HAYNES WORKING VISIBLE V8 ENGINE BUILD

There are quite a few of these kits on the market place, by various manufacturers, notably Airfix and Revell, and maybe others as well. Quite a while ago now I built a Revell version of a V8 engine, but the parts were pretty flimsy especially the push rods and it soon gave up the ghost, after a few years. It had a hand crank to turn the engine so the various parts could be seen moving.

This Haynes V8 Engine looks much better from first appearances and the parts are made of a much better quality plastic than the Revell. Another plus, it has a small motor which drives the moving parts and no glue is needed like the Revell kit. Everything just clicks and screws together. Three AA batteries (not included) are needed to power the motor and led lights, representing the spark plugs.

So without further ado, let's see whats inside the box before we make a start in assembling it.

Pictures 1 and 2 show the box art front and underneath.

Pictures 3 and four show the mini workshop manual.

The rest of the pictures show all the parts that come with the kit, 250 parts plus a lot of screws and even a screwdriver. The instructions are all exploded diagrams and are very precise and much better than most kit instructions.

The actual build will start in a few days.

Thank you for watching.

Nice review of the parts and looking forward to the build

PART ONE - HAYNES V8 ENGINE ASSEMBLY

PICTURE 1 - Shows the parts needed for the first stage of the assembly. All the screws in this kit are of the same size and length.

Crankshaft - Connecting Rods - Gudgeon Pins - Piston Halves - Cylinder Blcock.

PICTURE 2 - Shows the eight piston halves and connecting rods assembled.

Procedure of assembly - First insert one of the gudgeon pins into the large hole in one side of a piston half. Then push the small end of the con rod over the gudgeon pin, then join the two piston halves together, making sure they are butted together firmly. Repeat this procedure for all the other pistons as shown in picture two.

PICTURE 3 - Showing - Crankshaft - Assembled Pistons - Big End Bearing Caps and fixing screws.

Next, is to fit the big end bearing caps to the Connecting Rods, each with two screws.

PICTURE 4 - Shows two of the Big Ends attached to the Crankshaft with the big end bearing caps having been screwed together.

PICTURE 5 - Shows all the Big Ends attached to the Crankshaft.

PICTURE 6 - Shows the Cylinder Block and the completed Crankshaft Assembly.

The next stage of the assembly, is to insert the pistons into their respective cylinders. The four cylinders on the left side of the Block, are slightly off set to the cylinders on the right side of the Block, so you can only insert the Pistons into the Block, one way. It can be a bit tricky trying to get them inserted but with a bit of jiggling, you will soon have it done.

At this stage, once the pistons have been inserted, you have to keep the whole assembly so that the crankshaft is facing upwards, until it is held in place with the Lower Crankcase piece.

PICTURE 7 - Shows the underside of the Cylinder Block and the Crankshaft with all the Pistons inserted into the Cylinders.

PICTURE 8 - This shows the top of the Cylinders after inserting the Pistons.

Next we have to attach the Lower Crankcase to the bottom of the Cylinder Block, which will hold the Crankshaft in place. Again this will only fit one way. Once you have aligned the parts, insert four screws into the holes from inside the top end of the Cylinder Block (the holes for the screws are placed on a 45 degree angle) and screw the parts together.

PICTURE 9 - This shows the lower Crankcase having been attached to the lower end of the Cylinder Block and held in position with four screws. This forms the main Crankshaft Bearings, in which the crankshaft rotates. Once done, you can test the rotation of the Crankshaft, by turning the ends of the Crankshaft and see the Pistons moving up and down in the Cylinders.

PICTURE 10 - Side view of the attached Lower Crankcase to the Cylinder Block

PICTURE 11 - Shows the Sump (left) and the Base Stand. Notice the holes for the speaker where the sound will come from when running the completed engine. The button on the lower right of the Base, is the starter button to start the engine. The battery box is located underneath the base and takes three AA batteries (not supplied).

PICTURE 12 - Shows the Sump in place on top of the Base Stand. The sump has four legs attached to the bottom of it, and these sit in the four holes in the base and are held in place with four screws, which are screwed from underneath the base plate, again it can only be fitted one way.

Before screwing the Sump to the Base, we first have to attach the Sump to the bottom of the Lower Crankcase, again with four screws. Once this is done we can then attach the whole assembly to the Base Stand. You now have the Engine Block firmly held on its base, ready to continue with the rest of the build.

PICTURE 13 - Shows the Cylinder Block, Lower Crankcase attached to the Sump, all in place on top of the Base Stand.

The beauty of this kit, is that all the parts are crisp and clean, with no flash on any of the parts. Just a bit of filing to remove the burrs, where the parts have been attached to the sprues. You can paint some of the parts if you so wish in different colours, which I might do later on, by taking the engine apart, but for this build demonstration, I will be leaving them in the colours they came in. Another plus, is the fact that you can assemble this kit on a dining room table like I am doing, as there is no mess with using glue or paint, everything is clean to work with.

This completes Part One of the build and Part Two will follow, to be shown next Wednesday 29th March, so watch this space.

Looks good Geoff, very nice start....

Regards

Alan

Great work Geoff , looks great.

Chris

I was hoping to have the next update posted last night, but Iv'e been having a few off days since Monday, so have put it on hold for a few days. Hopefully I will have the next part done by the weekend.