Team Evinrude Motor: H.E. Burgess

[Ron Hill]

Not sure about this motor...First time I raced for Evinrude, we had these cowlings....

Great looking motor, ain't she? He bought Jimbo McConnell's cleaver to go on it...

Lawn-Boy Lawn Mowers was owned by Briggs and Stratton....Jim Briggs, at one time, was the largest stock holder in OMC (Johnson and Evinrude)...

[brichter]

.....Does that say 253 "HP"???


I wonder if this engine has the factory-fabricated steel dry stacks that aim straight down?
if so I'd like to see a picture of the setup.

[Ron Hill]

http://www.boatracingfacts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=120&highlight=Miami&page=10 Jimbo's Story...

Jimbo almost won the Miami Gold Coast Marathon in August of 1969, in a boat Jack Leek had designed and Wilbur M McDonald built...But Jimbo broke a crank late in the race. Scotti went on to win in a Molinari...

I ran a Sea Jay and I broke a crank early in the race... Seems to me, my motor looked just like this one only it was EVINRUDE tan/gray...

On the way home to Waukegan (My summer home was really at Hedund Marine Sports in Willemette)...... I got to thinking about how hot my motor was.. and how my dad always made our modified motors squirt water out the top of the blocks...

When I got to Wakegan I asked Leeky Jack...(Jack Leek) what they'd figured out...as we drove for three days and he had flown...Jack got one of those looks......If you knew him, you know the look...It was like, "Well, no, in fact I've got no idea...but I sure as hell ain't going to tell you that...look"....

I said, "I don't care what you figured out, I figured out the trouble...Jimbo and Scotti were fastest and lasted the longest....I was slowest and last the least laps.....Faster boats got more water pressure, motor stayed cooler...You need to not take the water off the bottom of the block...Need to take it off the top... (We had had trouble splitting the water lines on the wings. So, they just started dumping the water out the bottom of the block...). (See where the water outlets are on this Evinrude???

We got on another subject or three, had a few drinks....

Next morning, I'm at engineering and Mouse smiles at me...10 o'clock is early for a NON-Employee...I say, "Mouse, what are you doing...?" He says, making some water line restrictors, the blocks didn't have any water in them... So, I was right I say...Mouse looks at me as if to say...YOU WERE RIGHT?????

In all the years my dad and I worked with OMC, we never got credit for anything.....My dad did get a letter from Yamaha Outboards, once, thanking him for helping them with a rod problem....But from OMC, NOTHING!!!!

Anyway, I'd bet this was one of the motors Team Evinrude and Team Johnson ran at Miami's Gold Coast Marathon. August 1969.. The GT-115 and X-115 came out in 1967...but these were 100 inchers, pre Strangler and pre Super Stranglers, per 8 carb...Hand built with old cowlings and mid sections...

That morning in Waukegan, the drawings were being altered for the Strangler's exhaust, to have water come off the top of the header....

[Allen J. Lang]

Hi Ron, you say you ran a Sea Jay in that race.Do you have any pictures? Sea Jay didn't show anything in it's catalog except pictures of stock, pro and pleasure runabouts. I had heard they had built a few hydros,but, hadn't heard of any others. I ran a CU Sea Jay in the northeast in the 60s. Loved that boat.
Ye Olde Desert Geezer :cool:

[Ron Hill]

Somebody posted pictures of the Galveston Speed Classic where Johnny Sanders was wrecking a new Switzer (Black) Wing... I explained that the rev limiters caused several crashes that day, including me piling up our DeSilva Wing...

Bill Wiles from Kansas City, Missouri.....I think that is where Bill was from, had a Merc on a Sea Jay and won the Single enigne class that same weekend...OMC had mostly twins at the time, but were running singles in Europe...

Jimbo had tested my "WING" on Thursday and said it would go 89 MPH, we'd added a big sponson fin to make the corners at Galveston....I flew in, and Saturday morning I was anxious to test...So was Sanders...We both roared out of the pits together and I was kind of chasing Johnny, when he went "*** OVER TEA KETTLE"... I looked down at my Keller Speedometer and I was doing 92....MPH. I thought Jimbo must not have run this boat very hard as this thing handles great with the sponson fin...I see Johnny out of the corner of my eye, when all of a sudden the *** end of my boat is in front of me...

I come out of the seat like a cork out of a "POP GUN" and start tumbing over and over in the water on the third bounch, I see my watch leaving my wrist...In mid air, I grab my watch and pull it back on, cutting my finger...When the patrol boat pulls up they ask if I'm "OK"? I say, "Yes but I've cut my finger pulling my watch on..." They radio in that the driver may have a head injury!!!!

We thrash around and put on two new motors and duct tape the mother together.....We run two laps and break a crank.... We take the motors off the boat, THROW them in the OMC truck...We leave with a "SEEYA JACK"...On the way to the airport, my dad, Brother George, and I decide it's time to take Mercury's offer.."

Monday, I get home from school, Jack Leek has called 8 times... He says...We have new motors planned, we have the budget and I have orders for you not to race for Mercury....Go buy yourself two new boats....We'll have motors by Havasu...But get something for Miami in the mean time...a single...

I called Sea Jay the next morning and order a boat, told the OMC would pay... I raced it once and never saw it again! (Except we did pull it back from Miami to Waukegan...) It was way heavy and well built, Scotti was starting to build boats....the Sea Jay was no match for a Molinari or Scotti...

DeSilva Wing picture..

The Hallett is the other boat we ordered...Best finish in the Hallett was second, lost by a foot, after 9 hours...

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

Not sure about this motor...First time I raced for Evinrude, we had these cowlings....

Great looking motor, ain't she? He bought Jimbo McConnell's cleaver to go on it...

Lawn-Boy Lawn Mowers was owned by Briggs and Stratton....Jim Briggs, at one time, was the largest stock holder in OMC (Johnson and Evinrude)...

Ron,

Lawn-Boy was never owned by Briggs & Stratton. Although S.F. Briggs was the founder of Briggs & Startton with Fred Stratton, he sold all his interests except his key lock patent that is used in all cars today, when he founded Outboards Motors Corp. bringing in Ole Evinrude with his Elto line, bought Johnson, Lockwood Ash & ultimately Evinrude from the owners who bought it from Ole. Not sure of the year, Evinrude built a self propelled Reel type mower ith a single tiller type handle, It was called a Lawn-Boy. Many years later OMC bought the Iron Horse Company in Lamar, MO. They manufactured rotary mowers & made their own engines. When the Gale Outboards & internal combustion engine refrigerators & washing machines all ceased to be produced in Galesburg,IL the Iron Horse line, now known as Lawn-Boy moved to Galesburg. Never owned by B & S.

[Bunker Hill]

As a kid I heard the Lawn-Boy story as one of irony!
I think what Ron meant was it1s rather ironic that a founder of the largest lawn mower manufacturer was now the number one share holder in a company (OMC) that built a competitive product (Lawn-Boy) If I am not mistaken, there were some 2 stroke Lawn-Boy models built by OMC

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

As a kid I heard the Lawn-Boy story as one of irony!
I think what Ron meant was it1s rather ironic that a founder of the largest lawn mower manufacturer was now the number one share holder in a company (OMC) that built a competitive product (Lawn-Boy) If I am not mistaken, there were some 2 stroke Lawn-Boy models built by OMC

Bunker,

ALL & I mean All Lawn-Boy Lawn Mowers were 2 cycle. They could mow on side hills & always have lubrication. How do I know so much about Lawn-Boy, I was their National Service manager for 19 years then the Toro Company bought us from OMC. They continued 2 strokes until recently, now Lawn-Boy mowers use 4 stroke engines. Not the same.

[Tomtall]

I still have one. You can mow and fog for masqetos at the same time. They really did run well if you new how to start them. Most people overprimed them and then swore alot.

Because they no longer make them John does that mean I have a collectable? :D

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

I still have one. You can mow and fog for masqetos at the same time. They really did run well if you new how to start them. Most people overprimed them and then swore alot.

Because they no longer make them John does that mean I have a collectable? :D

I wouldn't go that far. I have mine as well & as long as I use the ashless 2cycle oil @32:1 (8ozs. to 2 gallons, it will run forever & virtually smokeless. I believe that it is sacreligious putting a 4 cycle engine on a Lawn-Boy.

[Bunker Hill]

Bunker,

ALL & I mean All Lawn-Boy Lawn Mowers were 2 cycle. They could mow on side hills & always have lubrication. How do I know so much about Lawn-Boy, I was their National Service manager for 19 years then the Toro Company bought us from OMC. They continued 2 strokes until recently, now Lawn-Boy mowers use 4 stroke engines. Not the same.

John
as a kid I was exposed to a LOT of things, My dad was very active with APBA and a good personal friend of Charlie Strang and Carl Kiekaefer, Ron was a very active racer, my grandfather was a very busy mechanic and inspector, I guess a lot of things just got absorbed by me as a kid

ADD-- You should ask my dad some day to tell you the story of an early, like 4AM early, morning angry, were talking Carl Kiekaefer angry, phone call my dad received when ROn wonthe Chicago to Milwaukee marathon in 1967! It was a call of legend, a tantrum to the likes of which only the old man (Carl) could've thrown!!

Bunker

[John Schubert T*A*R*T]

John
as a kid I was exposed to a LOT of things, My dad was very active with APBA and a good personal friend of Charlie Strang and Carl Kiekaefer, Ron was a very active racer, my grandfather was a very busy mechanic and inspector, I guess a lot of things just got absorbed by me as a kid

ADD-- You should ask my dad some day to tell you the story of an early, like 4AM early, morning angry, were talking Carl Kiekaefer angry, phone call my dad received when ROn wonthe Chicago to Milwaukee marathon in 1967! It was a call of legend, a tantrum to the likes of which only the old man (Carl) could've thrown!!

Bunker

Yup, know all that. Actually Ron & I raced against each other in stock & when we drove for OMC. Ron & I co-drove in Paris in 1970. We finished 4th & waer the 1st Johnson to finish. I am also a very good friend of Charlie Strang as we both came from out east & were members of the New Jersy Outboard Association. I know your dad as well.

[brichter]

Is HE Burgess on BRF? I was wondering if there was any chance we can peek under the hood of this motor?

[brichter]

I don't know where I found this picture of Jimbo (apologies for not crediting the originator, I just think it should go here), but his motor is the same basic v4 early prototyped X115 with the stacks angled downward. Internally, OMC called it the OSS. 65852

[Ron Hill]

I told Jack Leek, Jimbo needed a ride in his home town of Needles. The only boat "KICKING" around was Ted May's hydro. Ted had built this boat in 1969 for the Miami 225, but it didn't take rough water very well and had way too much lift. Jacksent Jimbo a motor and we rigged it up. There wasn't much competition in those day at "LOCAL" races, but Jimbo won with ease.

I think I have the original of this picture, probably Leo B.
Wildman of Garden Grove, long since passed