Home | Parts & Services | Bearcat 55 Kaiser - Frazer - Willysw Bearcat 55 How Bearcat Outboard Engines outdo all other marine power plants. Bearcat properties are crucial to sophisticated boaters but they can be appreciated by anyone. No smoke. You won't see a faint blue fog rising above the wake left by a Bearcat powered boat. To a fisherman trolling or a houseboater leisurely cruising, not being "gassed" when a gently following breeze blankets his boat with its own smelly exhaust is reason enough to "go first class" with a Bearcat. No waste. Although the full power economy is valuable, flexibility to run economically at all power settings is invaluable and can be had only with a 4-cycle engine. Fisherman with Bearcats not only save about 1/2 the fuel bill of an equivalent 2-cycle powered outfit, but don't need a second motor for trolling. Bearcats have trolled two full days on a single 6-gal. tank of fuel. (Coho salmon -- Platte Bay, Michigan) No Exotic Ignition Requirement. To avoid malfunction from spark plug fooling, 2-stroke engines have resorted to capacitor-discharge solid state device-controlled ignition systems. Some of these are elegant, all are expensive, and mnay are prone to difficulty. They are fortunately compltely unnecessary on 4-stroke engines. The simple reliable battery ignition with points and distributor used on the Bearcat is time proven, easy to service and almost entirely trouble free, like that in a good car. Full Power or Slow Troll -- Indefinitely. Bearcat engines are in use by professional ski schools where the smart performance and two-for-one economy answer a simple dollar and sense equation. Commercial crab fisherman spend 1/3 more for Bearcats and pay for the whole purchase in fuel savings, often within a year. With engine idling at least half the time on a long day's work, the crabber appreciates sparkplug life of 6 months instead of as little as a single week. The Rhythmic Sound of Precise Machinery. - Unlike any other outboard, Bearcats never sound like rain coming down a gutter spout or little pebbles rolling down a shute. (How would you describe the sound of any other outboard idling at a dock?) Bearcats instead remind us of jargon affectionately coined by old line mechanics on both sides of the Atlantic. The British refer to "idle" as "tick-over". You have to admit they use their language well! But a New England character in a small town combination blacksmith shop-garage-grocery store also had a good description to apply to the sound of a good engine smoothly idling: "Hunk a' meat'n no patata - Hunk a' meat'n no patata --!" Repeated at a good clip under your breath the phrase is certainly suggestive. The point of this foolishness? Bearcat engines are pleasant company. All this and Safety too. Bearcats share with all outboards a record of nearly total freedom from a hazard which must be recognized in all boats with gasoline powered inboard engines either conventional or stern drive. This is the hazard consequent of gasoline fumes or drips accumulating inside the boat. If a outboard drips, it drips overboard, harmlessly. Genesis of the Bearcat 55 Adaptation of a small high performance auto engine to outboard use was begun by Lou Fageol and taken forward by the Homelite Division of Textron, Inc., who marketed a largely successful unit from 1962 to 1966. In that year the Fisher-Pierce Co. acquired the engine and undertook to perfect it and integrate its sale and service into the specialized distribution organization developed in selling the company's famous Boston Whaler boats. The outstanding performance and utility of the former Homelite and present Bearcat are identical. But the Bearcat is incomparably more durable and trouble free. This results from many small improvements and a couple of large ones. High Performance Valve Gear. With its overhead camshaft and one piece cylinder block and head, the engine was always comfortably capable of high speed and power. Fisher-Pierce has given it the hardened valve seats and Stellite exhaust valves which relieve owners of the need for frequent tune-ups and extend life before overhaul for hundreds, even thousands of hours. It is routine for this strongest of engines to survibe 250 hours of test at continuous full power, a thing few if any automotive engines can do. Sophisticated-By-pass Cooling System. "Before Bearcat," Homelite engines suffered from one of their own principal virtues! Having clean, oil-free exhaust they tended to expose important parts of the lower unit to hot corrosive fumes during the periods when the engine thermostat restricted the flow of cooling water. (The dirty oil-soot of 2-stroke exhaust reduces this problem.) In the Bearcat, cooling water not passing through the engine is by-passed directly to the exhaust system which is thus never left without a protective flood of cooling. Besides this, the cylinder block now remains full of water after shut-down, excluding air and effectively preventing rust accumulation. Directed internal water jets have been added to precisely cool the four cylinder heads, which feature alone added almost as much to durability as the high performance valves. In common, sport and commercial fishermen, rental fleet operators, houseboat owners, all share circumstances in which going first class with Bearcat gives better livelihood, sport or enjoyment. The fleet operator keeps his investment producing, protected against accidental service interruption by easy engine swapping. With 4-cycle features, he builds client goodwill! The sport fishterman can venture on big water in a trailerable boat he can store in his garage. He can forget his power plant and need not stay in sight of the gas docks. He can move with the fish. The commercial fisherman saves hundreds of dollars a year in fuel bills, not to mention less frequent downtime for repairs. The houseboat owner has the peace of mind of an outside engine yet avoids the messy chore of oil mixing. He can enjoy cruising free from "stink" or smoke whichever way the wind blows. Economy 4-Cycle Marine 4305 Caterpillar Road, Building C Unit 6 Redding, CA 96003 Phone: (530) 241-7990 or (530) 241-2296