Flathead V-8

[Admiral_dk]

I do not know if the materials has improved over time or not, but I do remember my first Boss tell me about his last project at "Technical School" electronic engineer line (he took it some five years before me) and he had build an FM receiver for his HiFi at home and had smartly used the first LED's available in Denmark as the scale indicator instead of the usual way of a string moving a pointer. He glued them in with the first generation 10 seconds glue and everybody in class admired the "show" .....  ..... just to watch them die in the sequence they where glued in a few minutes after completion 

The school asked the supplier of the LED's and the supplier of the glue and it was discovered that the clue did in fact go through the plastic used to house the LED chip before slowly setting ....

The story was told to us by the teachers to warn against just using clue without knowing the properties of the materials in question - so I knew the story when told by my Boss. I should think that the materials has improved - but ...?

[gbritnell]

Here are some closeups of the distributor pieces. The magnet is .125 dia. x .062 thick. It is pressed into the angle bracket. The angle bracket is slotted so that it can be adjusted for minimum clearance between it and the timing rotor. The angle bracket is held in place with a 0-80 screw. The timing rotor has 8 windows cut into it (one for each cylinder). It has 2 pie shaped window cut into the top so that the magnet holder can be adjusted. It has 2 windows just to balance the rotor. The holding screw is 1-72 thread and is drilled and tapped at an angle through the window. You can see a small indentation cut into the top edge of the one window to lessen the angle of the tapped hole. The rotor has to be made from steel otherwise the magnet won't turn the Hall on and off. Once the engine is running if I find that it doesn't seem to rev up even with the timing set and the carb adjusted it means there's not enough dwell on the coil so the windows can be enlarged. I have also found that the magnets will turn on the Hall when they are about 1/2 exposed by the window so the dwell is calculated by more thaThe spark rotor is made from Corian and has a .010 strip of phosphor bronze held in place with a 0-80 threaded button. When I have all the buttons put into the cap I put it on the distributor and turn the shaft by the gear. If I feel any interference I mount the spark rotor on a shaft and take a few thousands off of the button until the rotor spins freely. I probably end up with a .003-.005 air gap between the buttons in the cap and the spark rotor button. The picture of the Hall holder shows the cutout in the back side for the Hall transistor.
gbritnell

[Tennessee Whiskey]

All I can say is, "wow and I have a shirt with his autograph" Just jaw dropping amazing.

E

[Don1966]

George thanks so much for showing us the internals of a work of art. Did I say? ...............I like............

Don

[fumopuc]

Hi George, thanks for showing and explaining the details.

[Kim]

Just incredible George, that's all I can say...
I'm still impressed with how small it is when I see the pictures with your hand in them.
Kim

[b.lindsey]

Amazing George and at this scale all the moreso!!  Can't wait to see (and hear) this one running !!

Bill

[ColH]

Really enjoying this build George.  How long before it will be running?
Col

[gbritnell]

I'm trying to figure the hours to make the remaining parts but it's only a crude guess. I'd say somewhere around 200. With the question asked about when it will be finished and running it got me thinking about when I started on it and how many hours I have so far. I started on the drawings last August so it's almost a year and as far as hours it's got to be around 1800, which includes the drawings.
I'm hoping to have it running before the snow flies which in this part of the country could be anywhere from October to December.
Thanks everyone for checking in and commenting.
gbritnell

[ColH]

Thanks George.  I know I am jumping the gun but whats next?  Maybe a rest

[Roger B]

Still following along  :   Thank you for posting the deep details of the distributor   

[gbritnell]

Hi ColH,
I would eventually like to get back on the chassis for the 302 engine, T-5 transmission and 9" differential to go into. With no ability to weld any longer (pacemaker) I have to come up with another plan.
gbritnell

[gbritnell]

Gentlemen,
It's been awhile and with the nice weather the progress has slowed.
The latest progress is building the exhaust manifolds. When I built the V-twin I had made a larger single purpose tubing bender for .375 diameter tubing. The radii on the V-twin exhaust were 1.312 and for this engine I needed at least .900 radius. I made up a new die and shoe and tried it out on some .375 stainless tubing that I had laying around. The wall thickness is .050 and is too thick for this engine but I wanted to see how the bender would work. It took a little effort but it bent ok.
I then ordered some 316 grade, .375 O.D. stainless tubing with a .035 wall thickness.

[gbritnell]

The main runner would have a 90 degree bend and extend out about 6 inches. Onto the main runner would be the three other curved sections of tubing. I made the flanges from 303 stainless steel. The tubes exit the block at a 25 degree angle so after bending the main runner I set it up in the mill at that angle and cut it off with a slitting saw. This guaranteed that the angled face would be parallel to the top of the block. The tubes and flanges would be silver soldered in place so to facilitate assembly a fixture had to be made that would hold the main runner at the proper angle.

[Dave Otto]

Very nice George,

It will be fun to watch the rest of the fabrication and assembly of the headers.

Dave