We never received these in Australia, and I have to say 14 hp seems like an unusual rating. The cowling looks like it is on backwards, and obviously a low $ outboard. Pity it needed so much work to get it reliable. We love our evys, johnos and mercs here. That's pretty much our only choice until the 80s. Love your work brother. Best wishes to you all from Brisbane Queensland Australia 🇦🇺 ❤
@GlenB1963 great to hear from you! We have lived parallel lives. In our salt water area as well, it was pretty much only OMC’s and Mercurys. It wasn’t until many years later that I delved into all the other brands from fresh water areas, and I’m glad that I did. There are certainly some hidden gems!
@georgekeats1478 It actually isn’t loud at all. Before I ran it on the boat I considered putting foam in the oversized cowling, but it doesn’t even need it.
The water cooled models are relatively rare pretty much everywhere , mostly sold through Sears and JCPenney as a premium motor don't know if eska had its own non private label dealers.
Good ol Jim, no surprise he could come up with a fix for the ignition! That thing really packs a punch. It's like you say, probably didn't hold up well in salt water though. Probably got judged unfairly by just looking at it. Surely looks cheesy/cheap, so probably got dismissed like most Eskas....
Wow thats a big flywheel. Sounds good at rpm, not metallicy. I wouldn't have picked that ignition, have replaced it on mopeds. Its cheep. Probably would have went with points and coils or merc breaker less. Anyway sure runs nice!.
@terrypikaart4494. I think the genius in why Jim picked that ignition for conversion was in that he utilized the centrifugal timing advance that was built into the flywheel. On this engine when you move the throttle, it only opens and closes the throttle butterfly, it doesn’t move the mag.
What are you doing with those Eska carburetors this one and that 15 to get those rpm’s with the engine still smooth. Do you have a carb for the 15 you would sell?
@1dcas I am not sure. I think the older 14’s and 15’s had similar linkage hookups, and the newer 15’s were a little different. You’d have to look closely at pictures.
