peeled the tires off a Volkswagon microbus and welded skis on the front rims and gave it a run down the river.

Still play with engines today, my current passion is inline 6 mercs from the 70,s, I actually run one on my bass boat, can't beat the sound.
Trust me I understand the need for speed and the tweaking of engines.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

If you also knew Johnny MacKay, Donny Bayes or Nancy Schmidt or Cheryl Johnson yhen you would know some of the crowd I was with martial arts wise during winter since I was 17. They were all St. James people and a lot of fun. They all thought I was nutz and living too dangerously using raceboats. Don't know where they are these days but all over the place is quite true.

You did the weird and wonderful back then, I thought people on snowmo sleds were taking things a bit extreme! LOL!

You like big Mercs? I am going to complete that second Merc Twister this spring. Wanting a deathwish is clamping that thing on some bass boat to see who can get to the best fishing grounds first plus with its exhaust the poor guys behind ya would be holding their ears all the way tjhere and back while you washed them with the roostertail until some V-6 redneck elephant motor challenged you!

[daveswaves]

I'm running pretty simple and stock right now, well a few mods, but basically a Merc 1150 with added trim and tilt, stainless 20 p Lazer 11 prop on an 18.5 foot aluminum bass boat. I run electric fuel pump and fuel pressure regulator to keep those old carbs in line. Typically run 55 MPH which is all my back can take these days! I just sign up for the derby early so the Elephant motors have to listen to my exhaust. Shotgun start you know! Working on modding an inline 6 that will be more extreme.:) As a daily driver I will probably end up with a 140 powerhead on my existing lower end. Love the T2x, couple of guys I know on another merc forum are building a couple, one in Finland, one in Washington state.

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

A good dozen years ago a local here built a Popular Merchanics tunnel boat that was setup for a OMC Stinger 75. He made his a twin seat one behind the driver effort and then someone or he did talked himself into getting some kind of pseudo Merc Twister on it and before it ever hit the water he had a Merc V-6 put together on a racing tower and Super Speedmaster that was way over the top of that boat design. The first day he tried it he barrel rolled it the first time he turned it and it, the G-force snap of the turn and then the boat tripping broke his neck killing him. The inquiry found the helmet was too heavy for his neck and he didn't use a neck collar to limit helmet travel either were some contributoring factors. The biggest of all was here was pure amateur with a horribly over powered under engineered boat meant for a third of the horsepower he gave it. What an experiment?

[daveswaves]

Thats why I only go under 60 and I prefer to have air under only 75% of my boat. Im keeping that extra 25% for me. Already broke my back and only have 1 vertebrae left in my neck that moves.:)

[John (Taylor) Gabrowski]

A nice weekend do nothing drive is to put a Merc 500 short shaft ski/fishing engine with custom speed prop on my restored Class F Chaparral hydro with that 3 gallon tank of gas and drive around at 55+ mph with terrific gas milage from the planning hydro, like about 1 hours worth. Testing Merc 3 Holer 2 carb engines though put things the other way around! The engines would burn the top cylinder way before that hour ever came close leaving you plently of gas in the tank instead! Boy those 3 Holer Merc/Mariner direct charged 2 carb engines are lemons! What were they thinking? Put a Merc 44 FE 4port, finger ported engine on it, now that is a cat of a very different color again! :)