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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.
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