# how i made the B.J.Cicada Model Diesel Engine



## modelmotor

*Hallo Model Engine fans,*

*This thread is a following up about my own made model engine(s).*
*I already have showed them and spoke about them in my first two threads you probably already know.*
*I have made a collage from the photo's i made during the process of making them one by one.*
*I hope you like this photo compilation which will give you an idea that **when having enough interest in model engines most of you can make.*
*This first photo compilation was made from the smallest model engine **i made up till today.*
*The capacity from the engine is just 1,4 cc ,it's a long stroke combustion engine made from scrap material which seemed good enough to make this engine from.*

*                                                          greetings from modelmotor.*


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## modelmotor

Hallo Model Engine Friends,

Here are the following serie of photo's i took during the making of .
I hope you like them too?

                                            Greetings from  modelmotor.


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## Swifty

Looking very good, is the cylinder steel or cast iron?

Paul.


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## modelmotor

Hallo Model Engine Friends,

Here are a couple of new photo's made during the time that i made my own small CiCaDa 1,4 model engine.
It took one Winter season to make the engine and in the late Winter time i made it run for the very first time.
The piston/cilinder fit was good enough and after some try outs the engine started to run for the first time.It runs really cool so it wan't heat up
very fast
The totall running time at this moment is more then 45 minutes to me  it seemed  Ok in quality and fit all over.
I hope you like these photo's as well,but i think i am sure you will.

                                                      many greetings from,

                                                     modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.


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## barnesrickw

This is the type of engine I was looking to build.  Love the combustion ignition, and the size.  It looks great. Would love to se and hear it run.


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## modelmotor

*Hallo ,*

*Thank you for you sympathic reaction on my thread.*
*There will still come more photo's made during the making from*
*this little engine.*
*It runs very good at this time and the total running time up till now is 1 1/2hour so i am very happy with this result.*
*I am not a real trained engineer,but stilll have had some technical *
*school in working with all kind of metals,but that was in the past.*
*My technical interest in combustion engines is already with me from *
*about the age of 15 years when i started one of the first model*
*diesel engines from my father a Webra 2,5 R.That was the start and today my own running engines gives me great feelings you might know.*
*You can see my CICADA 1.4 cc engine running on www.youtube.com*
*You might type in : Gerard1modelengine  and then you see the *
*engines running.*
*If you have more questions left please feel free to let me know.*

*                                       many greetings from,*

*                                 modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.*


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## barnesrickw

Enjoyed the videos, thanks again


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Model Engine Friends,*

*Here are a couple of photos made during the production from my small CICADA 1,4 model diesel engine.*
*I hope that these photo's will be of interest to all of you,but i think they will.*

*                                                                         many greetings from,*

*                                                                     modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.*


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## BaronJ

Nice work !  You should be pleased with that.


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Baron,*

*Thank you for the compliments.*
*I am happy indeed with the succes and a little bit proud as well.*

*                                       Many greetings from*

*                                                modelmotor.*


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Model Engine Friends,*

*I found several new photo's from the Cicada 1,4 cc  Model Engine during the time i was busy making it.*
*The engine at this time part in my showcase after many running minutes gives me a very good feeling you will understand.*
*At the end of my photo session i will make a list of the material i used to built the engine from.*

*                                                                                                  many greetings from,*

*                                                                                  modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.*


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Model Engine Friends from all over the world,*

*I still found a last couple of photos made during the process of building from my Cicada 1,4 model diesel engine.I hope they are of any interest to you.*
*There's a photo frommy milling maschine during the milling activity to make conrod for this engine.Then you have photo from the conrod with a bolt and nut in each hole.The conrod is still square at that time.A few photos made from the complete finished engine and at last a simple made Christmas card which shows my finished model diesel engines.a couple of photos accompagny this thread about my home built Cicada engine.*
*If any help to produce one of these engines is necessary please feel very youre welcome.*

*                                                                                                     with a lot of greetings from*

*                                                                                                          modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands.*


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## barnesrickw

Your photo log is impressive.


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## BaronJ

barnesrickw said:


> Your photo log is impressive.



I agree !  New years resolution... Must try harder.


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Barnesrickw,*

*Thank you very much for your compliments about my B.J.Cicada photo story.*
*I feel very pleased that you liked my photo log about the making from this wonderfull small combustion engine.*

*many greetings from,*

*modelmotor-Europe.*


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## barnesrickw

I appreciate the time you took to log your work.  it helps show the process, and serves to educate.


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Baron,*

*Thanks also for your compliments about my Cicada home built model engine thread/log.*
*These photos show roughly what steps must be made to built such a small model engine your own.*
*Indeed the Best Wishes and New Years Photo Card was made in a to small time limit cause of all kinds of reasons.*
*The Idea was OK ,but the result was certainly not that what it has to be.By the way Baron a Healthy and Happy Christmas and New Year for you and of course for all the **other Model Engine Friends who were of great help by supporting me with very positive thoughts on my threads ,so therefore all of you many thanks from modelmotor-Gerard Netherlands-Europe.*


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## modelmotor

*Hallo barnesrickw,*

*Indeed it was much work because of the fact that i had all the photos on different CD's ,but it was a pleasure doiing it.*
*I hope and think that people can see how these constructions  all works and maybe they find ideas after watching my photo impression made from the Cicada 1,4 home built model diesel engine.*
*As far as i know i must still have 2 photo compilations made during the construction from the Boll Major 4,4 and the Boll Aero 1.8 cc both model diesel engines designed by Mr.Chris Boll from England who was of great help during the making from these engines.*
*I will probably make a new thread from  those engines in the nearby future.In The Netherlands it's Wintertime now ,but the weather is very instabile at this moment and after my illness i have to take good care on my self you will understand.I had the idea to built Tom Cromptons very small 0.5 cc EZE model diesel engine **this Winter but after such a long term illness the motivation was gone a little bit ,but still is there so who knows what can happen.Thanks anyway for your **kind reactions on my photos.*

*                                                                       many greetings from,*

*                                                                                             modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.*


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## modelmotor

*Hallo Model Engine Friends,*

*You can see my little B.J.Cicada model diesel engine run for the very first time on www.youtube.com*
*You only have to type in the small link:Gerard1modelengine and then you can see my B.J.Cicada model diesel engine running and also my home made Boll 4,4 cc model diesel engine.*
*I will probably make a thread in the future with many of the construction photos from the Boll Major 4,4 model diesel engine  as well.*
*The material to built my engines from if not avaliable in my own country were bought by "College Engineering Supply" --Wolverhampton-England.They have a website **www.collegeengineering.co.uk and they can supply all the different kinds of Aloy,Brass,Bronze,Silver Steel,high tensile steel as well as normal mild steel in Sheet,Square,tube and Bar material.*
*A list from the materials i used to make my B.J.Cicada model diesel engine will come in a while.*

*                                                                                                  many greetings from,*

*                                                                                                          modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.*


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## werowance

Gerard,  I am also building the cicada, yours looks wonderfull.

 can I ask what material did you use for the cylinder?  the plans call for L24 but I would like to know what you used?


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## modelmotor

Hallo Werowance,

Thank you for your compliments about my B.J.CICADA model diesel engine.
I must say that i do n't have much experience in making model engines.It was one of the 4 engines i made till now.The first engine a Boll Aero 1,8 cc was made during the Winter of 2007.I just started a new project making a model glow engine with a cilinder capacity of 8 cc.It's a one Cilinder long stroke engine again and is a hughe engine.We'll see were this ends.
The material for your Cicada Crankshaft can be LN 24 Steel or EN24 or EN36
or anything in reasonable steel will do.I used a normal kind of mild steel
to make the Cilinder from and it worked great so it's better to choose a kind of steel which is n't to hard because of the reaming/lapping and honing work that later needs to be done.
A good advice be sure that your transfer grove which comes half into the Cilinder stops half way the exhaust port so do n't let the transfer grove go deeper than the exhaust port.The engine will not work or can n't start and run either.
I hope that you can use my advice and if you do need more answers on questions please feel free.

                                   greetings from modelmotor.


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## hussien95

very Nice work


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## necchiom

Impressive. With compliment!


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## werowance

Thank you,  i am shoping for some 1214 steel as suggested by JasonB in my build for the cylinder, hopefully i can source some,  12L is easy to find.  finding it without the L is proving to be difficult. i used a grade 5 bolt to make the crank with.  pressed in drill rod pin for the rod journal. 

 I really like your engine.  i hope to have a runner by summer time.  fingers crossed.


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## modelmotor

Hallo Necchiom,

Thanks for the compliments you gave me.It makes me very happy when people like my engine.It's made without having much experience in model engine making and happily it ran already for 1 1/2 hour.
The engine felt great  when i started it for the very first time.I even got a back or misfire from the engine and the propellor hit me over my fingers which was very painfull however it's just a very small model engine with just 1,4 cc cilinder displacement.

                                             greetings modelmotor


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## modelmotor

Hallo Hussien,

Thanks a lot for the compliments you gave me for my 1,4 cc B.J.CICADA model diesel engine.This engine is worth to be built i can tell you.I made a couple of engine parts like the cilinderhead,ventury tube,propdriver from messing bar material which gives the engine a little bit of a classic/vintage look in my opinion.


                                                                                                             many greetings from modelmotor.


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## modelmotor

Hallo Werowance,
That 1214 steel quality is a very good one to use for that purpose.I do made a list of materials you can use to make the separate parts from.
I just found a small version from that list so the complete one is laying somewere on my hobbyroom.I will make contact with you when i have found back the complete list with all the materials.You can use a High Torque Bolt mostly available for nearly nothing by a Agriculture repair factory.A Bolt which has a strenghts of 10,9 Nm or higher is ideal to make a Crankshaft from.The Crankpin can be made of Silver Steel which is good enough or when you go for more proffesional work you can take a needle from a needle bearing in the right size and press it at the right place into the Crankweb for example.I can tell you this cicada model engine runs also very good and without many problems if you use a lower class materials .
I will follow the making from your B.J.CICADA model engine on www.homemodelenginemachinist.com You do n't need to have CNC equipment to make this engine so many modellers who like to start making a model engine their own can make this model engine.

                                                                       many greetings from  modelmotor.


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## modelmotor

Hallo Model Engine Friends,

I put a small movie/clip on www.youtube.com made by my daughter Sharon.You can see the movie clip by typing in gerard1modelengine .You can see 4 short movies if you like.The last one made is the movie clip with the tittle "handmade modelengine august 2015".I have already ran this little CiCaDa model diesel engine for more then 2 hours and 15 minutes on which i am very happy of course.I had to run the little CiCada model engine half throttled because of all the noise that it made which could lead to problems with the many neighbours in the surrounding.
I hope you all like to see and hear my little CiCaDa model diesel engine running.

                       many greetings from modelmotor-Gerard-Europe.


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## Jesse1590bleich

Hey could you sell me a set of the plans for this motor if possible


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## Herbiev

Jesse http://modelenginenews.org/plans/BJ_Cicada.pdf. Here you go


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## modelmotor

Hi Jesse,
I just had a look at the website and saw that Herbie was some much quicker than i was.Sorry for that i hope you have a good plan from the CiCaDa engine now?I can make a copy if still need one so please feel free.
I am busy with a new engine the Boll 49 Model Glow Engine ,but at this time the temperatures in The Netherlands are at a very high level and now it's summertime so model engine making will take place in about a 4 weeks or so metal working will be great to do again that time.
Lots of succes with the making of your CICADA Model Diesel Engine and if you have a question about the engine please feel free of course.

                                                 many greetings from modelmotor-Gerard-The Netherlands-Europe.


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## armandd

Hi,

Love the engine you built by hand. Very nice.

Well, I've just gotten a 1.5cc diesel engine and I'm cleaning it up before I  try to start it. But I've noticed that the contra-piston is really a  tight fit at the top of the the cylinder sleeve. I had to use a wooden  dowel to tap it out so I could polish the cylinder walls. Is it supposed  to be this tight? With a lot of torque, I can push it down witht he  compression adjustment screw on the cylinder head, but will normal  cylinder pressure fore it back up with I back off on the compression  screw? 

Thanks.


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## modelmotor

Hallo Armandd,

Thank you for the compliments about my home made model engines.
I read that you have recieved a 1,5 cc model diesel engine.You have some questions about your model diesel engine.First it's better not to polish the cilinderwalls because of the fact that the manufactorer from that engine has done a great job by finding out what the best fit for that cilinderliner and piston is.By polishing those critical engine parts you take away some material and and so the good and proper fit from the piston in the cilinder liner.You do n't have to remove the contra piston out of the cilinder liner there is normally no reason for.By the way did you mark the contra piston and the liner at a sudden point otherwise the contra piston will never put back at exact the same posistion into that cilinder liner which is n't OK to do.
Indeed the compression adjustment screw is to adjust the compression by turning it in or out a little bit each time just a little bit so step by step it's all a question of model engine feeling for the moment the first fire up of the engine can come.
The compression mostly together with the first fire up explosion of the fuel mixture in the combustion head of the cilinder has normally enough power to push up the contra piston a little bit when you equally turn back the compression adjustment screw a little by little.
The starting from model diesel engines is a subject and a matter of feeling and interest of the modeller.You can read much about the subject model diesel engine on the internet so you only have to type in model diesel engine on www.google.com and i am sure when you read a bit through the pages you will find a lot of stuff to read about this type of model engine.On www.youtube.com you can see a couple of my engines running you only have to type in:gerard1modelengine ,but there are also many other model engine makers showing their most fantastic home made  model engines.
I hope that you enjoy my home made engines running and i hope that you enjoy your own model engines at most.


                Lots of succes from modelmotor-Gerard-The netherlands-Europe.


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