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Guess what finally showed up in my mailbox today. My first plan of attack will be to measure and create a drawing of the camshaft. We are so used to next day or 2 day shipping from Amazon, we balk at having to wait for a month for a package sent from the east coast to the west coast (of the...

Intake Manifold Today I am going to be working on the Intake manifold, it can be seen below in green and indicated by the arrow. I am going to be attempting Terry's Epoxy Encapsulation Technique (TEET) as the part is machined from two sides and work holding would be very tricky otherwise. I...

Bob, Glad to see you back at it. You said of your lathe, "after I did some adjustments to my lathe to tighten the gibs and stop the compound rest from wobbling." One thing you might consider doing is get a piece of steel as the one shown below, drill the four holes so you can mount it to...

Yeaaaaa! I received the last of my metal. The cast iron for the head, cylinder sleeves and rings; bronze for the connecting rods. And the steel for my crankshaft I already had on hand.

Wow, a very imaginitive idea for a next project, count me on board for the ride!

This is a short video of the cylinder block, still a bit of hand work to do, filing, drilling tapping, but the major machining is complete.

First Assembly I completed the first assembly of all of the major components on the Wallaby project. This felt like a major milestone. I ran into a minor problem with my CAD model that was realized in the actual build- the pistons interfere with the crankcase at the very bottom of the stroke...

Dodged a Bullet Today I made an error this week machining the Block Top Plate and it really gave me pause. The part needs to be .227" tall and I started with 1/4" thick stock that ended up .242" after I had squared it up and fly cut the top and bottom. When I programmed the tool paths in...

Phenomenal, absolutely beautiful Terry. I especially like the way your camshaft gear came out; the way the lightning holes blend so well into the gear ring and the center spigot is wonderful.

Thanks George, that means a lot. :-) Machining the Front of the Cylinder Block and the Oil Pan My next area of focus is the front of the cylinder block, but I want to machine the front of the oil pan at the same time to get a nice blend between them. So, to the oil pan. First the inside. I...

Cylinder Block Top Machining Now to turn my attention to machining the top of the cylinder block. But before I do I want to machine the tappet cavity in the side. this is indicated below. Since I am still working with a large chunk of aluminum, I need to machine down a bit to get to the...

That is one fine looking crankshaft Bob! Can you just chamfer the end that got "boogered" and no ones the wiser?

Crankcase Bottom Machining I tap the bearing cap screw holes in the crankcase using a taper tap first, then a bottoming tap. The bottoming tap only buys me three more threads so I am not sure this extra step is worth it. The bearing caps will be held on by 2-56 screws. Then I screw the...

GDB4 - Inline 4 Cylinder, 4 stroke IC engine by George Britnell I am kicking off another engine build and as my last was a twin, I thought I might move up to a 4 cylinder. George Britnell has always been a hero of mine and has made available plans for an inline 4 cylinder that meets my...

Flywheel The most important aesthetic criteria I have for a flywheel is that it runs truly true. I want my flywheel to appear to be a stationary blur, if that makes sense. So I strive to machine all surfaces in one setup, and a setup representative of how the flywheel mounts to the engine...

Glad to hear it turned out OK and you did not have to remake any components. :)

Wallaby Valve This morning I made a valve for my 4-stroke Wallaby. The valves are machined from 303 stainless steel. I started with a fail. I had too much stick-out when I tried to cut the retaining ring slot. I had success with the slot by cutting it with no stick out at all: Then...

Valve Train I have been working on some odds and ends in the valve train. This is a rocker arm cut from 1/4" mild steel. I mount it on a mandrel and machine the sides in the lathe. The rocker arms are handed, that is the spigot is longer on one side than the other Included in the...

Camshaft Continued The majority of the last week has been spent working on tool paths for the Camshaft Lobes. This is my first exposure to using a 4th Axis on the CNC Router. Below is my first attempt cutting an exhaust cam lobe on a piece of test aluminum rod. I used a ball end mill for the...

Your crank is looking good Bob, I am glad your finger will (eventually) be bad to normal, at least functionally. I do hold strips of the wet/dry sand paper in strips about the width of the slot to do final polishing. I use the standard 9" sand paper in increasingly fine grits folded over the...