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Steve Huck, Sterling Heights, MI pross396@comcast.net 9/1/2008

PeeWee 4 Cylinder, 4 cycle

The last engine designed and built by Bob Shores. Click here to go Bob's page for this engine.

This is the Bob Shores Peewee V4. It is the famous 4 cylinder with a 5/8 bore and stroke. Having never built a casting based project, I had been looking for a casting based project to be my first. I saw Bob Shutt at the 2007 NAMES show and liked the V4 project. At the time it seemed to me to be beyond my skills. Seeing it again RUNNING at the 2008 show, I came home, tracked down Dirk, and bought the castings.

It is built using castings and plans purchased from Dirk Tollenaar. The plans are not the greatest, I am guessing because Bob passed away before getting a chance to finish the plans. This added to the difficulty of the build and ultimately the reward. I started drawing the engine in 3D cad to verify the drawings and allowed me to "fix" a few things. This lead to about 60 drawings of parts that needed dimensions, but mostly redesigned and added parts to change the looks of the engine to my liking. All things considered, I'm glad I picked this project. It has been a mountain of fun.

I don't have the gene that allows me to build to the plans. Of course this lead to the fancy motor mount system. I also made some additions like a counter balanced crankshaft, dip stick, balancer and timing pointer.

10/5/2008

Just finished machine work on the peewee heads. If you build the Peewee, DO NOT make two heads from the drawing set. The plans show only the head for the 2-4 cylinder bank. This head will not work for the 1-3 cylinder bank. The 1-3 head is one of the things that will need to be reworked before it is machined.

I changed the plan so that Uncle Dale's (Detrich) plugs would fit. I also plunged an end mill in .125 at the port openings to help me locate the hole and to clean up the entry for drilling. Other than that, they are stock Bob!!