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Brian Konsela                     Manitowoc, WI                 olafandannie@lsol.net

4 Cylinder Horizontally Opposed Engine,  ??bore X .?? stroke  2/16/2004

    Here is the progress being on Dale Detrich's 4 cylinder.  The cylinders are going to be bolted on the block with eight-2-56 studs. I figured that should be sufficient to hold them on when it is  running.

the block with 2 of the cylinders stuck in the holes.

Here's a scan of the 4 cylinder that I'm working on.  I have the holes drilled to mount the cylinders on the block, now all I have to do is tap them. Next I have to drill the holes in the cylinders and put them together.
 The round steel piece is the drilling fixture for the holes. It has to be a snug fit in the holes for the cylinders. I drilled one hole first, then I put another drill bit in that hole and then proceeded to drill the other 7 holes. Then I did the remaining 3 holes.

 

This is with 3 of the 4 cylinders with the mounting holes drilled in them. I have the drilling fixture bolted to the block. Next step is to locktite the bolts to the block and then grind the heads off of the bolts and remove the fixture so I can do the same for the remaining 3 holes.

Here's the block with 3 of the 4 cylinders in it and the drilling fixture in the 4th hole. So far things are working well with this engine.

Here's another scan of the 4 cylinder with 3 of the cylinders in place and the drilling fixture on it also. Things are working out well on this engine.

    The bases for the block are mostly done, all except for polishing. The reason I don't have the 4th cylinder on the block is that I had only enough material for 4 and I scrapped one out due to a miscalculation on my part. The head halves are started. The oil drain-dipstick is started. The crankshaft blank is ground to size. The camshaft blank is ground to size. The 2 small rods are the rocker shafts. I have to grind them to length yet.
 This is truly an enjoyable engine to make.
   The reason that I am grinding the parts is that I am doing the work on the machines we have at work. We can work on our own projects as long as we do it on our time.
    The cam, crank, and rocker shafts are all  heat treated and ground straight with maybe .00001 taper to them. After the heads are done I will grind them to size. Right now there is about .015 stock on the length and width. The push rods will be made the same. Make the blanks, heat treat them, grind the O.D. and then grind to length.

Here's the crankshaft for the 4 cylinder engine.   3/28/2004

 4/10/2004

I finally got the last cylinder done and now I have the endplates half way done. The bearings are from roller skates (8MM) and they fit perfectly. I now have to get the bolt circle done so they can be bolted in place.   

7/4/2004

Here's the camshaft for the engine.  It is just together temporarily for now and will be completed when I get the cam box done. I still have a lot of work to do on it yet. The plans call for a .075 lift and mine has .125 lift with 190 duration.
  All of the lobes were cut together on a EDM machine. I had the blanks welded together and they were cut out all the same time so I know that they have the identical lobe pattern.
  It should make the engine sound pretty good.

Here's the lobes of the cam for the 4 cylinder engine. It's not like the prints call for. The lobe is .125 lift and the duration is 190.  I still have to finish polishing them and get them soldered on the shaft yet and I hope to get that done soon.

Here's the engine with the fan wheel almost completed. It was a lot easier than I thought it might be to do. It might look oval in the picture because it is laying at a bit of an angle on the scanner screen.

9/19/2004,  Here's the engine in pieces. The only thing not pictured for the engine that I have made so far is the fan wheel.
 The one other thing that I did different than the plan is that the cam box is also screwed on the block by 3 screws along the side. 

Here's the cam box in pieces. I had to make the screws into button head screws to accommodate the bearings for the cam.

Here's another of the block. I didn't make the cam box as Dale Detrich did, I made both the block and the cam box at a 45 degree angle instead of radiusing the cam box to fit the block. I found it to be easier this way. Not that Dale has a bad design, it's just that I am making mine different than his.
 The bearings for the cam are out of an old VCR that I had laying around.

Here's an end view of the engine.

The crank is in place along with the cam. The cam isn't completed yet.

10/1/2004  I got the cam gear cover done. Well actually I made 2 of them. First I turned the OD, then I went to the mill and made a slot in the middle to get the correct width so the cover dimensions would be there. Then I went back to the lathe and finished them and parted them off. I also have the push rod bushings done.

10/26/2004, the cam box mostly complete, I have a few minor things to do on it yet like polishing.

11/23/2004    I finally got the heads soldered for the 4 cylinder. I had them soldered once before only to find out that I had a leak in them. I took them apart and cleaned them up and resoldered them, only this time without a leak. Now I have to finish machining them.

12/06/2004    

Here's the rear view of the engine. Things are moving along quite nicely with this. I hope to have it at NAMES 2005.


Here's an upper left view of the engine. The heads are bolted on to see how they fit. The fan wheel is made the opposite of what the plans call for but that isn't a problem. It will just run in the reverse direction. I just have to remember to make the cam in reverse also.


Here's the head with 4 of the head bolts. The bolts are 3-48 slotted screws. I turned the diameter of the heads down about .020 because there was quite a bit of run out on them. The heads are 2 pieces silver soldered together. I had to do the intake passage before soldering them together. After the second try at soldering them, they are fine. I still have some machining on them to do yet.


1/7/2005  Here's the latest of the 4 cylinder with the rockers mostly done. I still have some finishing work to do on them yet. The plans call out to make them out of 2 pieces and solder them together but I made them out of 1 piece. I also put some brass bushings in them to pivot on.

 

3/12/2005  Here's a picture of the intermediate gear for the engine.  The bearing and part of the shaft are from a computer.

 Sitting next to it is a penny for comparison, and sitting next to that is the Huff"N"Puff engine that I made about 3 years ago. It is very smooth running and when the air is wide open at work it runs about 3000 RPM

3/15/2005   Here's the crank and the camshafts with the gears in place.

5/2/2005  I finally got the rods and pistons made. I have to cut the ring grooves yet along with the valve relief.


Here's the exhaust for the 4 cylinder about half way done. I have one more cut per piece and I can silver solder them together.  7/20/2005


Here's the latest parts for the 4 cylinder.  The part with the knurled knob is the points bracket. The other flat brass piece is the, combination, front base and the oil dipstick tube.  On the back of the cam box is the distributor base. The cam isn't timed yet, meaning that the lobes aren't in the proper location yet.   9/5/2005


 Here's the latest of the 4 cylinder. The heads haven't changed but I have the valve bodies and the valves mostly done. The valve bodies have to have the seats ground. The valves themselves have to be hardened and ground.  You can't see in the picture but I have the grooves cut for the spring clips. After grinding the OD's of the valves I have to grind the seat and cut them to length. Then I can lap them.  I have 2 extra valves just in case.    9/27/2005

  The exhaust is mostly done, it still needs some filing and polishing.
  The distributor base, cap, and rotor are about 1/2 done.
  The valves were heat treated and OD ground. The grinding took about 2 hours. I have to grind the seat on them and grind the length and they are done.   9/27/2005

Here's the valves and valve bodys. The only thing left to do is to lap them. The penny is just for size comparison. The valve diameter is 1/4" and the stem diameter is .0922. The valves were heat treated and OD ground to keep concentricity.  The valves then had the seats ground and then they were cut to length.   10/3/2005


I finally got the fins cut in the heads. I don't think that I am going to cut any more on them. I think they look ok. I have a little bit of polishing to go on them yet. Once they are polished I can install the valves.  10/17/2005

   

the heads are almost set to go. I have to make the spring keepers and get the springs and they are done.
  I lapped the valves and put the side hole in the guides and then pushed them into the head.  10/19/2005


 

After having the rockers and valves moving I thought they would move easier with a roller on them. With the high lift that I have I want it to move as easy as possible. I don't want any binding. You can also see the brass bushings that I had made for the arms. If anything wears out it should be the bushings which will be very easy to replace.
  I have to trim off the pins and fasten them to the end of the arms so that when it's running they won't come out.
  The lift at the valve is .116 approximately.     10/26/2005


Here's the roller rockers for the 4 cylinder. The rollers are heat treated so they wear better.   11/2/2005

Here's the roller rockers complete.    The screws that hold the roller pins in are 0-80. The same size used in eye glasses.


 

Here's the pistons for the 4 cylinder.    I have the recess for the valves cut .130 deep to clear the valves when it's running.


Here's the carburetor bodies.  12/13/2005
 


 

Here's the carburetors for the 4 cylinder.
  I finally have very few parts to make yet!  It's too bad that it won't be running this year.   12/24/2005

  Here's the pistons and rings ready to go in the engine.  2/11/2006

 

9/11/2006     Here's the latest of the 4 cylinder exhaust. I guess the 3rd times the charm because this is the 3rd time that I'm doing this and it's finally successful.
 Pictured with the exhaust is the fixture that I used for doing the inside curve radius on the pipes. Maybe now I'll finally get the engine done.

 

9/14/2006   Here's the exhaust bolted on but not polished up yet.

 

 

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