# Bob Shores Pacifier Tribute



## stevehuckss396

Hello everyone.

About two years ago I partnered up with Dirk Tolanaar to complete a project as a Bob Shores tribute. The project was derailed due to some bad castings. Now that the castings are better, things are back on track. I received a set of castings in the mail and am going to start up the project. The project is new to this forum so for the new guy's and the guy's who only frequent this forum I intend to get you caught up and then i will complete the build as life allows.

The next post is the first post i made back on December 30, 2013.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Hello Gang!

Go to any model engine show and you will find numerous examples of Bob Shores
designed engines. The first IC engine I built was the Peewee designed by Bob. It
is one of the nicest running engines and never fails to start. That is why when this
project came about I jumped at the chance to contribute.

I have been working on a bit of a special project. I have been doing the CAD
work to complete the last engine Bob Shores was working on before He passed
away. Most people believe that the V4 Peewee was the last project Bob had 
worked on. It is however the last engine He built. Bob was actually working on
the big brother of the Peewee with a ¾ bore and stroke.

Here is the story that was related to me by Dirk Tolanaar. Dirk was given the
rights to the Peewee and the bigger Pacifier by the Shores family.

Dirk's wife's Mother lived in Gainesville Florida.  They made a lot of trips by
car to visit her for Vacations, Holidays, and the usual family things.
Almost every time they went, they would continue on to his Mother and Fathers
grave site in Cocoa Florida. While there he would make it a point to visit Bob and
Margaret, (Peewee as Bob called her) every time they were down that way.
Bob and Dirk were friends for several years before he passed away.  Dirk always
marveled at Bob's machine work and beautiful engines.  He only had a small
Lathe, and a little horizontal Barker Mill, and also a Drill Press.  That
was the extent of his machine tools.  Everything else he did by hand.

Over several trips to Bob's, Bob said that he would like to build a small
V-4, something like the one that Jerry Howell made.  Bob being the type to
never waste an extra part from an engine he had built previously, made the
plans for the V-4 with the Hercules  in mind,  5/8" bore and stroke.  He
made the match plates and had the castings poured in a foundry up in Tampa.
He built the engine during 2003, and Dirk first saw it during Thanksgiving that
year.  It was almost finished, but not quite.  Dirk told Bob that he would
really like to build one, and to please keep me in mind when he was ready to
release the "Kit".

Dirk returned to Dallas, and waited to hear from him.  Around March of 2004, Dirk
got a phone call from Bob.  He said that he had finished the V-4, but it was
not quite running at that time, just a few Pops, and still had some bugs to
work out.  Then he told Dirk that he was sick, and had refused to go forward
with treatment because there was no guarantee from the doctors, as to what
his life style would be down the road.  Needless to say, they talked for quite
a while.  Then he said that being a how Dirk was the first to see the
unfinished V-4, and had shown quite a great interest in it, did he want to
continue his work, and make it available to the MICE community. Dirk said that
would be an honor to help keep his work alive.  He promised that he would keep
Bob's name on everything to do with this engine.  All he would do is market
it.

The name that Bob had decided at first for the little V-4 was Pacifier.  They
talked about that, and then he said that the engine was a little hard to
build the parts for, and was really not a Pacifier in the work shop, and
felt that a slightly larger version would be somewhat easier.  During this
phone call, Bob and Dirk decided to change the name from Pacifier to Peewee ,
in honor to his wife. The Pacifier name would go to the larger design,
the 3/4" Bore and Stroke.  He told Dirk that he had started the match plates
for the Pacifier, but no castings were made.  Then he said that being as how
he was a member of BAEM Club, that he had talked to Ken Hurst, and agreed to
send Ken the match plates for the Pacifier and Little Devil, to use as a
fund raiser for the club.

They concluded the conversation with an agreement, that the next time Dirk came
to Florida, He should pick up the Peewee tooling, Radiator Tooling, and a
something else that he wanted him to have.  Well  several weeks passed, and
on May 18, 2004, Dirk had a bad feeling come over him. The next day, he found
out that Bob had passed away.  A few weeks later, Dirk and his Wife were heading
to Florida for there summer Vacation.  They made the trip to see Peewee, and pick
up what Bob had set aside for him.  Match Plates, some castings, the Press to
build the Radiator, and all the plan cad files that bob had for most all of
his engines.  When he had loaded it all in the car, Peewee and Dirk were standing
in the kitchen area talking and reminiscing about Bob, when she
said that Bob had something else that he wanted him to have.  She gave him the
one and only Little Devil engine that Bob had made.  Wow, what a gift. He 
truly believes that he is the only person to have a Bob Shores built engine
beside Bobs wife and children.

He returned to Dallas and set about bringing the Peewee to life.  There was a
lot to do, as the plans for it were not really complete.  Several months
passed, and the Plans were finally completed.  During this process, he had
been in touch with Ken Hurst. Ken did get the Pacifier and  Little Devil
match plates, but no plans for either engine.  Dirk told Ken that he had Bob's
Little Devil engine, and most all of the plan sets on Floppies.  All of the
files for the engines were done in " ProEngineer", and had to be converted
to Auto Cad and PDF's.  Ken and Dirk made a deal that he would complete the Plan
Set for the Little Devil, and send them to Ken and he would get the Pacifier
Match Plates, to be able to complete the plans for that unfinished engine in
return.  During this process, over several months, actually a couple of
years,  he received the match plates, and sent the plans for the Little
Devil, only to find out that the Foundry where the castings were to be
poured had had a fire, and a lot of stuff was damaged or destroyed including
the Little Devil. Thank God, Ken had picked up the Pacifier Match Plates
and had them at his home before the fire. 


Well more than a few years have passed, and now we are finally going to
complete the Pacifier. I am sure that Bob Shores would be happy that this
is close to a finish. Dirk has sent the match plate out and had the castings
made. On my computer desk sit a set consisting of the block, oil pan, and bell
housing that were poured from Bob's original match plate. I have been over the
last few months designing the engine in what I believe would be the way Bob
would have built it. I have finished a set of working drawings and now it's time
to build it. When the build is complete a final set of plans will be sent to dirk to
sell with the Pacifier castings. I will put the prototype Pacifier in my personal
collection as my reward for the design work.

Here is the beginning







Here is the end








All I have to do is fill in the middle. This is going to be another long one and good god I have to make another CRANKSHAFT!!!


----------



## stevehuckss396

This was the last post made January 25, 2014  

To see how we got here go to http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,2927.0.html




Well this is going to be the last report until I see some castings. I have done all i'm going to do on it. After the castings show up there will be very little to do. I am going to figure out what to do about a fan. Other than that, I'm waiting.


----------



## stevehuckss396

This post picks up where we left off.


Well I was curious to see if the castings were any good. I was seeing some pits in the surface of the pieces and that made me a little nervous. I setup the oil pan casting and made some surface cuts. They looked pretty good so I surfaced the top of the casting down to size. The pocket for the crankshaft clearance was completed and all the holes were drilled and tapped if needed. The holes to mount the pan to the block are counter bored so mounting hardware will be flush and hidden when displayed. The pan will need to be bolted to the block to proceed any further.











Just in case anybody was wondering, the pan was held in the vise with about a half inch of vise jaw showing on the right side. Center "Y" was found using an edge finder between the jaws. The casting was then re-positioned center of the vise. With the flashing filed off, center X was found by centering on the casting. Y needs to be kept tight but X is not too critical. Because the mounting flanges need to be .200 thick when finished, I setup the oil pan onto a pair of 1/2 inch lathe tool blanks between the bottom of the flanges and the vise jaws. Then just touched off the blank to set the Z axis at -.200. If further information is needed email me and i can send over some 8X10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is too me used as evidence against me. I'd post them here but my photo bucket is 97% full and I have a ways to go in the thread.


----------



## stevehuckss396

First thing I did was to clamp the block down to the table bottom side down and took a minimum cut across the top of the peaks of the head/valley surfaces. Then I was able to clamp the block down upside down and machine the bottom. Keeps the block flat and in alignment with the bottom. It will come in handy later.







The block was then clamped to the table and indicated down one side, front to back.

The block was surfaced down to a layout mark to the proper depth to get the crankshaft centered on the cylinders.
The holes were drilled and the holes to mount the center bearing cap were tapped.
The center cap was installed and the pockets were machined for crankshaft clearance. This also brings the bearing cap to thickness and alignment with the block.
The front and rear of the block were machined 3/8 down leaving .005 for future machining.







With the oil pan installed the assembly is ready to be machined front and rear.
The oil pan protrudes past the block enough that the edge finder can be used to pick up the surface and find the split in the to parts to locate the crankshaft height.
The rails on the oil pan can be used to find center to locate the crankshaft the other way.
The skim cuts are registered to the bottom so all I will need to do is indicate the angle plate i'm going to clamp it to and it will be vertical.
Indicating across the machined surface of the block will get me level and vertical the other way.
And finally, machining .005 past the machined surface of the block will get me to finished depth.
And just think I have to do all that twice!


----------



## stevehuckss396

This morning I got started on the front of the block. Started by mounting an angle plate and indicated it in. Got it to .0007 over 8 inches so I called it good.







Mounted the block with a little bit sticking up above the top of the angle plate. The block was indicated in, using the machined surface, to .0002 over its width.







The edge finder was used to pick up the split in the two halfs using the top of the oil pan.







Then the edge finder was used to find center of the block using the two machined surfaces of the oil pan.







With all the good spots located the surface was machined. The machined surface is used as my stopping point. .005 was left on that surface so the piece machined .005 past that surface.







Crankshaft and camshaft tunnels were drilled. Crank drilled to .500 and the cam drilled to .625.







The tunnels were then bored to finished size







After starting the idler gear pocket with a series of end mills, starting with 1/8 and working up to 1/2, the boring bar was used to bring it to finished diameter







The counter bore was completed on the crankshaft hole.







The camshaft gear pocket was also completed.







Finally the holes were drilled to mount the timing cover and water pump.


----------



## gbritnell

Hi Steve,
Well you can bet I'll be following along on this one. Love those V motors.The castings really look good.
gbritnell


----------



## stevehuckss396

gbritnell said:


> Hi Steve,
> Well you can bet I'll be following along on this one. Love those V motors.The castings really look good.
> gbritnell




Hello George!

Thanks again for the gift. It's beautiful.


The castings are MUCH better now. I found a couple very small inclusions in the oil pan but nothing alarming. I'm talking very small. The block so far has been extremely nice. I am very happy with the set so far.


----------



## e.picler

Hello Steve!
I also will be following this post. Knowing your work, it will be a state of the art work.
A couple of years ego I purchesed the casting kit plus some components from Dirk. Unfortunatly I did not have time yet to start this wonderful project.
I still don`t know the quality of the castings, I hope it is good.

Edi


----------



## stevehuckss396

e.picler said:


> Hello Steve!
> 
> I still don`t know the quality of the castings, I hope it is good.
> 
> Edi



Just take a cut across the bottom of the block and you will know right away. If there is a problem, he has good castings to replace the bad ones.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Got a little bit more done this morning.

Rotated the block so the rear was pointing up. The machined surface was indicated in.








The surface was machined .005 passed the machined surface to bring the block to the correct dimension front to back.







The crankshaft bore was picked up using the dial indicator







The holes were then drilled for the bell housing adapter plate.







Then the water passages were drilled to 3.500 deep.







NICE!


----------



## stevehuckss396

Then a 5/8 bar of drill rod was inserted unto the crank bore. That held the block at an elevation that kept the crank tunnel perfectly horizontal. The rear of the block was pressed hard into the fixed jaw and the vise was then snugged up. The edge finder was used to find the center of the 5/8 shaft in front and behind the block roughly 10 inches apart. There was only a .0015 difference so I called it good. 


Using the edge finder the center of the cylinder bank was located. A scratch mark was made at center and then I got a better idea. Two more scratch marks were made .3125 off center each way. 








The block was then tilted into alignment and checked with a make shift square. I did have to tilt the block off 45 degrees just a tad bit. That really does not concern me at all. If the block comes out to be 89 degrees instead of 90 degrees it wont be a big deal. That minor error will not affect the way the engine runs at all. It is more important to me to get the head centered on the cylinder bank surface and properly fit.












The tool height was set by touching off the top of the bar in the crankshaft bar.







Then the cylinder bank was machined to height leaving .005 for later machining.







The center of the bar was re-checked with the edge finder just to make sure and the front of the block was found.







The cylinder holes were pre-drilled







The cylinder bores were bored to finished size and counter-bored.







The key cutter was used to cut the water jackets down in the bores.







Bolt and water passage holes spotted and drilled.







Lifter bores spotted in with a 5/16 endmill.







Lifter bores spotted and drilled.







And finally the set screw hole was spotted and drilled. 







I am hoping to do the other bank next weekend and be done with the block at that time.


----------



## kuhncw

Looking good, Steve!

Chuck


----------



## Blogwitch

Steve,

"That really does not concern me at all. If the block comes out to be 89  degrees instead of 90 degrees it wont be a big deal. That minor error  will not affect the way the engine runs at all. It is more important to  me to get the head centered on the cylinder bank surface and properly  fit."

It is great to see confidence like that in a casting build.
They really are sometimes almost impossible to end up with perfect dimensions, and your approach has to be taken at times. If building from barstock, decisions like that don't usually have to be taken as you usually have full control over it.

Wonderful stuff and keep up the good work. I'm sure Bob would have appreciated it.


John


----------



## stevehuckss396

Blogwitch said:


> Steve,
> 
> It is great to see confidence like that in a casting build.
> They really are sometimes almost impossible to end up with perfect dimensions, and your approach has to be taken at times.
> 
> 
> John




Thanks John! I think it's important to report the error and why I went the way I did to show that things like this are not the end of the world. I'm sure it happens all the time but is under reported. I wanted to show it because I'm sure folks are going to build this model and I dont want them to panic if they run into the same problem. If I had cut a few more thousands off the bottom surface things would have been fine. As the crank and cam bores are complete taking some off the bottom is not an option so an 89 degree block is the fix and will be undetectable in its appearance or performance.


----------



## stevehuckss396

This morning, following the same procedure that was used yesterday, the other bank was completed. I had to make the same adjustment on the cylinder bank to get centered so I'm probably back to 90 degrees between banks. This leads me to believe that the bottom of the block must have been a little crooked. 

The block was laid flat and the distributor holes drilled. I used a 3/4 inch drill bit to pick up the camshaft bore. It's very important to be centered on the cam bore for gear mesh so the hole ended up off center of the boss.












Here's where I went wrong. When I first laid out the block I made 2, 45 degree lines from center of the banks. Where those 2 lines intersect I should have scribed a line straight up and down to be sure it ran from center of the block up to the center of the distributor boss. Had I done that, I could have shimmed one side of the block to tilt it up to get the bottom corrected. Then the horizontal line could have been scribed to show bottom of block and machining could begin. Live and learn.

All that said, I can live with it, Moving on!


----------



## Shipdisturber

What I see here is a large diesel engine design based on the need for liners and how the coolant passages are drilled. What are you going to use for fuel or will it be compressed air? I gather bottom end lubrication will be splash type which of course is small engine type lubrication.


----------



## michael-au

Shipdisturber said:


> What I see here is a large diesel engine design based on the need for liners and how the coolant passages are drilled. What are you going to use for fuel or will it be compressed air? I gather bottom end lubrication will be splash type which of course is small engine type lubrication.



Hi
This is a spark ignition 4 stroke engine designed by Bob Shores

Michael


----------



## Shipdisturber

Basically this engine combines the best of both engine types, impressive!


----------



## stevehuckss396

Well I wasn't real happy with the machine work on the engine block. I got a hold of Dirk and had him send me another set. For the last week I have been machining another set of castings. This set came out deluxe except I goofed where the lifter bore gets spotted. The hole is perfect but the quill drifted when I was using an end mill to "clean up" the surface. When painted I don't think it will even be noticeable. I made a document to show how I went about it. It is intended to be a guide to keep anyone who builds the project out of trouble and get a good outcome. If you purchase the plans and castings the "guide" will come with if you choose to use it. I'll attach a copy but I still need to add to it to include the bell housing casting work. 

View attachment Getting Started on the Pacifier.pdf


----------



## michael-au

Nice job on the pdf Steve


----------



## stevehuckss396

michael-au said:


> Nice job on the pdf Steve



Thanks. Hopefully it will help somebody someday.


----------



## Shipdisturber

stevehuckss396 said:


> This post picks up where we left off.
> 
> 
> Well I was curious to see if the castings were any good. I was seeing some pits in the surface of the pieces and that made me a little nervous. I setup the oil pan casting and made some surface cuts. They looked pretty good so I surfaced the top of the casting down to size. The pocket for the crankshaft clearance was completed and all the holes were drilled and tapped if needed. The holes to mount the pan to the block are counter bored so mounting hardware will be flush and hidden when displayed. The pan will need to be bolted to the block to proceed any further.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Just in case anybody was wondering, the pan was held in the vise with about a half inch of vise jaw showing on the right side. Center "Y" was found using an edge finder between the jaws. The casting was then re-positioned center of the vise. With the flashing filed off, center X was found by centering on the casting. Y needs to be kept tight but X is not too critical. Because the mounting flanges need to be .200 thick when finished, I setup the oil pan onto a pair of 1/2 inch lathe tool blanks between the bottom of the flanges and the vise jaws. Then just touched off the blank to set the Z axis at -.200. If further information is needed email me and i can send over some 8X10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is too me used as evidence against me. I'd post them here but my photo bucket is 97% full and I have a ways to go in the thread.



The part about the 8x10 glossy pictures reminds me of the song by Arlo Guthry "Alice's Restaurant" back in the seventies is this by any chance intentional? Beautiful work I'm really enjoying the post.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Shipdisturber said:


> The part about the 8x10 glossy pictures reminds me of the song by Arlo Guthry "Alice's Restaurant" back in the seventies is this by any chance intentional? Beautiful work I'm really enjoying the post.



Yes it was.


----------



## e.picler

Very nice document PDF Getting Started Steve!

For sure it will help me a lot when touching this project. Will also save me a bunch of hours and avoiding making any mistake that could scrap the castings.

Thanks for that.

Edi


----------



## stevehuckss396

Progress!!

I made the cylinder liners. They are made with 3 steps in them. There is a .860, .850, and .845 inch step in the outer diameter. The block is also machined with steps so there are 2 press fits. Its a little tougher to make them like this but when installed the 1.500 inch long liners drop into the hole so there is only about .375 inches sticking out of the cylinder. They don't have far to go when pressing in but also they are almost perfectly aligned for the operation. The added work making the liners is worth the effort in that there is little chance for errors when doing the press fit.

The liners have also been honed and ready for pistons. They were done on a Sunnen honing machine owned by a club member. While there the mini bike engine was honed so it is ready when the time comes. Paint is engine paint from the local auto parts store.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Little bit of progress yesterday and today. Made the lifter bushings and got them pressed in. Lifters are made and installed.I also have made a start on the pistons.


----------



## Cogsy

Doing an excellent job as usual Steve. Can't wait to hear this one running. Really makes me want to get back into my Peewee build too.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Thanks Cogsy. I did get the pistons finished today. I also made the center bushing, bolted in the crankshaft and motored it in the lathe for about 10 minutes. I'm inching forward.

Also Got a new camera so pictures should look a little better.


----------



## stevehuckss396

A little bit more to report. The pistons are finished. The wrist pins were completed and pressed onto the rods. The pins are pressed into the rods and float in the piston.


----------



## Shipdisturber

Great work on the rods, are the pins on the rod bottoms for splash lube?


----------



## stevehuckss396

Shipdisturber said:


> Great work on the rods, are the pins on the rod bottoms for splash lube?



Yes they are. They are drilled up into the cap and through the bushing. Hoping the rod will splash and also force oil up to the crankshaft.


----------



## Blogwitch

Hi Steve,

I would have thought you could have used Bob Shores own method of putting a clamp system on the wrist pin end of the con rod rather than it being a force fit.

Or wasn't there room to use that method?

I always thought it was a very good system for these little engines.

Bobs Posting.

The clamp type rod offers so many advantages that I chose this design  		for the Pacifier V 4 engine that I am building. The small amount of time  		and labor to make this type of rod makes engine assembly and disassembly  		a more pleasant experience. The two photos below show the design.










Five of these rods were made (1 as a spare), from 6061-T6 Aluminum to  		fit within .625" OD pistons. The cap bolts are 2-56 and the clamp bolt  		is 0-80. The .006" wide slot was sawn with a Jewelers circular saw blade  		given me by Jerry Keiffer. The threaded cross hole was counter drilled,  		by hand, with a No. 53 drill in a pin vise. A thin piece of brass shim  		stock was placed in the slot to prevent the clearance drill from going  		too deep.

Wider slots can be sawn with no ill effect. Very little torque is  		required on the 0-80 bolt to firmly clamp the wrist pin. Here are some  		of the advantages:



The wrist pin can never touch the cylinder walls. This eliminates  		setscrews, pins, pads retaining rings, etc..  		
The wrist pin should be a light push fir in the piston. This  		eliminates pressing the pin in the piston and the use of a drift pin and  		a hammer to remove the pin. The wrist pin can be removed and reinstalled  		many times with no damage to the piston or adjacent parts.  		
The bearing surface in the piston is usually greater than the  		bearing surface in the rod bearing.  		
If the piston gets overly hot, the wrist pin clearance becomes  		slightly greater.  		
The wrist pin can be solid or tubular.
 
Actually, the time and labor to make a clamp type rod is offset by the  		time and labor to accommodate a typical tang eye type rod.

    	 Bob Shores
    	 Ruskin  FLA



John


----------



## stevehuckss396

Little bit more. Had a few minutes this morning so I went out and made my fixture for heat treating the piston rings.
I am using the George Trimble method where the rings are turned and then cracked. They get loaded into this fixture
sprung open and heated to stress relieve them. When unloaded from this fixture they will retain the gap and need
to be sprung closed to insert into the bore.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Blogwitch said:


> Hi Steve,
> 
> I would have thought you could have used Bob Shores own method of putting a clamp system on the wrist pin end of the con rod rather than it being a force fit.
> 
> John



Hello John. I know a couple people that built the rods in the picture. 2 of them have changed to the press fit because the screw has come loose. One scratched the cylinder wall when the wrist pin walked to the side. The other was fine until the screw fell right out and wedged and locked the motor. I guess I just don't trust the method. I would feel bad if I put it in the design and problems started popping up. Bob's Pacifier that eventually became the Peewee was never run under it's own power. All he got was some sputtering. I think if he would had a similar experience, the design would have gone by the wayside. If you stick with it I would advise some lok-tite on the screws and pray the heads don't strip if they ever need to come apart.


----------



## Blogwitch

I wasn't criticizing you Steve, just asking a question as it seemed like Bob was so certain of the method, whereas you have provided details why it wasn't such a success after all.

Going by what you have said, I think that method will be consigned to the scrap bin.

John


----------



## stevehuckss396

Blogwitch said:


> I wasn't criticizing you Steve, just asking a question as it seemed like Bob was so certain of the method, whereas you have provided details why it wasn't such a success after all.
> 
> Going by what you have said, I think that method will be consigned to the scrap bin.
> 
> John



I didn't take it that way honest. I really wanted to go with the style you showed but I don't want to present a design that could become problematic for even one person. You spend months or years building these things and when you finally get them going you breath a sigh of relief that it's finally over. Whipped and sometimes beat up by the process you proudly fire it up for your pals and BANG!!. If your lucky you just put the screw in and away you go but if not, it's making a new rod or a cylinder liner. That would suck rocks.


----------



## Shipdisturber

Any diesel engine I've worked on or rebuilt (260 and counting) all pivot on the wrist pin and are secured in the piston itself. Lube is a factor there I believe it's easier to lube one centre bearing than two to the side. Then again big engines have more to consider than small engines.


----------



## stevehuckss396

OK! I have the rings turned, bored, and parted off about .001-.0015 wider than finished size. OD is between perfect and .0005 over size. You cant go under size. ID is +- .001. There are a lot of them but I needed extra in case of breakage. Also made a few sets for the mini bike engines.







Next the rings are cracked so they can be loaded onto the fixture. The Trimble method has a fixture with 2 blades that cleve the ring and create the gap. They look exactly like the jaws of a pair of diagonal cutters. So for years now I just use diagonal pliers. Just make sure the pliers are straight accross the ring before you squeeze. The ring just pops when it opens. The rings are then inserted onto the fixture with the gap spanning the dowel pin. The fixture is loaded into the oven.







The non-scaling powder requires the part be 500F degrees before applying so I power the oven on until it's 600 in the oven and turn it off and just let the fixture soak in the heat. Once the oven drops to 500 I remove the fixture and sprinkle the magic dust on it until it is heavily coated. The powder will melt when it contacts the metal and turn greasyish. Just jeep sprinkling until you don't see metal.

http://www.brownells.com/gunsmith-t...ccessories/non-scaling-compound-prod1122.aspx








Then back into the oven at 1100F for 4 hours. Now I'm not just pulling the numbers out of my rear. I sat and had a chat with one of the most respected metallurgists in the detroit area. We had discussion about the various methods and if your going to truly stress relieve a ring, this is the best way to go. So this is what I do.  After the 4 hours expires I let the oven come down naturally to 500F degrees and remove the fixture and drop it into a pot of boiling water right away. The boil lasts about 10 minutes and it's ready to be taken apart.








The rings are removed from the fixture. The rings stay fully open so the treatment was successful.








The OD of the ring is cleaned up with a couple strokes of a scotch-bright pad. For the sides a tool is made. A small pocket is bored in the end of a scrap piece of rod to a depth .005 less than the final thickness of the ring and about .010 bigger than the final  diameter. This will give an easy way of holding the ring while the sides are brought to final thickness and polished. I have had good luck doing circular or figure eight patterns when polishing. Keeps you from leaning on one side too much and turning the ring into a wedge.














So now I guess you all know what i'll be doing tomorrow.


----------



## stevehuckss396

After all the rings are polished and cleaned they are inserted into the cylinder so the end gap can be checked with the feeler guages







To open the gap i set them on a 1,2,3 block with the end overhanging a bit and gave them a few strokes with the file until the end gap was .003 - .005 inches







When all were done, the pistons were installed.


----------



## Shipdisturber

Great job amazing stuff, obviously don't have a wife needing attention therefor lets you get things done.


----------



## stevehuckss396

I have completed the motor mounts. Now I can get it screwed down to something and get the cam timing set and finish the distributor. I bolted on a few accessories to make the pictures a little more interesting.


----------



## michael-au

Looks good Steve


----------



## e.picler

Steve,
It is getting really nice! Another amazing work from you.

Edi


----------



## Shipdisturber

Very cool Steve!


----------



## boomer999

The Castings, do you make them?


----------



## stevehuckss396

boomer999 said:


> The Castings, do you make them?



I do not. Once the engine is completed and I am satisfied the thing can be built from them, I will update every page and ship them off to Dirk Tollanaar down in texas. He will have the castings available with the drawings. I have never discussed what the price will be so I can't speak to that. I would expect them to be available by the end of march.


----------



## stevehuckss396

A little more progress. Have the intake manifold cut out. A little hand filing and a shot in the sand blaster and it will be done. Also have the head, intake, and carb gaskets made. Sorry about the lack of pictures but I am rushing a bit to get as fer as i can. Work is about to get crazy and shop time will become zero.


----------



## michael-au

Great job Steve, looking very nice


----------



## stevehuckss396

Well I have reached a milestone on the project. I have completed all that is covered on the drawings. I am going to finalize the drawings and then figure out a way to rig up an ignition and fuel tank and get it fired up. After it has run I will get it mounted and complete a permanent fuel tank and radiator.


----------



## Shipdisturber

Do you have an ignition system in mind? Can't wait to heat that baby fire up! I gather the water pump will be belt driven.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Shipdisturber said:


> Do you have an ignition system in mind? Can't wait to heat that baby fire up! I gather the water pump will be belt driven.



Yes I do. I use Roy's ignitions from S/S. I plan to make some pipes and then try to start it up.


----------



## bluejets

For those like myself, what or who is Roy's s/s ?


----------



## stevehuckss396

bluejets said:


> For those like myself, what or who is Roy's s/s ?



Roy Sholl is a supplier of ignition systems that many engine builders use.

Company name is S/S Machine & Engineering, LLC.

http://www.cncengines.com/


----------



## stevehuckss396

Well it fired up today. I had to fool around with the distributor for a little bit but finally got it to pop. Now the fun begins with the tuning and fiddling around but it works!


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vP9DA4_nik[/ame]


----------



## wherediditgo

Nice job! But I kind of expected the fan to work.


----------



## michael-au

Good job Steve
Sounds like it will be a good runner


----------



## stevehuckss396

wherediditgo said:


> Nice job! But I kind of expected the fan to work.




I had the fan belt off. Don't want to spin the water pump dry or it will smoke the seal.


----------



## Cogsy

Awesome! What more can I say...


----------



## ShopShoe

I knew you were close, but I was surprised it's running already.  I can't wait to hear it when it's tuned up.

--ShopShoe


----------



## Piston_Broke

Great Job! What is the base material and where did you get it? I'd like some for a base too.


----------



## Shipdisturber

Now that is just plain cool! Be a lot of fun to fire that up in the living room to see the wife's reaction. I assume you mixed some oil with the gas to assist in piston lubrication?


----------



## stevehuckss396

Shipdisturber said:


> I assume you mixed some oil with the gas to assist in piston lubrication?



Yes I do. WD40 actually. Works real well as a top end lube.


----------



## stevehuckss396

Well I found a couple things and it is running a little better. First I found the two ignition wires on the 2-4 bank were crossed DUUHHHH!!  What a dork!. I also re-positioned the conductor on the rotor. Then it was a little bit of fooling with carb and timing. Tinkered with it for about an hour.

More importantly, I thought that the carb might be too small but it seems to be working fine on the larger engine. Once I receive the o-rings in the mail I can see which one fits best for the fan belt. The plans can be finalized and castings will be for sale. 


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE854aQQPbE&feature=youtu.be[/ame]


----------



## e.picler

Congratulations Steve!
Another state of the art work. I hope when I work on mine, I get close as yours. You are really good on those little piece of art engines.

Nice job.

Edi


----------



## capin

its funny, I was just listening to the Pee Wee 4 running and switched to the larger brother and they both seem happy ticking right away. Great job as usual, Brian


----------

