Author Topic: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale  (Read 6154 times)

Offline eccentric

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I am starting a new build of the Offenhauser 97 Cubic Inch "Might Midget" Model Engine.


The midget motorsports craze of the 1930s and 1940s not only served as a launch pad for many drivers who'd go on to successful racing careers, it also ended up keeping afloat one of the greatest companies in American motorsports history via the Offenhauser midget engine.

Not a year after Fred Offenhauser took over the operations of his former employer, engine builder Harry A. Miller -- which consisted mainly of casting, machining, and selling racing parts, and rebuilding truck engines -- a new business opportunity arose in the summer of 1934. Midget racing had taken the country by storm, offering cheap thrills for spectators and drivers alike in the depths of the Depression. Organizers soon capitalized on the new motorsport's popularity by building dedicated tracks around the country.

One of those promoters, Los Angeles-based Earl Gilmore, grew dismayed with the frequent breakdowns and the unruly nature of the miscellaneous motorcycle, junkyard, and cut-down engines that powered the cars racing at his stadium, so he turned to Offenhauser for help.

"(The unreliable engines) made it difficult to run a show," Gordon Eliot White wrote in Offenhauser: The Legendary Racing Engine and the Men Who Built It. "His patience exhausted, Gilmore sent his manager, David Koetzla, to see Fred Offenhauser about building a real racing engine for the little cars."

Offenhauser didn't have anything on hand at the moment, but he and Leo Goossen, the longtime draftsman for Miller's creations and their successors, pulled up the plans for the 183-cu.in. straight-eight that Miller built for Harry Hartz's 1932 Indianapolis 500-winning entry and decided to cut it in half to make a 97-cu.in. four-cylinder. As White described the engine's construction:
The 183 was, as Millers went, relatively simple, that is, inexpensive. It had two valves per cylinder and was unsupercharged. Using half of the 183's crankshaft left the midget engine with only three main bearings but it seemed to work alright."

In addition, Miller had designed the 183 as essentially two four-cylinder engines sharing a common crankcase so, White conjectured, "Offenhauser could use 183 blocks already on hand, or at least casting patterns for the Hartz engine."

With not much turnaround time, Offenhauser had the first midget engine ready in time for Curly Wetteroth to place it in his midget chassis and subsequently hand the completed car off to Curly Mills for its debut in late September 1934. Mills not only won that race, he also reportedly won his next 16 races.

Though the five total engines he built that first year seems like small potatoes, he charged about $1,100 per engine, roughly the equivalent of $20,000 today. "Fred had a healthy profit margin on them, and with the help of those midget sales, the firm cleared $18,000 for the year," White wrote. "They kept him in business."

Perhaps just as importantly, the midget engine sales -- White counted at least 180 during the time that Offenhauser ran the company -- allowed Offenhauser to develop the larger engines that would go on to dominate Indy and many other forms of motorsport for decades to come.

When Offenhauser decided to retire shortly after the end of World War II, Louis Meyer and Dale Drake bought out his business in 1946 and continued offering the midget engine until about 1974. While it didn't sell in great numbers -- White recorded serial numbers up to 450 or so -- it remained popular and powerful enough to warrant continued development through the decades. Meyer and Drake, in fact, sold most of their midget engines as 102-cu.in. variants and even offered the engine in displacements as large as 111 cubic inches.
---------------------------------------
I have created a 3D Model of the early 97-cu.in. version and am working on a set of plans for this historic engine.


I am building what is really a prototype of a never before built model. I am starting as is tradition with the crankcase. The crankcase is split into two halves held together with 4-40 screws hidden behind the crankcase side covers.
I started by squaring up the two work pieces in the mill, then moved them to the CNC router to machine the insides. I also machined what I am calling a "dummy crankshaft". It will allow me to check the bores in the crankcase. The crankshaft is supported at the ends by a pair of ball bearings and in the center by a bronze bush. Its fabrication was a straight forward set of operations on the lathe. I slowly brought the ball bearing surfaces to dimension to insure a tight fit. The front end of the crankshaft will hold the timing pinion and a starter dog. The rear end of the crankshaft will hold the flywheel.


Below is a photo of the top and bottom crankcase halves with the internal machining complete.


The crankcase is about 4 1/2 inches long and 2 inches wide. If you look closely you can see that the top left and bottom right screw holes have a locating hollow pin surounding the mounting screw that perfectly aligns the two crankcase halves. All of the machining on the inside, including the ball bearing holder surfaces and the locating pins, were performed in one setup. The machining time for the crankcase top was 1 hour and 32 minutes while the machining time for the bottom half was just under 2 hours.


When I machined the bottom crankcase half, I took an extra .010" off the top surface to allow for a Teflon (PTFE sheet) gasket. I then assembled the two halves with this gasket material in place. The rest of the crankcase outside machining will be performed with the two halves screwed together like this.



I plan to machine the front and rear of the crankcase next so I can test fit the dummy crankshaft. I may leave the machining of the sides and bottom of the crankcase for later as it will be easier to work with as a solid block.

More information can be found here:
https://gregsmachineshop.com/offy-build-draft/offy-build-introduction/

The process of developing the plans can be found here:
https://gregsmachineshop.com/offenhaser-model-engine-plans-development-home/offenhaser-model-engine-plans-development-intro/
« Last Edit: February 20, 2022, 08:23:26 PM by eccentric »

Online steamer

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2022, 08:32:47 PM »
This will be amazing!!    Watching along!

 :popcorn:
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Damned ijjit!

Online Vixen

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2022, 09:37:52 PM »
This looks like it will make into a fine engine. I'm following.

Mike
It is the journey that matters, not the destination

Sometimes, it can be a long and winding road

Offline 90LX_Notch

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2022, 10:41:45 PM »
What happened with the GDB4? 

-Bob
Proud Member of MEM

My Engine Videos on YouTube-
http://www.youtube.com/user/Notch90usa/videos

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2022, 11:13:40 PM »
Bob,
Still plugging away :-)

Offline RReid

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2022, 12:23:29 AM »
Great project. I'll be following along with interest as well.
Regards,
Ron

Offline Roger B

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2022, 07:33:29 AM »
Looks to be an interesting project   :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp: I will be following  :wine1:
Best regards

Roger

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #7 on: February 24, 2022, 04:56:47 PM »
Machining the Front of the Crankcase

Machining the features at the front of the crankcase requires precision because three gears and their bearings are mounted here. For the gears to mesh correctly they need to be precisely spaced from each other. The position of the front crankshaft bearing holder has already been machined and all of the features on the front need to be precisely placed with respect to it.
Below is an image of the front of the crankcase and it can be seen that there is a lot going on there.



Before starting the machining I go to the surface plate and carefully characterized all of the dimension of the assembled crankcase, using the center crankshaft hole as my master datum. I created a detailed sketch with the dimensions of the actual part, the actual size of the crankshaft bearing holder hole and its relation to all sides of the part.
Then the crankcase is mounted in the vise vertically and squared to the axis of the CNC router. I spent an afternoon checking and rechecking the alignment and touching off the part aligning it to all of the axis of the CNC router. I used the dimensioned sketch to check the alignment several ways using them to double check each other. Then I slept on it.
The next morning I rechecked the centering of the crankcase in the CNC vise, then ran the set of programs machining the front. The machining on the front took 25 minutes and the machining of the holes took another 8.



Below is a picture of the CAD model and the resulting machining of the front of the crankcase. One of the small bearing has been test fit. There is a second bearing not installed equidistant below the crankshaft.



Then I machined the two crankshaft main bearing holders, one is mounted on the front of the crankcase and another on the rear. Below I am test fitting the crankshaft ball bearing for a nice snug fit.



Then I turn the features on the outside of the bearing holder and test fit it into the crankcase, again to a nice snug fit.



Below are a couple of pictures with the dummy crankshaft installed in the engine with the two main bearing holders supporting it.




I heave a sigh of relief. The most critical features of the crankcase have been completed and I am satisfied with the precision of alignment on the different sides.

Offline eccentric

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Front Cover –

The front cover seals the front of the crankcase and houses the oil pump and three gears, the crankshaft pinion, the oil pump gear and the valve timing drive gear. The features in the front cover hold two ball bearings for the gears need to precisely align with their partner bearings on the front of the crankcase.



Machining the front cover has several challenges, the foremost is aligning features on both the front and back sides. A secondary challenge is the tight quarters and fine details on the front face of the cover. The mating surface of the crankcase was machined in one setup, so the bearing holding features and the mounting holes for the front cover are well aligned. I will do the same on the front cover, machine the bearing features and the mounting holes in the back in one set up. Then I will load a piece of fixture stock in the mill, and machine holes matching the eight mounting screw holes in the front cover. I will then screw the front cover front side up with four of the screws, and machine as much as I can. Then I will put in the other four screw, remove the first set of four screws, and machine the balance of the front cover.

Below, the inside of the front cover is being machined. This is a straight forward set of operations because they are essentially a copy of the set performed on the front of the crankcase.



Below is an image of the finished inside machining.



I then use a band saw to remove most of the material on the front side of the cover, following up on the mill to provide an accurate surface to start with on the CNC router.



A fixture block is loaded into the CNC router vise. I perform a finishing operation on the top to flatten it and provide a known surface with respect to the CNC Z axis. Then the six mounting holes are machined and tapped. One of the holes was used as the X and Y axis zero set points and the top surface becomes the Z axis zero set point.



Below the roughing pass begins



I used a 1/4 flat end mill for initial roughing and machining of the horizontal flat surfaces. Then I used a 3/16ths ball end mill to machine the curved outer surfaces, and finally a 1/8 inch ball end mill to create the fillets around all of the features. I either used a dull 1/8th inch ball end mill, or did not properly match the spindle speed with the surface speed, but I was disappointed in the finish of the radius operation. Oh, and I hit the screw holes with a 3/16th flat end mill to create the counter sinks.



Below is the front cover mounted on the front of the engine.




The engine is smaller than the pictures let on.....

Offline Art K

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Making very good progress! I've got Ron's book and have most of the engine drawn in Alibre. But that's as far as I've gotten. To many projects not enough time.
Art
"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you" B.B. King

Offline Roger B

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Getting the magneto shelf there looks a lot of effort but it paid off  :ThumbsUp:  :ThumbsUp:  :wine1: I assume the original part was a casting.
Best regards

Roger

Offline eccentric

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Cylinder Block

The cylinder block forms the water jacket around the cylinder sleeves. It is a block of aluminum with most of the material machined away, then a lot of holes are drilled in addition to the bores for the cylinder sleeves. There are two side covers that mount to the sides of the block sealing the water jacket.

The block is shown in blue in the image below:



It was going to take two hours on the CNC Router to machine out all of the aluminum from the inside of the block, so I decided to use a drill bit and an end mill on the manual mill. I started by drilling 1/4″ pilot holes, then followed up with a 7/16th drill bit to remove the majority of the material. Then an end mill squared up the pocket. Finally I hit the corners on both sides with a 1/16th end mill for the small radii needed there to clear some screw heads.



On the CNC router, I machined as much as I could from the top of the block including the cylinder sleeve bores, then drilled the few holes on the bottom of the block by hand. I made the block with an extra .010″ of material on one side for some reason, and then touched off the bottom holes and the top holes on different sides of the block by accident. So the holes on the bottom are offset to one side by .010″ Fortunately I have not drilled the matching holes in the crankcase and can offset them by the same amount and no harm no foul.

An interesting feature of the Offy block is the taper in the sides. Instead of machining a custom fixture I simply clamped the block in the mill vise with a spacer so I could machine off the required .065″ from the bottom of the block and taper it to 0.0″ at the top. I used an indicator to insure my clamping was correct.



Then I ran an end mill around the edge.



Below the block sits on the crankcase in its intended position:



The block weighs just a wiff of what the squared up work piece did. I still have to drill and tap 64 holes for the 0-80 screws that secure the side covers. I will machine and drill the side covers, then match drill the holes in the block to insure good alignment. The side covers need to be flush with all sides of the block.

Offline RReid

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Quote
An interesting feature of the Offy block is the taper in the sides.
Does that taper in the sides have any function?
Regards,
Ron

Offline eccentric

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Ron,

The taper in the sides of the block, and the tapers that are a featue of the crankcase, really just boild down to making the engine as light as possible.  The width of the head dictates the width of the block at the top, but the width at the bottom can be less, so the material was removed.  This is a racing engine and every pound saved is important.  Of course, since these were castings in the real engine, saving weight also saved money.

Offline eccentric

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Offy – Cylinder Head
The cylinder head is one of the most complex parts in the engine.  It has coolant passages, oil passages, not to mention the intake and exhaust ports.  The camboxes mount to the head and so its dimensions dictate how well the timing gears mesh.



I start with machining the internal features including the coolant passages and the coolant cavities.  The coolant passages connect the coolant water pipe flanges with the internal coolant cavities.  The coolant passages are drilled the long way through the head, they are .150″ in diameter, so drilling the 2″ from both ends to meet in the middle is relatively easy.



The coolant cavities are machined into the head with a 1/4″ roughing end mill.



Three small matching cavities covers are made from 1/8″ aluminum sheet.



The caps are secured in place with high temperature structural adhesive.


I set the adhesive aside to cure for a day and then fly cut the head top to final dimension.


I am happy with the way the sealed coolant cavities turned out. No one will know about them but us.


I drill the four spark plug holes.


Then I begin machining the bottom of the head.


Once the conical combustion changers are machined on the CNC router, it is back to the manual mill to spot drill, drill and tap the holes on the bottom side of the head.


The holes match up nicely with the mating ones in the cylinder block.


Then the head is flipped on its side and the intake and exhaust ports are drilled.


Then back to the CNC Router to machine the features on the top of the head, the water flanges and spark plug wells.


Below are a couple of pictures of the squared head with the features machined on all sides.


Can you see where the internal coolant cavities were sealed with the coolant covers?


But the fun has only just begun.  I need to machine four facets into the head for the camboxes and the intake/exhaust manifolds.  Before I can move forward on these I need to machine some fixtures to hold the head so I can machine off the corners.  Remember, it is supposed to look like this:


Stay tuned for part 2…….

Offline propforward

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Amazing work - heck of a project.

 :praise2:
Stuart

Forging ahead regardless.

Offline Admiral_dk

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Very impressive  :praise2:

Still following your amazin build   :cheers:   :popcorn:

Per

Offline eccentric

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Offy – Cylinder Head – Part 2
Cylinder Head – Part 2

In this second installment describing the machining of the head, I show the steps to machine the two non-vertical/horizontal surfaces–the face the intake and exhaust manifolds mount to, and the face the cambox mounts to.

First I use the CNC router to machine the two bevel surfaces on each side.  Why not use the router to complete the machining on these beveled sides?  I couldn’t given the limitations of my little CNC router.  The work piece is 4.125″ long and the vise on the CNC router can only open to 4″.  My mill vise to larger, but I can’t use it on the CNC router because it is too tall and I don’t have enough Zed clearance. I reasoned that this part needs to be clamped from the ends since these are the only two vertical surfaces the vise can bear against.  I looked at a couple of fixtures, but the rotational forces of clamping the part would result in an unreliable work holding situation.

I can probably manual mill the features faster anyway.  I decide to start with the simpler face first, the manifold mounting surfaces.  The four port holes were machined in an earlier step, so already exist.  There are only the 7 threaded holes for mounting the exhaust/intake manifolds and the 4 holes for the pins securing the valve cages.  These are shown below.



I have been creating the drawings for the parts as I build and machine them; this way I can find issues with the print.  I find a couple of missing dimensions and hole callouts.


There is a fixture required to align the beveled surface I am working on.  I decide to 3D print it.  the fixture carries light loads during the milling operation and no clamping force.  Designing and printing the fixture part is much quicker than using a piece of aluminum for a one off fixture.


I do not rely on the plastic fixture alone.  An indicator is used to verify and tweak the clamping to insure the surface is properly aligned with the mill table. You can see that a sheet of notebook paper was used as a shim to bring the part in perfect alignment.  I use a square to confirm perpendicularity and an aluminum rod on the moveable vise jaw to insure only the primary face of the vise jaw is aligning the part.

As mentioned before the four large port holes were drilled in an earlier operation.


Once the part is secure in the vise and aligned to the mill, spot drilling, drilling and tapping the holes is routine.


Machining the cambox face is more complex because in addition to drilling and tapping holes, I need to drill and ream the large holes for the valve cages, then machine the oil collection channel.


All of the machining on the head prior to today’s operations used the center of the part as the origin.  This way any variation in the outside dimensions of the part will be spread evenly on all sides.  If you look at the print in the picture above, you can see all the dimensions are referenced to edges.  This could result in slight miss alignment as tolerances would be biased to one side.  I realized this before I machined the Cambox surface and created the print using the center of the surface as the datum.  I doesn’t really matter what is used as a datum as long as the machining operation on all of the faces use the same ones.

Below I spot drill the four holes for the valve cages.


Then drill them undersize.


Then ream them to final size.


Then the threaded holes that secure the Cambox are spot drilled.


Drilled….


I use a 3/8″ roughing mill to machine the 3/8″ oil trough.  I would prefer to have used a finishing end mill..but I don’t have one.





There is one final operation cutting the oil trough from end to end with a 3/16″ flat end mill.


Finally I tap the threaded holes.


Then flip the part over and repeat for the other side.


Offline Roger B

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Splendid  :praise2:  :praise2:  :wine1:
Best regards

Roger

Offline Kim

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Excellent explanation of your setups and order of operation.  I'm enjoying following along with your build.  :popcorn: :popcorn:
Kim

Offline eccentric

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Offy – Timing Gear Tower
The timing gear tower houses the majority of the timing gears and is mounted on the front of the engine as shown below.


The timing tower assembly consists of a front and rear half, each holding 6 ball bearings for the gear shafts. The quality of the gear mesh is determined by the alignment and precision of the gear tower inside machining which includes not only the bearing positions, but the alignment of the screws holding the assembly together.  For this reason, all of the inside machining of both halves was done first and done in a single set up.   There is a fair amount of machining required on the outside face of the timing gear tower front half.  This was done as a secondary operation with the work piece mounted on a fixture using the screws for alignment to the rear features.


Inside Detail of the timing gear tower assembly

I start with the inside of the rear timing tower first as the back of the part is flat with minimal machining.  Then I perform basically the same machining on the inside of the front timing tower.


Once the machining is complete on the inside of the rear gear tower, I secure it face up on a fixture block that has been prepared by machining flat and the screw holes drilled and tapped.


Since I needed to machine the complete front face of the gear tower, I had to machine in two separate operations because the securing screws were in the way.  I secured the part to the fixture with four screws as shown in the photo, machined half, then moved the mounting screws to the area just machined and completed the secondary operation.


I had an error in my tool path and I crashed the end mill into the part, this resulted in a blemish on the face of the finished piece.

Machining of the face was accomplished with a 1/4″ end mill, a 3/16″ ball end mill and a 1/8″ ball end mill.


Likewise when I machined the countersinks for the mounting screws, I had to move the screws around so the work piece remained firmly mounted.


Below is an inside view of the two gear tower halves.




I will finish the part with bead blasting and then hand sanding to give it a used cast aluminum look, like I did on the front cover.  When asked about the blemish, I explain that I machined a Carnation flower into the face as a sort of makers mark.


Offline eccentric

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Offy – Block Side Plates/Crankcase Sides
Machining the sides of the crankcase was straight forward, but a little nerve wracking as the number of hours invested has grown and the anxiety of messing up has increased proportionately.  Below the crankcase is being rough machined.  The crankcase is assembled with the dummy crankshaft, bearings and most importantly the crankcase gaskets.

Notice how the crankcase is mounted in the vise.  The datums being used are the top of the crankcase flat against the primary vise jaw, the forward face of the crankcase covered in layout fluid, and the opposite side of the crankcase mounted down flat against the vise.  An aluminum round is used to press the crankcase top against the primary vise jaw to insure this datum is in alignment with the mill.



Below the  ball end mill has completed the finish milling of the crankcase side and an 1/16″ end mill is being used to “drill” the holes for the crankcase breather plate mounting holes.



There are two cylinder block covers that mount to both sides of the block.  The one on the left side is simply a flat finned plate, but the one on the right has a small water jacket pocket and the fitting for the water flange.  After machining the features on the surface, I spot drill the mounting holes.  I have not had good luck actually drilling holes on my small CNC router, there is not enough Z height to get a drill chuck mounted.  I kludged one up using a standard drill chuck in a collet, but the run out was atrocious.   So, for small holes I spot drill, then final drill on the mill, or for larger holes I will simply mill them out with an end mill.



The block side plates are held in place with a large number of 0-80 socket head cap screws, I drill the .070″ holes with the side plate mounted in its final position on the block in the mill vise.  That is, I match drill the holes in the side plates and the block at the same time.  I had to be sure to install the .020″ head gasket and the .010″ block to crankcase gasket to insure the spacing was correct.  I tap the holes in the block and I drill out the holes in the side plates to a .089″ clearance size.




Above is a picture of the engine as it stands now.

Offline Admiral_dk

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Looks really good - you should be happy so far  :ThumbsUp:

Per

Offline Zephyrin

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Hi,
impressive model so far, clever and instructive machining setups, great thread !
the recessed bolts on the lower crankcase half would require some patience to install !

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #24 on: October 03, 2022, 12:42:02 AM »
Offy – Crankshaft

Time for the crankshaft.  I start by stress relieving the steel in the heat treat oven.  I heat it to 1150 degrees for two hours, then let it furnace cool over night.


Notice in the image below that the compound has been replaced by a simple steel plate.  The compound is the least rigid element in my bench top lathe and replacing it with this plate really helps the surface finish quality.


I remove most of the material on the mill, chain drilling and edge milling.





When machining a crankshaft by turning it on centers, there is a fair amount of force created by the tail stock holding the work piece between centers.  This is important as it registers the crankshaft to the center and the live center for repeatable concentric machining. I have found that the spacers used to transfer this force between the crank webs must be accurately machined to be a close fit.  Too tight and the spacers actually open up the webs while the crank is machined, which springs back once the spacers are removed.  Too loose and the opposite happens–in either case the machined journals are not co-linear with each other. Also the interrupted cut can tweak the crankshaft as well, so small cuts are in order, even when roughing out the crankshaft.  Each spacers shown below are custom machined on the mill for each crank web and are labeled so they can be returned to the correct position.

The ball bearing can be seen test fit on its main end journal.


Below I am test fitting the crankshaft in the crankcase.  The red Dykem is used to highlight any areas of interference.


Below is the crankshaft with the major lathe work completed. It is next to the dummy crnakshaft I have been using up to this point.


Below I am drilling the lightning holes through the center of the rod journals.  These will have their ends caped and be part of the internal crankshaft oil system.


Below is a cross section of the crankshaft showing how oil is delivered to the connecting rod big ends.  Oil is delivered to the center crankshaft main bushing under pressure. Note that the ends of the big lightning holes through the conrod big end journals will be capped at each end.


To drill the diagonal oil gallery, the starting position of the hole is spot drill with the crankshaft horizontal at the specified point.


Then the crankshaft is held at the specific angle and the beginning of the hole is spot drilled again.  Finally, the hole is drilled through.


Then I machine the keyway for the timing gear placed at TDC for cylinder #1. Indicated by the red arrow.





The crankshaft is in good enough condition to allow the test assembly of the rest of the engine.  At some point I will need to clean the crank really well and cap the large lightning holes.

Offline A7er

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #25 on: October 03, 2022, 08:27:03 AM »
Very interesting. I haven't made anything like this yet, so I hope this isn't a silly question. Why did you make the crankshaft from a solid  bar rather than several pieces fixed together?

Lee

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #26 on: October 03, 2022, 01:44:41 PM »
Great work -> fine crank  :praise2: + detailed description on how ou did it  :ThumbsUp:

Per

Offline Mcgyver

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #27 on: October 03, 2022, 03:49:51 PM »
very nice work....thanks for all the photos and thorough coverage!

Offline Roger B

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #28 on: October 03, 2022, 04:57:54 PM »
Excellent  :praise2:

What tool did you use to turn the crankshaft journals?
Best regards

Roger

Offline AlexS

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #29 on: October 03, 2022, 06:11:56 PM »
Great cnc and conversional work! Like the oil holes in the crankshaft and coolant cavities build in the head. Will the oil pump be gear type? I am wondering how your setup is to regulate the pressure!

Keep up great work

Offline jirvin_4505

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #30 on: October 04, 2022, 09:18:43 AM »
Amazingly detailed work. Thanks for the description of the processes

Cheers Jeff

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #31 on: October 12, 2022, 04:00:53 PM »
Roger,

I used a "serpent's tounge" shaped tool on the  journals. I ground a cutter from a piece of HSS as shown below. The intent was a broad faced tool at exactly 90 degrees to its length, with a radius on each side and a notch in the middle to reduce the amount of the tool in contact with the work piece. I have generous reliefs on the face and sides.  I get a fair amount of chatter because of the amount of tool stickout, so I run the lathe slow (250 RPM) on the final passes. I go in with the tool and then work it back and forth until no more material is being removed.  With a tool of this shape it is hard to get it perfectly lined up with the work piece.  I will use dykem on the journal then move the tool back and forth removing a small amount of material, then measure the journal diameter across its length with a micrometer.  If the tool is not exactly straight on, one side will be a bit smaller than theother, and I will adjust the tool until I get equal measurements on the full length of the journal.  I hope that makes sense.

Lee,

I made the crank as a single piece becasue that is the way I made the crank on my first IC engine, Westbury's Kiwi MK2.  Not a great reason.  I have only silver soldered once, with mixed results.  I will silver solder the exhaust and intake, we will see how that goes.  This four cylinder engine has the pistons offset in pairs and is naturally balanced and does not need counter weights as a pair of conrods opposes the other pair.

Alex,

Yes the oil pump will be gear type without any regulation.  We'll see how that works.


« Last Edit: October 12, 2022, 04:11:19 PM by eccentric »

Offline Roger B

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #32 on: October 12, 2022, 07:37:33 PM »
Thank you  :) After various experiments I have moved on to using an insert parting tool with a width of 2.2mm. As you say it has to be set square. This was making the 360° crankshaft for my 12cc twin.
Best regards

Roger

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #33 on: October 12, 2022, 10:54:21 PM »
Roger, looks good.  does the parting tool have enough radius at the two sides?  Don't want too sharp of corners there.  [edit] I zoomed into your picture and the radius looks nice.

Offline eccentric

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #34 on: October 19, 2022, 10:05:03 PM »
Offy – First Gear
The Offy has a lot of gears in the timing gear train and I want to have the gear tower populated before I fabricate the camboxes to insure I have the proper gear mesh between the gears in the gear tower and the camshaft gears.  This sequence is how I make gears.

I make a sacrificial gear arbor in the lathe, putting grooves as shown for the super glue to seep into.



I cut the blank from the mother material, in this case brass, center punch the center.  I super glue the blank to the arbor, using a live center in the tail stock to center and put pressure on the glue joint.



Once the super glue is cured, I drill the shaft hole under size and ream to the shaft diameter, in this case 5mm.


I don’t completely trust super glue in this application so I also use a screw, not to center but to secure.  So I drill and tap for a 10-32 screw.


I turn the blank OD down to size.  In this case we are making a 54 tooth .5 Module gear with an OD of 28mm.

The CNC is used to cut the teeth.  If anyone is interested, I can provide the Gcode file to do this, it is quite simple.


After the teeth are cut, I turn the gear again on the lathe bringing the OD back down to the proper size.  The gear cutter throws up burrs that are removed in this way.  The gear is faced and the .5mm X 7mm spigot is machined.


I heat the gear and pop it off of the arbor. The arbor is refaced and a pocket is machined to match the spigot.


The gear is again super glued into place using the spigot and tail stock to align the gear to the center of the lathe.


Again a screw is used to secure the gear to the arbor and the gear is turned down to final thickness.  The screw is removed and the spigot is carefully turned down, I remove .005″ of material at a time so I don’t bust the super glue joint.


I lightly touch the teeth edges with a file to remove burrs created from the facing operation, but not much, I want to maximize the tooth engagement surface area.  Finally I clean up the teeth with a piece of folded 600 grit sandpaper to clear the last of the burrs from the teeth.





Offline crueby

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #35 on: October 19, 2022, 10:26:42 PM »
Excellent work on some very small gear teeth!
 :popcorn: :popcorn:

Offline Admiral_dk

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Re: Offenhauser Inline 4 cylinder, Might Midget Model Engine Build, 1:4 Scale
« Reply #36 on: October 20, 2022, 10:57:42 AM »
Great way to make tiny Gears - thank you for showing  :ThumbsUp:   :cheers:

Per

 

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