Are OPS and K&B still competative race engines??

[Tim van Schyndel]

Back in the 80's and early 90's, the K&B, OPS, OS & PICCO were the top competitive engine brands with CMB eventually coming along in the 90's. I myself ran K&B and OPS engines with great success and eventually CMB, before giving the hobby away.

Today, now getting back into the hobby and doing my research, it seems that the CMB, AA, MAC, new Picco and Novarossi motors all have impressive power stats and are the way to go.

I notice that the OPS and K&B "appear" to have not changed in 20 years and according to the manufactures specifications, they also appear to be off the pace compared to the above brands.

Without giving the manufactures stats much credence, if any, what is the reality on the water?

Have OPS and K&B dropped off the pace and become "sport engines", OR are they still capable of sticking it to the best on the power front?....... and if it is just a matter of updating the port timing to some more modern specs, do they still remain structurally reliable??

 

[Tim van Schyndel]

Thanks Greg

I have also been directed to an older thread that speaks specifically about the OPS engines which has answered my question. It does although appear that OPS are finally waking up.

Cheers

 

[shoboat]

Tim,

What size are you looking at?

21?

45?

67?

90?

A few good options out there these days.

Enjoy Testing,

Mark Sholund

 

[Steven Bryant]

Stock OPS 45 and 67 will never compete against the new generation engines however with a few little mods you can start to get some good power generated from them and with the right prop they are very fast. I'm leading the 45 mono class at my club with a modified OPS45 drum valve and i'm in second place in the 67 cat class with a modified OPS67.

They are good engines however the OPS45 big end bush has a tendancy to rotate which means you loose the oil hole alignment and the bearing wears really quickly, i've had this happen on two rods this season.

 

[brad nichols]

The only thing that matters is you have to FINISH!!!!!!! You can have the best, the fastest and the newest engines for 5 laps but if it dies on 6, oh well.

Brad

 

[Tim van Schyndel]

Thanks for the responses

Mark - I am after a 45 & 90 for Riggers and am happy to take suggestions but I am leaning towards CMB or AA as they are well supported here in Aus.

Steven - Thanks for your feedback and good to see you are having great success with the OPS engines. Unfortunately I have discovered that the supplier here in Aus is no longer bringing them in.

Brad - Completely understand your point!

 

[Greg Moss]

Tim

Just a bit of Aussie perspective on 45s for you. I have both AA and Novarossi engines (AA in my B-Mono, Novarossi DD in my B-Hydro, Novarossi OB in my B-O/B).

The AA support is good and parts are usually to hand as required with close to same day dispatch. I haven't actually needed any parts other than bearings in almost 2 full years of racing. I have the slant intake version.

Novarossi 46 support is also good in Aus. Aaron Alberico may still be able to supply parts, or failing that, Glenn Quarles on here offers excellent fast service. Again, I haven't required anything other than bearings to date.

CMB of course also has good local support but I don't run those in the 45 classes.

Cheers

 

[Tim_Duggan]

Another Aussie's perspective. The AMPBA rules for X hydro will let you run 1 cube twins in that class. Almost all boats in that class use CMB RS91's or RS101's. Expect rough water after a few laps!

In B hydro (45's) most of the newer engines are pulling a lot more revs than the OPS stuff could ever dream of, and that is a very, very competitive class! The Novarossi 46ToBe, The late Picco's, the AA's, and CMB's are all good. The CMB's use steel rods / needles. The rest are aluminium rods and are pretty good for rod life considering. The CMB RS45 is a zimmerman disk, the rest are drum valve (or crankshaft induction on the nova).

Where are you located Tim?

The other Tim.

 

[Steven Bryant]

I think either the CMB or the AA will serve you well in the hydro class, personely i would go with the AA engine as i have had some great reports from fellow racer who are using them

 

[Tim van Schyndel]

Thanks everyone for your response!