Square intake Rocket?

A query from a friend:

Hi Tony,

Hope you can help me identify an engine.

On my recent visit to Holland I was shown a Fox engine with a square
intake. The only other identification was a the word 'Rocket' on the
crankcase, there was no indication of it's cubic capacity.

I have looked at your site and can find 3 Fox engines with a square
intakes, but none named 'Rocket'

Do you know of anywhere I could look up this engine, as it's driving me
mad trying to work out what it is? Like an idiot I forgot to take
photograph of it. Duuuuuh!

regards
dazed

The Fox 'Rocket" Combat special is listed in one of your engine reports. It is the Combat special with the removeable front end
(dual needle bearing). It was made by milling the front end of the Fox 35 Rocket Redhead case off and replacing it with the dual needle bearing one. The emblem of the rocket on the bypass was not removed.

I got one of 'em...It's really old, really beat-up looking, and runs really good for what it is. Pulls my 60's combat ship over 100 mph. Fast enough for anything I'll ever be doing. Cute little rocket on the side too.

From an article by Bill Ives:

In 1960 the new Fox .35 Combat Special Series III was introduced. It had a new two-piece crankcase with detachable front housing held on by four screws, it has twin needle bearings on the crankshaft, a new square intake without insert and a pressure fitting in the four screw rear cover. It also said "Rocket" on the bypass and had the wristpin hole in the rear crankcase. It also had a large "picture window" intake port in the cylinder liner. In 1960 Fox started using the same Series III crankcase casting for the "Rocket" .35 so now the crankcase on the second type Red Head "Rocket" .35 has four lugs on the front of the crankcase, otherwise, the second type Red Head "Rocket" .35 looks the same as the first type "Rocket" .35.

The Series III Combat Special was also made with a rocket on the bypass end no wristpin hole in the crankcase rear

The article can be found here:

http://www.clcombat.info/foxhistory.html

I have a Fox combat made from the rocket case. Removable front end with the needle bearings and the square intake. The rocket has been ground off the case. Good job but it is gone. Something done at the factory or did someone else do it?

Someone else did it.

Bigiron

There were really 3 versions of the "Series III" Combat Special. All were made using the Rocket crankcase as the basis. The Rocket cases had the 4 lugs added to the front end in 1960. When the front end was milled off, the removeable front end of the combat special could be added. The engines look alike, but the differences are:

1960 - Rocket on bypass, NO wrist pin removeal hole on back of case, 1.500 mount hole spacing

1961 - Rocket on bypass, Has a wristpin removeal hole in back of case, also, the case was made THICKER, .100" instead of .070". The case is wider and the backplate flange is also wider. Still 1.500 mount hole spacing

1962 - NO Rocket on bypass, NO wristpin removeal hole, and now the mounting hole spacing is increased to 1.625".

The attached pictures show the changes.

Check your mount hole spacing; if it is 1.625" it's a 1962 engine and no one filed off the Rocket.

It will be hard to follow G Wille, WOW some great info. I have started making a CD of every engine that I can find just for reference. I am trying to date all of them. The Foxes will drive you crazy as Duke kept at it with many designs and versions of the same design. Do think I found the engine in my files of almost 2000 engines, Jim J.

Hi James,

It sounds like you have started a good project. If you want more help on Foxes, write to Tim Dannels ([email protected]) and get a subscription to Engine Collector's Journal (ECJ). Ask him to start you with issue #161. Doug Martin is doing a series on Foxes for ECJ and has pictures and dates of all the Foxes, starting with the .59 longshaft ignition in 1947. I've been working with Doug on this series, along with John Hall and many others. Right now we're covered through 1971.

As someone else mentioned, Wild Bill Ives is THE Fox man. When we get stumped, Bill usually has the answer (often, new in the box!).

This is all very interesting. I have several of these engines, and will go look at them more carefully, now that I have been informed on the variations.