# 1/6  Marine engine



## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

Hi Everyone. I just joined recently. So a bit of background first. I am retired engineer living in the Czech Republic. A few years ago I decided to scratch build a steam launch based loosely on pic 1. It ended up looking like Pic 2, shown during early trials. The engine is a working engine similar to a Stuart but  its actually electric powered with a dummy boiler hiding a smoke generator.

That project led me to looking at something a bit different and started investigating something of a similar era but with a working engine. I ended up buying a small lathe, drill grinder and the usual tooling and decided to build a Monterey clipper with a working engine. Pic 3 gives you an idea of what the engine looks like. Mine wont be an accurate scale as everything has to be done on a very tight budget. Materials and equipment are ridiculously priced here so most stuff has to be bought online.   There must be 1001 easier engines to make but the masochistic side of me takes some pleasure in doing things the hard way.
I have already got a long way down the road before joining so i will post pics in some sort of order so you can see where the project is heading (albeit slowly now the nice weather is here)


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

The Boat should look something like this. 
The engine is on display in the open cabin which is why I chose this to model.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

First came the base. 
I dont have any casting facilities or a mill so for this engine I fabricated the base from brass parts silver soldered together. Just getting firebricks was a task in itself:wall:
The main bearing caps are 16mm finished dia. They were made undersize and held inline with piece of machined tube during assembly. They were then finish reamed to size later.
The pic is at a slightly later stage when setting up the camshaft.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

The base after a bit of filling and fettling


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

Main bearings and bearingcaps. Still to be finished and polished. They have been drilled to take 2mm O/d brass tube which will locate the bearings as well as providing oil feed from manzel oiler. Sorry for the pic quality.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

The crankshaft was machined from a piece of 1 1/4 bar all on the lathe. The timing gear is separate and was being fitted in this pic.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

Next was the conrod and split bearing.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

Piston, rings and gudgeon pin. The rings are ASP bought from justengines.


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## TonyM (Jun 4, 2017)

So far I have used a variety if jigs and fixtures to enable the machining of everything on the lathe. I have a Warco 240 variable. I do not have a milling slide for it so I used an angle plate and good quality drilling vice for milling out the piston. The crank was fully machined on the lathe from bar stock. using a couple of split bushes to get the correct throw on the crank. Unfortunately I dont have any pics of the methods I used. I usually get so absorbed in what I am doing I hardly ever take pics. Here are the camshaft pillars and the camshaft. The camshaft is also ASP from justengines with the gear teeth turned off and a bored out cross helix matching the crank gear has been brazed on.


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## apointofview (Jun 4, 2017)

Looks great keep the pictures coming !
Pete


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## TonyM (Jun 5, 2017)

Cam followers and pushrods first attempt. These were fabricated but now I have some material to machine some up from solid.


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## TonyM (Jun 5, 2017)

Basic cylinder liner and base. The cylinder needs quite a bit more work to finish.


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## TonyM (Jun 5, 2017)

Flywheel. The brass wheel is part of the clutch unit and will hold the magnet for the Hall sensor.


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## TonyM (Jun 5, 2017)

Cylinder head with integral valve guides and seats. Lots more work to do on this for waterways and rocker gear. Awaiting some tooling before the head progresses.


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## TonyM (Jun 5, 2017)

Parts loosely assembled to give an idea of progress to date. There is a lot of work to do to the cylinder and the head but I am hoping a cheap mill will find its way into the workshop during the summer. Unfortunately second hand machines are like hens teeth here and command ridiculous prices so it will probably be a new one and that will take a while to save up for.


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## Cogsy (Jun 5, 2017)

Very nice so far!


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## TonyM (Jun 24, 2017)

Managed to get a few hours in this week. Roughed out the rocker shaft pedestals and rockers and made the eccentric shafts for the variable intake valve.


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## TonyM (Jun 24, 2017)

Rocker pedestals and rockers assembled to head to check for fit and function.


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## Nicolas (Jul 14, 2017)

Looking very good, that base is a very impressive piece of work. Look forward to seeing more of this build


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## SilverSanJuan (Jul 14, 2017)

Amazing work, Tony.  :thumbup:  It is very impressive that you've done all of this with the lathe and fixtures.  Keep it up and thanks for sharing your work!


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## deeferdog (Jul 14, 2017)

Looks good. I see you have the same problems with the pictures as I do.


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## TonyM (Aug 7, 2017)

Got round to fitting the valve gear to test fit and function. The exhaust rocker shaft is fixed.  There is an eccentric on the inlet rocker. It is 1mm off centre so the valve lift can be adjusted as on the original engine. Hopefully it will have the same effect as on the original.  I decided on a simple venturi carb as the engine power and speed should be controlled on the inlet valve.

I have to say that having drilled 3mm clevis pins with a 1mm drill for the split pins(cotterpins). My admiration for the guys who make those miniature multicylinder engines has gone through the roof. 
It was only possible for me to do it by making a drill jig.


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## TonyM (Aug 12, 2017)

A lot of rain in this part of the world so got a bit of time to do some detail work. To give an idea of scale the brass tube on the oiler is 2mm O/D

Brake band and operating lever



Drip feed oiler with pipework for the three main bearings



Barrel and head assembly with carb, exhaust and cylinder drip feed oiler


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## TonyM (Sep 3, 2017)

Now we're getting there. A bit of tidying up scratched paint required but everything works as it should.






The hall sensor wires can be seen on the right. The magnet is in the brass wheel under the brake band. I would have liked it under the engine out of sight but could not see an easy way to adjust its position there.
The drip feed lubricator is not fitted yet. I need to set the drip rate before fitting as there is no other way to do it. As this is intended to be slow running and a total loss system I will just set to drip every five seconds or so.

Working on the tank now. A lot of polishing required here.

I hope to test run next week.:hDe:


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## RCGUY (Sep 4, 2017)

Hi Tony,

I have been following your build. You are doing a great job on the Hicks engine. I have been currently building a 1/8 scale Monterey Clipper for the last year and a half. Upon completion of the boat I will build a 1/8 model of a Hicks engine. It will be a later version of the Hicks with the push rods on the side of engine instead of in the rear. The engine will not power the boat it will have a small electric motor in it to turn the flywheel and push rods.

If you are interested in my build of the Monterey Clipper I can post the link.

Ed


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## TonyM (Sep 5, 2017)

Thanks Ed. Great looking boat. Please leave a link I would love to see the build.

Not much success with the trials today. 
Despite building three ignition modules (had to buy quantities of components so enough to build five) and testing them before installation I failed to get a spark. Tested the the circuit again and found the one that I picked to install had a broken joint on the output transistor. A quick drop of solder, tested and all was OK. 
Still no spark when fitted to the engine. I had checked that the brass brake band did not shield the magnet when stationary and it was OK. However a bit of googling and I realised I had totally forgotten Lenz's law.(It's been a long while since I learned anything about electrics and magnetism) The band was shielding the magnet when it was moving. I relocated the magnet onto the face of the wheel, moved the hall sensor accordingly and immediately got a good spark. 
I tried numerous settings of the carb , from zero to three turns. All I could get was a few pops then a wet plug. I am happy with valve and ignition timing so I guess the problem is the carb. I tried to make the carb look sort of similar to the original with a long intake so maybe thats the problem. Also it seems the mixture adjustment is too coarse. I guess I may try a proprietory carb next.


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## RCGUY (Sep 6, 2017)

Hi Tony,

Looks like you are on the right track with the carburetor. Here is the link to my Monterey build. There are some plans available for the older style Monterey Clipper on line. If you don't have any let me know and I will give you the link.

Ed

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2560425-Monterey-Clipper-Build


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## deverett (Sep 6, 2017)

Jerry Howell designed the Bill 4 stroke engine and that had a long induction tube.  He said that it was very difficult to get the model to run on liquid fuels, but it ran OK on propane.  Your carb looks to have a long induction tube as well, so maybe it would be worth trying it out on propane.

Dave
The Emerald Isle


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## TonyM (Sep 7, 2017)

Hi Ed. 
Started reading about the build. Great job and some good information there. PatMat has a couple of plans on his site which look promising but if you are aware of anything in cad that could be scaled up I would be eternally grateful.
Tony


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## TonyM (Sep 7, 2017)

Hi Dave.
I had thought about gas but ruled it out for now as I would have to buy the gas and a regulator before even starting anything . I noticed that my tank lends itself to the Jan Ridders type system so I am going to try that. I just need to decide on the size of intake pipe. The engine is 25mm bore x 32 stroke so around 15.5 CC and I am hoping I can get it to run from 400 RPM to maximum of 800/1000 RPM.  I would be very grateful  for any advice on how to judge the size of intake.


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## RCGUY (Sep 8, 2017)

Hi Tony,

Sorry I don't know of any plans in CAD.

Ed


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## deverett (Sep 9, 2017)

Tony
I'm away at the moment, but from memory, Bill's vertical intake is 1/4" dia. and about 1-1/2" long with the mixer at the bottom.




A couple of pics (from Jerry Howell) showing his induction pipe and mixer.

Dave
The Emerald Isle


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## TonyM (Sep 9, 2017)

Thanks Dave. 
That all looks pretty similar to mine which is 6mm X 32 long. 
Strangely enough(or not) I just noticed the carb on the first engine pic I posted, has been moved nearer the head. The original is shown in the second engine pic. I have been following threads on a couple of other sites with absolutely stunning non working scale engine builds and they also show the long intake as per the original. However I googled a few more engine pics and it seems a lot of engines had the carb moved nearer the head, probably for good reason. So that looks like an option and in keeping with the real thing.  
So first job is to put on the surface intake. Hopefully this weekend. If that works then I will look into placing a better carb nearer the head. The carb on the Bill looks interesting too. I will try to find some detail on that.


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## TonyM (Sep 14, 2017)

So I made up a check valve and an air adjuster and connected up to a 'spice jar' with 4mm bore tube. The connectors further reduced that to 3mm. It started straight away but I needed to set the  air intake fully closed to get it to run so there is no throttle adjustment to change the speed. 
Moving the inlet valve eccentric does work but the rev range is restricted by the maximum speed I was getting. 
At least I know it will run and I am heading in the right direction and it looks like the original 6mm inlet is sized correctly. I only ran it for a few seconds indoors as there was no water connected and no extraction.  After filling the ground floor up with exhaust fumes and the smell of burnt oil (her words),  I have been restricted to testing outdoors or fitting an extraction fan.
I have posted a video on you tube  [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytjZuBZ4Tsc&feature=youtu.be[/ame]  I apologise in advance for the quality. I have to invest a bit of time in practicing with a camera and editing out the rubbish,
I am pretty confident that I can get it working as I hoped. I am feeling pretty chuffed as its my first attempt at a model engine.


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## RCGUY (Sep 15, 2017)

Congratulations on getting it running. It looks and sounds great.

Ed


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## TonyM (Sep 16, 2017)

Thanks Ed. I am going to play around with the carburation a bit more on this one until I get it to run the way I want. 
Now that I am confident that I can do this I want to make another with a lot more scale detail in it. I might also look at the later side valve model to see if thats any easier to build especially the camshaft. The one I used on this came from an ASP engine with a gear mod. It works fine but there is limited adjustment. Also I want to use the camshaft for ignition so there is no lost spark.


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## Brian Rupnow (Sep 23, 2017)

Tony--you have done a great build on that engine. Thank you for the fine documentation and pictures.---Brian


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## kadora (Sep 24, 2017)

Hello Tony excellent idling.
Are you happy with thermosyphon cooling?
I had this kind of cooling on one of my engines but I was absolutely 
disappointed with efficiency. 
What is for that big lever in front of engine  ....CLUTCH?
Could you please send more detailed picture of this mechanism ?
thank you


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## TonyM (Sep 24, 2017)

Thank you Brian. The surface carb is not flexible enough for boat use and does not give the control I want. It did prove that everything else was OK though. Hopefully with some work on the carburation I can get it to the running state I would like, I will then check the power output in the launch hull before I start on a more detailed version for a scale monterey clipper.

Hi Kadora. For my purposes thermosyphon cooling is enough for short runs. The water path I designed, means the cold water flows in the bottom flywheel side of the barrel, around and up to the rear of the head then across the head before exiting on flywheel side again. It seems to work well enough.
The lever is non working. I just used the wheel to mount the magnet for the hall sensor. It just seemed a nice idea to model the clutch lever into it so it looks more like the real one. I intend to use a reversing box in the boat so it will remain non working on the new version just better detail.  I also intend to put the hall sensor on a false magneto driven from the camshaft on the next one. 
This was a bit of a test for me also to see what I was capable of. I have not really done any machining for more than 30years.


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## Crisptrans (Oct 7, 2017)

Wonderfully done ! Thirty years of not machining anything hasn't affected your abilities. Must be like a fine wine, only gets better with a little age! I can only hope the same applies to me but I'm already getting to my "advanced" years. Beautiful engine!


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## Cymro77 (Oct 17, 2017)

Looks fascinating, very challenging.  Keep it coming.


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