kit review V8 Engine BUILD REVIEW (TECHING) - EngineDIY

[James H]

V8 Engine
Teching
Catalogue # DM118
Available from EngineDIY for $699.99 (minus discount code)

 

 

A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, and built in 1904 by the French Antoinette company for use in speedboat racing, cars, and later, airplanes. The first V8 engine used in a road-going car was the 1905 Rolls-Royce built in the United Kingdom. This model was initially equipped with a 3.5 L V8 engine. However, only three cars were made before Rolls-Royce reverted to using straight-six engines for their cars. Due to large external dimensions, V8 engines are typically used in cars that use a longitudinal engine layout and rear-wheel drive (or all-wheel drive). However, V8 engines have also occasionally been used in transverse engine front-wheel drive vehicles, sometimes using closer cylinder bore spacings and narrower cylinder bank angles to reduce their space requirements.

 

The kit

 

Like the Radial engine I looked at recently, this kit is supplied in a lovely metal tin some nice artwork designs on the lid and sides/bottom of the packaging. Under the lid, an instruction manual sits on a sheet of clear acetate that further protects the three trays of parts below. Again, the parts are sat in custom made cutouts that hold the parts nicely, and each cutout is engraved with the part numbers of the items therein. In these photos, you'll see a lot of very recognisable parts such as valves, manifolds, crankshaft, camshafts, piston heads, chains etc. All parts are exquisitely machined and finished in various anodised colours that are rugged and certainly didn't mark while I was assembling this model. Again, this model is devoid of lube, despite the text being on the fittings box, so you will need to buy something suitable. I used bike chain oil.

 

The kit spec for this is:

• Material: Aluminum Alloy + Stainless Steel
• Coloring Process: Anodizing
• Number of Parts: 500+pcs
• Lithium Battery: 3.7V 500mAh
• Charging Voltage: DC 5V
• Charging Time: 2 hours
• Usage Time: 1 hour
• Assembling Difficulty: 5 stars
• Assembly Time: About 5 hours.
• Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 19.8 x 18cm
• Product Weight: 2550g
• Package Dimensions: 34.2 x 24.2 x 15cm
• Package Weight: 4500g
• Packing: High-end Metal Gift Box

 

 

 

Two fittings boxes are included. All compartments generally hold a few more extra screws, washers, bolts, belts etc. as spares. Five more packs of larger bolts , valve heads, and saddles are included, as well as a small pact of assembly tools. I generally don't use these and instead opt to use my new Wera tools. 

 

 

Instruction manual

A 50-page colour manual is included, containing some nice drawings of the various stages. There's no real shading in the illustrations, which made things clearer with the radial and turbofan engines I built, and this is apparent when the drive belts are fitted. For that process, I needed to look at the engine as halves and how the tensioners worked. A small niggle, but you'll see how I did this when you see the final photos. In the back of the manual, several pages are taken over to showing colour photos of each part, all numbered. 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion
Such a beautifully made kit, and I can say that it assembles beautifully too. It's also quite heavy and sizeable when complete. You'll need a nice space to display it. I speak from experience. Parts quality is most definitely high end and as long as you follow the instructions regarding setting up the engine timing and tensioning, all will be good. Mine ran perfectly from the start. If you do have any issues, then the manual provides a troubleshooting guide to help you.

 

My assessment: A wonderful kit!

 

My sincere thanks to EngineDIY for sending out this kit for review on Model Ship World. To buy direct, click the link in the header of this topic.

 

The next couple of posts will show this model being built and tested. This was a process that took about 6 hours over the weekend, including my photography. 

 

To be continued...

 

 

 

[mtaylor]

Interesting kit, James.  That appears to be a rather unique model with dual overhead cams and seems to have 4 valves per cylinder.   A racing motor by per chance?

[James H]

20 hours ago, mtaylor said:

Interesting kit, James.  That appears to be a rather unique model with dual overhead cams and seems to have 4 valves per cylinder.   A racing motor by per chance?

 

Not too sure. Definitely looks racy in those anodised colours!

 

Ok, on with the build. 

 

As I mentioned in the first post, I needed to use some oil as the kit didn't supply any. This is what I bought for all of these engine kits, and I apply it with a cotton bud.

 

 

The first thing to build are the eight pistons. This is simply a case of inserting a pin through the piston head, trapping the piston rod. The pin is held in place with a circlip on either side. All of these are of course lubricated.

 

 

We are already onto heavy metal with the use of this crankcase and crankshaft. With some lube, this sits into place within the crankcase and is held in place by a series of saddles that are bolted in situ.

 

 

The piston chambers are now wiped with a little oil and the cylinders installed. These bolt to the crankshaft in pairs, with the kink in each of them offset so they don't foul each other when in operation.

 

 

The crankshaft is now rotated to make sure everything is absolutely free. 

 

 

More gold anodised parts are now used, with the cylinder heads and the spark plugs. Two of these units are to be built.

 

 

Next up are the valves. These consist of the valves which are lubes and inserted into the block from below. On the top, a sleeve is dropped into position, followed by a spring and lastly the valve head. All of these are checked that they are free to move.

 

The cam seat is now bolted to the top of each of these units. 

 

And then the camshafts are seated in their correct orientation and then fitted with saddles and some lube.

 

 

Timing gears are now fitted to these units. One of the units has extenders added to the camshafts so the chains can run at different levels so they won't foul each other. 

 

 

Exhaust pipes and manifolds are now added. In retrospect, I'd have added these later as they got in the way a little when I was moving the engine around. They frequently had to be realigned. 

 

 

 

The sump is bolted to the lower crankcase, and onto that are fitted the engine feet.

 

 

Now, the cylinder heads can finally be mated to the crankcase. A real sense of the size and weight of this thing becomes clear.

 

 

Lastly, for this update, the rear and front end covers. 

 

...to be continued

[thibaultron]

James:

If there are any plastic parts in one of these kits (present and previous), please do not use that type of oil. It can attack the plastic parts, over time! Use an oil designed for the model railroad hobby. These are plastic safe. Labelle makes oils and grease for the plastic loco parts.

 

Four valves per cylinder has been quite common for automotive engines, for a long time. Gives better flow, for the new pollution standards, and more power for the engine.

[James H]

Hi Ron,

 

all parts are metal in these kits, except for the clear windows on the turbofan. 
 

Jim 

[James H]

The last part of this build review...

 

The starter motor is what will actually drive this kit. The electric motor is buried within a metal shell and then bolted to the side of the crankcase.

 

 

The flywheel is then bolted into place.

 

 

Now it's the turn of the generator. This doesn't actually do anything on the model except sit in its place and meshes into the gearing. I don't doubt there'll actually be a voltage generated at the two pins through. 

 

 

The water pump is now assembled and installed...

 

 

...as are two tensioners.

 

 

This is one of the more crucial stages...setting up the timing and adding the timing chains. Each timing gear has etched marks on them that must be aligned in pairs. Once you've carefully positioned these, the chains need to be draped over them and also attached to a gear that fits to the crankshaft. After a short while persevering, these were in place and the chain tensioners added.

 

The synchronous sprocket stops are now added below the timing gears. 

 

 

Various guides and tensioners are now built and bolted to the crankcase.

 

 

Followed by the manifold to the top of the engine, and the various drive belts which are then carefully threaded around the wheels and tensioners. This part took a little effort. The engine must be treated as halves, and if you work on that premise, then the position of the belts makes perfect sense.

 

 

This little control box is now built up and bolted to the engine. 

 

 

The battery box is finally added and everything connected together. 

 

 

The V8 engine is now complete! Here she is, followed by a video of her running. 

 

 

What a great project this has been. These engines are quite addictive when you start!

 

My sincere thanks again to EngineDIY for giving me the opportunity to build this gorgeous kit.

[Egilman]

20 hours ago, thibaultron said:

Four valves per cylinder has been quite common for automotive engines, for a long time.

The technology of DOHC 4-V (what they call it today) originally came out in 1911 with the 7.7L Peugeot French grand prix racers... Traces it's lineage from there through Miller's engines to Offenhauser's engines to Fords DOHC 427's to Cosworth then the Porshe/BMW engines to finally the Japanese versions they are running today....

 

Nothing special and nothing secret about it... Smokey Yunick said it best "...the quickest way to get more power, more cubic inches",... But what he was really saying is put more air/fuel mixture into the combustion chamber... Puegeot came to that conclusion 30 years before Smokey was even born....