Product Review Article ...by Rudy Hilado

Engine mounts by RC Speedworld...

Mounting your gas motor in a boat can often be a daunting task, especially if you try to make your own mounts. There are also times when it's necessary to pull the motor from the boat after it has been mounted , and in some of the smaller hulls, this can be difficult.

Speedworld has a set of mounts that are machined to work with your Zenoah PUM (23/231/260), Zenoah G230RC, and Quickdraw motors.

The mounts come with all the necessary hardware for mounting your motor to the engine rails:

• Front plate and two stainless steel mounting bolts
• Back plate (Bottom plate and SS bolts for the G230RC motor)
• Vibration isolators and matching 1/4-20 mount bolts (regular steel hex cap bolts)
• Engine rail mounting plates with large SS washers and nylon locknuts

What sets the Speedworld mounts apart is the integrated throttle bellcrank. The front mount has a bellcrank installed with a z-bend push rod matched to a clevis pin. This allows you to do a straight pull on the bellcrank with your throttle servo, which is clean and very reliable. This throttle setup, though, requires that the carb have an arm attached to the end of the throttle butterfly valve shaft. The G230RC stock carb has an integrated throttle arm, but the PUM motors do not, so Speedworld also sells an inexpensive machined aluminum throttle arm that would match up perfectly with the throttle bellcrank.

The Speedworld mount is designed to allow the motor to be removed by simply taking out 4 bolts, but the advantage is you can remove the bolts from directly above the motor. A real boon to smaller boats that do not have a lot of wrenching space around the sides of the motor. On the G230RC motor, the rear bracket has the mount bolts facing the bow, but it's still relatively easy to access with a hex key wrench.

The motor attaches to the engine rails supported by 4 rubber vibration isolators that are attached to "L" brackets. The brackets have an 8-32 bolt stud permanently attached which are flush mounted to provide room for the isolators. The isolators can be mounted on either side of the "L" bracket. Placing them on the inside allows the motor to be mounted lower, if desired.

Both the Zenoah PUM and G230RC mount kits use the same front bracket. For the G230RC, the rear bracket attaches to the bottom of the flywheel housing and it is cut to allow for the curvature of the housing and the mounting holes are offset to accomodate the the offset mounting holes on the motor.

The only really issue I discovered with the mounts was a problem with the clearance on the throttle bellcrank. The bellcrank is placed near the front plate attachment bolt and it is not high enough to allow the bellcrank to pass over the bolt freely. Adding a clevis pin for the push rod that goes to the throttle servo makes matters worse. Fortunately, this problem is easily solved by adding a few washers under the bellcrank to raise it up so it clears the bolt. Additionally, the bellcrank can cover the mounting bolt making it a little tricky to remove the bolt, but this can be minimized by lengthing (or shortening) the pushrod so the bolt head is exposed, and since the bellcrank is plastic, it can be temporarily bent out of the way when needed.

The Speedworld mounts have very clean machine work and they match the motor mount holes perfectly. The front plate, which is cut to provide ample room to access the collet, comes in different annodized colors (black, red and blue, I believe) and they sport the Speedworld logo etched on the top. The Speedworld mounts allow a nice and clean motor installation and would be a great addition to any boat.

Specifications:

Motors supported: Zenoah PUM, Zenoah G230RC, or Quickdraw (specify when ordering)
Cost: $55 + shipping

Contact information:

John Mantesta (aka Doc John)
Phone: 954-815-1914
E-mail: speedworld@aol.com
Website: www.rcspeedworld.com

Here are additional pictures of the Speedworld motor mounts:

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