One of the things I love about our Antique Outboard Club is in the history uncovered. Jim Webb was hired by Ole Evinrude in 1924 retired after 40 years with the company as Evinrude’s Vice President of Sales. He wrote a book, "The Pictorial History of Outboard Motors", and then became our Club Historian. His many articles in our club magazine "the Antique Outboarder" are a treasure trove of outboard information. They are my "go to" source for outboard information. Another source is Peter Hunn’s "The Old Outboard book". When looking for engineering changes, I use the online parts books of MarineEngine.com …
It took a while to realize how much wasted horse power went out the exhaust. In the time of the great horsepower race that started in the late 1920s (and ended with the economic recession of the early to mid 1930s) – Evinrude experimented with super charging there outboards. They found a greater gain in power by putting the blower on the exhaust to extract exhaust rather than on the intake to pressurize the carburetor. These were physically geared to the crankshaft and, unsurprisingly, the exhaust extractor used terrible amounts of fuel for the added horsepower provided.
I have terrible luck on E-bay. I believe my bid on an outboard or part is a signal that the item is desirable. It seems that after my bid the price quickly goes out of site … This is true of items that no one had bid on, so then when the item was re-listed, I was encouraged to bid. LOL . . . . . 😀
