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Mike Mosier
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Posted on: Feb 16, 2009 - 10:21am
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Does anyone know if Walker made the mufflers for the Elcos? Were they just truck mufflers modified at the Elco plant?
Thanks, Mike.
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BobPic
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Posted on: Feb 16, 2009 - 11:49am
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The mufflers could hardly be truck mufflers because of their unoque shape and function. They functioned by routing exhaust gasses down below the water surface, unlike truck mufflers, They protruded below the surface so had to be saltwater resistant, They also had special flat mounting. But most of all they fit a very large exhaust pipe on a very powerful rngine. I.m not a trucker, but it would take a huge truck to utilize such mufflers. I think the truck would also have to run under water. Serously, Some muffler may have made them, but I'll bet they were produced strictly to Elco specifications
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Frank J Andruss Sr
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Posted on: Feb 17, 2009 - 3:46am
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Mike
As he earlier Elco boats only had striaght pipes with no Mufflers, I will say that Elco designed the mufflers for Marine use. Nw, did they make them on site- Good question. Elco certainly had a machine shop capable of producing the mufflers, but they could have gone with an outside vendor that had experience with marine mufflers. I will do some digging, and in the meantime maybe the experts on the message board can help with finding out as well.........
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TED WALTHER
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Posted on: Feb 17, 2009 - 5:10am
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I know some early Elco's had thier mufflers installed at Fifes boatyard at Glen Cove Long Island.
Take care,
TED
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Mike Mosier
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Posted on: Feb 17, 2009 - 3:13pm
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Thanks Frank and Ted. I was allways curious whether they would design and build something so obviously expensive from scratch for what might have only a short lifespan. Or since they were relatively easy to replace, it might have made more sense to modify something cheap that allready existed and treat them as a disposable item. I remember seeing an ad in one of the old boating magazines for the company that supposedly made the exhaust pipes. I think it was Van Blerck??? Of course I saw an ad from Sterling once claiming the PT's used their Vimalert engines too. Thank's guys, Mike
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Ed B
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Posted on: Feb 18, 2009 - 2:23pm
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Mike
You are correct in recalling that the copper exhaust pipes for Elco's were mfg by the Joseph Van Blerck & Son company of Roosevelt L.I. and Freeport L.I. Don't know about the mufflers. Van Blerck was an innovative and rather famous marine engine designer in the early 1900's (Van Blerck Motor Company), and built many of his engines for early Elco motor yachts. Van Blerck engines, in any condition, are almost worth their weight in gold today. The Long Island operations were pretty much run by his son (Joe Jr.), who became a renowned speedboat racer, and they also provided a lot of technical support and transportation services for Elco. |
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Mike Mosier
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Posted on: Feb 18, 2009 - 3:32pm
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Thanks Ed. I should have known that. I used to go to the Red Bank Regatta where he raced sometimes. Some of the ads say he made the exhaust manifolds but the Packard motor I had had one new style and one old style manifold and they were both solid aluminum as I recall.Probably made by Packard. I'm pretty sure the exhaust pipes were double wall copper so it probably wouldn't have been a stretch to make the mufflers eh??
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Frank J Andruss Sr
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Posted on: Mar 10, 2009 - 2:48pm
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I was looking through some old papers I had in my file and came across some things on the mufflers. Elco made parts in their Factory and had others made, shipped to the factory and assembled there. I found some PN numbers for a muffler vendor, PN A17695 and Elco had applied their P/N Div 6043, the starboard muffler asembly had a P/N A 17696.
Elco Division 6043, 3 each, the muffler body port no. RA 90041, stb no. RA 90042 leads me to believe they bought only this part and were called underwater Exhaust Mufflers. I had notes on the butterfly Valve assembly used on mufflers. Again, they were partially bought outside P/N A20455. They were bronze and red brass cu-cupro #composition 70% cu 30% Nickel. The bronze C/U housing was a buy out from Van Blerck Co,, no VB210. Again Elco P/N 6043. The other section of the notes had in large letters: Van Blerck Co., Valves and Muffler Manuafacturer to be used on PT's 103- 145. This was an original Elco Inter-Office Memo from Irwin Chase, Managing Constructor at Elco...........
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