Straight 6 Cylinder Engine

[rdean]

We went to our metal supplier yesterday (Chris and I) to see what we could find. You never know what drops he has so I had not decided on a design except it was to be 6 cylinder. I settled on this chunk of aluminum 2.5 X 5 X 28" long. I only needed half that much but he didn't have a way of cutting it then so I took the whole piece. Weight over 30 lbs. I should have enough even if I really mess things up.

Cutting off a 12" piece.


The block for the engine will be 3.5 tall by 2 wide by 12 long so that means I have to slice this block length wise.

Harbor Freight band saw to the rescue.

It was a little tricky at the beginning even though I had the guide rollers open as far as they would go I had to open the vise and tilt the part back until the cut was deep enough to clear the guide.

The cut ended up off by 0.032 from one end to the other I am pleased.

Over to the mill to clean up and cut to size.


Right now the engine will be.
6 cylinder 1" bore
Overhead cam
Water cooled
Crankshaft will have 4 main bearing saddles with two 6700 ball bearings under each saddle with a stroke of 1.100.
This is the crankshaft unpainted and you can see the four bearings of either sides of #3 and #4 rod throws.


Thanks for looking
Ray

 

[rogerl]

Looking good Ray. I will be watching this thread. My project is on hold due to life and getting the stupid valves to seal.

Roger L

 

[rdean]

Glad to have you Roger

The next step is to whittle out the three chambers for the crank shaft. They are 1.250 deep and 2.000 wide. I was going to mark some guide lines on the block but that is too easy for me to over cut. I decided to use the dro on the manual mill so I did make up this drawing to go by..


I started this job yesterday and worked on it for 4 hours today.
This shows where I am almost done.


Everything even fits like it should.


Main bearing caps tomorrow.

Thanks for looking
Ray

 

[rdean]

The first order of business today is to clean up the shop.
This pile is what came out of the engine block yesterday.


I cut out the four main bearing caps.


And bolted them in place.


Thanks for looking
Ray

 

[rdean]

As you know if you have followed any of my other builds I usually take on projects and processes that I have never done before. On this engine there are 4 main bearing caps that are 12 " apart. I don't have a drill bit or boring bar that long and how do I keep everything in alignment over that distance. I studied on this problem for several days while on vacation Line boring seemed the only solution but there are a few extra problems.
The main bearings have a 10mm bore and 15mm OD. That's not much to play with.

I have a n 17/32 drill bit that will reach the first three bearing locations. I then will have to break everything down flip the block over reset the alignment and drill from the other side and hope they line up. Using a 1/2" rod 26" long I drilled and tapped for a M3 set screw that I had sharpened on the end.

This shows the setup I made on my lathe.


Another View


The 1/2" rod was anything but ridged and I could only take a couple of thousands at a time but after several hours I was within 0.005 of my final size.
It had been a long day but it looks like it will work. I will finish to final size with a hand reamer tomorrow.
Thanks for looking
Ray

 

[f350ca]

Nice!!
Haven't tried line boring yet.

Greg

 

[Chris Hamel]

Looking good

 

[rdean]

Haven't tried line boring yet.

This is my first try.
Thanks Chris.

I spent several hours with a hand reamer and I was rewarded with this.



It turns smoothly by hand and runs true.

I have to remember not to stand in front of a fan when taking videos.

Thanks for looking
Ray

 

[Chris Hamel]

Runs true. No wobble.

 

[Boswell]

Looks great