Conversion to boat engine
Hi I'm Peter I live in Curacao and as a hobby I build boats, the latest project I'm working on is a 15' 1930's Bruce Crandall FLYER, I like to power this little boat with a Harley engine cause I like the sound of it.
Knowing nothing about Harley Davidson bikes brought me to this forum, obvious I'm searching the net for a good salvage bike but what model bike should I look for? I need a liquid cooled engine around 150 HP or at least above 100 HP, what Harley models carry those? I'm planning to use it with a heat exchanger a extra raw water pump and a marine F-N-R gear box like for example a velvet drive
I'm also not sure turning the engine 90 degrees toward driving direction would cause problems with the oil pan and supply? so all tips and tricks are more than welcome also other things a should be aware of.
Thank you for your time
Peter
Knowing nothing about Harley Davidson bikes brought me to this forum, obvious I'm searching the net for a good salvage bike but what model bike should I look for? I need a liquid cooled engine around 150 HP or at least above 100 HP, what Harley models carry those? I'm planning to use it with a heat exchanger a extra raw water pump and a marine F-N-R gear box like for example a velvet drive
I'm also not sure turning the engine 90 degrees toward driving direction would cause problems with the oil pan and supply? so all tips and tricks are more than welcome also other things a should be aware of.
Thank you for your time
Peter
) A V-twin is not designed to run at that range for extended periods of time. Even if you could cool it, it's just not designed to run like that.
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never said you couldn't use an hd engine, i think they are a wrong choice for longevity. and would be my last choice unless of course i stay insight of the beach.
our mud boat used in the 60's was powered by a 4 cyl air cooled wisconsin engine and i believe it to be 25hp and we went anywhere we wanted as long as the mud was fluid enough.
even if you gator-tail style it, cooling will be a challenge unless you build a powered cooling shroud. that sucker would be burning oil in short order.
if you want a screamer, if you can find one is a scott 4cyl two cycle drone engine.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5585/...a14974edde.jpg
our mud boat used in the 60's was powered by a 4 cyl air cooled wisconsin engine and i believe it to be 25hp and we went anywhere we wanted as long as the mud was fluid enough.
even if you gator-tail style it, cooling will be a challenge unless you build a powered cooling shroud. that sucker would be burning oil in short order.
if you want a screamer, if you can find one is a scott 4cyl two cycle drone engine.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5585/...a14974edde.jpg
Last edited by bustert; Jan 16, 2018 at 04:05 PM.
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Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 19,925
Likes: 8,027
From: poway
Thank you! yes the VRod is what I thought until I did read about the later 2013? big twins, this got me confused thx for clearing that out, any one can point me in the right direction on this site?https://www.copart.com/search/motorc...ch%22:false%7D
To narrow the search, look for any model starting with the letters "VSRC" and those will be Vrods. The videos you posted look to be using air cooled big twin motors. On has and EVO (1984-1999) and the other is a twin cam. One looks to have some sort of patented water cooling added and the looks to have electric fans..
Don't worry to much about what the guys are saying about RPM range. You need need to find the right propeller tho.
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yep +1 on that mr. max
working on 1000+ hp compressors, just a 1>2* pitch change can over-load it. he better run some research and build for one application or maybe run a gear box instead of a flow through design.
however, rpm does make a big diff, the sole reason why two cycle dominated the small marine engines for decades.
if he is going to run high rpm, then he must cam up for it since the hd engine drops like a rock. with the reduced output and wrong pitch, it will slow down and produce a lot of heat as the engine loads up.
another issue is piston speed as it goes up increases upper end wear.
can he still us an hd engine sure if it is for oddity the same as i thinking of using a sportster engine in a tri-axis ultra-lite. i even toyed around with putting a scott atwater 60hp outboard head on a go cart back in the 60s, my cousin had 2 mc cullough 20hp chainsaw engines on his and would run about 120mph, around 80mph with one running.
working on 1000+ hp compressors, just a 1>2* pitch change can over-load it. he better run some research and build for one application or maybe run a gear box instead of a flow through design.
however, rpm does make a big diff, the sole reason why two cycle dominated the small marine engines for decades.
if he is going to run high rpm, then he must cam up for it since the hd engine drops like a rock. with the reduced output and wrong pitch, it will slow down and produce a lot of heat as the engine loads up.
another issue is piston speed as it goes up increases upper end wear.
can he still us an hd engine sure if it is for oddity the same as i thinking of using a sportster engine in a tri-axis ultra-lite. i even toyed around with putting a scott atwater 60hp outboard head on a go cart back in the 60s, my cousin had 2 mc cullough 20hp chainsaw engines on his and would run about 120mph, around 80mph with one running.
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