The Merlin Super "B" was a popular 0.232 cuin. (3.802 cc) sideport spark ignition engne which was designed and produced in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was manufactured by a firm called Canadian Hobbycraft of 716 Bathurst Street, Toronto 4, first appearing in late 1944 while WW2 was still ongoing.
This very well-made and comparatively lightweight engine displayed a few unusual features. The streamlined look imparted by tha deeper cooling fins at the rear gave it a striking appearance. However, the most notable feature was the means of installing the cylinder head, which appears to have been a screw-in component. The original engines had completely smooth heads with no apparent provision for obtaining a purchase to tighten them down - to this day, no-one has figured out how this was done! Later versions had either a fine-toothed raised boss or a pair to holes to accommodate a pin spanner.
It has been stated frequently in the past that the manufacture of the Merlin was transferred from Toronto to Brooklyn, New York at a fairly early stage. Recent research has strongly suggested that this was not the case. It seems far more likely that the components of the engine continued to be made in Canada all along and that the later "Made in USA" designation was justified by the assembly of the engines in Brooklyn from components made in Canada. The switch in marketing focus from Toronto to Brooklyn appears to have been a ploy intended to enhance the engine's appeal to the US market.
If so, the strategy succeeded! At least 9,000 examples appear to have been made and sold during the engine's production life of some three years. There's no evidence that any effort was put into the development of a glow-plug version of the Merlin - the late 1947 advent of the commercial miniature glow-plug appears to have ended all production immediately.
Present-day testing has shown that the Merlin was a very easy starter and a fine runner, albeit not particularly powerful. A full review and test of the Merlin Super "B" will appear on this website in due course.
