hellishly complicated road car engines

[Rotary Madness]

Zod said:

edo said:

This horrifies me (V10 BMW engine).

Where the hell would you start building something like this?!?

What else is as (or more) complicated?

Whenever I look at that (rather wonderful) photo, I'm troubled: I can only see the valves from one cylinder bank.

Thats because the right hand cylinder bank has its valves installed, if you look closely

[y2blade]

twazzock said:

I love stuff like this. Half the stuff I find is BMW M engines though...

M3 V8


S54 is simple by comparison


X6M


Cosworth DFV


wankel


RR Kestrel V12

I'm off to the Gents.......back in 5mins


Joking aside, I love this sort of thing.

[Zod]

Rotary Madness said:

Zod said:

edo said:

This horrifies me (V10 BMW engine).

Where the hell would you start building something like this?!?

What else is as (or more) complicated?

Whenever I look at that (rather wonderful) photo, I'm troubled: I can only see the valves from one cylinder bank.

Thats because the right hand cylinder bank has its valves installed, if you look closely

Thank you! That's been troubling me for years. Now I can see them!

[freecar]

Zod said:

Whenever I look at that (rather wonderful) photo, I'm troubled: I can only see the valves from one cylinder bank left and only the throttles from the right.

You're right, one set of throttles and valves are still fitted! Good eye!

[twazzock]

dougc said:

twazzock said:

GroundEffect said:

None of them are particularly complicated...

They're just the regular parts but more of them. Find something that's actually innovative

I'm posting what I can find rather than what's complicated, there's only so much out there. Give me a suggestion and I will look for it...

BRM H16

eta scrub that - not a road car

Can't find an exploded diagram of it but even without cracking it open it's pretty daunting:


Here's a cool pic of what it can do to make up for it:

[shoestring7]

they mostly seem pretty simple, but you have to do the same thing 10 or 12 times.

By all accounts it took one skilled technician a week (~35hrs) to build the roller bearing crank of the little 1500cc Porsche flat 4 engine used in the 550RS and set up the clearances in the valve train.

SS7
PS They did use the same engine in a road car

[twazzock]

H16 in plastic model form!:

[Rotary Madness]

Zod said:

Thank you! That's been troubling me for years. Now I can see them!

Thats those sneaky germans for you...

[Morningside]

Codswallop said:

dougc said:

That looks like the best airfix ever.

Agreed. I reckon I could have a good stab at assembling that with all the parts so clean and well layed out.

I am still looking for the symbol of glue with a cross though it!

[Steffan]

kambites said:

I think almost all modern engines come into this category, personally.

I agree.

When I was racing A series minis 40++ years ago it was like playing with Meccano. Nowadays a laptop computer is the first essential tool.

Twin Cam engines or even quad cam engines. A few bits left over at the end?
Big Bang.

[BertB]

Zod said:

Whenever I look at that (rather wonderful) photo, I'm troubled: I can only see the valves from one cylinder bank.

But everybody always has a box of "bits" left over at the end.

ETA: just seen the other replies (I should have gone to specsavers)

[MrKipling43]

I imagine this is pretty complex (Fiat TwinAir) but I can't find an exploded diagram.

[Otispunkmeyer]

I dont see how these are confusing

lots of parts, but its mostly duplication, once you've assembled all the pieces to make up one piston/cylinder arrangement (piston, conrod, pins, rings, bearings etc etc) its just repeat x n-1 for the others.

I guess you do have to be mechanically minded and familiar with ICE's or else I could easily imagine my self going WTF are all those parts for!

[crofty1984]

Codswallop said:

dougc said:

That looks like the best airfix ever.

Agreed. I reckon I could have a good stab at assembling that with all the parts so clean and well layed out.

Yeah, laid out like that with a decent set of tools and a manual, I could build that I reckon.
No instructions and it would be harder but someone more experienced than me could easily put that together I think.

[Classic Grad 98]

I'd have a much better shot at building any one of those than I would at putting together a modern automotive electrical system.
That is the black art which continues to illude me.

[Brother D]

Classic Grad 98 said:

I'd have a much better shot at building any one of those than I would at putting together a modern automotive electrical system.
That is the black art which continues to illude me.

Seconded...

[bertelli_1]

The really tricky engines are the ones that don't conform to the type we are used to.....

Porsche made a twincam version of the 356 engine, its supposed to take something like 20hrs to set the cam timing (gear driven).

The Maserati / citroen v6 with a camchain driven off the centre of the crankshaft - the chain requires regular(ish) replacement.

Or how about the rolls engine with head & block cast as one unit - if you push the pistons into the head the rings expand into the combustion chamber & the piston gets stuck. Good luck removing that.

[sunbeam alpine]

Guys, I think you're buying your engines in the wrong places. Mine came in one simple big lump (a bit like me), and apparently, so long as I feed it with water, oil and fuel via the correct orifices, it should stay in one piece!

[vrooom]

edo said:

This horrifies me (V10 BMW engine).

Where the hell would you start building something like this?!?

What else is as (or more) complicated?

You start with engine block first....

If car maker sell kit like those vw golf (but not that basic golf). i would so happy building it.

[Piepiepie]

From the M1 (Technically it could be a road car)