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Re: RDE-18 powerhead to exhaust plate/gaskets
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Postby t2stroke » Wed Feb 08, 2017 11:37 am
Better late than never on a subject! Just bought a kit off Ebay that might shed a little light on this subject. I haven’t received it yet, but should be here today. Hope you guys can make something out of it. I have 4 of these engines, but don’t have one tore down at the moment. Read & enjoy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … K:MEAFB:IT
Dan in TN
This is the kit I bought When I was going over my 1956 30 HP. Johnson. I did not feel comfortable making this modification. I am sure the Evinrudes of the same years had the same setup also. This turned into quite a lively thread but the big question is what these modifications were trying to improve? We do not know. We all know these engines ran with no noticeable issue either way original or modified. I think it’s nice to be aware and understand when we see this on engines what was done and understand it was a modification. but again the motor will run either way with no issues that we know of. I myself on my 1956 30HP. left out the big baffle plate and used 1 gasket between power head and lower leg and used the 2 tube little plate.I have used this engine over 7 years with no issue. Regarding the paint on the port side my engine was original paint and on the port side the red was gone and down to the primer but that was when the big baffle plate was installed from the factory I think there was just a thin coat of red on the leg from the factory and it wore off. I touched it up with red after I took out the baffle and the paint is still there. Before I went over the engine my father and I used it many years in Canada for fishing trips maybe 20 years not babying it at all and some of the stuff probably was abuse but it always ran. My 1955 Johnson 25 HP. I am going to drill out the hole in the lower pan to 2 inches so it can breath and plan on using the original 2 tube plate I am not going to worry about drilling holes in the bottom of my power head because I do not understand what it is going to correct.The 1955 and 1956 Big twin are my all time favorite engines but we must remember these were years where they transitioned from the old school to the modern engines. Maybe even these modifications we are talking about were not well thought out improvements as later years they learned enough to design engines without this issue. Bill,