Recent content by smpstech

That was my theory. I am planning on making the valves and camshaft out of O1 and the "lifters" out of brass. It's a very simple flathead engine, so the camshaft acts directly on the valves, and the "lifters" will really just be a small piece of brass that will press fit over the end of the...

The hot side of the block is air cooled. A 3/8" thick piece of aluminum with fins will cover the whole port/valve chest side of the block to provide cooling on that side, where as the head will be water cooled. I know it seems quite backwards and weird, but so am I (really I just don't have room...

I posted up the plans for this engine quite a while ago, with the promise that chips would begin flying in September. Well, they did. Things have been moving kind of fast and I can only work on the parts two nights a week for about 2 hours each night. So far, its all starting to somehow come...

Hi all, I am starting to progress along on my 2 cylinder engine build. I have a question regarding the camshaft though. I plan on making it out of either O1 or A2 tool steel. I was wondering how important it is to harden the metal on this scale. It seems to me that tool steel is already quite...

That is indeed why I went with the flathead engine design. I wanted an engine that will be able to be ran for long periods of time, possibly at higher RPMs and with a load so cooling and lubrication were key points. With all the valve train in the block and open to the oil pan with splash...

I believe that has been debunked before. Also, any website that is selling a 455 page book called "The Conspiracy Zone" with text reading "Are you interested in conspiracy theories that are conspiracy fact? " should be taken with a hefty grain of salt.

You can try using a schottky diode. They have very low voltage drop, and they can be found in just about any computer power supply. Often these are diode packs though, found in TO-220 or TO-247 packages and are basically 2 diodes that share a common cathode, so you would need two of them to...

prallplatte, your creations are amazing and you do fantastic work. But I can't help but notice it seems you use google translate to translate your native tongue to english, and it comes out quite...cryptic. Pictures and videos speak a thousand words!

Apparently PLA plastic will work, which is pretty much the standard filament used by most consumer 3d printers. It has the lowest melting point and is the cheapest, so it makes sense and sounds like something that might be worth looking into in the future.

Ha, probably. Machining begins in September is all goes well.

OK so a few updates. I lowered the compression by cleaning up the combustion chamber design. It sits at about 5.5:1 now. I hope this will also help reduce the heat generated by combustion a bit. The camshaft profile has been changed. It now has a 240 degree duration, as per stevehucks...

I suppose it could, its only something like 2" by 2 1/2" by 2" big. Just about any consumer 3D printer out there would be able to print it, like a Makerbot. Don't expect too much precision but it would be great for mocking things up. I've actually toyed with the idea of getting a 3D printer...

Steel? Or maybe Cast Iron?

Thanks for the feedback guys. These are the exact things I was worried about. To answer a few questions: I plan on making the block and head out of Cast Iron. All things considered, I will probably change the pistons to only use 1 Cast Iron piston ring, as what I've read has said that...

I had been working on these plans on and off for quite a long time, and now that I will have access to a very well equipped shop in the near future, I actually want to build it. I have read through many a threads here on the website and then realized I had a lot of problems with my design...