rcdude7

My Feedback: (264)

Hello, I have a .45 pro (aircooled head) Mecoa offers a air or liquid cooled version of this engine, is one prefered over the other for racing? or just playing on the lake?

One other thing.....Mecoa has all of the K&B outboard engines listed as unavailable at the moment. Are they ever available? Does it take forever for them to build more?

Thanks!

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

The air-cooled head I believe also has a special head button with "pie cuts" in it. It should be fine for running in racing or just messing around with.

I don't know what's up with K&B/MECOA. They are out of stock at times. They were also a no-show this year at the Toledo show as I was looking for their booth.

Hydro Junkie

It would not surprise me if MECOA went belly up fairly soon since they seem to have this affinity to not serve the customers. I ordered parts from them over two years ago and to this date, have heard nothing

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

About the only way to getanything from K&B is to go to a dealer of their stuff. I've seen lots of stories about the guy on the phone and his attitude. It really wouldn't come as a shock if they did close the doors or at least the K&B part of MECOA. Rumor is that when they bought out K&B, the former employees robbed the place blind and got badly outdated equipment so they had to retool just about everything. The quality at that time was awful to put it mildly and in some cases worse with the 7.5's. Lots of cases went out with them being out of alignment, the crank not being square to the piston and sleeve which resulted in a lot of broken connecting rods. They tried to skate out of their warranty by blaming the owner, not their poor machining. If the box that it came in has an Arizona address on it, I'd be worried.

kgibson4

My Feedback: (4)

These days everything that comes out of Arizona should be scutinized with a critical eye, given the wackos that are running the state. But in it's heyday K&B produced all of their engines in Arizona. Just sayin' ...

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I got the feeling at the time that the employees knew that they were about to lose their jobs so like most people in that position probably didn't give a rats wazoo about what they were pumping out. I bought a K&B 3.5 SS at about that time and the workmanship was lousy. I never could get it to run right or consistantly. After I tore it down did I find that one of the con-rod bushings was never installed which gave it a LOT of slop making it a wonder that it ran in the first place! K&B "borrowed" the "pie cut" combustion chamber idea from Terry Keeley who had been making them for a few years prior to them doing it. The SS was kind of a rehash using old exhaust throttle parts with the butterfly hole plugged on only one side, too cheap to stick a plug in the other! I plugged up that one with some JB Weld.
The 7.5 class has been dying a slow but sure death the past 10 years as they were the only ones mass-producing them. There are/were a few people making aftermarket powerheads but still using the K&B lowers. The Lawless lowers are what some others use. There is no stock class for the 7.5 OB's so if you're racing you might as well mod it.

Jerry Dunlap

Actually, in it's heyday K&B was producing it's engines in Downey, CA. But, that was really "back in the day."

JD

rcdude7

My Feedback: (264)

The box my engine is packed in is labeled "sierra madre, california".

I guess K&B has moved around over the years...........