Richard Weaver in his Steuben engine shop. Competitive and contrarian, he has built racing engines for cars, lobster boats and pull trucks for decades. Controversial and well known, Weaver leaves a wake. Photo:Fishermen's Voice
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Richard Weaver calls himself a contrarian and a “gear head” who wants to do at least one thing good. Real good.
“If you’re turning right, I’m going left. If you say its black, I‘m sure it’s white,” said Weaver recently in his engine shop in Steuben. This position may lead to a dead end in conversations, but it can lead to a dead heat on the racecourse.
After being born with a chrome wrench in his hand, Weaver apprenticed with the street corner “do-wop” mechanics of the fifties in Jersey City, NJ, and then finished his education with the Hell’s Angels and the race car circuit. Weaver says he landed in Steuben as a result of running out of gas down on Route 1, two miles from where he now lives.
Weaver has been a stern man, and he worked for lobster dealer and boat racer Benny Beal of Jonesport for 20 years. He has built a lot of racing engines, and since he ran out of gas 35 years ago, Weaver has earned or acquired a reputation, depending on the point of view. He is not a fisherman, doesn’t run boats, doesn’t tune props and doesn’t do diesel. He builds engines and makes them do what engines coming from the factory can’t — deal with torque, a lot of it. Water is much thicker than air and it makes regular engines collapse when they try forcing boats through it.
Weaver takes the ‘regular’ out of engines. (Readers who are not sure if they have a six or an eight under the hood may want to skip the next few lines.) He rebuilds engines with aircraft steel connecting rods and pins, changes the valve angles, changes the firing order, cross drills bearings to get 360 degree oiling, re-machines blocks to accommodate his modifications, and installs parts that can take the force from steep increases in torque.
About the engines he builds Weaver says, “I try to get it the best it can be. I’m as serious as a heart attack on this.”
Carburetion goes to four barrel and dual four barrel. Its custom manifolds and arcane timing. He makes a series of adjustments- changes to one part that leads to small changes in another part that eventually produces a one-wheeled drag racer designed to do one thing for a short time: go fast in water.
Pointing to the field across the road from his house Weaver said, “When the UFO lands I’m not going the other way, I’m going to the UFO. I’ll want to know what makes the thing go.”
