my little Suffolk finally running engine blocks faced off on the lathe and welded together no milling no central crank bearing and fires once per revolution
funny you should upload this, just in the process of gathering parts to build one of these. any recommendations or techniques? Im planning on a centre bearing but would you recommend not going down that route? Are the camshafts joined in your engine?
hi yeah I just figured the length of the crank was so short I could get away with it and it seems to be alright. the cranks are joined by a space collar thing and you could slide a bearing onto that before you welded the cranks together but having no bearing allows for a wee bit of flex when you weld it. the cam is also joined with a collar that's drilled out slightly bigger than the shaft to trap some oil. and don't trust the dot on the camshaft gear as a timing mark it seems to move on different age engines. il get some better shots and some of the insides. good luck man
James Hicks Thank you. I was more so thinking of machining a coupling to Match the diameter of the bearing surface of the crank, then push fit with heat. Drill out two holes for pins in each side and put in steel pins. Probably an adjustment grub screw aswell to Tweak any misalignment due to my crap machining. At first I was thinking of bolting the engines together but then I’d fear oil leaks so I might weld up the blocks. Did you use nickel rods?
yeah that would work fine trying to keep things straight when you weld them doesn't always work out. the blocks were welded with mig 1/2" at a time with lots of tapping straight on the weld with a sharp tappy thing whilst it still glows. cud also use cast or dissimilar rods whatever you have to hand. the most important thing is to keep the heat down and tap lots you should be able to touch it as your going. also you could jb weld the blocks together then weld them after for a good seal because its difficult to weld between the blocks
