[MOC] I4 engine with working crankshaft and valves

[BrickBuildingFox]

I recently build this Inline 4 cylinder engine with working crankshaft and valves (for more info and free instructions visit my MOC on rebrickable)

 

[MinusAndy]

I was really pleased to see a real build at the end of the video. Really nice moc. 
 

[vascolp]

Yes really cool!

And funny how you did a modern version of the old square piston.

[JintaiZ]

Looks very realistic! I like it much better than the old pistons.

[dhc6twinotter]

Very nice!   I like that you have the 1:2 reduction between the crank and cams, just like a real four-stroke engine.  That is something that is often missed on engine mocs with working valves.  Well done. 

[2GodBDGlory]

Good job! It reminds me of that old engine set from 1980. The piston design is interesting to see; I have been wondering how I could build large-scale engines without the old square pistons!

[amorti]

Is there a way to use a camchain instead of all those gears? I have a Honda cb-1 so I know and love the sound of gear-driven cams, however the only car engine I can think that had them was the ford Essex engine; a V6.

@nicjasno hey, it's 13 studs wide...

[Jeroen Ottens]

Very nice refreshing model. I didn't know that such advanced animations were possible in LDCad. Was it hard to make these?

[nicjasno]

23 minutes ago, amorti said:

hey, it's 13 studs wide...

You mean long? Surely there's no need for a 4 cylinder to be that wide?

[MinusAndy]

27 minutes ago, amorti said:

Is there a way to use a camchain instead of all those gears? I have a Honda cb-1 so I know and love the sound of gear-driven cams, however the only car engine I can think that had them was the ford Essex engine; a V6.

@nicjasno hey, it's 13 studs wide...

Nissans sr20det has a chain, it’s a glorious and bombproof engine!

I thought the Essex had gear rather than chain. I believe it was based on a marine engine originally. I had one in a scimitar hot rod for a while but never investigated inside the engine too much. 
it used to sound like a skeleton having a w@nk in a biscuit tin at idle so maybe it did.

 

 

[amorti]

5 minutes ago, MinusAndy said:

Nissans sr20det has a chain, it’s a glorious and bombproof engine!

I thought the Essex had gear rather than chain. I believe it was based on a marine engine originally. I had one in a scimitar hot rod for a while but never investigated inside the engine too much. 
it used to sound like a skeleton having a w@nk in a biscuit tin at idle so maybe it did.

Thats what I'm saying. This moc has gear driven cams like my cb-1, and like zero IL4 car engines ever. It'd make more sense for it to have a chain.

@nicjasno just made me smile when I noticed it's the same width as the Sierra engine bay.

[nicjasno]

way too big though :P

[MinusAndy]

Just now, amorti said:

Thats what I'm saying. This moc has gear driven cams like my cb-1, and like zero IL4 car engines ever. It'd make more sense for it to have a chain.

@nicjasno just made me smile when I noticed it's the same width as the Sierra engine bay.

My last car moc had a cam chain running fake camshafts and it really struggled to turn smoothly, I think because of the small scale compared to the chain links. The one in this thread is significantly bigger though and I don’t think it would suffer from that.

[amorti]

1 hour ago, MinusAndy said:

My last car moc had a cam chain running fake camshafts and it really struggled to turn smoothly, I think because of the small scale compared to the chain links. The one in this thread is significantly bigger though and I don’t think it would suffer from that.

As @nicjasnohas highlighted, this motor is pretty large. If it doesn't fit in his Sierra engine bay, then there isn't a Lego car that could use it.

In that case this is a model to set in an engine stand and enjoy on its own. So a chain makes sense; it's not going to drag in the wheels of a car as you push it around, it has an L motor spinning it.

[MangaNOID]

Great to see this got its own thread instead of hidden in the engine thread!

Nice build. 

The gear driven cams reminds me of the Nissan LZ20b from the 70’s, being a datsun guy and all. 

[BrickBuildingFox]

18 hours ago, amorti said:

Is there a way to use a camchain instead of all those gears? I have a Honda cb-1 so I know and love the sound of gear-driven cams, however the only car engine I can think that had them was the ford Essex engine; a V6.

@nicjasno hey, it's 13 studs wide...

I think one could use a camchain and friction won't be that much of a problem... the biggest challenge will be to create the 1:2 ratio... therefore the chain need to run over the small 8 tooth gear (and 16 tooth gear)... I don't know how well the 8-tooth and chain works? But would be worth a try.

17 hours ago, Jeroen Ottens said:

Very nice refreshing model. I didn't know that such advanced animations were possible in LDCad. Was it hard to make these?

You need write a small LUA-script to create the animations in LDCad, which in principle is not that hard... however there are not many tutorials (search for "LDCad animation tutorial" on youtube to find a few) and documentation available, which makes it hard. Do you think people would be interested in a "how to"-tutorial of my animation?

I saw that the creator of LDCad also made a program for animations  http://www.ld4dstudio.nl/ but it only works on windows :( so I haven't tried yet.

 

18 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

It reminds me of that old engine set from 1980

Yes, I was inspired by this set https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=858-1 and also the V2-engine of the Fat Boy (https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=10269-1) (I really liked it, because its more fun to build everything out of generic parts)

[amorti]

7 minutes ago, BrickBuildingFox said:

I don't know how well the 8-tooth and chain works?

That doesn't work, so you'd have to do the gearing before and/or after the chain. 

[2GodBDGlory]

4 hours ago, amorti said:

That doesn't work, so you'd have to do the gearing before and/or after the chain. 

While dreaming of 32T gears...

[amorti]

1 hour ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

While dreaming of 32T gears...

Yeh. You'd have to go 8:16 at the crankshaft end, and take the chain from there to the camshafts on equal sized sprockets, probably 16t unless 24t gave better chain tension, less noise, etc. Not really how it works IRL but sounds closer to IRL than having gears meshed up the front of the engine.

You could then make a chain tensioner with a little pulley wheel and an elastic band. Or maybe a soft shock, but probably too big and too much force.

Are there any tracks that could be used as a belt?

Edited November 25, 2020 by amorti

[2GodBDGlory]

On 11/25/2020 at 3:38 PM, amorti said:

 

Are there any tracks that could be used as a belt?

Yeah, there are some, but they aren't very versatile.