FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Can I use an Easy Start on the Pioneer engine?

Your easy start should work fine. One thing that you MUST NOT do is use the piston stop to tighten the easy start starter pulley or you can not hold the other end of the crankshaft (the collet side) while you tighten it.  This is a really bad thing to do and you are asking for trouble.  It is likely that you could twist the crank or possibly even dent the connecting rod with the needle bearings.  You need to make a tool that goes in the puller holes of the magneto and hold it there when you tighten up the starter pulley, this applies to the standard starter pulley or the easy start starter pulley.  This also applies even if you are working on a zenoah engine, some of the things that are standard practice are really bad news, people are just not aware of it.  

You say I don’t need a water cooled exhaust flange on the Pioneer, why not? Does it interfere with the length?
None of our Quickdraws need a cooling unit between the pipe and the engine.  The pipe just bolts directly to the engine and this is because the cylinder itself is completely water cooled around the exhaust port and all the way down to the top of the crank cases. 
There are also 2 other reasons, #1) is the port shapes in the water cooled adapter don't match the port on the Pioneer and it can't be made to match.  #2) Yes, the length will throw things off but you must understand that the shape of the exhaust port and then the way it transitions into the shape of the head pipe is very critical.  When you get your Pioneer and pipe that goes with it you will see how it is much different from the previous HT or Hi Rev Quickdraw engines of the past.  If you fool with this transition, HP goes out the window.   
 
I don't know if we sent you the photos of the water cooling passages in our cylinder (they are pretty much the same as the HT) but with this much water around your exhaust flange, why would anybody need to add a water cooled adapter?  It has virtually no effect on o-ring life.  If you are trying to have less o-ring maintenance, some people are having good luck with teflon o-rings but I have never tried these personally to know the good and bad points of them. 


1) Does the Quickdraw weigh as much as a Zenoah?
The engine weighs the same as a Zenoah the last time I weighed it but since then, we have added 2 more main bearings so it probably weighs more than the Zenoah by 2 main bearings.  The heavy spot on the Zenoah is the water cooling ring where our water cover is extremely light, that is what gets the weight of our engine the same as theirs.  The Pioneer weighs 3 ounces more than the HT engine.  It is extra weight is in the cylinder casting.

2) Can I run my Quickdraw engine in salt water or is that too stressful for it?
Salt water doesn't create any extra stress, however after each run day you have to remove the head button and clean out the head bolt holes and relube the threads and then put the head button back on.  If you don't do this, the head bolts will corrode in and you will never get them out without breaking them all.  As far as the bottom end goes, you should always drench it with Wurth Rost-Off through the intake port and rotate the engine so it gets everywhere.  
       
If you dunk it on the last run, you would ruin any engine if you put it away wet.  Taking the cylinder off and lubing everything is not really necessary anymore, but filling it with Rost off should happen after each time you run it if you are running it in salt water. If you are running it in fresh water and you do not dunk the engine, it is not necessary to fill it with Rost Off when you are done.

3) Can I run my Quickdraw engine with something other than a Hot Pipe?
The engine performs excellent but you have to remember that it's a balanced system, it starts at the carb and ends at the silencer.  Everything has to be in perfect harmony with each other or you aren't necessarily going to get the same results we do.  I am not trying to be a salesman, but before you even consider buying this engine you ought to call and talk to Mitch at 530-938-2485 and tell him exactly what you plan on bolting onto this engine and see what he says.  He will be very honest with you.  It seems like he spends most of his life in that dyno room.  He says that these engines are extremely sensitive to what you do to them.  Sometimes just a very small change puts them in the dumper.

4) Why don’t you plate your cylinders, won’t it wear better?
All new engines from Quickdraw now have hard chrome customer replaceable sleeves.  Piston, ring and sleeve life are as good or better than what you would get in a Zenoah cylinder.

5) What are the torque specs for the Quickdraw?
The head bolts need to be torqued to 15 inch pounds exactly. We have a special preset torque wrench that is fool proof available. You need this if you plan on removing the head button.

6) Can I check to see if my crank is straight on a lathe?
This method is OK so long as you know that your chuck has No run out.  Put a straight shaft in the lathe chuck, something about the same diameter as the crank (12mm), check it right at the chuck and then go out about 3" from the chuck and see what you have.  If both readings are no more than .0005, this is good.  When you are checking your crank, check it right where the main bearing goes and then go right out to before the magneto taper and check it there.  The run out should be the same as it was at the main bearing location.  If it's not, you will have to look at where it is high versus where the crank pin is at to know if the crank needs to be hit, squeezed or wedged.  You can not do it between centers because the centers in the crank are not accurate.

7) Can I use a modded WT257 carb on my engine?
You can use the carb you speak of, but you are going to experience a small loss of power due to the bored out venturi.  Go to the WYK33 carburetor info section & click on the carburetor flow bench results link for more info on the carbs you speak of.  The problem is you are lowering the velocity (air speed) without gaining any appreciable flow increase.  Plus you will find that the 257 needles are much more difficult to get the needles set. Also because of the very large metering needle under the diaphragm that the 257 uses, this carb will never work correctly and it will never have any consistency in needle settings. Right when you think it is set perfect, you will have a rich or lean run for no obvious reason. This is because of inertia problems with too big of a metering diaphragm needle. This is an obsolete outdated carburetor. It will work OK at low RPM’s on the lawn and garden equipment it was intended for but for our application, it is hopeless. I have tried very hard to make the carb work but it won’t no matter what you do to it. My life would be much easier if the 257 carb would work good, but unfortunately it will not.

8) I use 4 ounces of oil to a gallon in my engines, can I use that same mixture in my Quickdraw?
If 4 ounces is working good in your other engines, you should stick with it in them.  But in the Quickdraw you will get your best performance at 10 ounces to the gallon.  I have run our engine on 6 ounces and it lost .2 HP.  I then ran it on 4 ounces and it lost .3 HP.  These dyno runs didn't show any accelerated wear but then they were reasonably short runs but from many hours of on the water testing by a lot of different customers, I can honestly tell you that there is a major increase in the life of the engine on 10 ounces.  Again, I am referring to the Quickdraw.  We used to recommend 4 ounces to the gallon, and with enough testing and time it increased gradually up to the 10 ounce mark.  I have ran more oil than this and power will start to drop off if I go any further than 10.  We recommend the Klotz KL-100 Super Techniplate with 20% castor oil.   It is the castor oil that makes this oil work so well, if you can not get this Klotz oil the second choice would be the Motul Kart Grand Prix 2T oil.  DO NOT use any other Motul oils.  Also DO NOT USE the Maxima 927 oil, it will cause quick engine failure.  If you are reving very high the big end of the connecting rod will fail with the Maxima 927 oil. 

9) Can I use Race Fuel in my Quickdraw engine?
Race fuel won't hurt your QD engine at all, but most of it will make you run a little slower, unless you are having detonation problems.  Here is how it works, the very most amount of energy is in 87 octane regular pump gas.  As the octane rating goes up, detonation resistance goes up and the energy per gallon goes down.  The trick is being able to run on 87 without detonating.  If detonation sets in, you will lose a lot more power than you will by going to a higher octane fuel.  So if this is what it takes to make it not detonate, then use it.  But if you are not detonating on 87, this will be the fastest. 

10) What is the difference between 87 and 97 octane for the QD engine?
You will get your best performance in the QD with 87 octane. Higher Octane will not hurt the engine, but you will lose some power. If you are in a country that does not have 87 octane, just use the lowest octane that is available at the pump and you will be fine. Some countries measure octane differently than the USA and their 93 octane is about the same as the USA 87 octane. Higher octane gasoline has a higher resistance to detonation but it has less energy because of it. If everything is set up correctly for your QD and you have enough air circulation through the boat, you will not have any detonation problem with 87 octane. 

11) Have you tried the various aluminum isolator blocks available?
No, I haven't tested the aluminium isloator blocks.  Any of them will have to have some grinding done to them to match our intake port.  If they are close to the same length as stock and if they don't transfer enough heat to the carb to cause vapor lock (this vapor lock problem happens when you shut the engine off to refuel it and then go to start it again) and they are matched properly to the intake port, they should work fine.  The engine comes with a delrin intake manifold that we make that will not warp on our engine.  If you blow a water line off the engine and overheat it, it can melt the manifold where it meets the cylinder.

12) How long can I run my Quickdraw before it needs a rebuild?
I really don't know how long it will go in between rebuilds, because so far I have had not one customer that didn't blow them off and suck water through them.  That is to say nobody has ever owned an engine and been able to wear it out without helping it along due to blow offs.  We have never had an engine come back that wore out on it's own.  It has always been due to sucking water, blowing a water line off, losing the radio and running it up on shore and having it sit there and screaming & baking it's brains out. 

13) Can I replace my Zenoah with a Quickdraw, what is involved?
It is actually slightly lower than a Zenoah. In almost every case, it can easily replace your Zenoah. Our water jacket is a rectangle shape and has a bigger footprint than the round Zenoah cooling jacket.  For our engine to run at it's peak in your boat, it needs a lot more air coming in the cowling and going out. They make a lot of power and they got to be able to breathe, plus the pipe gives off a tremendous amount of heat and you have got to get that heat out of the boat.  You may need to enlarge your air inlets and outlets for the Quickdraw to run it’s best.  The Pioneer moves your pullstart side motor mount a 1/4" further forward than your zenoah

14) What water pickup and hose barbs should I run?
We use straight hose barbs.  The straights are the best way to go.  Never use 90 degree fittings. They will not flow enough water.  Your water pickup needs to be a double water pickup rudder blade type, stay away from the prop blast type, they will pick up way too much air and you will overheat the engine.  Also be sure to zip tie your water lines so they won't blow off the fittings. 

15) Can I use banjo type water fittings?
Never use banjo type fittings on the Quickdraw engines, whether it be for water or carburetor pulse lines. They will not work. You should also stay away from any kind of 90 degree fittings on our engines.

16) Can I use a prop blast pickup with my QD?
No, prop blast pickups take in aerated water and your water jacket fills with air and only partially fills with water.  This leaves the head button sitting with no water and that means a melted down QD.  A double rudder water pickup is the way to go. Although a double rudder water pickup could cost you a couple MPH compared to a prop blast pickup, what good is a couple of MPH if you melt down an engine? 

17) Why are there more water in and water out outlets than in the past?
The additional water cooling was mainly for the guys in Florida or anybody with their kind of temperatures.  In the summer time, it can easily be 100 degrees F and water temperatures of 85 degrees F.  To keep the engine running well, you need a double rudder pickup with the 2 lines coming in and 3 lines going out.  To my knowledge, there has been no engine damage by the single water line, the engine just does not run as well as it does with the extra cooling.  I spent all day Sunday on the dyno and my water temperature here is 40 degrees F and even with that cool of water, I still got more consistent runs and slightly better HP output running the additional lines.  One thing to keep in mind is a rudder with a double pickup usually is a wider and bigger blade.  You may lose a little speed over a single rudder pickup.  I don't like prop blast pickups because they tend to get a lot of air in the water jacket, this can expose the headbutton and in general not cool as well as non-aerated water. 

18) What are the cooling requirements for the QD, like inputs, outputs & Exhaust?
It needs a double pickup rudder for the 2 water lines coming in, both of these lines go to the bottom of the cylinder, it has 3 water lines going out overboard, and there is no cooling or exhaust adapter required. All the cooling for the exhaust orings is built right into the cylinder casting.

19) Can I put a hot pipe with an internal silencer on the QD engine?
You don't want to put the stinger inside the pipe at all.  Having it up inside worked with our high rev engine, but the high torque hates this combination.  It will put a real bad sag in the power band between 13,000 and 16,000 RPM.  Just put the stinger on in a conventional manner and use an external silencer.
 
20) When do I have to pull my cylinder off and flush out the crankcases?
Pulling the top and cleaning the gritty water out is always preferred but not always feasible.  Pulling the top is, in my opinion, mandatory when you hear the engine stop hard (you know what I am talking about, when you hydraulic it and don't get the engine to spin down very low before the water stops it for you).  When this happens you need to pull the 4 cylinder bases bolts and pull the top end off and take the piston off the rod and look at the small end of the rod with a magnifying glass.  You are looking to see if you have any dents in the small end. If you do, your day should be over and you need to take it home, take the crank out of it and throw the crank in the garbage and put a new crank in.  If you don't check for dents, or go ahead and run it with dents, you are risking a lot more damage because it is only a matter of time before either the small end needle bearing or the big end needle bearing comes apart from running over these dents.  When they come apart, the shrapnel will trash the rest of your engine.  If your budget is such that you are not too worried about it, just pull the plug and pump the water out of it, flush the inside real good with Wurth Rost Off (see our website and the 25 instructions for where to get it and a part number) and go run it and take your chances.  This is what we do.  But we know the risks we are taking and when we trash an engine, we don't get real upset about it and we just fix it.  Keep in mind that the grit in the water will take a toll on the life of your ring and bore but it is not that expensive to fix those things and our play time is short so generally most people just flush it out and go. 

21) How do I replace a circlip?
I have never had a circlip come out ever, at least not so far.  But I am extremely careful with removing them or putting them back in, I don't use them over very often.  But when I am dynoing something and I keep changing everything, apart and together, apart and together, I do use the circlips over.  But I am extremely careful in removing them and even more careful in installing them.  Sometimes they don't just roll right in, by this I mean you have to start one edge in the groove as you roll the rest of it in, if you don't do this you will get the whole clip in the wrist pin bore at one time, that means none of it is in the groove yet. I think when this happens it bends the clips a little smaller than they really want to go and I don't think that they have full tension once you do get them in the groove.  Whenever this happens to me, I usually pull the clip back out and throw it away.  I find that working with the Zenoah pistons is harder to get the clips in than it is on a Quickdraw piston, but maybe I am just more used to working with QD pistons. One other thing that may be helpful is once you have both clips in, try taking another wrist pin and pushing it in the pin bores from both sides of the piston.  This will guarantee that the clips are in all the way.


22) What is the best way to mount the coil on my QD   ?
As far as the coil mounting, it is best to mount it with the supplied bracket on the stringer or any place you want as long as it is not on the engine. The problem that we have run into is with the coil relocater brackets that mount the coil above the pull start, the problem is they keep vibrating loose.  That is the only reason that we added the other bracket and ground wire.  The coil is happier when it is not on the vibrating engine anyway.  You can mount your coil wherever you want, but if you have trouble with it coming loose, you know what to do.  Also, watch out for bad coil grounding due to annodized hardware.

23) I was wondering if anybody ever converted a Quickdraw 25 to run with Methanol and Nitro mix? What would you think would be the result?
I have worked with it some.  The easiest thing to do is just run no higher than 10% nitro and 20% oil.  This is standard glow fuel.  I use RedMax brand.  Use the spark ignition, not a glow plug, because it never dies on you when the engine gets too cold.  The biggest problem is modifying the carb to flow enough fuel.  I used a reworked WYK33.  It ran good but the low speed was way too rich.  I haven't experimented with it any more than that so that is all I know about this subject.

24) Do you use anti-seize on the headbolts?
Yes, we anti-seize them when we assemble them.  You should take it apart after each weekend of running and dry them out and re-anti seize them if you run it in salt water. If you are running in fresh water, it is a good idea to do this about every 4 weekends.  One word of caution, be careful starting the head bolts into their threads.  They are a roll formed thread (not a cut formed thread) so if you are not careful the bolt could pick up the center of the formed thread, if it does this it will get tight and if you try to put it in, you will break the bolt and ruin the thread.  The best way to put these bolts in is turn them backwards with your allen wrench until you feel it drop down into the starting thread, then go forward.  If it turns freely, keep going. If it doesn't, do not force it.  Rotate backwards again with slight downward pressure until you feel it click and try again.  

 This has not been a problem but I only bring it up because we had a customer do this last weekend, he forced it until he twisted the bolt off then he tried to drill it out himself, then he mailed us the cylinder and now we have to tell him that he has completely destroyed it and we can't fix his cylinder casting. If you ever break a bolt off, do not attempt to drill it yourself, send it to us and we usually have about a 90% chance that we can fix it and save the cylinder casting. 

25) Does the pipe kit come with instructions?
No, they don't come with any instructions.  If you don't know what to do with the parts, then this kit isn't for you.  It needs to be TIG welded.  It can NOT be brazed or wire welded.  Springs and flex do not come with it.  This kit is for people who are experienced pipe builders or fabricators, they aren't for the novice. 

26) What is the max RPM of the HT engine?
The max RPM when propped correctly, depending on the boat it goes in, is anywhere from 18,000 to 18,600 RPM.  To run correctly and to achieve these RPM's you have to run OUR pipe on it.  Lately, we have had a few people putting pipes other than ours on the HT engine and then telling everybody that the engine doesn't run good.  Because of this, we are only selling this engine as a complete package, engine, pipe and silencer. 

27) Can I put a band pipe on my Quickdraw?
A 2" band pipe works good if you are not planning on reving over 16,500 rpm but most people do want to rev higher than this. Look at the dyno graphs that are posted on our website comparing the hot pipe to the band pipe.  If you want the engine to run as advertised there isn't any other pipe that will do it.  I am not trying to push our product, but the problem is that the whole thing is a balanced system from the carb to the silencer.  If you upset this balance at all, you're not going to get the same results that I do. 

28) Can I mount my coil on the coil relocator mounts?
When you mount the coil on those coil relocator mounts that usually bolt onto the pull starter, they vibrate and come loose quite often.  This will give you a DNF.  The coil holds up better also when not bolted to the engine.

29) How do I check my deck height?
You need to set the deck height very carefully, this is where the white base gaskets come in. If you need the white base gaskets, put them next to the engine cases and put the brown or black base gaskets next to the cylinder casting. The deck height should be set to .010 to .012 inches. To measure this, you need to have a dial indicator that will screw into the spark plug hole. You put the cylinder on with no base gaskets at all, bring the piston up until it hits the head button and stops. Now set the dial indicator to zero with the piston hitting the head button. (If the piston doesn’t hit the head button and stop with no gaskets then you have to remove the piston and push it into the cylinder bore until it hits the head button and hold it there tightly and then set the dial indicator to zero.) Now very carefully take the cylinder back off without bumping the dial indicator, put one brown base gasket on and tighten the cylinder down. If you are not reusing the old gaskets be sure the brown or black base gaskets have been soaked with Rost off or WD40, this is not necessary on the white paper gaskets. Now rotate the piston up and read your deck height on the dial indicator. Work with the different gaskets to get the correct deck height.

On the +1 or +2 mm Stroker engines you most likely will not be able to get the piston to hit the head button with the base gasets removed.  You will have to take the piston off of the rod and put it in the cylinder bore and push it tightly against the head button with your finger and set the dial indicator to zero.  Then put the piston back on the connecting rod and set the deck height as above.  For a +1 mm Stroker engine with a 34 mm bore the deck height is .018" to .020".  For a standard stroke +1 or a +2 mm Stroker engine with a 36 mm bore (29, 29.5, or 30.5 cc engines) the deck height is .009" to .012". 

The gasket thicknesses are given after they have been crushed. By spraying Rost off on the gaskets they will crush almost right away after you have tightened the cylinder base bolts. The torque specification for the base bolts is 45 inch pounds. You may see the cylinder settle maybe an additional .004" after the engine has been run for ½ hour to an hour.   The crushed base gasket thickness values are as follows:   brown = .020", black = .010" and white = .003".  
 
30) Why do you recommend a special preset torque wrench for the Quickdraw?
Because if you don’t use the correct torque wrench, your cylinder bore is not going to be round.  The torque setting is so low that most torque wrenches won’t read reliably at this reading. If you know your torque wrench is accurate at this low of a setting, then you can use your own torque wrench.

31) Why doesn’t the HT engine use a lightened Zenoah piston like everybody’s Zenoah?
The lightened piston flexes and deforms too much in our HT.  Usually it will tear up the exhaust bridge in the cylinder if you lighten it.  It doesn't seem to help anything by lightening it.  Why is everybody doing it?  You hit the nail on the head!  Because everyone else is doing it, so it must be the thing to do! The QD HT likes a bone stock Zenoah piston and ring. Simple and cheap.

32) When I disassembled my boat after the race I noticed that the two thrust washers in front of the drive dog were fused together. That has got to be causing a lit of drag. Is it possible to butt the flex shaft against the crank shaft inside the collet so the thrust washers are not even needed, like the setup on a nitro engine? Will the engine handle the forward thrust ?
All the engines we make will handle the prop thrust fine.  Depending on how long of a cable you are running, you should usually have about 5/16" between the drive dog and the strut.  Bottoming the cable in the collet in the engine is what you want to do.  Forget the thrust washers and let the engine handle the thrust.

33) What throttle linkage do you recommend & what clutch?
We don't recommend any particular throttle linkage, that kind of goes along with your mounts, whatever you like.  The best recommendation I can give you for clutches is not to use them.  Most of the people who build those 60" Twin cats, like on our website, run them with no clutches and they launch very easily.  If you insist on using a clutch, the only one I would recommend is the Bonzi clutch because it has a steel clutch drum. Never use a clutch with an aluminum clutch drum because it will grind the drum and shoes to pieces and all the black dust goes right into the carbs and ruins the engines very quickly. 

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