Name	Mamiya 60	Designer	Minoru Sato
Type	Spark Ignition	Capacity	10cc
Production run	unknown	Country of Origin	Japan
Photo by	David Owen	Year of manufacture	1949

 

Notes:

Not a lot I can tell about this engine until DCO coughs up with some background (though there is a David Janson review which provides some background of the company and engine). So lacking anything useful to say, I'll fill in with a war story: David emailed asking if I'd red-anodize a head for him to help with the restoration of one of the engines in his collection. He mentioned that the head was cast, and had had quite a bit of prior running and wanted to know what he should do to prepare it for anodizing. My experience with dying anodized cast aluminum has been mixed. The alloy used for casting frequently has a lot of silicon in it and this can drastically impact the color take-up and hue. Still, it was worth a try and David said that "anything" would do as he believed that the original job was none too flash anyway.

So the head was duly anodized and dyed, giving what I thought was an absolutely atrocious result. The red was a sort of orange and there were circular blotches on it that usually indicate some contamination between emerging from the acid bath and entry to the dye tank, but I knew this had not happened, and other parts done at the same time had come out very well indeed. Perhaps it was residual oil in the slightly porous cast surface? I'd given the head a good clean in a caustic solution before anodizing to remove surface oils, but deep ones would possibly remain. I was very dissatisfied with the result and apologized to David, saying I'd strip it and try again. He said not to bother (probably taking into consideration how long it had taken me to get a-round-tuit), so off it went. When he got it, Dave was delighted: "Just like the original, mate! All blotchy, and orange!" I have to admit that while it looked dreadful by itself, married up the the rest of the engine, the result is not too bad at all, and I just love all the intricate, soldered brass work on the rare old engine...