# 5 Cylinder radial (winter's project)



## gbritnell (Sep 28, 2011)

Well gentlemen it's getting to be that time of the year. It won't be long now till the leaves have fallen along with the temperatures.
I had 3 different projects in mind, a smaller version of Ron Colonna's Offy, a chassis and differential for my 302/transmission project and a radial engine. For this winter it's going to be a 5 cylinder radial engine.
 Not wanting to follow the mainstream and build someone else's engine, although there's some beauties out there, I started on my own design. 
 I have a complete set of drawings for the old Morton radial that an old fellow gave me many years ago. Having read about this engine in the past and after studying the drawings there were many features of this engine I just didn't care for so I pulled out the CAD and started in. 
 The bore and stroke will be the same but the cylinders and heads will be separate. Instead of having the cam and pushrods in the rear I moved them up front and went with an internal cam gear design ala the full sized engines. This engine will have a double oil pump, feed and scavenge, to lubricate everything. It will be driven off the rear of the crank along with the distributor. 
 I changed the angle of the pushrods as the Morton has widely splayed ones. This meant changing the shape of the cam lobes as both valves are operated by one set of lobes in this engine. It also meant a redesign of the rocker pedestal and the top of the head. 
 I pretty much have the basics all designed and just need to refine everything and make the working drawings. 
 All of the gears are available through Stock Drive Products including the internal gear so no fancy gear cutting will be required. 
 I am attaching a PDF of my layout progress so you will have an idea of what this is going to look like.
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL SHT 1 BLACK.pdf


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## Lakc (Sep 28, 2011)

Ok George, that wasnt hard to get the drool factor going.  Looking forward to this thread would be an understatement.


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## stevehuckss396 (Sep 28, 2011)

Great project G! You might want to make 2, I got a birthday coming up!! Hahahahha!!!


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## cfellows (Sep 28, 2011)

Gonna be an exciting project, George. I'm sure it will be a beauty!

Chuck


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## steamer (Sep 28, 2011)

I'll be watching too!

Dave


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## metalmad (Sep 28, 2011)

I will be drooling over every post, Round engines are my favorite!
Pete


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## Maryak (Sep 29, 2011)

George,

I came..............I saw................I cringed ;D I am sure it will be another masterpiece but it's way above my pay/skill grade :

Best Regards
Bob


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## /// (Sep 29, 2011)

After reading your V-twin thread the other day, I'm looking forward to this one ;D


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## ref1ection (Sep 29, 2011)

George,

Looks like another fine example of your work coming our way. After reading some of your other builds and seeing your next project I was wondering whether machining was part of your career or always a hobby? I don't remember reading that in any of your posts. It's always inspiring to see your work and it makes me strive for better out of my own.

Ray


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## gbritnell (Sep 29, 2011)

Hi Ray,
I acquired a small lathe (Dunlap) when I was about 16. I didn't know how to make anything but chips as I didn't take any type of school shop classes for machining. After high school I went to art school until I got drafted into the army (Viet Nam era) While in the army I worked in a machine/fabrication shop and got to work with a German fellow (civilian worker) and he taught me quite a bit. After the army I did several jobs until the apprenticeships at Ford Motor Co. opened up. I signed up for metal patternmaking and this is where I learned my trade. I worked with a bunch of old timers who were extremely knowledgeable in almost every facet of the trade so I got a tremendous education. 
 In the early 70's I got my first real lathe followed by a round column mill and the rest as they say is history.
gbritnell


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## agmachado (Sep 29, 2011)

Hi George,

Very nice your new project... I'm anxious for next steps...

:bow:

Thanks for share with us!

Cheers,

Alexandre


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## ref1ection (Sep 29, 2011)

Hi George,

It's great to see someone with your skills willing to share with those of us who enjoy watching and learning. At my age an apprenticeship is out of the question so the internet is the only way to learn about this. Looking forward to the build. 

Ray


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## Groomengineering (Sep 29, 2011)

Nice looking design George! I'll be watching! 

Cheers

Jeff


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## gbritnell (Oct 8, 2011)

I have the drawing set almost complete. I just need to make a drawing of the pipework for the oiling system. As with my other drawing sets I make sheets showing the views, front, back and side. I have the front view drawing compete and am posting a line drawing. 
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL ASSY FRONT.pdf


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## metalmad (Oct 8, 2011)

Keep em coming George
Love It :bow:
Pete


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## kvom (Oct 9, 2011)

What's the diameter of the crankcase, just to get an idea of the size?


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## gbritnell (Oct 9, 2011)

The crankcase diameter is 1.875. The overall diameter to the outside of the rocker arms is about 5.50. The PDF drawings are 1.5 x size.
Attached is the rear view.
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL ASSY REAR.pdf


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## petertha (Oct 9, 2011)

Hi George. Maybe you answered this in one of your other builds.. are you using 3D cad software & the drawings shown here are dervied from that? If so, what package? Look forward to this project!


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## gbritnell (Oct 9, 2011)

Hi Peter,
No, just plain old AutoCad. For 2D drawings (done properly) I still like AutoCad.
George


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## gbritnell (Oct 10, 2011)

Here's the last of the view drawings. This is the side view. I didn't put the other 2 cylinders in because the plotting would be too time consuming.
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL ASSY SIDE.pdf


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## Leucetius (Oct 10, 2011)

really beautiful!

but who wonders it's in tradition to all your previous work 
-bookmarked-


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## kvom (Oct 10, 2011)

Shaping that nose will be a nice challenge.  :bow:


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## Deanofid (Oct 11, 2011)

George, thanks for such nice (yes, properly done) assy drawings. Looking forward to another of your wonderful build threads.  Thm:


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## mu38&Bg# (Oct 11, 2011)

That sure will look nice. I think I saw one similar in size at this years NAMES show. I didn't get the tag in the photo so I'm not sure who it belongs to.

Greg


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

Well gentlemen it's time to start making chips. As with the other scratch build projects the first thing is to square up a block of aluminum and start on a plan of action. In this case the cavity will be bored out first and then mounted on an arbor for the remaining steps.
 The block was squared up in the mill and then transferred to my 4 jaw chuck in the lathe. The usual center drill, drill and boring operations then took place.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

With the cavity cut to size the block was turned around, indicated and the bore for the front bearing was completed.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

With the part still mounted on the arbor it was transferred to my dividing head, indicated for center and front face and the surface cuts for the cylinder mounting faces were started.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

The next operation was to put a pilot hole through the mounting face and continue with the surface milling. You will see from a difference from the second and third pictures where the cylinder faces come together. The long rectangular boss will be the oil sump.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

The next steps were the drilling and reaming of the lifter bores and the boring and spotfacing for the cylinder barrels.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

In the next 3 photos you can see the machining operations for the sump boss. This will be at the bottom of the crankcase between cylinders 3 & 4. To get the cavity formed I milled it out with a 3/16 end mill and drilled it for the 1/72 holes that will hold the cover plate on.


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## Lakc (Oct 31, 2011)

Looking good. Not remembering the size of your lathe, what diameter is the crankcase?


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

The part mounted on the arbor was then moved to the mill vise, indicated square, center picked up and the 2-56 holes for the lifter guides were drilled. I haven't included some other operations which included turning down the nose diameter and drilling the holes from the cavity side of the part.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

These final 4 pictures show the crankcase with most of the major machining finished. 
gbritnell


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## kustomkb (Oct 31, 2011)

Great looking crankcase George!

Thanks again for all of the detailed progress pictures.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi Jeff,
The crankcase is about 2.070 over the high points on the cylinder mounting flanges. The counter bore in the back is 1.625 diameter. 
George


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## ozzie46 (Oct 31, 2011)

Following along breathlessly! 

 Up to your usual high standards George.

 Ron


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## Lakc (Oct 31, 2011)

gbritnell  said:
			
		

> Hi Jeff,
> The crankcase is about 2.070 over the high points on the cylinder mounting flanges. The counter bore in the back is 1.625 diameter.
> George



Wow, that's a lot more workable then the 4" crankcase of the Edwards, especially if you have priced a slice of 4" diameter 7075 lately.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi Jeff,
I use 6061 for most applications. Once in awhile I'll use 7075. The 7075 cuts a little nicer but like you I can't justify the extra cost.
George


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## petertha (Oct 31, 2011)

Looking great George. Couple of dumb newbie questions. 

What you call a dividing head has a chuck mounted on it. Did you make an MT or plate type adapter to mount the chuck? I was considering buying a dividing a head like this picture & was just curious. They just seem to have centers. I have an RT & made myself a simple adapter plate, I dont have the indexing plates though so it would be using the graduated vernier to index the 72 deg positions. I thought the detant holes on a dividing head might be more precice & repeatable, but OTOH the RT might serve other purposes for some of the 'in between divisions' contour milling I also have to do. (sorry, a picture will make this clearer).

In general for drilling, example your the crankcase mounting hole pattern for cylinders, do you preceed every drill hole with a center/spotting bit or just drill with the bit? I've always wondered if a bit alone would wander & add up to collective errors to worry about? Ive also seen some 5-cyl engines that use a drill guide to replicate the same pattern accross to the other cyl holes. But does that assume a transfer over to a drill press & freehand? Do you drill the same hole on each face, then rotate 72 deg & repeat etc? Or do you drill up one complete cyinder pattern & then move to the next face?


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## xpylonracer (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi George,

Interested to know your approach to the old problem with radials of stroke/piston height @ TDC and timing. ? Do you intend to vary the spacing of slave rods to compensate ?

Thanks, Marcus


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## metalmad (Oct 31, 2011)

Fantastic start George :bow: :bow:
Pete


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

Hi Peter,
 I have both a horizontal/vertical rotary table and the dividing head that you see. My rotary table is an 8" so when it stands up it's quite high. I use the dividing head for most jobs. I have the same dividing head that you have pictured. They have a threaded nose on them for mounting the face plate. I made an adapter up to mount my set-true chuck. 
 I use a center drill to start every hole. I have never relied on the drill starting in the right spot. To locate my holes I use the coordinate method. From the center of the bore I move to the proper locations to put the holes in. On this particular engine it would be a pain to relocate every cylinder hole to put the mounting holes in. 
Hi Marcus,
 When this question came up in another thread it go me thinking about this engine so I did a layout and found that the locations weren't where they needed to be so I repositioned them to get the proper stroke and piston position using the same slave rods dimensions.


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## steamer (Oct 31, 2011)

Looking great George! Off to a flying start!
 :bow:
Dave


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

Ok, with all the basic machining complete it was time to start on the nose radius. To do that I made a step-off chart using a .187 dia. ball mill. The first thing I did was to blue up the lifter pads with a marker pen and I then made a template up to scribe the outline of the pad.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

With the starting point established from the already cut radius on the nose I started the step-off process. The first picture is the first cut. The second picture is the progression up the radius. The third picture is shows the initial steps between the layed out pads. The fourth picture has the nose radius running all the way to the cylinder pads between the lifter bosses.


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

The next picture show the crankcase as it came off the mill. The steps look big in the picture but you have to realize how small this piece is. When I calculated the steps the cusp between steps was only .0007. The part was again blued up and the first stages of finishing were started, first with a small burr and files to get some of the high spots down.


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## metalmad (Oct 31, 2011)

Awesome :bow:


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

With a lot of stoning, filing and polishing the crankcase is almost done. In the first picture you can see the oil sump cavity. In the second is the pad that was left between the 2 upper cylinders to pipe the oil supply. To the left you see the other area between the cylinder pads. This was cut with a .312 ball mill. The lifter bosses are extended so a set screw can be put in to hold the roller lifter in the proper orientation. The original Morton just had round nosed lifters riding against the cam gear. All that remains it to tap a whole bunch of holes, 0-80, 1-72 and 2-56.
gbritnell


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## steamer (Oct 31, 2011)

I always love watching you whittle.....NICE!

 :bow:
Dave


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## stevehuckss396 (Oct 31, 2011)

About how long did you spend on the piece G. Was this all in one day?


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## mklotz (Oct 31, 2011)

Whenever I see some of George's incremental profiling as shown here, I think of those crazy people who claim that the Egyptians must have had help from extraterrestrials to build the pyramids with such precision. Their comments are an insult to what the human mind and hand can achieve with sufficient intelligence, dedication and patience.

Good onya, George. I'd say more but I have to go out in the garage now and sledge hammer my mill into foundry-sized chunks.


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## tattoomike68 (Oct 31, 2011)

mklotz  said:
			
		

> Whenever I see some of George's incremental profiling as shown here, I think of those crazy people who claim that the Egyptians must have had help from extraterrestrials to build the pyramids with such precision. Their comments are an insult to what the human mind and hand can achieve with sufficient intelligence, dedication and patience.
> 
> Good onya, George. I'd say more but I have to go out in the garage now and sledge hammer my mill into foundry-sized chunks.



Beat it into a round toit.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxeswltvhLA[/ame]


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## gbritnell (Oct 31, 2011)

High Steve,
I have about 10 hours in this piece. I got the machine work done in one day, 7 hours or so. The second day I did the hand work and tapped the holes. The Autocad is really nice for laying out bolt holes and setting up radial step charts for round surfaces. Once you have your centers and starting points it's just a matter of reading the digitals and moving to the right spot. Oh yeah, and remembering which step you last made. 
George


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## jpeter (Oct 31, 2011)

I find it hard to imagine the old timers having enough time in their lifetime to do this kind of machining. Think about planning all the steps without Autocad. My computer screen is only 3 feet away from my mill and I'm constantly referring it.


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## ref1ection (Oct 31, 2011)

I get distracted for a couple of weeks and look what I come back to. Amazing work again but at this rate you'll be looking for something to do after the new year.

Ray


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## petertha (Oct 31, 2011)

Wow, you sure make progress!
Whats your plan for mounting the cylinder jugs? I see 6 threaded? holes on the top face but looks like only 2 coming through the crankcase itself. And the sinle hole that is entering the cyclinder bore perpendicular, I assume thats just over-drill related to mounting holes for the back-plate or something?


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

Hi Peter,
The 6 mounting holes are all the same depth. It's just that the 2 (front and rear) are drilled through a narrower section. I couldn't go through with the others because they would interfere with the oil sump or the pressure feed area. The holes from the back are for mounting the rear crankcase cover.
George


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## kvom (Nov 1, 2011)

I was wondering how that nose would be done when I saw the drawing a while back. Very impressive.


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## petertha (Nov 1, 2011)

gbritnell  said:
			
		

> This engine will have a double oil pump, feed and scavenge, to lubricate everything. It will be driven off the rear of the crank along with the distributor.



Sorry to jump ahead, but now you have me re-mulling my own (oil pump-less, glow ignition, oil+methanol premix) design. I think the Edwards 5 employs an oil pump system similar to what you refer to ven though it runs straight (non or low oil) methanol fuel on glow vs gasoline? 

Whats your plan in this regard? The pump feeds high press oil through the crankshaft center, then into the master-rod (crankpin) bearing? Do the link rods & wristpins see this flow circuit somehow? And spent oil then collects into the bottom sump are you refer to? Does this system therefore require some sort of pressure regulator or bypass loop? Man, this will be neat to see unveiled!


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

Hi Peter,
I have a 2 stage oil pump designed. It will take oil from a remote tank and pump it into the crankcase, thereby feeding the rods, cam and drive gears for the cam. The crank will run on sealed ball bearings. At the bottom center will be the sump for the return oil. This will go back to the other side of the pump and then back to the oil tank. The only thing I'm not sure of at this point is whether to make the return side pump a little bit bigger (one tooth more on the gear), that way it will always be ahead of the oil supply. 
The sump is connected internally through the case and inner cover. There will be a line back to the tank from this pump. The feed line will go from the tank to the pressure side of the pump and then a hard line will take the oil up between cylinders #1 & #5. 
I have gears on the back side of the crank (in the fuel chamber) that will drive the oil pumps and the distibutor bevel gears. I plan on using a small amount of oil in the fuel (50:1) to oil these gears (3). The bevel gears will be in their own pocket and will be coated with light grease. 
George


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

I worked on the outer crankcase cover today. I started with a block of aluminum, squared it up leaving a little stock on all faces. I laid out the center and then chucked it in the 4 jaw chuck on the lathe. The part was center drilled, drilled and bored.


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

The part was then turned around and mounted on the previously made mandrel. This necessitated cutting the step down from 1.625 to 1.562. The location step and bearing flange were cut and a nice fillet was put on the bearing flange for strength. 
The part was then removed from the mandrel and mounted in the vise on the mill. I didn't document the hole drilling but the next step was to cut a .75 dia. x .125 deep recess for the distributor drive gear clearance. I used a .75 end mill and once to depth moved it out of the pocket to cut the bottom surface flat.


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

The next step was to do a rough layout on the face of the part just to give me a road map of where my cuts were going to be. The part was then mounted on the mandrel and put into the chuck on the dividing head. 
This cover has the chamber for the intake tubes so the first cuts I made were to qualify these surfaces. In the course of cutting them I had to be aware of the mounting bosses and the oil return boss on the bottom.


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

While I had the part set up for the milling operations I plunged through with an end mill to serve as a pilot for the drilling operation. These holes are for the intake tubes.


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

While cutting all of the bosses and features on this and other parts I like to work to actual dimensions so everything is calculated from a surface or center point and then the table is moved the required amount, plus or minus the radius of the cutter being used. 
 With all the jogging and stepping required you certainly have to pay attention to where you're at. 
 The next 2 pictures show the mounting bosses as they were roughed from previous steps. I then made a step off chart to create the radius on the corners. 
 You can see in the first picture the oil return boss has already been stepped off and the mounting boss is next.
The second picture show the latter with the corner radius completed.


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## gbritnell (Nov 1, 2011)

Finally all the machining on this part is complete with only a couple of small dimples here and there from not paying close enough attention. Tomorrow the benching will be completed and 2 of the parts will be finished. 
George


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## agmachado (Nov 1, 2011)

Hi George,

Very nice work!!!

:bow:

I will be here for next steps!!!

Thanks,

Alexandre


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## Blogwitch (Nov 2, 2011)

George,

I love the way you manage to get those perfectly rounded and blended parts to come together. It really is the work of a true artisan.

I am not into mathematics any more to guide my cutters as you do, I have lost a few too many brain cells now due to medications, so I can only rough cut the profile and finish off by hand, with the help of a Dremel, they don't come out too bad.

It truly is wonderful watching you work, and it shows that if you take your time and work things out for each stage, even us mere mortals have some chance of success.


John


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## CMS (Nov 2, 2011)

Such a marvel to witness a square block of aluminum remolded in such a way. :bow:


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## kvom (Nov 2, 2011)

You're not wasting any time. Following along with interest. Thanks for sharing.


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## cfellows (Nov 2, 2011)

I sure do admire your work, George. The way you finesse those shapes out of a block of metal is a joy to behold.

Chuck


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## Ramon (Nov 2, 2011)

As a newbie here George just like to say your work and your conveyance of it for other's benefit is inspirational.

I've read it through twice now and no doubt will do so again - keep it coming.

Regards - Ramon


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## steamer (Nov 2, 2011)

As a newbie here George just like to say your work and your conveyance of it for other's benefit is inspirational.



I might add, the more experienced of the group learn alot from George Too! :bow: :bow:

Yes George...do keep it coming!

Dave


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## gbritnell (Nov 3, 2011)

Rather than finish this cover I decided to make the outer cover and bench them both at the same time.
 I started with the usual block of aluminum, 6061 and squared it up. This cover would need an 1.562 dia. x .031 step to locate into the inner crankcase housing. I layed out a center, gave it a light centering tap and mounted it in the 4 jaw chuck. With my wiggler and indicator I got it running true and cut the boss. 
 From the lathe it went to the mill and got the oil pump, distributor drive and mounting holes put in. The part was then turned over and the spot faces for the gear clearance were put in with a small boring bar.
 With this operation complete I blued up the piece and laid out the shapes for the oil pump, carb and distributor bosses.
 I just roughed the material off, staying about .05 away from all the layout lines. All of these bosses are different heights so I cut the perimeter shapes before qualifying the heights. There is also a small fillet around all the shapes so staying away during the roughing process leaves me stock to cut the fillets.


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## gbritnell (Nov 3, 2011)

With everything roughed I drilled the oil feed holes. It was necessary to put these in before cutting the oil pump pocket because they are close to the side wall of the pump cavity. 
 At this stage I needed another mounting fixture so I scrounged through my miscellaneous stock boxes, aluminum, steel, it didn't matter what material it was just that I could use it without having to chop into a new piece of stock. I found what originally was a starter adapter for one of my engines and it fit the bill nicely. A quick truing up in the lathe and a counterbore for the 1.562 boss and it was transferred to the mill to get the mounting holes put in.
 I needed to be able to locate the fixture square as I moved it from the mill vise to the dividing head so when I was putting the mounting holes in I cut a flat on one side. 
 The first operation was to finish up the oil pump boss and pump cavity so I clamped the fixture between 2 v-blocks and indicated to find the center. That being completed I screwed the cover plate to the fixture and put 2 brass posts into the existing shaft holes so I could line them up perfectly. A couple of passes of the indicator and the fixture was tightened down.


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## gbritnell (Nov 3, 2011)

After rereading my last post you might ask how, if after finding the center of the fixture how could I then rotate it to align the dowel pins? You can see from the photo that I have a stop rod coming in from the right side of the vise so once center was found I could loosen the vise, rotate the fixture and reclamp without losing my centers. In this next picture you can see the oil pump boss is finished. From here I kept rotating the fixture to machine the other features. Most everyone has seen the pictures that I have posted showing how I step off shapes with the sine/cosine method. As I have mentioned in the past sometimes it's just easier to do it this way rather than pull everything off the mill table to set up the rotary table, and then remount and indicate when finished. 
 I have learned to group operations when using this mill/drill machine so I don't have to do a lot of set up and tear down. 
 From the mill vise the part and fixture went back to the dividing head to get the perimeter radius cut.


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## gbritnell (Nov 3, 2011)

The final operations were to step off the radii on the sides and bottom of the distributor housing. I originally had planned on putting a ball end on the boss but when the part took shape I realized that there wouldn't be much of a ball because of the way the carburetor boss intersected it. When I start benching these pieces I'll just put an nice radius on the boss and blend it into the other shapes.


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## gbritnell (Nov 3, 2011)

The final 3 pictures show all the crankcase pieces screwed together, main crankcase, inner housing and outer cover. Tomorrow the hand work begins. 
George


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## gbritnell (Nov 4, 2011)

The crankcase components are finished. They were screwed together for their portrait.
I have 28 hours in the 3 parts. I think I'll tackle the next hardest parts, the cylinder heads. They will be made from 7075 aluminum. I will need to make a hand crank for my 6 inch lathe so that I can thread up against the top of the combustion chamber, likewise for the top of the cylinder. 
George


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## gbritnell (Nov 4, 2011)

Here's the final 3 pictures of the finished crankcase assembly. 
George


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## chuck foster (Nov 4, 2011)

george your going to be finished before winter even starts!!!

fantastic work as always :bow: :bow:

chuck


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## ninefinger (Nov 19, 2011)

gbritnell  said:
			
		

> .... The only thing I'm not sure of at this point is whether to make the return side pump a little bit bigger (one tooth more on the gear), that way it will always be ahead of the oil supply.
> George



Definitely a good idea to have the scavenge pump be larger than the supply. As the oil is collecting in the sump it will be full of bubbles. If the pumps are of equal size then the sump will become your oil reservoir and you will run out of oil in your supply tank. Common practice is to have the scavenge pump something like 50% larger to handle the extra air entrained in the oil. Perhaps instead of a different tooth count make the gears wider for the scavenge pump side?

Excellent build so far - I'm going to use your energy as inspiration for me to get going on my build.

Mike


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## ShedBoy (Nov 20, 2011)

That sure is purty George.
 :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:
Brock


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## CMS (Nov 23, 2011)

Extra clean work!!! Oh, hows the new mill working out???


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## hobby (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi George,

As always, excellent workmanship,

I'm chiming in here to say,
Thankyou for the sequential step photos of the various operations, the way you have put these together, makes for a very good learning demonstration.

To just see a part already made, holds no educational product, but to see that part being made through the various steps, helps us to see how to machine difficult parts by breaking them down to bite size steps.

Keep up the great work...


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## gbritnell (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi CMS,
I have the new mill in pieces in the basement waiting to be cleaned up and reassembled.
I will then be ordering new digital readouts for it so I'm looking at about 2-3 weeks before I'm back in business.
George


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## steamin (Nov 23, 2011)

George, what brand of DRO are you planning to buy ? I purchased a SHARS on ebay for my mill and it is great. I just purchased a second one for my Hardinge HLVH lathe. Check them out. For what they can do you can not beat the price. Larry
PS: Happy Thganksgiving


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## Admiral_dk (Jan 7, 2012)

Any chance for an update - I've really been looking forward to the next chapter in this odyssey :bow:


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## gbritnell (Jan 7, 2012)

As many of you know I took on a job building hit and miss engines for the Ministeam company out of the Columbus, Ohio area. I am just finishing up the 5th engine since November, 2010. There was a break in the building process while they were waiting for updated drawings for one of the Galloway engines. It was at this time that I started making parts for the radial. I had already completed the drawings over last winter. I intend to get back on the radial shortly and would like to have it finished up for the NAMES show in April. One of the holdups is the cam gear that I designed into the engine is a 64 pitch, 60 tooth internal gear. Stock Drive Products has it listed in their catalog but every time I call on it they say it's back ordered and they won't have it for 4-6 weeks. This was about 9 weeks ago. My buddy has a slotting head for his milling machine so if worse comes to worse I could try and make my own. 
Anyway thanks for your interest and I will certainly update the group as soon as I start making some more parts.
George


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## petertha (Jan 15, 2012)

Hi George. I got looking at your valve layout as a reference to a drawing Im working on. I was mulling over increasing my valve angle from 20 deg to 25 & got wondering about the implications of this steeper angle  pushrods then act on the rockers at a higher angle as they originate from center, more cam throw to get the required valve movement, pushrod flexing. Heady issues outside of my league.

Other (non-scale replicating) model radials Ive seen appear in the 15-25 deg range. Eg the Edwards-5 plans show 20 deg & 0.093dia drill rid pushrod. Overlaying some lines on your drawing, looks like you chose about 30 deg, is that correct? Any comments on this, or is it a no-biggey issue? 

Also, (if I understand correct) your rocker perchs are also swiveled outboard a bit. So the pushrods would meet them at a higher tangent angle yet vs if they were in-line = parallel to the crankshaft? What does this accomplish or intend to do on your design? 

What is your plan for pushrods & ball ends, sockets & such?


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

Having just finished the 1/4 scale Galloway I was working on I got back to the radial build. 
 There is no order to parts making and while looking at the drawings I thought the master rod would be next. The first three pictures show the usual steps, picking up the edges with the edge finder, center drilling all the holes and then drilling to the required size. For the .125 dia. rod pin holes I first drilled through for a 2-56 thread. This was followed by a .120 drill and finally finished with a .125 drill. For the wrist pins you're probably asking why they were drilled and not reamed, well the .125 dia. holes had to extend .010 into the far cheek so that when the pins are screwed in place they would have a true location and not rely on the threaded hole. For this type of operation I use a new drill and with the .120 pilot hole it comes out dead on .125. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

The remaining holes were drilled and reamed and the width of the small end of the rod was cut. I try to plan my cuts so that I always have some stock to clamp to. 
The rod was then turned in the vise and the center area was cut out.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

Next up was to remove the remaining stock from around the crank hole leaving a .016 wall. The bottom area was roughed out first then the rod was supported by a .281 drill and and rotated to remove the remaining stock in a radial fashion. You can see the small facets which will be filed out later.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

Before tearing everything off the table an setting up the rotary table I cut a piece of stock to size and drilled and reamed for the slave rods.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

The table was cleared and the rotary table set up. The first thing to do is find the center. I put a piece of round stock in the holder to roughly get the center then do the final dialing in with the indicator. The fixture block was set on the table and located into the large dowel pin hole with a .375 brass plug with a taper turned on it. I find that this is accurate enough for rotation milling of small parts. The fixture block was then clamped down.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

The block was then indicated parallel with the X axis and the handle was set to -0- and a reference line marked even with any close number. The rotary table has a movable pointer but it's on the side away from the handwheel so it's just easier to make my own mark. The purpose of setting the block square is because the sides of the rod are tapered and this gives me a reference for rotating to the proper angle.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

The part was then bolted down using the hollow dowels to locate both the crank end and the wrist pin end. The main diameter was cut while staying shy of the tapered beam until the radius number was established. Once I had the final reading for the desired diameter I rotated the table until I could 'paper' the cutter to the beam. With that radius cut I put a .25 dia. ball mill in to cut the 30* step down to the beam.


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## gbritnell (Jan 16, 2012)

A .125 endmill with a small radius on the corner was used to cut the 'I' beam step in the upper part of the rod. 
The final 4 pictures are of the finished master rod. Tomorrow I will make the bushings and wrist pins and finish up the slave rods.
gbritnell


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## b.lindsey (Jan 18, 2012)

George, 
After too long a while of not having enough time to spend here on HMEM, its finally nice to be able to read and follow some projects again. I went back and reread this one from the beginning yesterday and just wanted to say its as awesome, informative, and educationsl as always. Am really looking forward to seeing this one develop. Thanks for sharing your immense talents with us :bow:

Bill


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## CMS (Jan 18, 2012)

Nicely executed procedure, as usual. I too have a 1/4 scale Galloway kit that I purchased from Dick Shelly about two years ago. His failing health prevented him from getting around much so his wife and son handled most of the dealings. Very nice people. Hope to see one of you Galloway builds posted on here one day.

Craig


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## gbritnell (Jan 18, 2012)

Here is yesterday and today's progress. I finished up the rods, making the bushings and crank pins or wrist pins if you will. Early this afternoon I started on the crankshaft. The shaft itself is 1144 stressproof, not that it needed to be but it's a little stronger and cuts quite well. The crank pin is W-1 drill rod. It was turned, polished, hardened and drawn out a little. It was then presssed and Loctited into the crank. 
 Every time I get parts made I want to see what they look like together so I pressed the bearings into the cases and took the slave rods off of the master. I inserted the crank and went to put the master onto the crank pin and discovered my first needed modification. The crank pin as designed is too long and won't allow the master to be installed. The master rod is .45 wide and the pin was .438 so I started grinding the pin down about .025 at a time. When I got to .305 the master rod would slip in. The hole in the crank pin is to drive the distributor and oil pump gears through another crank affair driven by the main crank. The original design is for a .125 drive pin but I don't see any reason why I couldn't just use a stub the same diameter as the main crank pin, that way there would be a little more support for the master rod although I suspect .305 would be more than adequate. 
The first couple of pictures are of the rods assembled.


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## gbritnell (Jan 18, 2012)

The next 2 photos are of the crankshaft and the last 2 are with the rod and crank assembly mounted into the main crankcase.
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Jan 18, 2012)

Hi Craig, 
I will post some pictures of the Galloway in the engines from castings area. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

I'm on to the next stage of the engine build, the cylinders. These will be made from 12L14 steel. I wasn't looking forward to this job because of having to cut the very thin fins. 
First up was to drill and bore the cylinder. I used a .562 drill figuring even if it cut a little oversized there would be enough stock for the finish bore of .625 With the drilling an boring finished I set the compound over on 35 degrees and put a chamfer in the bottom to start the piston rings. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

I turned the spigot on the end of the cylinder. This will fit into the bored hole in the crankcase. Next up was to cut the first relief on the cylinder. This would create the mounting flange and the bottom of the first fin. I have all manner of .375 high speed lathe tools ground up so I found a necking tool that would fit the bill. First up was to square the tool up and then touch it off to the .75 diameter cylinder hub. I always stay .001 away from the reading when I set the dial as I have found that touching the tool even lightly will overcut the desired diameter. This are is not critical but I try to keep things as I have designed them. For cutting with any type of cutoff or necking tool on a piece of stock this size I go into back gear on my lathe. My belts are in the higher range so this keeps me from having to shift them around for other operations.


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## b.lindsey (Jan 24, 2012)

Its still looking great George. Was wondering though in the first set of today's pictures, the third one down...what were you doing with the drill shank inserted into the bored cylinder. Was it to help set the compound or what? Just curious and don't want to miss anything.

Bill


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

With everything ready to go I touched my tool off, set my -0- on the readout and cut the first relief. 
Next up is the 'puckering' job. The fins on the cylinder are .031 wide and the spaces in between are .039. Having ground many parting and necking tools from high speed blanks over the year I have found that when grinding by hand I end up with more side clearance and that weakens the tool so this time I took one of my cutoff blades and narrowed it down until I got the desired .039. I ground back about .28 as I had to cut in .200 deep. I squared up the tool and touched it off and prepared for the worst. For this operation I sprayed some of my cutting oil into a small container and used a small brush to keep the oil down in the fins. This is really a job that requires 'feel'. As easy as 12L is to cut it loves to bind up during the necking procedure and I didn't want to make any more of these cylinders than necessary.


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

Hi Bill,
You mean the end mill shank? That is my plug gauge. The end mill shank is .0002 undersize so if I just get it to slip in I know I'm right on .625. I also have a tooling dowel that's .0005 over so I use that as the no-go gauge.
George


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

Whew! got the first one done. I could feel the tool start to snag a couple of times so I just backed out a little, applied a little more oil and proceeded. The next shot is 2 down and 4 more to go. I finally got them all cut. Up next was to reinstall the wide necking tool and cut the spigot on the top of the cylinder leaving it a little heavy for the next operation.


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## b.lindsey (Jan 24, 2012)

Thanks George, yes that is what i meant. And the fins tured out very well too 

Bill


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

The next step was to cut the taper on the fins. This was approximately 10* so I set the compound over and put my turning tool back in for this cut. With that complete I took a small triangular file and broke the edges on all the fins. The second photo shows the competed cylinder to this point. Once I have them all made I have to make a mounting fixture up to hold them for the final operation which will be putting .75-40 threads on the top end spigot. As is my habit I just couldn't resist slipping the completed cylinders into the crankcase to have a look-see. Now it's starting to look like something!.
George


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## dsquire (Jan 24, 2012)

George

The last photo with the cylinders set in really starts to make it look like an engine. Great work as always George. :bow: :bow:

Cheers 

Don


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## stevehuckss396 (Jan 24, 2012)

Looks good George. Love the taper on the fins. Always worth the extra effort to get that look.


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## metalmad (Jan 24, 2012)

Looking wonderful George
This is going to be a beaut :bow:
Pete


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

I finished all the cylinders with no mishaps. Tomorrow I will make the fixture to do the threading by hand. I have made a hand crank for my 6" Craftsman/Atlas lathe specifically for this job. I'll keep you posted.
George


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## ref1ection (Jan 24, 2012)

Nice work as always George.

Ray


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## petertha (Jan 24, 2012)

Is the crank pin diameter stepped down slightly where it engages the crankshaft web hole?

Is there anything else that keeps the 2 parts engaged, or just pressed in & locktite as you mention?

What amount of interference fit is good in a situation like this & what kind of locktite?


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## gbritnell (Jan 24, 2012)

Hi Pete,
Attached is copy of my crankshaft drawing. I machined it for a .002 press fit with Loctite 603. I hope it holds. 
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL SHT 3a.pdf


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## vcutajar (Jan 25, 2012)

George

First of all amazing machining. :bow:

Secondly, I was looking at your last photo and I noticed the distributor. I went back all the way to the start of this thread but could not find any mention of it. Is it an off the shelf item?

Vince


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## gbritnell (Jan 25, 2012)

Hi Vince,
The cap is a Bruce Satra cap. He sold the caps to S&S Machine and Engineering. They make the small electronic ignitions. They have caps for 4,5,8 and 9 cylinder engines. The rest of the distributor is mine. 
gbritnell


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## vcutajar (Jan 25, 2012)

George

Thanks for the info. That's good to know. Need to store that info for future reference.

Vince


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## gbritnell (Jan 25, 2012)

This morning bright and early I made a fixture to hold the cylinders for threading. I first mounted each cylinder and turned the spigot on the head end to .75 and qualified the overall length. I wanted to have them ready to go once I set up for threading. The next picture is of my hand crank. It's a little crude looking but I would rather spend the time on the engine. I took one of my threading tools and ground most of the 30* angle away on one side, just enough to get the depth I needed and get as close to the shoulder as possible. I did make up a small necking tool (.031) to undercut the bottom of the threads. The next picture shows the threading. I used my LED light to illuminate the job and forgot to reset my camera, hence the blue tint.


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## gbritnell (Jan 25, 2012)

Upon finishing the threading I made up a threaded arbor for holding the heads for further machining. The cylinders were turned and the fins cut much like the cylinders so I'm not going to repeat the picture process. The one picture show the internal threads being cut. Here again I undercut the bottom of the threads with a .031 necking tool. 
The next 2 pictures show the threads in the head and on the cylinder. The 4th picture shows the 2 parts screwed together.


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## gbritnell (Jan 25, 2012)

The final picture for today shows the 2 heads and cylinders screwed together and mounted on the crankcase.
George


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## gbritnell (Jan 26, 2012)

Here's today's progress. I finished turning and threading the cylinders. Now the real fun begins, ports, valve seats, fins and spark plug holes. I thought I would take a couple of pictures with the cylinders all put in place. In the one photo I have a half dollar sitting next to the engine to give you an idea of the size. 
George


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## stevehuckss396 (Jan 26, 2012)

Hello G!

Is this going to be one of those deals where you finish the head, attach the cylinder permanently, and then drill the flange at the bottom of the cylinder.


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## gbritnell (Jan 26, 2012)

Exactly so Steve. Trying to locate head bolt holes in something like this is nearly impossible. With the head shouldering against the cylinder it should make a positive stop. When I get the flat at the back of the head machined (for the ports) I will use this as a stop while I tighten the cylinder. Once assembled they will go into a fixture and have the base holes drilled. If they ever have to come apart they should clock up right at the same point they came apart. 
 I have to layout a machining program for the combustion chambers. That will be the next step in the process.
George


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## kustomkb (Jan 26, 2012)

Beautiful work George! It's a real pleasure watching your progress.

Thanks for the detailed posts.


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## doc1955 (Jan 26, 2012)

WOW!!! 
How did I miss this build?
 I'll have to go back to the start and read from the beginning.
 But from here it is a beautiful looking piece of work!!!
Nice!!!!


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## gbritnell (Jan 29, 2012)

Gents, 
The work is resuming on the cylinder heads. The next step was to put in the combustion chambers. The chamber is hemispherical so I made up a drill rod forming tool on the lathe and then backed of the relief by hand. I left just a whisper of flat at the cutting edge so that I could knock it down with a diamond hone after hardening. The heads were put in the vise against the port face flat and a stop was clamped up so that I wouldn't have to pick up each head. The cutter was touched of to a piece of .125 stock laying on the flange, the -0- was set and then the chambers were cut.


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## gbritnell (Jan 29, 2012)

With the chambers cut I pulled my big vise from the table and set up my angle table with the smaller vise. Everything was indicated square and then the table was tilted at 30*. Another stop was set up for repetition. The first part had the centerlines laid out and they were picked up with the wiggler.


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## gbritnell (Jan 29, 2012)

The valve pocket machining would required another home made tool. This would consist of a pilot (.1875), a counterbore (.235 x .062) and a relief counterbore (.245). The relief counterbore is to relieve the initial countebore to aid in getting the valve seats square when pressing them in. The operation was, center drill, undersize drill, .156 reamer, .1875 port drill and finally the counterbore tool.


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## gbritnell (Jan 29, 2012)

This is the result of the port cutting operation. In the first picture you can see the relief counterbore which goes down just to the tangent point of the radius on the combustion chamber wall.


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## gbritnell (Jan 29, 2012)

With the valve pockets cut the vise and angle table were pulled off the mill, everything cleaned up and the dividing head was set up and indicated. This would be used to cut the external flats and the drilling, tapping and counterbore operation for the spark plug hole. (10-40 plug)
The threaded mandrel was clamped in the chuck and indicated true. The first head was screwed on to the mandrel and tightened what I deemed the right amount without stripping out the small threads. The dividing head was set at -0- degrees and the chuck was loosened enough to turn the mandrel to get a true reading across the port face. Both of the external flats were cut and then the spark plug area was finished. It is convenient that everything is on 30* so it only required the one setup. The last picture shows the work up to this point. Still a lot to go.
George


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## 90LX_Notch (Jan 29, 2012)

George,

Your ability to make your own cutters is truly inspiring. What I wouldn't give to be able to have such an ability. Your work is always beyond words. I can not express my thanks and appreciation enough for the time that you take to document your builds so that others can learn from them.

My sincerest thanks,
Bob


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## gbritnell (Jan 30, 2012)

Here's the progress report on the cylinder heads. I got to work most of Sunday and quite a bit of today on the heads. When I designed the head I removed stock around the valve guide area and the pad for the rocker pedestal. I had to tilt the dividing head straight up so that I could machine the outside angle and then do the stepping around the boss. When all the machining is finished I'll go back and clean up the steps and the area where the 2 angles intersect.


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## gbritnell (Jan 30, 2012)

The milling part of the job didn't take as long as screwing each one on the mandrel and indicating it square before cutting. 
With that out of the way I rotated the dividing head back to the horizontal position and indicated it for true. The threaded mandrel was replaced and the first head screwed on. The setup for this operation was quite a bit easier as I could use my precision square to get the proper alignment. This allowed the slitting saw to remain in place.


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## gbritnell (Jan 30, 2012)

The final four pictures for today are the glamor shots with the cylinders and heads installed on the crankcase. Tomorrow I should be able to finish up the machining on the heads, putting the intake and exhaust ports in and the mounting screw holes. I can then start the hand work, grinding, radiusing and polishing. 
George


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## metalmad (Jan 30, 2012)

Hi George
Its just lovely Mate :bow:
Pete


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## vcutajar (Jan 31, 2012)

Beautiful. :bow:

How I wish I was able to do all those things.

Vince


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## coopertje (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi George,

I am quietly following along, its becoming a piece of true art (as usual). I really enjoy your progress, hoping one day I can make an engine half as beautiful as this one (they claim that patience comes with time, I am impatiently waiting for that moment).  

Regards Jeroen


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## Lesmo (Jan 31, 2012)

Hi George
I am increasingly astonished at the level of engineering expertise shown on this forum and this build has opened up yet another new dimension to me, as I would not have thought it possible to create the complicated shapes that you have achieved without casting. I can see now why Marve made the comment about breaking his mill down for scrap. 

Its just an illustration of how incredibly high the bar is set, that few of us, least of all me will ever achieve that level of expertise. I will have to be content to look on and pick up whatever I can from people like yourself who take the time and trouble to share their talent.

Regards Les   :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## gbritnell (Jan 31, 2012)

The machining of the heads is finished. All that remains is to press in the seats and valve guides. I used a tiny 3/32 burr with a conical shape to blend in the flat and angular surface. I then used my riffler files to smooth out the radius. Every operation along the way I kept thinking "maybe I should have made and extra head just in case". I guess luck was on my side. With so many steps in the machining process one wrong turn and I would have been quite depressed, especially getting near the end. 
These three pictures will be the last for the heads. 
I just received and invoice from Stock Drive Products telling me that my internal gear would be shipping. Now I can start on the cam ring. 
George


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## jpeter (Jan 31, 2012)

George, you work fast. Gonna be running in time for NAMES?


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## gbritnell (Feb 1, 2012)

I hope to have it ready for NAMES but time seems to fly when you're having fun.
George


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## gbritnell (Feb 1, 2012)

This is going to be a small tutorial on how I make valves, at least for this engine. 

 The valves are made from 303 stainless steel. They are .783 long with a .093 stem and .231 head. The groove for the retaining ring is .02 wide and deep.

 For the job I used a piece of .312 dia. stainless held in my 5c collet chuck. When the piece is extended out a little over 1.00 the collets give more support than the 3 jaw chuck. This is the same reason I used .312 as opposed to .25, it's just a little more rigid. 

 I first cut a short length of the stem diameter to .094 to keep the stem from flexing when I cut the groove for the retaining ring. I know I have .093 above and now I'm saying .094. Well the truth is I leave a small amount for filing. If I could cut the whole stem at one time I would go with the finished diameter but it's easier to match up and adjust the dimension by filing and polishing. 

 The first picture show the stem diameter being cut. Next is touching off the necking tool and setting my -0-. I then go back .057 and cut in to depth.


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## gbritnell (Feb 1, 2012)

I now make my next cuts to about .400 back from the end working down to .094 diameter. After this I go to the full length minus the fillet at the head. This is .700 back from the end. 
Finally for this series I put in my radiusing tool and cut the fillet at the head to .734 from the end.


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## gbritnell (Feb 1, 2012)

While I have the radiusing tool mounted I cut the head diameter to .231. Now comes the cutoff tool. I touch off the end of the stem and go back .794, this leaves .01 for cleanup and gives me a visual for cutting the seat angle. I only cut in deep enough to see where I'm at. Now the turning tool goes back in to cut the seat angle. The compound has been set to 45* right from the start. 
 This is where a QCTP saves the day. 
 Now the cutoff tool goes back in and the piece is parted off. 
 From here the piece is chucked up in my small lathe and the length is qualified to .784, leaving about .010-.014 of true head diameter.


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## gbritnell (Feb 1, 2012)

And here you have some finished valves. The diameters are about .0932 so with the guides at .09375 I will have about .0005 clearance. 
George


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## vcutajar (Feb 2, 2012)

George

Thanks for the tutorial. Good thing I still haven't done my valves.

Vince


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## krv3000 (Feb 2, 2012)

HI this is a wonderful billed


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## steamer (Feb 2, 2012)

Man you fly George! :bow:

Dave


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## b.lindsey (Feb 2, 2012)

I'm with steamer George. I am beginning to think you are in some other space/time continuum or something!! :big: Its still looking amazing though and beautifully documented as always. Looking forward to each new post !! 

Bill


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## petertha (Feb 2, 2012)

So when folks talk about matching the 45 deg valve angle to the valve seat 'using the same setup on the lathe' ... I've never really been clear on this. You are obviously switching toolpost setups as you machine valves & including the 45 deg angling. And likely will have similar sequence turning the cage/seat. Is there a trick I'm missing like you somehow register the lathe compound to some repeatable known 45 deg reference so it stays as close as possible? I thought maybe all the valves would be turned with a blank/square face & then the 45 deg operation would be carried out on the batch in sequence, but then the setup has changed by re-chucking the stem.

Wonderful pics & progress BTW, just awesome! Im learning a lot just following along.


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## Till (Feb 3, 2012)

gbritnell  said:
			
		

> The valves are made from 303 stainless steel.


I use to make IC valves from stainless steel screws. They are a good source of suitable valve material and it's easy to machine...


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## gbritnell (Feb 3, 2012)

Hi Pete,
The seats will be made somewhere down the road. As far a matching the angles, I don't worry about it. Lets say that you cut the valve at 45* by the marks on your compound. Even if they're not exactly 45* I'm using this as a reference. Now I make up a tool to cut the seats like I normally do and cut it using the same register mark on my compound and let's say I was .5* off. Usually I cut my seats about .02 wide but even if you went .03 wide the difference in the 2 angles would only be .0003 in that distance. So you see it's not that big of a deal. With a magnifying glass I'm sure I could get the marks within say 1/4 of a degree, or closer so the mismatch would be negligible. 
I'm sure for the fellows with small lathes the spacing on the degrees register marks would be finer but like I said you're just lining up lines for each operation, it doesn't matter if they're not exactly 45* but that they're both the same. 
 If a fellow wanted to get really critical he could put a bar in the chuck and do the trigonometry method by using the compound feed. I would think that most compounds would have at least 1.00 of travel so to set for 45*one would just calculate for the side opposite in a 1.00 distance and take a reading. 
George


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

It's been awhile since I updated the group but I have been working feverishly on this engine. I got the valve seats and valve guides made and pressed them into the heads. The seats are steel with a .002 press fit with Loctite. The guides are bronze. The seat were pressed in and then a cutter was made to cut the seats in place. This provides a more accurate lineup with the guides. 
The valve, spring and cap are held in place with a .018 ring made from music wire. I wound a section of wire onto a mandrel and then cut individual rings from it.


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

The valves had all been lapped and matched to their respective locations so it was time to start assembly. The first one got a bit dicey trying to hold everything compressed with a fingernail while trying to slip the ring over the top so I reverted back to full sized practice and made a small ring compressor. What a difference when using a tool to do something. While trying to assemble the first head my fingernail slipped a couple of times and sent spring and retainer the the farthest reaches of my shop somewhere. It was at this point that the tool got made. The retainers have a 30* chamfer cut into the top to compress and hold the split ring in place. The rings had to be expanded to get them over the valve stem but once in place I could squeeze them down with needle nosed pliers and then the chamfer took over. A very good setup unless you have to take them back apart, then getting the ring off is going to be a bear.


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

With the tool doing it's job it didn't take long to get them all assembled. Everything needs to be in place and tested because the next step will be to screw the cylinder and head together tightly so that they can be fixtured up to drill the base holes. That's not to say that they can't come apart but it's much easier to put the valves in now. 
Here's a couple of shots of the assembled heads.
gbritnell


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## petertha (Feb 10, 2012)

Maaaan George, you sure make nice parts... and quickly!

I'm guessing you wont be using any kind of ring gasket between the aluminum head & steel cylinder (like copper shim stock)? The two just get screwed together & seal/mate each other like your assembly thus far?

I couldnt quite tell on the picture of your neat combustion chamber profile cutting tool, but is it shaped like a half-circle dome that gets 'submerged' X amount into the head? 

What is the target compression ratio on this engine?

Maybe you will talk about valve seat seal testing later on, I'm all ears.


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## ShedBoy (Feb 10, 2012)

Simply stunning George.

Brock


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

Hi Peter,
You're correct on the combustion chamber tool. It was machined from a piece of drill rod with the hemispherical shape on it. I then roughly relieved the flutes staying away from the cutting edges. With a magnifier I then file almost to the cutting edge leaving just a small amount to hone once it's been hardened. 
The cylinder head/cylinder mating face should seal with no gasketing. The threads on both were machine cut so everything is very square and the two surfaces should run up tightly. 
I didn't figure the compression ratio as I used the basic Morton dimensioning for bore, stroke and combustion chamber shape. Looking at it I would think it will be quite high, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8:1. 
Pictured is the tool I made for cutting my valve seats. I must have 10 of these things now in almost every conceivable size variation for everything from hit and miss engines to my V-twin and now the radial. It is turned from W-1 drill rod with the pilot machined as part of the cutter. I set my compound over at 45 degrees to cut the angle. There was some question in another thread about trying to match the valve to the seat, angle wise. My register marks on my compound are far enough apart that I shouldn't be more than a tenth of a degree out of match. There's one thing I do when making the tool, instead of cutting the flutes at 90 degree increments I make one about 10 degrees off, so that would be -0-, 90, 180 and 260. The reason for this is if they were evenly spaced and a small chatter developed you wouldn't be able to get it out because each tooth would fall into the same chatter mark but with one tooth out of sync it seems to prevent this from happening. Once the tool is machined, hardened and honed I chuck it up in a small drill chuck and cut the seats by hand. Once the seats are cut I lightly lap each valve to it's seat until I see a dull finish all around the seat. As a double check you can put some ink marker on the seat and lightly turn the valve against it. If there is a low spot it will show up. 
Once I have the valves lapped and mounted with the springs I suck on the port to see if it will hold a vacuum. As in the case of these heads I can't get my mouth up to the port so I make a tube up with a slight taper and wedge it into the port. I then put a piece of tubing on it and suck. One more thing I might add, put a small ring of grease around the valve stem/valve guide joint to prevent any leakage from there. If your guides are a little loose you can pull air through them.
George


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## kvom (Feb 10, 2012)

Winter is not over until March 19, so you can slow down a bit.  ;D

Great work, thanks for showing.


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## gbritnell (Feb 10, 2012)

Awhile back in the postings I mentioned that I had to order a 64 pitch internal gear for the cam ring. It came last week and I set about making the cam ring. The gear was made from mild stainless steel and had enough material around the outside of the gear to machine the entire cam ring. I first had to make a backing disc to mount the gear to. This disc has a bronze bushing in the center as it needs to rotate freely on the crankshaft. I turned up the disc and drilled and countersunk for the 0-80 Phillips head screws. I also drilled and tapped the gear blank for the screws. 

 As most people know a counter sink is not a great method for locating one part to another so I made up line-up bushing that would fit snugly inside the gear and located the mounting disc exactly. I then lightly tightened the screws to hold the 2 pieces together. I then drilled 5, .040 holes to put small dowel pins into so that when the flat head screws were tightened the two parts couldn't shift. 

 In the second picture you can see the small holes, some adjacent to the mounting screws and the others at different locations around the diameter. They all have brass pins in them but they all didn't com flush before getting tight that's why you only see a couple of brass spots in the picture. The small dimples in the screws were made by a small staking tool. This was to prevent the screws from coming loose or at least backing out. 

 The small gear you see is the 25 tooth gear that starts the gear train to drive the cam ring. It is keyed to the crankshaft. Here again in the second picture you can see the key just peeking out of the top of the gear. I cut this gear from 303 stainless with a home-made hob. I then had to make a special bushing to broach the keyway as the crank diameter is metric to fit the small bearings that the crank rides on. The key is .025 deep in the gear and .035 deep in the crank. 

 In the final 2 pictures you can see the intermediate gear. This is another 25 tooth gear and a 10 tooth gear on top of it. I ordered the 10 tooth gear along with the internal gear as the small number of teeth prevents the hob from making a good involute curve on the teeth. On the top of the 10 tooth brass gear you can see some 50/50 solder. The reason for this is because the gear came with a .094 diameter hole in it. The dedendum or root diameter of this gear is .120 so that only leaves .013 metal wall. I was afraid if I tried to press it onto the shaft it would surely distort so when I made the shaft I filed a flat on it, made the gear hole and shaft size for size and then filled it with solder. This gear combination runs the cam at 6:1 which with the 3 lobes makes the timing right for this 5 cylinder engine. 

 In the bottom right corner you can see 2 of the roller lifters poking through the case. These will be located true by small set screws in the crankcase. The set screws go through the bronze lifter bushing and up against the flat on the lifter, minus enough for movement. 
George


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## Bill Gruby (Feb 10, 2012)

Man, you are fast. You must have a different amout of hours in a day? Very nice work.

 "Billy G"


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## jpeter (Feb 10, 2012)

Regarding your valve seat cutter, I like the idea of having one tooth out of sinc. Hogging in has always been a problem for me so I always suggest driving the cutter with a mill or drill press to better control the depth. I've got 16 seats to cut coming up on a v8. I'm gonna try this tip.

Thanks,


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## metalmad (Feb 10, 2012)

That valve seat cutter is a good idea, I think ill adopt this too ;D
Pete


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## agmachado (Feb 11, 2012)

Hi George,

Very beautiful your work... impressive is the quantity of details... I never tire of seeing the pictures!!!

:bow: :bow:

Thank you for share with us!

Best regards,

Alexandre


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## gbritnell (Feb 13, 2012)

With all the valves assembled and vacuum tested for leaks it was time to permanently (semi- permanently) assemble the heads to the cylinders. The cylinders were chucked by the short spigot at at the bottom of the cylinder in my 5c collet chuck. The mating surfaces on the head and cylinder were cleaned and a very light coat of high temperature silicon was applied. The head was then tightened to what I felt was tight but not to the point of stripping the small 40 tpi threads. 

 Another fixture was now required to drill all the mounting holes in the flange. It had to be done after the heads were installed to keep everything lined up with the crankcase holes. I made a simple fixture from 3/8 aluminum plate. The top plate was bored for the cylinder spigot and the mounting holes were drilled. The bottom plate got a 1/4-20 tapped hole to tighten the aluminum block against the head to hold everything in place. To keep everything in register I used an adjustable parallel against the port face and the inside wall of the fixture. I would put each cylinder in the fixture, lightly tighten the fixing screw so that I could adjust the cylinder head square against the parallel and then snug up the fixing screw. 

 Once the cylinders were drilled they were then moved to the dividing head to get the lower to fins relieved for the 2-56 socket head screws. These can be seen in the next set of pictures. After I relieved the first cylinder I tried assembling it to the crankcase and found out that there wasn't enough room for the ball end Allen wrench so a little engineering was needed. I had originally cut the fins at a 10* taper so a quick calculation showed that I would need 17 degrees to give ample room to get the wrench in. While the 5c collet was still in the big lathe I mounted each cylinder and recut the tapers. As if find things like this that need fixing or changing I mark my working drawings in red so at the end of the day I can go into Autocad and correct them. 

 The cylinders were all mounted with one screw and then it was on to the next parts, the rocker posts. I had 10 of them to make so I thought about the easiest way I could get the job done. With the .125 slot needing to be almost as deep as my end mill I wasn't looking forward to that job. Instead of using an end mill I used a larger block of aluminum and cut the slot with a slitting saw. While in that position I drilled and counterbored for the rocker arm studs. The hole on one side is drilled for a 2-56 thread while the other side is opened up to .125 diameter. The problem is the .125 diameter goes .02 deep into the threaded side to keep the rocker stud lined up and secure. I had to make up a drill rod counterbore to do this job. 

 Once all the stud holes were finished the strip was sawed from the block and finished to width. The strip was then turned up to to cut the width of the circular boss and put the countersunk holes in for the 0-80 mounting screws. I laid out the parts on the strip with enough spacing so that when the machining was finished I could cut safely cut them apart on the bandsaw. 
Once cut apart the radii on the posts was filed round and all the edges were filed and cleaned up. 

 The final set of pictures shows all the rocker posts installed and the one view shows the 0-80 screws used to mount them. 

gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Feb 13, 2012)

Here's the glamor shots showing the cylinder mounting screw reliefs, the lifter guides installed and the rocker posts mounted on the heads.


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## gbritnell (Feb 13, 2012)

These last 2 pictures are close ups of the rocker posts showing the 0-80 mounting screws. There's actually 2 of them. You can just make out the second one inside the two uprights. 
Tomorrow I'll have to come up with a way to mass produce the rocker arms. These will be made from 1018 CRS for a little bit of strength and wear. 
gbritnell


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## CMS (Feb 14, 2012)

Killer work, as the norm from you. One thing that I learned from how you work is taking the extra time to make fixtures/jigs. As always, thanks for sharing your work. Now, sometime you'll have to cover the basics of making cutter heads, counter sinks, etc. I say this because to countersink the holes in the rocker posts HAD to be done with something homemade. Looks great!!!

Craig


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## gbritnell (Feb 14, 2012)

Hi Craig,

 Yes the countersinking tool was another homemade affair. The slot in the rocker posts is .125 so I turned up a piece of drill rod .124 dia. with an 82 degree tip on it. I have found that when hardening drill rod it will grow slightly so that's the reason for the undersize. From there it went to the dividing head and had 3 flutes machined into it and then it was hardened. On tools like this I don't spend the time to draw them out because the load on the cutting edges is minute and I'm cutting aluminum. I ran the spindle about 150 rpm and lightly pecked down until I got to my depth reading. 

 I have a drawer that is filled with homemade cutters. Most are one application tools but without them it would be virtually impossible to do most jobs. Usually I have my dividing head and vise set up on the mill so if I need a special tool I can turn something up and then flute it without too much trouble. 

George


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2012)

Continuing with the valve train I started on the rocker arms. Although I love working with 12L14 steel I wanted the rocker arms to be a little tougher so I dug out a piece of 1018 CRS. I know it's 1018 because I just ordered it for another job last month. Boy it sure seemed easier to work with the last time I used it. 
Anyway, I cut and squared the stock to the necessary dimensions. I had done the rocker arms for the Holt this way and it seemed to be the easiest way to make a whole bunch of them. I left about .75 extra stock to clamp in the vise when it came time to cut the parts off. 
As with all jobs I had to plan my attack so that I would have something to clamp to after each step. With this in mind I drilled and reamed the .125 hole and then cut the 6 degree angle on the top surface first, leaving the extra .75 length square for clamping. I made two pieces of stock as I don't like vertical pieces standing that far out of the vise when cutting off, beside that I would have to drill and ream too deeply to trust it being straight. 
After the angled top surface was cut I flipped the pieces over and cut the shape on the bottom, this includes stepping off the .25 radius using my standard step-off method and reducing the radius in the corner to .062. 
The next step was to stand the piece vertically in the vise and start sawing off pieces. I used a .04 HS steel slitting saw at about 400 rpm.


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2012)

Now it was time for yet another fixture. As you can see by the picture I have used this poor old piece of aluminum many times. I drilled tapped and reamed for the the center mounting hole (2-56) and then drilled and tapped 2 holes at .75 away from center for little clamps that I made. With the holes in I milled away material leaving little stop posts to keep the rockers square in the fixture. The first picture show the fixture and the second show one of the rockers in place. I started with the center screw and one clamp in place. The rockers were cut off .156 wide to accommodate the eventual radius for the pushrod end. The center boss and valve end are .125 wide so I made my initial cuts at .015 deep, removed the center screw, put on the other little clamp and then finished the center boss area and went down an additional .015 for relief.


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2012)

If you will notice that when I made the fixture it had locating lugs on both sides of center. The reason for this is so when I finished the first side milling I could flip the part on the center dowel and use the same dimensions from center to do the other side. Being that the center boss is now .015 thinner I made up a little shim to keep the wide end at the rear in it's proper location. The milling procedure was the same as the first side. 
A piece of .25 rod was turned down to .125 and threaded 5-40 to hold the rockers to turn the bosses. I set up my dial indicator, touched both surfaces on either side of center, backed up .0005 from the highest reading and cut the bosses. The height varied a couple of thousands on some and others it was darn close. It's easier to stay a little high and file the material down to match rather than cutting an arc in the part and having to file a lot, or make over. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2012)

Still a long way to go on these little rascals. I have to make another small fixture tomorrow to mount on my rotary table to spin the end bosses and also put the pushrod recesses in. Then comes the filing and sanding. I'm sure glad I don't have to pay by the hour to have these things made. 
gbritnell


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## petertha (Feb 16, 2012)

Very neat. Well, here I am... taking notes ;D

So with 303 valves & 1018 rockers, is any hardening required, or thats how it will run? I seem to recall some miniature engine article that volunteered rocker faces should be harder because it's more difficult to re-dress. But it seems to vary by builder.

Will you have rocker covers or exposed mechanics? Reason I ask is about lubrication oil up there. My only experience is RC glow ignition 4S & pretty much anywhere raw fuel mist reaches gets a light coating, so its kind of maintenance free from taht respect. But Im always interested in how the gasoline & oil pump boys do it.


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## gbritnell (Feb 16, 2012)

Hi Peter,
Well that valves can't be hardened but the rockers could be case hardened. With the amount of running and work these engines do it should hold up a very long time. On my V-twin I put oil on the valve tips, rocker shafts and pushrod tips and run the engine for hours with no noticeable wear. An option would be take make a rocker box with the same basic dimensions as the current rocker posts and then oil could be pumped up there but then it would need pushrod tubes for the oil to have a return route to the crankcase. Too much work on something this small. Yes I know there are fellows out there that build smaller more complex models but I don't have 7-8 years left to devote to a single model. I would like to end up with one of several types of gas engines. I now have 5 and this one will be 6. I'd like to take the basic dimensions for my 4 cylinder ohv engine and turn it into an OHC engine, maybe even a DOHC engine. Time will tell. 
As a side note this engine has a pressurized feed and scavenge oil system. It won't rely on oil mist from the fuel. The secondary crank has a gear machined onto it that drives the oil pump gears and the distributor gear. They reside in the fuel feed chamber and will get a little lubrication from the fuel/oil mix, otherwise everything will be bathed in oil. 
George


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## steamer (Feb 17, 2012)

Yes I am taking notes too!

Nice Work George!

Dave


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## gbritnell (Feb 17, 2012)

This morning I got started on the little right angle plate to hold the rockers for cutting the radius on the end. I put a .125 reamed hole in it and press fitted a 5-40 stud for holding the rockers. I also put a little boss on the valve end to keep the arm from possibly moving. I found a 10-24 tapped hole on my universal aluminum fixture block and mounted the angle plate. The first rocker got laid out with centerlines. Once the rotary table was indicated in I mounted the fixture block. In the second photo you will notice extra clamps mounted flush with the rotary table once I had the layout lines wiggled in and the clamps tightened I mounted the extra clamps against the sides of the fixture block. I have found that no matter how hard you try at setting up everything as perfectly as you can when you start cutting a radius it seems like that part is always shifted just a little. The extra clamps are used to adjust the fixture block. I make an initial cut and see if it looks like everything is even, if not I loosen one of the stop clamps, add what I think is the necessary shim, push the clamp back up against the fixture and tighten. I then take the shim out, loosen the fixture clamping bolts and push it against the now moved stop clamp and re-clamp. This way I can fine tune my cut so that the radius ends up perfectly centered on the square. 
The first picture shows the angle plate mounted to the fixture plate. The second photo shows an overall view of the setup. The third picture shows a rocker arm mounted and ready to be cut. The fourth picture shows the radius spun on the rocker end. To get up against the body of the rocker arm with the cutter I slowly rotate the table and backing off until I see that I'm close. Once there I put a reference mark on the rotary table so that I can repeat for the other parts. It's better to stay a little away and file the piece rather than dig into the body and have an ugly looking gouge. I have so many hours in these things already I certainly don't want to start over with the whole process for just one or two arms. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (Feb 17, 2012)

So far so good. Ten rocker arms with no errors that can't be fixed with a file and some emery paper. Tomorrow the same fixture will be used to put the pockets in for the pushrods. Everything is still on center so I only have to remount the arms and do this final machining operation. From there it's just files and polishing. 
gbritnell


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## vcutajar (Feb 18, 2012)

George, can't wait to see it running.



> I have found that no matter how hard you try at setting up everything as perfectly as you can when you start cutting a radius it seems like that part is always shifted just a little.



So it's not just me that gets that feeling.

Vince


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## petertha (Feb 18, 2012)

George, when you do jig plate operations on the rotary table like this, do you have some alignment method that registers it concentric to the RT hole? Like a pin that goes through the plate into an MT? plug in the RT or something?


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## gbritnell (Feb 18, 2012)

Hi Peter, 
When I'm using a fixture plate such as I show I don't use any type of dowel pin. Each job has a unique setup situation so the fixture plate needs to be moved to center. Here's the way I would do it for putting a radius on the end of a connecting rod or link. Drill and tap your fixture plate for the mounting screw. Counterbore for a hollow dowel pin that would go in the rod or link. If the part is too small for a hollow bushing then drill, tap and counterbore for whatever screw you are going to use. Lets say you're going to use an 8-32 screw, drill and tap for that and then counterbore for the diameter of the screw. In this case it would be .164. Now turn up a screw with the proper shank diameter, manufactured screws are all undersize, some quite a bit, so they won't locate very accurately. Now setup your rotary table and indicate the spindle to the center of the rotary table. Set your handwheel dials or digitals to -0-. put your fixture plate on the table and get your clamps and heels set up. Now what I do is I have a rod with a 30* taper on it and I mount it in my spindle. I bring the spindle down until the tapered rod enters the counterbore on the fixture plate and then tighten up the clamps. I would say that by doing it this way you would be within .001 or so given spindle, and cutter runouts. The next thing I do before mounting the piece to be cut is indicate one side of the fixture plate that it parallel to the holes you put in it to hold your part. Rotate the rotary table to get a parallel setting to either X or Y. Now mark your rotary table or set the handwheel to -0-. The reason for this is in case you have to cut the sides of the rod parallel or even at an angle you have a -0- reference to go back to. Now mount your piece, move either axis the radius of the piece plus the radius of the cutter and spin your part. I always stay at least .005 away initially (.010 diameter) and mike my part. Like I mentioned, given cutter and holder runouts it's better to creep up on your finished dimension. Once there it should repeat fine. 
By explaining everything I do I didn't mean to be condescending about it but sometimes it's better to give too much information rather than not enough. 
George


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## Mosey (Feb 18, 2012)

George,
Thank you for this explanation. It explains all of the details of the process that some of us(I) struggle with in terms that are simple and I am able to emulate. It is just the correct amount of information.
Your build narrative will serve me as the literal "how-to-do-it" text as I work on my engine build. Don't hesitate to give full explanations.
When you are finished, I am going to print out this build narrative and bind it as my shop manual.
Mosey


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## gbritnell (Feb 28, 2012)

Well I ran into my first major snafu on this build. Everything was going along great and then I started assembling rods, pistons, cylinders and what have you only to find that as I was putting successive cylinders onto the crankcase the valve timing didn't match the piston position. Now I don't mean by a little I mean that they weren't even close. How could that be? 

 I pulled out the Morton drawings and went over the cam drive, mine is nothing like the Morton but the gear ratio is the same. I then went back to my Autocad layout drawing. When I start a project I have one drawing that is strictly for layout, meaning this is where all the parts and pieces get fit together and problems get resolved before the individual sheets get drawn. Hmm, everything looks good there. I better go to the crank and cam layout to see if I can spot something. Aha!! The darn cam is not in time with the crank because it's turning the wrong way. The crank turns one way and the cam turns the other. Shouldn't be a problem you say, lots of engines have that configuration. Well they do but it won't work for this engine. When I layed out the gear train I started with the crank gear, it turns counterclockwise from the front, the intermediate gear then turns clockwise. The intermediate gear is a double gear and the second gear drives the internal gear that is the cam ring. The problem is the cam gear turns the same way as the intermediate gear. One of those oh shucks moments but not quite that mild. 

 The next question is can it be fixed or should I just start a new engine, I do have all the cylinders and heads for one. I'd rather fix this one if I can. 
Back to the drawing board. If I make new gears but 22 teeth instead of 25 teeth I can make idler gear that will correct my rotation problem. To make smaller gears I have to reduce the diameter of the crank from the gear forward to allow for the smaller gear. The crank went from .276 to .250. That solved that problem. Now all I have to do is disassemble everything, fixture up the crankcase and put in new holes, along with making the gears and shafts. The prop hub will have to be redesigned because I can't use a taper on the shaft, too small. Well I sorted that out. I'll put a small pin through the crankshaft and put a cross slot in the new prop hub. This will give a secure drive mechanism and positive stop when tightening the nut. 

 I got all the parts made and reassembled everything and it works just like it's supposed to. Now I can move on to making the intake runners. Hold on, the intake port is now the exhaust port and vise versa and the rear crankcase was machined for the other iteration. Darn and double darn. I can do one of two things here. I can try and bend the tubing with double bend in a tight arc, no I don't like that, or I can make a new rear crankcase. Well get out a piece of .75 aluminum plate and start whittling. 
I finished all the machining today. I have about 7 hours in the new rear crankcase. Tomorrow I will do the finish work and then I can move on to the intake runners. 

 Well it was a good learning experience and I do like to machine things so once you get over the initial shock of 'what have I done' it wasn't so bad after all. It's not like I had to pay someone to do all the work. 

 Anyway dear friends I have attached the following pictures to show that it's really starting to look like it might work after all. 
George


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## steamer (Feb 29, 2012)

Nice catch George!  The gremlins do find their way in don't they!

She looks beautiful!  I especially enamored with your adjustable rocker arms. I've seen similar in big practice, and they look the part here.

 :bow:

And Karma from me for showing the leadership how to deal with and solve a major problem!

Dave


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## metalmad (Feb 29, 2012)

Absolutely Inspiring :bow:
Pete


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## vcutajar (Feb 29, 2012)

I've experienced that situation many times. Sometimes it's fixable but other times it's not. Looking forward to see it run. 
Vince


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## Mosey (Feb 29, 2012)

In all seriousness, the mistakes are educational as well, as they show us how you work around a problem and fix it, instead of throwing something against the wall and quitting. Keep it coming and thanks.


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## ref1ection (Feb 29, 2012)

Great work as usual George and especially like the trick using the extra clamps to adjust the fixture.

Ray


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## petertha (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi George can you elaborate on these? Do they vary the pushrod length in order to adjust rocker/valve clearance gap? If so, what keeps them locked from unscrewing?


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

Hi Peter,
That's exactly what they do. The pushrods are .093 diameter and the threads are 1-72. There is a lock nut between the 2 parts. You simply adjust the pushrod length and then tighten the jamb nut. I have a similar setup on my Holt and they work great. It saves the extra weight of the larger rocker arm and the additional adjusting screw and nut. Naturally it only works on exposed pushrods. 
George


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

After everything got straightened out it was time to make the intake pipes. I have bent several different sized tubings with my small tubing bender from brass to stainless and it has worked well. The tubing for this engine is type 304 stainless, .219 O.D. with a .015 wall thickness. When I bent the tubing for the V-twin I had to make another tubing bender as this one was designed for a maximum of about .25 diameter and the V-twin is .375. 

 The designed inner radius is .200. The reason for this radius was so the pipes would clear the fins. I had no idea if it was possible to get this size radius from this tubing. I made up the appropriate die and while I was at it I changed from a round follower, or whatever you call it, to a rectangular follower with a .1095 radius milled into it. This was what I used on the V-twin bender and it seemed to give more support. 

 I calculated the pipe length needed, plus a little for safety, and then filled it with Cerro alloy. I then clamped it into the bender collet, made my die and shoe adjustments and started bending. I got to about 50 degrees and the tubing split. Well that didn't work.


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

Not knowing how small of a radius this tubing would take I went from a .200 radius to a .280 radius and made up the new die. 
I did find out that I didn't need as long of a piece of tubing so the next one was shortened up about .350. 

 The tubing was again placed into the spit collet with the proper amount of projection and clamped tightly. The die wheel was then moved up against the tubing and the post was tightened.


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

As I started to make the bend I noticed that the die post was moving. My original design only had the .219 diameter shoulder sitting against the bender with a 6-32 threaded post for tightening. I couldn't tighten it any more so a modification to the bender was in order. I took the tubing out and took the bending arm off of the base and milled a .375 x .062 slot along the original slot. I then made up a new post with a .375 shoulder on it. After reassembling I put the partially bent piece of tubing back in, adjusted the die and tightened the post. It felt much better with the change. The shoe was adjusted up against the tubing with the adjustment screws and the through bolt was tightened. I applied a little bit of oil on the tubing to help the shoe slide around the tubing.


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

The bender was clamped back in the vise and I started the bend again. This time everything held tight and it looked like the bend was going well. When I got to about 50 degrees I started to pucker but the pipe held and I went the full 90 degrees. As you can see the results are great.

I proceeded to fill the rest of the tubes with Cerro alloy and bent them up without incident. I must say that this is about the limit for this little bender. Although it did a good job it was just about at it's limit with this sized tubing.


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## gbritnell (Mar 1, 2012)

The excess was trimmed from the tubes and they were fitted to the heads. They will get adjusted even more before silver soldering the flanges on. The vertical end of the pipe is a close fit into the crankcase so when it comes time for assembly a bit of sealer should seal things up nicely. 

 The last 2 pictures show the modifications to the bender, one was the revised post with the shoulder and the other was the rectangular shoe. I will make the changes to the drawing and post it for everyone who has requested the drawings or has already built one. 

George


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## steamer (Mar 2, 2012)

Beautiful work George as usual

I am always impressed by your work.  It always shows thought , effort and preparation.

 :bow:

Dave


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## cfellows (Mar 2, 2012)

Sure is purty, George.  Gonna be a beauty!

Chuck


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## gbritnell (Mar 7, 2012)

Gentlemen,
Time for an update. I haven't done much on the engine as several other projects have taken the front seat but I did manage to get the stand started. Eventually it will have a vertical piece at the rear which will hold the fuel and oil tanks. I plan on cutting it out with a skeleton X frame similar to the side pieces. I was thinking that I might even do that on the base piece between the uprights. That should make it look real mechanical. 
George


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## gbritnell (Mar 7, 2012)

Here's a couple of closeup shots showing the motor mounts. The Allen screws go through the mounts, a spacer bushing, the boss on the crankcase and into a nut. I don't have much room for the nut so when I get to tearing it back apart I will take .03 more from the boss for nut clearance. 
George


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## petertha (Mar 7, 2012)

Seeing your nice close-up pics just reminded me of a question I forgot to ask. Do you have any kind of o-ring or gasket or sealant goop on the induction tube ends?


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## gbritnell (Mar 7, 2012)

The intake tubes will have a flange and gasket on the head end and will have a light coat of non hardening motorcycle engine sealer on the crankcase end. The clearance between the tube and the crankcase hole is about .0015 so it won't take much to seal it up. The exhaust pipes will be short with a slight curve to them. They will have a flange similar to the intake side.
gbritnell


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## crankshafter (Mar 8, 2012)

Hi George.
I have one question for you to day: Do you made the nice little distributor or ....?
BTW you make a nice piece of engine ( as usual ;D)
CS


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## gbritnell (Mar 8, 2012)

Hi CS,
The cap was made by a fellow named Bruce Satra here in the States. He sold his inventory to S&S machine who makes the electronic ignitions for model engines. They have caps for several different configurations.
gbritnell


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## b.lindsey (Mar 8, 2012)

I still say you must be in some kind of time warp George compared to us mere mortals :big: But in any event, its looking really REALLY fantastic!!! Sooooo looking forward to seeing it run too.

Bill


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## Admiral_dk (Mar 31, 2012)

I'm really in no position to complain, but my soul crave for an update on this fantastic project .... :


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## Mosey (Mar 31, 2012)

George,
Do you have a link for S&S Machine?


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## Jack (Mar 31, 2012)

They should be here:

http://www.cncengines.com/ic.html


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## gbritnell (Mar 31, 2012)

Hi fellows, 
I'm sorry for the lack of updates on the radial but I have been focusing my attentions on finishing the 1/8th Galloway engine for the NAMES show. I hope to get back to it in the next couple of weeks. I was hoping to have it finished for the NAMES show but this little Galloway has taken more time than I figured. 
I will bring it with me finished or not. 
George


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## Mosey (Mar 31, 2012)

George,
Not to add to the pressure on you, but remember that you have a bunch of addicts out there, hanging on your progress. Drop an occasional crumb for the acolytes to keep us fed with your progress.
Mosey
Thanks for the S&S link.


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## gbritnell (May 3, 2012)

Hi fellows,

Well with the hit and miss engines wrapped up and delivered at the NAMES show I've had time to get back on the radial. I finished up the distributor and as the miter gears were a special order from Stock Drive Products I thought I would have another go at making a couple from steel. These gears are 48 DP and have 15 teeth. Working from Ivan Laws book on gears I had made some usable gears awhile back but I wasn't happy with them. I redid the calculations and made a new drill rod/silver steel cutter. The hardest part in making these gears is the second and third cuts where the dividing head has to be rotated 1/4 of a tooth and then the cutter repositioned to enter into the initial slot. My second attempt is much better. On a larger gear you can see things better and can make any small adjustments necessary but with these small gears you just have to go by dimensions. 

Next up was the carburetor. As I have stated in the many threads on this forum I've had excellent performance out of just the simple air bleed type carbs so this one is no different, just smaller. 

The intake pipe have been made for some time now but the flanges were needed to silver solder them together. I used up most of the stainless tubing that I had purchased for the job partly because of the wasted practice pieces so I had to order more for the exhaust tubes. While waiting for the tubing I made up a piece of flange stock and then cut .04 pieces from it with a slitting saw. To get everything aligned when soldering I made up a small locating fixture to hold the parts in alignment. As can be seen from the pictures the exhaust pipes are a little long. This was due to the amount of material needed to clamp into the bending fixture. I haven't decided what length to make them yet so I'll hold off for awhile. 

It was back to the drawing board to come up with a back support for the oil and fuel tanks. I think I know what I need so that will be next on the build list. I need to make an oil supply tube with multiple bends for the pressure side of the pump and don't know whether my current bender is small enough or if I'll have to make another one strictly for 1/8 dia. tubing. 

Attached in 2 posts will be pictures of the current state of the engine. 
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (May 3, 2012)

The last 4 pictures for this update showing a couple of closeups. 
gbritnell


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## b.lindsey (May 3, 2012)

Glad to see this one is back on the front burner George..and looking as good as ever too!!!

Bill


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## kustomkb (May 3, 2012)

Beautiful work George.

Those solder joints are impeccable, as with everything else.


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## mu38&Bg# (May 3, 2012)

I did get to see it in person at NAMES and it looks fabulous!


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## ozzie46 (May 3, 2012)

Superb! Absolutletly superb!  :bow: :bow: :bow:

  Ron


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## steamer (May 3, 2012)

Geez George....I can almost hear it running!

 :bow:

Dave


PS  How are you likeing those adjustable push rods ?....was wondering.

Dave


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## gbritnell (May 3, 2012)

Hi Dave,
I have this type of pushrod on my Holt engine and they work fine so I'm hoping that they work out well on this engine. I'm sure that when I get it running there will be a few changes needed but I won't know until then. On my V-twin and 4 cylinder OHV engine I found a few things that needed modifying after they ran for awhile. 
I started on the pedestal for the fuel and oil tanks today. I have been trying to locate some 1.00 square brass tubing for the tanks but haven't had much luck. If I can't find any I'll have to fabricate them.
gbritnell


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## Deanofid (May 3, 2012)

Sure is beautiful, George. Your photography is tops, too!


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## steamer (May 4, 2012)

".....Hi Dave,
I have this type of pushrod on my Holt engine and they work fine so I'm hoping that they work out well on this engine. I'm sure that when I get it running there will be a few changes needed but I won't know until then....."


Oh I'm sure what ever tweaks that get done will be minor!  :bow:   

I was wondering because the "Wallaby" uses an eccentric pivot bushing....which works very well...but is not very prototypical...I like your design far better as I've seen that approach in full size practice, but wondered about how well it scaled.  Thanks!

Dave


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## ninefinger (May 4, 2012)

Hi George,

I might have missed it but I didn't see what solution you came up with for the return oil pump versus the supply oil pump? You were thinking of adding an extra tooth to increase its capacity? Inquiring minds want to know!

Regards,

Mike


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## gbritnell (May 4, 2012)

Hi Mike,
I had already machined the oil pump cavity in the rear cover so I couldn't modify that to take the bigger gears so for the present I put finer pitch gears with the same pitch diameter in the pressure side. I didn't calculate the volume of the negative space of the 32 DP gears as opposed to the 48 DP gears to see if it would give me what I needed but I could also go with an even smaller PD gear set in the supply side if necessary. It's one of those things that came to mind only when sitting thinking about potential design problems that it came up. I haven't looked at drawings are spoken to anyone in regard to building the bigger radials like the Hodgson etc. so I don't know how they handle it. 
If worse comes to worse I'll put a shut-off valve in the feed line, crank the engine over to clear the sump of oil then turn the oil valve on prior to starting. With the finer gears they should supply less than what the scavenge pump does, even if it's only a little bit. 
PS. The pressure side bolts on to the rear cover so it was just a matter of making another one that had the smaller OD for the 48 pitch gears. Attached is a PDF of the drawing to show you what I have done.
George 

View attachment ENGINE RADIAL SHT 2e.pdf


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## ninefinger (May 7, 2012)

Hi George,

Thanks for the answer, I hope it works out OK. I think you'll be OK but if not you could always try making the cavity a touch deeper and increase the gear width, or extend the cavity into the cover to take wider gears, either way you could increase the displacement quite a bit - say take the .125" gear up to .175" which would be a 40% increase.

Anyway keep the updates coming - I love seeing this kind of craftsmanship (especially on round engines).

Mike


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## gbritnell (May 20, 2012)

I guess it's time for an update. Although it doesn't look like a lot has been done there have been many hours tied up with some changes and to the current point in the build. 

 I'll start off with one of the changes. When I designed the engine I had made the intake tubes so that they would be a nice slip fit into the crankcase and the head flange would bolt up to the head with enough room for a gasket. It sure looked good on paper but with no wiggle room with the pipe inserted into the crankcase there was no way of getting a good seal against the port face. I came up with several ideas but all had some sort of complication involved in keeping the parts plumb, square and in alignment for silver soldering the flange onto the pipe. The initial tubes were .219 diameter and the holes in the crankcase were machined that size with not a lot of flange around them so I had to work with that dimension. What I settled on was to use .187 stainless tubing. This allowed me to turn a conical ferrule much like the brass ones that are used in compression fittings. I ground up a lathe tool with a .110 radius and used it to form the conical shape on a piece of stainless round stock. I then drilled a .166 holes through the ferrule followed by a .187 drill. With the part having such a thin wall I wasn't sure how it would turn out but when the drill broke through the back side of the part it just popped onto the drill shaft. 

 Next up was to make a set of dies to bend the .187 stainless tubing. The usual process was followed, cut to length, plug one end with a Teflon plug, melt Cerro alloy, fill the tube, bend the tube and then melt out the alloy. Being as the tubing was a little smaller I tried a die that gave me a little bit tighter bend. 

 I then had to make another set of mounting flanges. With this done I silver soldered the flanges and ferrules onto the tubes. With the conical ferrules soldered to the tubes it allows the pipes to be snugly inserted into the crankcase and swiveled to allow for any small misalignment of the flange to the head. Four of the tubes came out spot on with one needing a small amount of filing to get it square. 

 As I said, a lot of work that doesn't show much in the pictures.


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## gbritnell (May 20, 2012)

Up next was the plumbing for the oiling system. I had designed the oil pump and had a rough idea of how it was going to move the oil into and from the engine but really didn't drill too many holes until the engine got to this stage. With the engine all bolted together it was easier to see how things might work so some more time was spent on the drawing board to make it work. 
The first line was the pressure feed to the rods and the cam ring. The mains are sealed ball bearings. I came up with a banjo type fitting for the line ends and they are working fine. The return oil comes from a small sump at the bottom of the crankcase and passes to the pump through internal passages drilled into the crankcase. With the pressure line finished I chucked the engine into the lathe to give it a spin and squirt some oil into the feed side of the pump. As I dripped oil at the inlet port it was pulled into the pump and within a short time the oil was squirting out of the return side of the pump. Well the pump works.


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## gbritnell (May 20, 2012)

The next part of the project was to make a mounting frame for the fuel and oil tanks. Awhile back I had posted request for some 1" square brass tubing. Although I got several answers the best I could do was 3 feet of the material when I really only needed 4 inches. I actually had wanted to make them from aluminum to keep all the parts looking the same but didn't have a good way of sealing the end caps. I ended up with some 1" square aluminum tubing with a .125 metal wall. I machined a .062 lip around the inside of both ends going down .094. I then cut a fitted some .062 end caps leaving a .031 reveal. In discussions with a couple of fellow modelers the idea of sealing was to use JB weld. I had reservations but experimented with some extra pieces and found that even when immersed in gasoline for an extended period the JB weld wasn't affected so with the end caps fitted to a nice push fit I coated the inner side of the recess and pressed the caps in place. Time will tell.


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## gbritnell (May 20, 2012)

The last 2 pictures are just overall shots of the engine, framework and tanks. 
gbritnell


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## b.lindsey (May 21, 2012)

George, each new update is all the more amazing. To be at this point on such a complex project in the time you have done it is almost superhuman, but that said...thanks for the inspiration you provide and the superb craftsmanship you never fail to exhibit, not to mention the wonderful photography as well!!!

Bill


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## ozzie46 (May 21, 2012)

I didn't think it was possible but it keeps getting better and better as time goes on. :bow: :bow: :bow:


 Ron


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## ronkh (May 21, 2012)

Hi George,

I am also thinking of doing an engine similar to yours as a winter project.
The only problem I have is that I do not know when the next ice-age (winter) is going to occur in which to give me the time to do one!! (And I'd need that amount of time)!!

On a serious note, I have worked in machine shops for over 40 years (and am still doing so), and I have only occasionally seen such craftmanship on a par to yours that has made my jaw drop. 
This work was by real craftsmen from my early day's and many years before CNC, computers etc and were made by bench-workers/machinists etc, who knew how to use their hands, eyes and brains. 
You use all three to perfection!

Kind regards,

Ron.


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## Lesmo (May 21, 2012)

George I am lost for words and can only look on in amazement at such craftsmanship. I think Ron sums it up perfectly

Les  :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:


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## Deanofid (May 21, 2012)

George, thank you for the continuing pictures and text. I know you have put an immense amount of 
work into this project, and to take time out for doing photos and writing so we can all see and learn
is quite a wonderful thing for us on the receiving end.

Dean


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## ronkh (May 24, 2012)

Hi George,

Any further progress on this build?

Kind regards,

Ron.


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## gbritnell (May 24, 2012)

Hi Ron,
Yes as a matter of fact I finished all the plumbing, lines fittings and valves, so the oil system is ready to go. I started on the spark plugs today. I got the bodies machined and am working on the insulators at the moment. Once the plugs are finished I just have to make the handle for the oil stop valve and the linkage for the carb and everything will be made, except the propeller. I've been online looking at how they are made. I would like to make a 3 bladed aluminum prop. I think they have some character to them. I just have to figure out how to cut the curves on the blades. I'll post some pics of the plumbing and plugs later on this evening. 
gbritnell


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## ronkh (May 25, 2012)

Thm:


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## gbritnell (May 25, 2012)

Hi Ron,
Here's the update on the oil lines and spark plugs. It's getting close now.


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## gbritnell (May 25, 2012)

And the spark plugs. These are 10-40 thread. With the smaller size I won't be able to use the normal vacuum fittings for the boots so as with the 302 plugs I'll just have an eyelet on the end of the plug wire and a knurled nut (0-80) to hold it in place. 
gbritnell


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## idahoan (May 25, 2012)

Beautiful work as always!

Thanks for sharing,

Dave


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## ronkh (May 25, 2012)

George,

Thank you so much for your replies, brilliant photos, updates and info.

I can't say anymore than I have already said about your work, either for this build or for your past builds.
(Except to say that you are an inspiration; from "newbies" up to old pharts like me)!

Kind regards,

Ron.


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## gbritnell (May 28, 2012)

Between the family get-togethers for Memorial day I had some time in the shop. I finished up the plug wires which included the distributor end boots and the small terminals for the plug ends. The carburetor linkage, throttle arm, clevis and linkage was taken care of as was the handle for the oil shutoff valve. 
It's almost to the point that I could try and start it but I want to finish the prop first. I went searching the net for propeller information and came up with some good cross sectional view. I know what is needed now I just have to convert what I have into something that I can machine. It will require mounting a piece of stock in the dividing head and making stepped cuts while rotating the blank. I have a friend that does aluminum casting but I don't know how thin off a cross section he can cast without choking off the metal flow. 
Anyway here's 2 sets of photos of the finished engine, sans propeller. 
The next time I post will hopefully be a video of it making noise, good noise!
gbritnell


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## gbritnell (May 28, 2012)

Four more pictures.


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## Don1966 (May 28, 2012)

George all I can say is wow!!! I know you put a lot of time into this project and you craftmanship is by far superb. I hope one day I can do half as good as you excellent work. :bow: :bow: thanks for sharing.

Regards Don


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## Mosey (May 28, 2012)

We all now have the standard we can strive to achieve. Thank you George. Keep it coming.
Mosey


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## b.lindsey (May 28, 2012)

Getting close now George and as beautiful as ever. Maybe I missed a post on the ignition system ....are you going to use a CDI system?

Bill


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## ronkh (Jun 4, 2012)

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Britnell.htm

George,

Presuming this IS you (and I believe, nay, I know it is you)! then I truly feel that our fellow members deserve to see some more of your fantastic work.
(That is, if they haven't seen this already).
A true craftsman.

Kind regards,

Ron.


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## ShedBoy (Jun 4, 2012)

:bow: :bow: :bow:
Outstanding work
Brock


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## steamer (Jun 9, 2012)

George

Those plugs are beautiful! Can't wait for first run!

Dave


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## gbritnell (Jun 9, 2012)

Hi Dave,
Well this morning was the second test. I played with it yesterday but there seemed to be too much oil getting into the lower combustion chambers and drowning the plugs. For the time being I drained the oil tank for this mornings tryout. 
I cleaned the plugs and reinstalled them, made sure everything was tight and where it needed to be and started turning it over with a 12 volt model airplane starter. As I was turning it over I slowly opened the needle valve and got it to the point where it wanted to run, in fact it did run for about 3 seconds. I turned off the ignition box and felt the cylinders, surprisingly one of the lower cylinders was hot and 2 of the upper cylinders so it was running on 3. The other bottom cylinder was still pushing oil out. I don't know where it was coming from as there was no oil in the system. I re-cleaned the plugs and gave it another try with about the same results. I'll have to sort out why all the cylinders aren't running. The compressions seems good if I flip the prop by hand. Each cylinder has a resistance when it gets to TDC. 
Just the usual start up problems. Any multi-cylinder engine I've ever built has teething problems of some sort. 
I'll keep you apprised.
George


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## Mosey (Jun 9, 2012)

Spectalular!


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## steamer (Jun 16, 2012)

Hey George.....How is it coming?

Man that engine is sweet!

Dave


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## gbritnell (Jun 16, 2012)

Hi Dave,
The more I turn it over and have it kind of running the better the rings seem to be seating as the compression is coming up nicely. If I clean the plug on #4 cylinder and try to start the engine it will hit on all 5 for just about 5-6 seconds and then the plug oil fouls. I'm hoping that after a few attempts the rings will seal up and prevent this from happening. After all the full sized radials smoke like a chimney on startup the only difference is that given the size of my plugs they have a hard time cleaning. 
I will give it a few more attempts and if I don't have any luck I'll have to pull the cylinders and make some new 2 ring pistons for it. 
I'll keep you updated.
George
P.S. Part of the reason for the erratic running is the prop is not giving it enough flywheel action and when it misses on #4 it has to go from #2 back to #5 to keep running.


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## steamer (Jun 16, 2012)

Thanks for the update George!  We're pulling for ya!

Dave


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## steamer (Jun 16, 2012)

Under the heading of who am I to tell GEORGE what to do :...could you pull the plugs and motor the engine in the lathe for a while to seat the rings?.......

Dave


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## stevehuckss396 (Jun 17, 2012)

steamer  said:
			
		

> could you pull the plugs and motor the engine in the lathe for a while to seat the rings?.......




I was thinking the same thing. Fill it with mineral oil and give it a twirl in the lathe.


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## mayhugh1 (Jun 27, 2012)

Any update on what you've tried and what did or did not work? Probably by year's end I'll be trying to bring up a nine cylinder radial that I've been working on for the past year, and so I've been following your thread closely. I'm really interested in what happens in the time between finishing all the machining and getting the engine to sustain running. I built Jerry' Howell's V-twin and V-4 engines and there was alot of difficult and frustrating solo learning that went along with getting them to the point I was happy with their performances. I'd like to learn how more experienced builders troubleshoot all the inevitable issues we run into. - Terry


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## gbritnell (Jun 28, 2012)

Hi Terry,
 Thanks for the interest. After my last attempt at running and having the oiling problem with the #4 cylinder I decided to check the oil pump to make sure it was scavenging the oil. When I built the oiling system I figured it would run in a closed loop, meaning that it would take oil and return it with no trouble or to clarify there would be no buildup of pressure of negative pressure applied to the tank so therefore I didn't put a vent hole in the cap. Well I was wrong. What happened was the scavenge side having more capacity was pressurizing the tank enough to not allow the oil to return after a short run. Long story short I put a vent hole in the cap and then test ran the engine in the lathe and it seems like it has cured this problem. 
 Now as to why there has been no update. With summer in full swing here in Ohio there has just been too many outdoor activities and I haven't had time to put it back on the bench and run it. 
I have had my engines at a couple of shows so they needed tending to and I do motorcycle, lawnmower and ATV repair along with small machining jobs for people so with my 'retirement' I just haven't had much time. 
 As soon as I have news I will update everyone.
gbritnell


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## mayhugh1 (Jun 28, 2012)

Thanks,....

(note to self: don't forget the [email protected]&#38;# vent hole.)

Terry


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## gbritnell (Jul 1, 2012)

As promised here is an update to running the radial. 

I had time this morning so I took the radial out to the garage and hooked everything up. Put some fuel in it, cranked it over a few times by hand to clear any oil and hooked up the starter motor. 
After a couple of seconds of spinning it started to pop. As I adjusted the needle valve it got closer and closer. Finally it kept running, and on all five cylinders. After about 5-6 seconds one of the clamps started to come loose so I quickly switched of the ignition and reset the clamps.

Another spin with the starter and it fired right up. A little fine tuning with the needle and it was running, albeit at about half throttle. I had adjusted the barrel stop in the carb to let it run a little faster, and it was. I let it run for about 2 minutes and ran in to get the camera and set it up for a video. 

Set up the camera, picked up the starter, gave it a crank, fired right up and then came to an instant and inglorious halt. I tried to turn the prop but it was jammed up tight. 

Put away the camera, unhooked everything and headed to the shop.

After unbolting the prop, rear frame, carb, oil lines, inlet pipes and motor mounts I started taking the engine apart. It didn't take long to find one of the problems. After removing the rear crankcase cover and looking at the slave crank I could see a nice circular gouge in it. Reason: one of the rod wrist pins had backed out and jammed up tight against the slave crank disc. 
Everything else looked good at this point but rather than have it this far apart and put it back together only to have something else go wrong I decided to take the cylinders off, pull the master rod and check out the bores and such. 
I forgot to mention. The prop hub is driven by a cross pin (.078 dia.). When I first pulled the spinner and prop off I could see the drive pin was bent on both sides of the crankshaft, it's drill rod mind you. The engine had stopped so instantly that if bent the drive pin into a lazy S shape. I had to grind one side off so I could pull it out the other side. The crankshaft stayed true it just elongated the hole a little. 

The bores all look good and everything turns over nice and smooth so I'll start putting it back together. I just have to come up with a way of locking the crank wrist pins in place. I'm thinking of drilling and tapping at right angles through the master rod at each pin location and Loctiting a small set screw into it. There's not much room for anything else.

At least I know that it runs. 
gbritnell


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## steamer (Jul 1, 2012)

Oh man, sorry to hear that George.  I'm sure the good doctor will put her right though

Congrats on the run!....Can't wait till she's fixed!

Dave


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## ozzie46 (Jul 1, 2012)

Great news on it running :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:, but sorry to hear about the rod pin. :wall: :wall: I know you will fix it.

  Ron


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## metalmad (Jul 1, 2012)

Thank goodness so little damage was done, but its a good thing that a weakness was found and will now be removed.
There can be no doubt that you will sort it. :bow: :bow:
Pete


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## Don1966 (Jul 1, 2012)

George I am glad to see that there was little damage done to such a superb built and that you have it sorted out. I just had a small mishap with my engine and I know how disappointing that can be. I have enjoyed following you thread. :bow: I look forward to seeing it running.

Best Regards Don


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## vcutajar (Jul 2, 2012)

George

I am sorry to hear about the mishap but glad it's not something serious. Looking forward to see the video.

Vince


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## NickG (Jul 3, 2012)

Looks like I've found this too late but glad I did ... amazing work again George, can't wait to hear it.
 :bow:


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## rmoore45 (Nov 25, 2012)

Just checking on this build and wondering when there's going to be a video of it running. I have watched this build from its beginning and am patiently waiting on a it to be finished. Maybe I missed it?


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## gbritnell (Nov 26, 2012)

I didn't have much luck getting it to run on 5 cylinders consistently and with all the summer activities I really didn't have a lot of time to spend on it. About 6 weeks ago I got back into the shop making some miniature steam engines. With those out of the way I'm getting back into the radial. When I built it I used 1 piston ring ala the Morton but I think that might be part of my problem. Although the compression is good the seal is just not good enough to keep the oil out so I'm going to make all new pistons that will have 2 rings per piston. Hopefully that should take care of the excess oiling.  
With that the whole engine has to come apart. When I first built it I used stainless steel 2-56 socket head screws to hold the cylinders down. I found that the stainless ones don't have a very good hex in them and after several tightening cycles the hex becomes rounded so I'm going to replace all of the cylinder base screws with regular black oxide steel screws. They won't look as nice but the hexes are much better. 
Another issue is the weight of the propeller. It doesn't have enough centrifugal weight to allow the engine to run slowly. The prop is 11 inches in diameter but has no mass because it's plastic. I haven't figured out what I'm going to do about that yet.
I'll keep you posted and will get a video out as soon as possible.


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## Admiral_dk (Nov 26, 2012)

Hi George

A 11x5 is a rather small prop for a Four-Stroke engine your size. Plastic props are the heaviest according to makers sites and wood is the lightest (I thought is was the other way round).


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## petertha (Nov 26, 2012)

gbritnell said:


> ...I used stainless steel 2-56 socket head screws to hold the cylinders down. I found that the stainless ones don't have a very good hex in them and after several tightening cycles the hex becomes rounded so I'm going to replace all of the cylinder base screws with regular black oxide steel screws. They won't look as nice but the hexes are much better.


 
Interesting you should mention this. I ordered some 2-56 stainless socket cap screws recently in progressive lengths. If memory serves, some length sizes were USA, others/majority were offshore (likely filling in-between sizes?) Anyway, some of the offshore hex's looked stamped & did not fit hex key well. But it wasn't consistent either, some were ok. Guess they have 'bad Mondays' too  

I cannot get small sizes like that from KBC (Canada) but for example, 6-32 black oxide are $4.86/100 (import) vs.$21.30 (holo-krome brand). So I usually go with clones even though the thread fits seem to vary a bit & the hex's round out much easier. Anyway, just mentioning FYI. It may have less to do with stainless vs black than import vs N-Am.

Hope to see your engine breathing fire one day soon!


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