Howell v-2 four stroke gas engine.

[Cogsy]

Coming along nicely Gus. That housing makes it look nearly finished!

 

[Davewild]

Hi Gus,
That is really starting to look cool, it's a very nice engine, I'm in a small room at the back of my house with no aircon and a large door open to allow real light in, it's been 37degC every day here for quite a while now and unbelievably hot, I have major problems with stuff rusting because of the humidity, do you have this problem and how to you combat it?

Dave

 

[gus]

Have same problem with rust but not too bad. Having three open sides help. When it hits 33C I quit. If weather f/cast is bad,I start work at 8am with ceiling fan and stand fan blasting. By 10 latest 11am I stop work.
The SW Monsoon is about to set in with lower temperature.

 

[gus]

Day 2/5

Crankshaft Housing.

Had a spare surplus aluminum bar which looks big enough to make housing. Turned out a wee bitty smaller. Had to compensate for the mounting flange (compromised) O.D. Flange now have 12 mounting holes instead of 6. Housing calls for multi machine tool to make--------lathe,mill,drill and tap.
With 12 M2.5 holes to tap, I was worried about tap breaking. Took my time with plenty of tea/pee breaks to keep mind fresh. The RT came in very handy to divide and drill 12 2.1 mm tapping holes with copius amount of Tapmatic Fliud to prevent grab/seize/breakage. All 12 holes drilled and tapped spot on.
The Gear Case looks very uncompromising with too many details but the crankshaft seems easier. Will make the crankshaft while studying the Gear Case. Too be honest Gear case has to many details.One wrong move will scrap same.:wall:

 

[Swifty]

Coming along great Gus, I'm moving a bit slow on the V4 build at the moment, hopefully I'll get a fair bit done this weekend.

Paul.

 

[gus]

Hi Paul,

Gus going at snail pace. Jerry Howell put in so many details,profiles,bells&whistles etc but it sure make the V-2 look like aircraft engine. Just one glance at the gear case drawing sent me running away. Too many details.Just one bad error in machining,gear case scrapped. Even a minor machining error can be frightening.Was a wise decision to go Imperial on the timing gears. Giving myself the whole of next week to make the crankshaft. With no rush, Gus will do a better job. The gear case will be a 3-----4 week job.:rant:

 

[gus]

CrankShaft
Four hours of hard work to reduce 2'' O.D. to 0.580'' OD.The mini lathe will slip/stall with deeper cuts. Had to grit my teeth with the snail pace.:rant:
Will take my sweet time to trim to 0.500'' OD slide fit into ball bearings.
Job far from over. The crankdisc is another turning,milling,drilling/reaming job.In fact the crank disc is unforgiving.Patience required. One wrong last cut will scrap crankshaft.

 

[gus]

Day 2/6 & 7
Crankshaft
Finished up the stepped shaft portion.Turning down from 2'' O.D. to 0.500'' sure sapped my patience.Took 2 1/2 hours.
Managed to get a good,non-sloppy slide fit into both bearings. The crank disc will be done tomorrow. Same must be centre to get good fit and alignment of the the other crank disc. Failure to do so means cutting a new crankshaft all over again.Material is Japanese Grade Cold Rolled Steel. Specs unkown. Been using this material for three engines.Will take my sweet time to finish up crankshaft which is comprised of 4 parts and all must fit well.

 

[M130]

Hello Gus. My name is Morten and i'm from Norway. I just want to tell you that I enjoy your builds very much I'm impressed of what you can do on your small machines with a bit of clever thinking.
Morten

 

[gus]

Hi Morten,

I kind of resigned to my fate----------no good size machine tools and forced to work with mini lathe and min mills. When I get bored and stressed,I remind myself this is it. Live with the current mini machine tools and improvise and make the best out of it. Reducing the crankshaft from 2'' OD to 1/2 '' was time consuming.
Crankshaft will take at least 3 more days to complete with related parts.Have no regret buying the Sakai Japanese Lathe which is a watch maker's lathe which cost me a bomb. After ten years its still good.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Gus, you're work continues to improve!! This engine looks very nice.---Brian

 

[barnesrickw]

If you're not running production, and enjoy the process, I say small is good. Less money, less space. My shop is now on a 30"x48" bench out in my shed. Taig lathe and mill. Can make all the noise I want now.

 

[jimjam66]

Good work so far, Gus. actually amazingly good considering your tools. I had a mini-lathe for a bit but got rid of it in favour of the ML7 precisely because simple things like reducing diameter had to be done in really small chunks. Patience is not a nice-to-have, it's an essential!

 

[gus]

Day 2/ 8
CrankShaft
Parting of 2'' O.D. surplus from crankdisc end turned out impossible. Beyond the capacity of mini lathe. Had to resort to BandSaw. With guide rail adjusted to length. Cutting off went on smoothly but rather slow. Hand hold won't do.Had to use Vise Grip to hold shaft end. Centering a job in 4 jaw chuck is usually a hassle. Used a 1/2 '' bar to pre-centre chuck hold. It is mandatory to have job dead centre to get good shaft alignment.
Jerry has advised,best to drill & ream crankpin hole in one solid piece to get true alignment between main crankdisc and sub-disc. After coming so far,best not to take risk of messing up the drilling and reaming. Had job and vise held down by quick clamp. Sub-disc will sawn off main disc and both finished on lathe and mill. Crankshaft multi-machine tool job with turning.milling and threading.

 

[gus]

Crankshaft
Not a bad day.When it comes machining small pieces,I fare best as long as lathe is not over stretched.
Its finger biting when saw/part the floating crank disc with my bare hands holding the job piece.
By 5pm both pcs were done except for the counterweights. Nearly goofed again.Had I not left the spigot oversize, the floating crankdisc would be scrapped. Spigot was meant to fit on 12 x 21 x 5 ball bearing. The resulting slide fit was good. Its best to have a thorough grasp before machining any V-2 parts. Crankshaft sub-assembly is a wee bit compromised but easily make good to fit it.

 

[Swifty]

Coming along nicely Gus, that is a lot of material that has to be removed. I sometimes wonder if it's not better to make the crank disc and shaft from 2 pieces, pressed together and pinned, I've used that method before.

Paul.

 

[gus]

Day 2/9

CrankShaft
At long last .Done. No scrap but a bit compromised on the counter-weight thickness. Plan to go aluminum pistons and hence vibration should not be a big problem. Having a RT to hold crank discs to mill the integral counter weight was sure great help. Crankpin and end shaft is Silver Steel. Will harden crankpin. Bearing Spacer will be done tonight. Its week end fishing again.

 

[jimjam66]

That's a good-looking crankshaft, Gus! Is the Howell V2 a 'knife and fork' conrod engine?

 

[gus]

That's a good-looking crankshaft, Gus! Is the Howell V2 a 'knife and fork' conrod engine?

Hi David,

You are correct. Its knife & fork and I have never make such con-rods. A bit worried.

 

[gus]

Day 2/9

At last fit in crankshaft/housing sub-assembly with bearings mounted on.
Will move back to the outerheads to work on the tappet valves which has yet to be lapped. Pistons.rings and con-rods will follow. The toughest part will be the gear case and gears. This looks like two months work. Part of the deal is DIY a DH with Indexing Plates to cut 13 16 21 32 t gears. All in 12 plus gears to cut.
No rush. This a long term project. At this rate , completion hopefully by Christmas??? ;D