Flathead's Combee TomCat

[Flathead]

Here are some pics of the airboat I picked up a few weeks ago from a guy in Wisconsin. It's a Combee Tomcat. Built in 1981. Same as Busters new old hull, but built after Combee (an employee of Hurricane Airboats) took over the company and changed the name to Combee. I think that's the way it went anyway.....

It has a VW motor, direct drive, 10.5 x 5.5 fiberglass hull, 52x26 wood prop, oil pressure, tach(does not work), amps, head temp indicator(does not work). Overall in pretty good shape for a boat that's pushing 30 yrs old. (oh to be that young again!) I was told the motor came out of a VW bus but I don't know how find out what engine I've actually got. Any help out there?

Initially, after I finally got it running when I bought it, I thought it had some motor issues. Had some valve noise on one side and smoked pretty bad. However, yesterday I got her going again, added a new set of plugs and ran some sea foam through the gas and crankcase and the problems seemed to have gone away. We'll hope for that anyway. Even the alternator is working now. It was not producing voltage before...

I think the plan is now to put her on the water and see how she runs out.....

[buster]

Hey Flathead,

Your post came through OK,...that is all except the pictures. Try again.

Thanks, Dave

[Flathead]

Need some mentoring here ...so I went to the upload attachment area, clicked on choose a file, choose a file, then clicked on add file. It uploaded and wa-la. no pics. Obviously a newbie here!!!!

[buster]

Flathead,

Don't feel bad , I'm not exactly a newbie, and I have trouble with pic's quite often. I won't try to coach you through it myself. Papee or several others can do it a lot better.

I don't know if you saw my post, but I got my boat in the water yesterday, and it was somewhat dissapointing.

I'm going to make some changes, and I'll get it right yet.

Dave

[Papee]

Sounds like that boat wants to go! Be sure to carry extra oil with you and let us know how she runs. Looks like you have the attachment thing figured out, if not I'll explain.

[airhead]

Hey Flathead,

I had a lot of experiance with VW's in a prior life. If i remember correctly the sn# on the engine will tell you what the engine was in. I also would like to make a suggestion about the engine. If you have valve rattle, stop right now; pull the valve covers and rocker arms and torque the heads. Then adjust the valves and change the oil and be sure to clean the oil screen. You may already know all this but this is why the old VW's got a bad rep. If the engine is assembled correctly and you do these things as recommended, I don't believe there is a tougher engine on earth.


Now on this picture thing. Man it kicked my but. I tried different programs with no success until I used paint. You can find it in accessories if you're not familier. Google "how to use paint". After a couple of times it's fairly simple. If you need help PM me and i will help you.

Got to run. I need to mount an engine om the boat

Later, Jim

[buster]

Flathead,

That's a nice looking boat. Karl never showed me that one when I was there. I may have taken it, instead of the builder I got.

A little clean up, fix up, and some paint, and it'll be good as new. I will be especially interested in your test run results, so I know what to expect on mine.

Dave

[Flathead]

Papee,
My picture file size was too big, uploads worked fine once I shrunk the file size of the pictures, and I brought lots of oil..thanks...

Airhead
Thanks for the motor advise, I know nothing about VW engines. I'll be happy to hear any advise you'd care to send my way...thanks..

Buster,
Sound like we're in the same boat, (so to speak) mine plows a lot of water but won't get up on plane. Brought the gps but did not even bother to turn it on. The good news is the boat turned great and seems very stable on the water. Tach is not working so I could not tell you what the rpms were. However I did run WOT. I gotta believe I have a motor /prop issue. This is a 'factory boat', I gotta believe it should perform better....

Bruce

[buster]

Flathead,

If yours is a direct drive, at least it isn't a reduction drive belt slipping issue like mine is.

I'd be willing to bet you have a 36 or 40 HP engine. Those were rather anemic even when running right. I remember that from my dune buggy days.

If you had a 1500 or bigger, and the correct prop, I bet it would plane out good. I am almost positive those came from the factory with a 1500 installed in them!

Chuck or Papee might be the people to talk to about the prop. Also, I think Wildfowl said he knew of a VW engine with the right prop that was available.

I'd like to talk about the stability you mentioned. I am not real impressed with my boat. I'm thinking about making some changes, but first I'd like to see how "stable" a boat could be. PM me when you get some time.

Thanks, Dave

[Duane Scarborough]

Flathead,

That's a nice looking project you've got there. I'm looking forward to how you do with it.

Duane

[Sandman]

When and if I ever get around to doing a build.. I want something that the seat is low like your cat.
nice ride!