TOPIC: 85 arrived

Well the eagle has landed. Got her home yesterday, and onto a stand.
Will compression test her soon and see if I got lucky today.

Good luck with the eagle.
And thanks for all your help.

billr wrote:

Well the eagle has landed. Got her home yesterday, and onto a stand.
Will compression test her soon and see if I got lucky today.

Keep us posted, hopefully she'll run like this:
I was pleased with this run back in Oct but I may still need those carb kits at some point! Still have some minor oil leaks at the flywheel area. I replaced the gasket on the adapter plate under the flywheel, still leaks and it isn't the main seal. Figured it out, it's those damn counter sunk allen head screws that are not blind holes. Oil is getting past the threads.

I have been watching that video on youtube for a while. Had no idea it was yours. That is a sweet motor.

How many 85's have you had Bill?

If you've read on Bill's website about the 85's I can confirm they are a pain in the butt to get them running decent. It took many hrs of tuning to get that one to run like that. Most of them you see are blue like a late 55 Bearcat (excluding the hood). This one is Blue and white like a Homelite, it's fairly early in production. There were changes made down the line which my have prevented me from modifying the hood (?). On the hood on the portside there are two louvered vents which I installed directly in front of the carb intakes, I could not make it idle smooth and consistently without those. It refused to idle with the hood on. Once these were in I finally reinstalled the engine, made the test run video and it idled beautifully at 650 rpm. I have one more problem to solve and that's accelerator pumps as it will die if you hit the throttle hard, pumps work, it's just a matter of too much fuel or not enough................the saga continues...............

Hi Dick,
I see you have a nice collection. of Homelite/Bearcats.
That 85 seems to run very well.. Do you have a tach hooked up on it? It seemed to be running in the right range by the sound of it.
I saw another You Tube of a 55 Bearcat that the owner put in "air vents for the carbs.
Very nice 85. I guess that will be my next goal to pick up one of those. I own a 62 and 70 55hp. My 70 looks like a low hour motor. (Little O'le lady from Pasadina.(sp)

elgindave wrote:

Hi Dick,
I see you have a nice collection. of Homelite/Bearcats.
That 85 seems to run very well.. Do you have a tach hooked up on it? It seemed to be running in the right range by the sound of it.
I saw another You Tube of a 55 Bearcat that the owner put in "air vents for the carbs.
Very nice 85. I guess that will be my next goal to pick up one of those. I own a 62 and 70 55hp. My 70 looks like a low hour motor. (Little O'le lady from Pasadina.(sp)

Dave, yes I was running a tach and was hitting 4500 to 5000 rpm. I've picked up a OEM tach recently which I will be installing. I too saw the video of the vents on the 55hp, had to ask myself why? They certainly don't need them. Personally I like to keep things in original condition but had no choice with the 85hp. I don't use it much, it's more of a conversation piece.

I followed the thread on your '70 Bearcat, looks like you "stole one" for sure. Had it running yet? My collection is more of an obsession, I like to buy enough of something to know I will always have parts on the shelf when needed.

Hi Dick,
No I haven't done anything with the 70 Bearcat. Just checked the oil (Which was very clean)
Also turned the flywheel by hand. Seems to be a nice tight motor.
YES I know what you are talking about with an obsession. At one time I had around 50 Elgins. 46-56 1.25hp-35hp. I still have about 12 Left. One is a 54 16hp. Not too many of those. Yes I have a 16hp parts motor around too.

Bill,
Got an update on the 85hp?

A friend of mine has one on his boat, when I told him I had one he pleaded with me to sell it to him to keep as a spare so she's under his care now. He's putting a new transom in his boat so no test reports yet. I think it might be next spring before he runs either of them.

Bill, I know you have made many sacrifices for us Homlite fans.
You know there will be more 85s out there.

That explains why we haven't heard anything! Now it's 85 departed