Don Moyer Breathes Life
Into The Venerable Atomic 4
Reading the story told by an
engine he is dismantling is a source of endless curiosity for Don Moyer
... a man who obviously enjoys the work he does
By Geoff Parkins
Photo by Stephen Moyer
I
like old, quirky things. Maybe it's an unconscious rebellion against
the constant barrage of bleeding-edge technology I face in my job as
a network analyst. Maybe those roots lie deeper than that.
When my ninth-grade
classmates were grinding their ears to a pulp with Van Halen and AC/DC,
I was tucked away in a corner with an old atlas and "He Went to
Paris" on the stereo. Instead of admiring the precision engineering
that went into the torsion bar suspension on a Porsche 911, I like the
"one-shot" kingpin lubrication system used on Morgan cars
from 1910 to the present. My cousin used to make models of Miss Budweiser
and knew all of the stats on the top-ranked unlimited hydroplanes. I
built a model of the Cutty Sark that combined the traditional two-part
hull with the never-before-seen unstayed polystyrene rig (I had a little
trouble with the rigging).
Today, I hear all kinds
of exciting news about the new high efficiency, ultra-quiet, mega-reliable
diesel engines that are being installed in sailboats and how the VolYan
XP57 is the de rigeur choice for anyone thinking of repowering their
old clunker. Everywhere I turn I'm told of the deadly nature of the
Unseen Fume, usually by a guy adjusting his propane stove with a cigarette
hanging from his lip.
My slightly off-kilter,
unreconstructed outlook on life digs in its heels when I hear this,
and I think about the sweet little Atomic 4 nestled in the bilge of
my old Pearson Vanguard. The boat and engine seem to complement each
other, the way a modified tractor engine seems to complement an old
British roadster. You can shoehorn a Honda engine into an MGA, but why?
To me, part of the appeal
of having an old boat is having an old engine. The auxiliary power plant
is as much a part of the soul of my boat as the varnished spruce boom
is, and I'm in no danger of replacing that with an aluminum headknocker.
If I wanted perfect reliability and unparalleled safety, I'd buy a Honda
Civic, park it in my garage, and never leave my house again.
Fortunately for old
boat owners, Don Moyer thinks like I do. Don runs Moyer Marine out of
his garage, rebuilding and upgrading Atomic 4s. My own Atomic 4 bought
the farm three years ago, and Don sold me a rebuilt engine, drove it
to Pt. Lookout, MD, and helped the guys there install it in my boat.
Last winter, I made the trek from Annapolis to Harrisburg, Penn., to
visit Don and to talk about the renaissance that seems to be breathing
more life into the venerable Atomic 4.
His shop is in a converted
garage on a quiet side-street not far from one of the interstates that
bisect Harrisburg. It's a small garage, and there aren't fancy signs
and giveaway posters on the walls. It's not operating-room clean, and
it's somewhat dim inside, but Martha Stewart doesn't work here. It is
tidy, well organized, and efficient. The tools are used, but clean and
put where they belong. There is a queue of blocks, heads, and complete
engines waiting for attention along one wall. The parts department is
on steel shelves along another. Don was in the middle of opening up
an engine. We talked for the rest of the afternoon while he took the
head off the engine and took a look at what was inside.
Those people who are
doing exactly what they want to do with their lives have something in
their work that never loses the new shine, no matter how long they have
been doing that same thing. You can see it in a veterinarian, a schoolteacher,
and a good bartender. I saw it that afternoon in Don Moyer. For him,
reading the story told by an engine he is dismantling is a source of
endless curiosity. As the head came off, he pointed out various discolorations,
accumulations, deposits, and cracks that showed where maintenance was
lax, where cooling should have been improved, and a host of nuances
that an amateur, like me, would never see on my own. He talked about
the engineering that went into the design of the engine.
Don asked me, "What
do you think the engine was originally designed for? What was its original
application?" Uh-oh. Pop quiz. Think back to British cars. Side
valves, low rpm. Tractor use? I said as much and was surprised by the
answer. The Atomic 4, from metallurgy to oil passage placement, was
designed to be used as a sailboat auxiliary. Every single Atomic 4 to
leave the Universal plant was bench-tested and verified to deliver rated
output. Don has the original factory dynamometer and is using it for
his own rebuilding efforts.
For every step, Don
had a nugget of information about a feature or weakness. I came away
from the session with a far higher opinion of the Atomic 4 than I had
when I first bought my Pearson. It is that aspect of what he does that
gives Don the most satisfaction. He likes seeing new people discover
the Atomic 4 and learn what a great engine they have. With every rebuild,
Don gives away a coffee cup with a picture of the engine on one side
and the tune-up specs on the other. The words printed around the base
of the mug read: "Faithful companion to over three generations
of sailors."
Don spent his career
as an Air Force fighter pilot and much of that time as a flight safety
officer, meaning that he was the guy who went up and determined whether
an aircraft was safe to fly or not. That got him more stick time in
single-seat fighters than most career fighter jocks, and it gave him
a keen awareness of procedures, checklists, and safety. Understandably,
he gets a little miffed when the Atomic-4-isunsafe argument comes up.
"Nonsense," he says. "The Coast Guard does not have a
single documented case where a failure in the engine itself was responsible
for a fire. The only documented causes have been failures in the fuel
storage and delivery systems."
What does the future
look like for Don and for the Atomic 4? For now, he's happy rebuilding
engines. He is concluding a long run as the editor of a newsletter filled
with technical tips and has just completed a comprehensive maintenance
manual to take the place of the newsletter. His wife, Brenda, runs the
business end of the enterprise, and they both enjoy sailing their old
boat. Since the Atomic 4 is no longer produced, Don expects that the
supply of engines will dwindle and the prices will begin to go up, but
says there is no reason we won't see them show a fourth generation of
sailors how to get home with no wind.
Good Old Boat
Magazine
Volume 2, Number 1
January/February 1999
Reprinted with the permission of the publisher
Partnership for Excellence, Inc.
