Johnson 35 ID

How does one tell if it's a "small case" Johnson 35 if one doesn't have the two to compare? Some additional papers in the box show dimensions of a motor that equal .322" displacement but nothing tells me this refers to this particular motor. Can it be identified without taking it apart? Thank you in advance,

The large case has a beefy triangular web between the case and the venturi. The main bearing is pretty big, too. (These are features you can spot with just one engine in your hand).

The small case has a rather thin diameter around the main bearing, and the venturi sticks out rather high, about where the fins start.

For what it is worth, my favorite small case is the S, which is a .33. For large, it is the cheapo Sport Special, which is a .32.

I don't know of any Johnson that comes out to .322, even with rounding. There was a "32" small case, however, that was both 4 and 6 bolt head design. I think it comes out to .317.

This one has the triangle web between the venturi and crankcase. The box has a cutout which would accomodate the long venturi, but the motor has the short venturi. The box has an orange sticker that says "Sport Special $12.95 -35 class". The paperwork with Dynamic Models lists the J-SS as .348" displacement but the other paper details the "Sport Special as .322' displacement. So this is the "large case" and the displacement is .322". Thanks- that wasn't so difficult after all,

The paper with the "Sport Engine" specs and parts list shows Stroke .770" and bore .730",displacement .322". The other paper included has a exploded isometric drawing of the motor and lists a J-SS motor with bore of .770, stroke of.750 for displacement of .348. The motor in question has 6 headbolts. A previous thread spoke of enticing RJL to reproduce a Johnson motor and some had a preference for the "small case". I don't think this is what I have. Thanks again- this is fun- but I'm not going to open the box again- it's pretty old and fragile. Hmmm...old and fragile- that reminds me of something but Tonto not quite put finger on! Best regards,

Dale,
FYI, the Johnson Sport Special was an abortion that Johnson made with scrapped parts. Seems they overbored the cavity to hold the ball bearings in the Johnson 36 BB. So they made up some alum inserts and pressed them in. Look for those inserts to confirm that yours is a Sport Special.
Then they stuck a 29 cyl on it and called it a sport special. I heard it drove them out of business. Check with Dick Wolsey and Roger Wildman for more info on Johnsons.

>Dale,
>FYI, the Johnson Sport Special was an abortion that Johnson
>made with scrapped parts. Seems they overbored the cavity
>to hold the ball bearings in the Johnson 36 BB. So they
>made up some alum inserts and pressed them in. Look for
>those inserts to confirm that yours is a Sport Special.
>Then they stuck a 29 cyl on it and called it a sport
>special. I heard it drove them out of business. Check with
>Dick Wolsey and Roger Wildman for more info on Johnsons.

It didn't help them any, but at that point it was academic anyway. What really killed Johnson was Hi diving off headfirst into the slotcar market of the early '60s. He invested heavily into it and actually stopped all motor production at one point to concentrate on this. When the boom quickly collapsed, he was left holding the bag. A token attempt was made to restart motor production (see the aformentioned Sport Special)- but it was too little, too late to save the company. Hi died not long after that.

Jake

Well, tht explains why a company with a good line of engines would suddenly build this motor. The paper that came with it said to send in to them for directions on how to "hop it up". That extra set of papers and the gaudy stickers covering the original markings on the box seemed strange to me. Thanks, again everyone.

What a Bummer---I think I,ll just skip this one all together. Paul

>What a Bummer---I think I,ll just skip this one all
>together. Paul

You ain't woofin' Now you know why the tooling for the small case Johnsons was destroyed- Hi was doing everything he could at the time to hold off creditors and reducing the tax load was part of that. A shame.

Jake

I beleive Johnson made a small case engine with an s on the side of the case
This engine used a 29 crank and 35 piston & cyl.
It was a good stunt engine
The outline of the engine resembled an Orwick eng.
Incidentally , Bob Palmers original T Bird was powered by an Orwick\
32.

>I beleive Johnson made a small case engine with an s on the
>side of the case
>This engine used a 29 crank and 35 piston & cyl.
>It was a good stunt engine
>The outline of the engine resembled an Orwick eng.
>Incidentally , Bob Palmers original T Bird was powered by an
>Orwick\
>32.

All the Johnsons descend directly from the original Orwick.
The "S" is a prize- it was "developed" as an emergency expediant at the '57 NATs by Hi Johnson and George Aldrich. GMA had a sour motor and Hi used parts he had handy to build the very first "S". George said Hi tore his motor down and rebuilt it overnight and he broke it in doing lazy eights as soon as they could get on a circle the next morning. It is indeed a great motor.

Jake

John: One engine design certainly did not run Johnson out of business. Their problem was marketing; check out their ads in vintage model mags, for example. They are unimpressive.

Johnson (Dynamic Models, Inc, at the end) made other stuff, too, like glow heads, variable pitch props, etc.

And...all I can tell you is that my Sport Special is a nice running engine. I guess they are like McCoys (Redheads). The people that have decent running ones love 'em.

Yes, the S is a fine baffle motor. I have one on a Super Ringmaster right now. It runs like a Fox, complete with Dreaded Fox Burp on outsides (no extra charge). But that is the only way I can fault it.

I talked to Hi Johnson at the .62 Nats. He told me that he couldn't compete with Supertigre, particularly on labor costs, and expected to go out of business.

>I talked to Hi Johnson at the .62 Nats. He told me that he couldn't compete with Supertigre,
>particularly on labor costs, and expected to go out of business.

He told George A. the same thing. George said that he couldn't get it through Hi's head that Garofali was limited at the time on facilities and wasn't going to sell more than a thousand plus or minus a few, in any given year, of all the ST sizes together until he expanded a lot, which didn't end up happening soon.

The Johnson engines weren't marketed effectively, true enough. That now heralded "S" model was hardly advertised at all. The greatest percentage of Johnson engine users was among the higher performance CL fliers, such as combat guys, and he competed head on with Fox there, at very similar price figures, until the various "X" motors came along at about this same (1963, actually) period as the one-piece G21-35's were making inroads into the Johnson Combat's market.

(I had two of those early Tigres at the time. Constant trouble with broken bearings and shafts, parts hard to get, and very touchy about primes -- my knuckles were well damaged by the time I traded them for three 35X's! Personally, I never saw a Johnson in a local retailer's display cases, and never owned any of my own until I went on a year long binge of watching eBay for a large part of my time, and getting some bargains through persistence.)

.

Kiwi

I recall GMA didn't think it wise to push a Johnson too hard. Right before he fell ill, he wrote me that he had a .29R out in the shop with a hole blown completely thru the piston, and that was running it on good fuel- the owner just "tweaked it" a bit too much.

JAK

George wasn't a big fan of the Johnson engines, and only used the "S" for a rather short time. I suspect that there were some conflicting oersonality aspects to it with Hi, who was almost as opionated as George. Hi bought his pistons from the same contractor who supplied Testors RH pistons, but the Johnson piston was weaker around the wrist pin support area than the RH piston. George really didn't like either kind of pistons from that supplier, but he showed me a cigar box sized Tupperware container that was almost filled with broken Johnson pistons once.

.

Kiwi