Swifty's build of Howell V4

[michael-au]

Nice work on the carb, I like the way the barrel is made

 

[Swifty]

I'm finally getting a bit more workshop time, the carburetor is virtually finished now. I had a bit of trouble with the lever on the end of the barrel, the lever is soldered on to a hub, that's where all my problems came in. I used silver solder, lead type solder would have been much better, too much heat, problems with alignment etc led me to scrap it. I made the new one out of one piece.





With that out of the way, it's time to start on the piston rings. When the rings are finished, I can start with final assembly of the main parts.

Paul.

 

[gus]

The Carb and manifold looks great.

 

[Swifty]

Thanks Gus, and by the way, Happy Birthday!

Paul.

 

[RiekieRhino]

It looks awesome

 

[Art K]

Paul,
I'm with the rest of them the build looks awesome.
Art

 

[Swifty]

I got stuck into making the piston rings, roughed out some cast iron on the outside and inside, and then proceeded to finish turn the bore first and then the outside so it just started to slide into the liners. I used a 1mm wide tool to part off the rings to get as many as I could out of the turned piece.


Ended up with 19 rings, I only need 12, so the rest will be spares.


Next step was to crack the rings, I use the method of putting them on a taper and tapping them down until they break at the weakest point. I have used a morse taper in the past, but these rings were too big for a #2 and too small for a #3, so I turned a bar to suit and also bored a scrap piece of aluminium to use when tapping them down on the taper. I find that this method works well, and they were done in no time, with no scrapped parts. They open up slightly due to internal stress, but will be opened up more soon and heat treated to keep the proper gap.



Paul.

 

[bmac2]

I love this build. I’m sure that carburetor is more complex to machine than most of the engines I made.
And Paul thank you for posting the build. I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into this.

Oh! yes Happy Birthday Gus ;D

 

[michael-au]

Next step was to crack the rings, I use the method of putting them on a taper and tapping them down until they break at the weakest point. I have used a morse taper in the past, but these rings were too big for a #2 and too small for a #3, so I turned a bar to suit and also bored a scrap piece of aluminium to use when tapping them down on the taper. I find that this method works well, and they were done in no time, with no scrapped parts. They open up slightly due to internal stress, but will be opened up more soon and heat treated to keep the proper gap.


Paul.[/quote]


Great job, this will be a fantastic looking engine when you are finished
I used the same method to crack the rings, works really well

Michael

 

[Swifty]

Thanks for the great comments guys, Bob, that cake looks fantastic. I turned up the holder for heat treating the rings, the holder diameter is turned to get the correct free gap in the rings when they are mounted on it. I managed to break one ring checking out the correct holder diameter. Once all the rings are mounted and clamped down, I heated the lot up with my Map torch to a dull red for a while and left them to cool.


I managed to ruin a second ring by stretching it while removing it from the holder, that still leaves me with 5 spare rings. I did get a bit of closing up of the gaps when I removed all the rings, but I can get them on the pistons OK. Next step is to get a needle file and take a couple of thou off each side of the gap so I eventually have a .003"- .004" working gap in the rings once inserted into the bores.


Paul.

 

[gus]

I love this build. I’m sure that carburetor is more complex to machine than most of the engines I made.
And Paul thank you for posting the build. I can appreciate the amount of work that goes into this.

Oh! yes Happy Birthday Gus ;D

Thanks . Bob for the good intention.
Just took a peek at Rong Fu Mill . Now budgetting to buy it. Will have to stinge like crazy for 3-----months.
Just came back from another short trip and I have too many lazy bones to dig out before going on to mill 15 gears and finish up the gear case and engine.

 

[Swifty]

A few more bits finished, at the top of the photo below is the crankcase oil pick up tube, and the rest is the oil pressure relief valve and adjusting parts.


I now have a slight problem with my lathe, I had the gear lever on the head stock in a neutral position so I could spin the chuck by hand when threading a piece. When I went to start it up next time I realised that the gears weren't engaged, so I turned it off and started to engage the gear lever, however the gears were still spinning in the head stock and I crunched them a bit. There is now a bit of gear noise, so I took the top of the head stock off to have a look, all looks fine, no missing teeth or visible damage, however I must have made a burr on some of the teeth and this is creating the noise. I will have to get more light in there and look with a magnifying glass to see if I can find the burrs.

Paul.

 

[jimjam66]

Ouch! Not good. I did that with my mini-lathe a while back and stripped teeth on the sacrificial plastic gears. Fantastic progress on the V4.

 

[Swifty]

I managed to get out and purchase some 1/16"thick brass sheet for the crankcase floor, so I soon made that up. I also made the oil drain fittings that were then soldered onto the floor. I still have to solder one piece on, this is for the oil pressure adjuster, I just have to check the final position closer to assembly.


Paul.

 

[Swifty]

One part that I had been putting off till near the end was the Rocker Arm End Pins. There are 16 of these pins required, with the small dia .1245", and the groove for the E clip only .019"wide. Fiddly little parts to make, but I got there in the end.



Paul.

 

[Swifty]

Next step in the small parts machining was to slot the clevis's that the push rods screw into. A quick clamping fixture was knocked up and worked really well. The slot is supposed to be .125", I ordered a 1/8"slitting saw off Ebay, buy when it finally arrived they obviously thought that 3,5mm was near enough to 1/8", I used it anyway as it just gave me a bit more clearance.



I then assembled everything to avoid losing all the tiny parts. A small bearing that pushes on the valve on one end of the rocker, and the clevis at the other end. The parts are held in by a small E clip.



I think that I can now concentrate on the painting of the block prior to assembly.

Paul.

 

[gus]

I like your clavis slotting jig. Make do very well with the 3.5 end mill.

We have General Election Campaign going on now and very much distracted by the Forums and feedbacks.Looks like they made lose 10---15 seats to main opposition party but yet have the majority.

Will next Monday when Gus goes back to his machineshop. Can't wait to see your V-4 with war paint out on. Fishing been good for last two weekends. Live fish baits is fantastic. We get instant strikes.

 

[Swifty]

Started on painting the block, first off I gave it a light sandblast then masked certain areas. One coat of etch primer followed by 2 coats of top colour. I have a 500ml can of the red paint, it looks like every future model will be red.



While I am waiting for the paint to harden up a bit I am making some of the parts for the radiator. One of the last main bits to be made is the distributor, I purchased the distributor cap from Howells, but will have to make up the rest.

Paul.

 

[gus]

Paul,
You are making great progress and I am lagging behind. Plus distracted by the canvassing for the General Election 11 Sept. Promise .Will go back to engine building. Ha Ha .Fishing been extremely good. After casting my vote,its fiiiiishiiiiing .

 

[Swifty]

I have now started assembly, I played around for quite a while fitting the internal O rings where the bottom of the cylinder sleeves fit, one was giving me a lot of trouble until I realised that particular groove was not deep enough. So back to the lathe with the face plate and whole set up again just to bore that single groove to correct depth. After loosing one O ring somewhere in the workshop, I eventually found it in a corner, I managed to get all the sleeves in, crankshaft and pistons fitted, at this stage I decided to call it a night and sit down and have a well earned drink.




Paul.