O.S FS-60 BUILD:

well, the boredom bug set in, i got the wild hair to build a wood boat, powered by an oldschool os fs-60 open rocker engine. i love four strokes, what better way to enjoy one than building a boat for one! so, i have never built a wooden kit before, so there may be some questions coming your way from this newb. on recommendation from members here, i am choosing the sk daddle, .40 size, for the hull on this project......

since i haven't bought the boat kit yet, i though i might as well pull out the old fs, and see if we couldn't clean her up, and get her ready for her new life as a boat motor. it has only been on a stand up until now. (it has run, but is/was in pieces, so this is a detailing/assembly type of thread.....)

here is the basis for this build, and old open rocker os, the bearings/ring is in good shape, but cosmetically, it has seen better days........

after sandblasting all the motor/head/casing parts, i started to clean them up. with a scotchbrite wheel on a buffer, i cleaned up the block fins, then washed/blew out the block.......

i then tackled the tattered head. it has seen pavement in it's lifetime, but i ground it down the best i could, reshaped the outer profile a bit, to hide the road rash. i think it came out pretty well, considering what i started with! all of this was done on the buffer, with the scotchbrite wheel..........

i then cleaned up the cam housing, loaded it it up with the cam.......

i polished the crank housing a bit too, and loaded him with bearings and a cleaned/checked crank.............

looks nice man great work .

i then started to reassemble the block, in went bearings, cam drive gear, the cam/housing, and the piston/sleeve, and finally the crank/housing. i timed the cam bearing using the 'dot' to get top dead center. i found this info in the 'engines' section of this website................... oh, and a shot i missed of the heads valve seat/bowl area cleaned up and ready for assembly...

then came the head assembly, i put it on with new head screws, stainless ones......

lifters and pushrods next...............

oh, shot of the valve, spring, retainer and clip, next to a penny for size reference. these things are really small!! (i am used to car engines mind you......... here is a shot of the engine i built for my gto.......... maybe i'll post some youtube vids in here if it's ok with the mods......)

and, here we are with the carb/intake attached, and with exhaust....... (not sure how i'm running that yet, we'll see when it's in the boat......)

oops, forgot the bucket 'o parts we started with...............

all in all, i think it came out ok, at least good enough for what i am experimenting with..........

then, i didn't know if 'air cooling' would do it, and i had another wild hair to try and water cool it.....

man, was it a major pain in the you know what trying to get the cooling lines to 'hug' the block good. it has a good taper, so it just wanted to fall down off of it. then you have pushrods in your way, and have to clear them. i fought it a bunch, but started to make headway. it was my first time trying this, i did heat up the tubing red hot, let it cool, filled it with salt, then formed it around the block. i then saw i needed to 'hold' it up on there, so i took a piece of small stainless wire, put a few small sections of fuel line on it, and tightened it around/between the lower block fins. this essentially 'holds' the cooling line up nicely to the block. i then fastened the two ends of the line to one another, to keep it 'tied' onto the motor. i know, it's kinda ghetto, but it's the best i could come up with for now.........

so, there is no head cooling, but, like the standard marine version of this engine, this is 'sleeve' cooled. it's how os did it, so i figure it should work, that with it being in an open cockpit style boat catching a breeze most of the time, i think it should be ok. what do you think???????


well, that's my engine build for the fourstroke boat winter project, let me know what you folks think.....

thanks!!!


davey

Hey,
I just took an arc welder to my engine and now it won't run. I got into offroad next to that pond and fell out of boats that very same day. I went out today and smashed my thumb and now there is no place that will let me run. The weather is A okay for a few more runs. I'm thinking of electric cuz they almost go as fast. Also your feet don't get wet running offshore with electric as to nitro. And once again let me know when you run I still have a camera for any fast run
FM

well, i had a chance to get out on the water today, i brought out the new 'miss velam', (the new yellow vegas with elam sticks on it.....), and the first gen bud conversion....

when i got out there at 10am, the water was sweet. flat as glass, and hardly any debris. it's major fall up here right now, and the leaves/sticks are EVERYwhere. it's also gettin' pretty chilly out too. but, by the time i got setup, the wind had picked up a bit, and i knew it was going to be a no go for the proboat, (that thing cannot take the chop at all at the speeds i am reaching, but the vegas can...) so i decided to break in the new tz in the 'velam' in the chop, perfect for puttin' around for a few tanks, and hopefully the wind would die down by the time i had some fuel through her......

brand new boat, new setup, new motor, never been on the water. i was expecting to have to 'earn' my time out on the water today, as it usually is at the first of the day with a brand new boat. i checked the radio, fueled her up, and started tuggin' on the ol' pullstart. i was guessing on the lowspeed setting, and was at 3 1/4 turns on the high. she fired up within a few pulls, the lowspeed was working out, i adjusted the idle, but noticed i wasn't quite getting full throttle. my transmitter throttle, was already at 125 percent. so i used one hole down in the carb arm, backed up the clevis a bit, and readjusted my idle. worked perfect. so, idling great, i put her in the water, with a Y535. she got up on a plane great, and i chugged along 'hoppin' the chop' for a tank. a couple of full throttle blasts, real burbly, so i know i am way fat. i leaned her out a bit, filled up and went out again. more speed now, the water is letting up a little bit, so i can get some speed in.......

after 3 tanks, gradually leaning it out, i felt it was time to put in the gps, swap props and start some speed runs. first outing, 38mph, prather 215. came in leaned a bit, 39.5. came in and leaned some more, 40.3 leaned a bit more, 39, so i went back out with the needle, knowing i was at the edge, i could hear it. plug looked okay, so i ran her at this needle setting. the water was getting pretty good now, just a little chop/wind. i couldn't best my 40mph, so i tried the M435. i hit 41, this is with the strut still at 7/8th's from bottom to center of shaft. i came up with it a bit, and hit 42mph. i could not beat this either, strut up and down, positive, negative, that was it. i put on the X437 3 blade, and hit 43.4mph, with the strut at 7/8th's down. i tried coming up with it, but i just had to add a bunch of trim to keep it straight, it was really 'walking' when it was shallow...

i tried the X440/3 with the tongues cut, but it couldn't get on the pipe, no matter where the strut was set. i didn't adjust pipe length, it's kinda hard on this one, but it's at about 8 1/4" (give or take wee bit..) from the plug, so it should be ok. it was this length in the proboat, and i hit 45.5 with it then. anyway, couldn't spin the X440/3, or the Y537/3. it would get up on that one, but couldn't top the X437 for speed. oh, just for giggles, i threw on the purple plastic 2 blade off the proboat, and hit 39.5! i was impressed it got that high. i could hear the rpm's up a bit for sure. tried a stock begas prop, and only hit 38.5, with a bunch of cavitating. so, i tried the M435 again, and it 42, that was as high as i could get it. i spent the next half gallon having fun with the X437. oh, i tried the grim 40-52/3 blade, it did great with it, 42mph, the 40-53 did ok too, about the same. i forgot my favorite prop, my M440, that prop has always been the fastest on any boat of mine. i was bummed i didn't get to run that one. i tried the X442 i had in the box, but she couldn't turn it no matter where it was set. (i knew it wouldn't, but it was right there, why not!) by this time, the water was never really calm enough to do what i wanted to do with the bud, really tune it in, i had weight, a canard 'wing' for downforce, all kinds of stuff to try out. it seems pretty promising, it's fast, light, but was a little light up front, so i wanted to get that planted a bit better, and get her ready to run against my friends proboat, but it just wasn't meant to be. so, i just stuck with the vegas, er, 'velam', all day. 43 was top, so i just burned 2/3rd's of a gallon through it.......


oh, since i was out alone, i didn't have the raft, just the chuckit fishing pole, and a shockwave to tow the line out if need be. at the end of the day, i was real far down, i hit a fish or something, spun me out, and it stalled. waaaay off to the side of where i was. no way to fish it, so out comes the shockwave. i didn't know if the radio could make it, but i had no choice. i tied on the fishing pole, and let her rip. i am about ten feet away, and 'plunk' out of line, pulled the pole into the water. great. i don't even have enough line to reach it. oh, the sun it setting too. so, i bring it back, and decide to hang about 3 feet of line off the back, and loop around the boat, and tow it back. a third of the way there, the battery pack is dying. double great. i make it back to shore, BARELY. new pack in, try again. it isn't helping that there is two kids pestering me asking questions the whole time i am trying to figure out how to get my boat back. "what are you doing", "why is it out there", "why did it quit", "why isn't your other boat working", "it's getting dark, you better hurr
SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
well, that's what went through my head, but i politely said "look, i am kinda busy, i can't answer your questions right now"......... so, back to the struggle. it' so far i can't really tell depth perception very well either. i managed to get around it a few times, snag it, and try pulling her in. well, the shockwave couldn't keep her straight, so i am slowly going towards the shore on the left, with full throttle right rudder.oh, the shore is not hike friendly, kind of cliff like, lots of blackberry bushes. so, i pull it as far as i can, lose sight of it. it's now at least on the shore, but a good couple hundred feet away. so, i start the hike, getting there wasn't too bad, but there were some sketchy areas, like where you could slip in the water, and i don't swim. i finally reached the boats after fielding my way through blackberries, over logs, along muddy shores, so happy. now to hike back. man, with two hands full, i really got tangled up in the black berries, slipped in the mud up to my thigh in the water, but made it back. after that stress out, i packed it all up, loaded up and went home. i am glad i came home with ALL my boats......

needless to say, i will be reworking my reel setup, and trying to figure out a better one man retrieval method,(no raft, it's my buddies, he didn't go out today. and personally, since i don't swim, i don't want to go rafting for it anyway......)


all in all the day was good, ('cept the end!) broke in a new boat, ran flawlessly, runs flat, turns awesome, and is a great little boat. i was hoping to get faster than 43.4 mph, but it just couldn't get there. this thing looked great, the front sponsons didn't even look like they were touching, just skimming along, sponsons pretty even, the left one a little lighter than the right, but it looked great. the rudder is shortened by half an inch, it has a grim turn fin, and that's about it. it sounded pretty strong, maybe the motor needs to break in some more for some more speed. i tried everything i could, but that was all she had to offer. oh, it's a macs HN 3.5 pipe too.

any suggestions are always welcome, thanks for looking, see ya folks around.....


davey

this just dawned on me, it was pretty darn cold, the water even colder, i would come in, one time lean enough to lose a plug, but the motor wasn't even hot to the touch. could the cold water have been keeping my power output down a bit???????? i didn't even think of limiting it for tuning's sake, forgot all about it. this is my first water cooled tz, the others are air only.........



davey

well I know with my nitro trucks I have had in the past they always ran better at operating temp. which on my traxxas engines was about 195-200...but trx engines are notorious for running hot like that...but I'd say that could effect it

Hey, give me a shout I have the same problem trying to run my boat without a helper. I have many hobbies and can only go out on the weekends but I need preperations to run so if I have some lead time I'd be happy to go to the pond.
FM