CNew

I’m hoping to put it in a boat some day- it’ll be a nice shelf piece for now. I tore it apart yesterday and getting it back together today/tomorrow so it’ll be ready when the right boat comes along. After opening it up I don’t think the engine has been run much at all. There was no carbonization and all the little plastic bearing cages looked new. I’m still kicking myself for not buying the O&R boat I had a chance at when I was back in Minnesota. I need to figure out what all bits and pieces I’m missing - like drive shaft, collars, etc.

I’ll take a closer look but in my brief skim I don’t recall seeing anything in there on the 1 hp O&Rs.

Very cool, I bet that would be a fun boat to blast around a small lake or pond. I tore this one apart this afternoon. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary and it has the usual feather vane. I’m curious what the rotary valve looks like that’s in your engine. Do you have any photos?

I think I have an earlier style air cleaner somewhere, just could find it but I’ll keep looking...

I think I have most of those other parts. Many of the other items are for smaller boats and not the 1 hp O&R, or maybe a smaller O&R engine. Yes, the brochures are mainly for other smaller engines as well and are 70s era. By the way - I didn’t pay that price...

Still trying to decide if I want to try to run this one.... I’ll need to do a little work on the spark plug wire as well, has a couple cracked sections.

Might tackle this one next. Has some original Octura brochures and a few parts. The engine mount and prop assembly are both genuine Octura.

All cleaned up and back together...

Very nice, those look great!

Ouch, yeah that’s a bit much. I wonder if they would send you a couple inches of it just to verify fit. A couple of those mini bikes I’ve seen online look like they use more standard sized throttle and brake cables from a mini bike.

The seal in your first photo can be purchased from McMaster Carr, it’s just a square o-ring. Like Wallfish indicated standard small engine filter foam will work. I usually stuff it through the hole and then use a pic or screw driver to work it around until it expands into place.

Definitely don’t remove it! It looks roughly like 1/16x1/16 in the photo. I can probably get a square o-ring from McMaster Carr, although it might not be squishy enough. I just took another look at my induction housing and it looks like there might still be enough of that seal in there. It is compressed and formed in place so I think I’ll leave it be.

David, Do you have any way to measure the thickness of that black sealing ring? Mine must have gotten squished and deteriorated over time. The exhaust collector has a similar material/seal. I didn’t remove the seal from the collector, leaving it on there and hoping it will seal up enough for the shelf...

I finally got the entire engine dismantled. Some interesting observations (at least to me anyway): the engineering on these early engines is exquisite, noticeably different from the later versions this one has metal roller bearings throughout, and some of the cages look to be bronze, very nice piston has 3 large rings no rubber seals anywhere and no gaskets inside- all the machining seems to be really tighten tolerance (no feather vane gaskets and no little rubber induction case seals. The only thing that resembled a seal is some thin black coating stuff that looked like a thin layer of gasket maker where the feather vane gasket would normally go connecting rod uses a pretty cool two-piece roller bearing that is made of aluminum the points are a little different too and have a slotted piece that catches the copper tab It’s starting to clean up nicely. I can tell by the piston, cylinder and the internals that this thing hasn’t been run much, zero carbonization or anything, just a light coating of dried oil/gas varnish. I’m pretty certain I’m the first one to open this one up, didn’t see any signs of others getting into it.

Looks great, decal fits just right.

Yeah, at most I may try to start it but I don’t have any plans to really run this one. Good to know about the clutch linings, I had forgotten about that. I’m waiting to hear from someone on ePay to confirm the dimensions on the wiper motor cable. If it’s comes back close I may get one to take a closer look at it.

Made a little progress on this just now. Juggling between some paint work and fabricating a display stand for the cut-away engine. Good news, I was able to free the piston. It’s still a little snug but I think it’s free enough that when I go to remove the cylinder head it shouldn’t snap the con rod (hopefully). Although the gear box was pretty much empty and stuck I was able to get it free. The clutch has the little cork pads and they hand seized up in the clutch housing. I was surprised to see the plastic gear. The recoil was also jammed up but I got that moving too. SO overall the vitals seem good. I’m actually starting to think this one may not have much mileage on it. ! Before I go and do something stupid I wanted to check in with the experts to see if the flywheel nut on the older models are normal thread or if by chance they might be reverse thread! These older models definitely look different inside, pretty cool (for me) since this is the first one like this I’ve had and opened up.

Man, you made quick work of that one, especially given all the speed bumps you hit along the way. That looks really nice, such a cool generator!

David, I don’t plan to modify this cable. I’m open to recommendations on a source for cable this size. I’ve contacted probably a dozen specialty cable suppliers and they’ve all said there isn’t anything this small. I’ve looked at Bowden cables, bicycle cables, aircraft instrument cables, vintage automotive heater and vent control cables, clutch, brake, push-pull, latch release and other similar cables. The closest I’ve found so far is a very specific brand of vintage wiper motor cable that Looks to be very close to the right size but the inner core cable is solid wire and not the typical braided wire used in most of the O&R cables. Do you know of a source?

For display purposes I do like the idea of the short throttle cable like you have on the Bejay. That would certainly free up some cable...

Well, there goes my plan for a fresh hot metallic pink with some unicorn air brushing... Yep - no plans to paint this beauty. I just want to clean it up and hopefully free the engine. I prefer keeping these things as original as possible and only restoring ones where the paint is too far gone. Depending on how the guts look I probably won’t even try starting it - it’ll be a shelf piece for sure.

Thanks Wallfish- this is exactly the plan. I put a few drops of Kroil into the cylinder yesterday just to give it a head start. I’m hoping it’s just dried grease in the gear box and nothing more serious somewhere inside. Thanks David - this is really helpful, glad the condenser looks correct as well. I’ll double check but I think it has the hole for the little air cleaner screw. Amazing the prices on these original options. As part of this engine purchase I also got a NOS A-32-4 tank, it’s definitely an early version and looks to be identical to the one this engine is sitting on. Now you can’t even find throttle cables that small diameter (trust me I’ve been on the hunt...). After a bit of searching recently I found a good source for some flexible muffler extension tubing. I have plans to set up an engine with a remote muffler but it’s not original. The flex tubing would also work well for the Aquabug if someone needed to fix or replace that piece.

The condenser is also different from all the other O&Rs I’ve got. Not sure if it was replaced by an incorrect part at some point along the way. Really hoping I can get the engine free.

Ok, got this really cool engine and I know it’s an early one. Might need David’s insights for this one. There aren’t any markings on it as far as I can tell, no model or serial numbers. This is as-received and I haven’t touched it yet but looking forward to giving it a bath. Unfortunately the engine and the gear box are both sieved up. I pulled the plug and the top of the piston looks surprisingly clean. Missing the air cleaner. Has a push-pull throttle cable and a little pulley (probably an add-on). I have no idea of the application, maybe a compressor or something. This is definitely the oldest O&R in my collection now.

This stuff is awesome! I had forgotten about your toothpick art, man that’s amazing!