car conrod?

[pcw]

as title sais, are conrods from cars/trucks good base for material for cilinders/pistons? can get them for few cents each. looking at the bigend it would make nice cilinders.
Pascal

 

[Ed T]

Some thoughts:
1) Conrods are made from a variety of materials from forged steel to sintered metal so the suitability would depend a lot on what kind you can get.
2) The geometry of most modern conrods has a rather unfortunate aspect ratio if you try to use it as a cylinder. That is, the bore is very large compared to the height of the cylinder. As engines get more compact and lubricants and metallurgy get better this situation will get worse.
3) The big end of every automotive conrod that I've ever seen is split into two parts which greatly reduces its utility for your purposes since, usually, there are bearing locating features at the parting line between the two parts which interrupt the cylindrical surface.
So, if a conrod was the last piece of metal on earth you might get some kind of cylinder from it, but there are far easier ways (IMHO).

 

[dparker]

Pcw: How about using old wheel cylinders from a vehicle that had drum brakes. I have a few wheel cylinders that I have been eyeballing for a yet to be designed engine. The length is a little more than twice the bore on the ones I have.
Good Luck----don

 

[mzetati]

This end comes from a Perkins 3000 diesel engine: that's first quality finely grained cast iron.

Here's the cylinder for Elmers #33 I made out of 1/3 of that big end.

Marcello

 

[firebird]

Hi

I would say yes. My beam engine is made mostly from old car parts.



Although I used an aluminium brake cylinder for the steam cylinder.



Cheers

Rich

 

[pcw]

hmm i will go and scavenge the scrapyards than and see what good i can find there.
pascal

ps, the beam engine from car parts looks stunning!

 

[firebird]

Hi

More details of the beam engine can be seen here

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=10002.0

Cheers

Rich