engine building 101 reading material required

[cute wee gem]

You may not need to get shit made. It all depends on what you want out of it, until you actually know the answer to that, then you're fucked.

Deck height is piston top to top of block. i.e if your piston is flush with the top of the bore your deck height = 0

[Ned]

Again, its an example, and a poor one at that as I know the terminology so I can just Google it.

And I know I might not need to get shit made, but to find a suitable piston, I need to know how one specs a piston and to do that I need to know how to spec compression and to know that I need to know a bunch of other crap etc so in was just hoping to get some good links to teach me the basics of engine building so I can slowly chip away at learning about stuff. Its not like I'll have the 5 to 10k to build this motor until the end of the year anyway so I have plenty of time to read up on stuff

[Toucan]

Sounds like it will require aftermarket pistons ASAP

[Spencer]

OK so now you are getting a little more specific.

If you are going to boost this thing I wouldn't do much to it man. I would say the 7K is fairly asthmatic and has a pretty low compression ration 9.0:1 or some such. K series engines are pretty stout, you will get away with feeding it 10-15psi for ages with a freshen up, bigger ring gaps and a good tune. Even boosting it as-is I bet it would hold up for ages, get a backup engine and boost it.

If you really want to go wild and chuck heaps of boost at this thing, for sure get your wallet out and get some forged pistons made up, be prepared to spend over $1000 just for the pistons. Who makes rods for these? Depending where/who they are from theres high chances they aren't much stouter than stock rods. Anyway I am rambling what exactly do you want from this motor flanders, spit it out

[Truenotch]

I think it'll be easiest if you ask the questions as they come to you Ned. The question is too complex, but it'll be much easier if you break it down.

If you're wondering what deck height is, just ask and someone will tell you. The same goes for rod ratio, compression, cam lift and duration, clearances, pistons etc.

[Ned]

I don't want you guys to spec my motor, I want to be able to do it myself. What I want from my 7k is irrelevant....

All I want is to know shit about motors so I can spec it. I won't spec it myself, I'll leave it to the engine builder to make the final call, but I want to be able to suggest things.

And I'll be going all out on this (within reason) so want to learn as much as possible.

You guys telling me what I need is nice, and will be sweet, but I want to do shit myself. I'm sick of relying on people to do shit for me all the time.

[Ned]

I think it'll be easiest if you ask the questions as they come to you Ned. The question is too complex, but it'll be much easier if you break it down.

If you're wondering what deck height is, just ask and someone will tell you. The same goes for rod ratio, compression, cam lift and duration, clearances, pistons etc.

All I was asking was to see if anyone knew of a book or video or whatever that outlined some of these things for beginners to have an idea about these things. I didnt even know a thing like rod ratio existed for example

[Truenotch]

The early suggestions make sense then. Get a book and get reading.

[Ned]

Yeah. Like I said, I'll start reading the suggested pages. If anyone has any more suggestions of good books or something, I would much appreciate a link or name or something

[Dell'orto]

There are heaps of books on TM (such as the ones posted earlier) on the subject, and they're bloody brilliant. I bought a bunch last year, and there is a ton of stuff in there that explains how/why things work the way they do.

[ta63-1uzze]

I think you need to learn how to walk before you run.

There is a lot of vodo when it come to engine building but in reality it takes about a day or 2 to remove strip clean and reassemble an engine, a k series should take not more than 10 hours they are absolutely gold to work on, so so easy.

I spent the last 15 years of my life being a mechanic, and there is so much shit that you don’t have to know because you don’t need to use it every day . There is also a fuck load of stuff you have to know to be able to do your job properly and its never ending, every day I learn something new. but in saying that you don’t need to know every last specification of your motor, even if you could learn every aspect of building a engine and making it hotted up you still wont be able to do it at home and you will need an engine builder to do things like overbore blocks, skim heads, vacuum test valves ect. . .

I am trying not to be too negative as I don’t want this to come across as a put down, but there is a reason that engine builders are around, they are there to make sure the final clearances are correct, to make sure the compression ratio is what it needs to be, that the cam height isn’t to harsh for the valve springs used. There is a whole trade based upon building engine and that is because it can take a life time to learn all this shit.

My honest opinion is k series motor is one of the most simplest and easiest motors to work on, and if you want to build an engine and learn all that goes with it, buy the Haynes manual and an old motor and do what the book tells you, all the information that you will need to know is in the book, now if you need to machine blocks, cc the pistons ect that is what engine builders do, you can’t get around not needing them when building a modified engine. You also don’t need to know how to do their job , that is what they are there for , you tell them what you want to accomplish and they make it happen. Almost like getting your car painted, you know the colour they do the work.

It only takes a couple hours to build an engine, 90 per cent of the time is cleaning painting and making it look nice, the last couple hours are actually putting it together, so go get a motor pull it apart and slowly clean everything. Then get a book. sit down and read it, then put the thing together. When you get stuck then ask us a question. Otherwise what your asking is imposable, almost like “tell me your trade, but not all of it just the bits I need to know”. : p ?

[Chrome_GT]

Hi. I'm particularly interested in British motors Ford OHC, Mini A Series Engines etc. I've found David Vizards books quite good (Ford SOHC, Mini & BL Series). They'll give you a good all round understanding of things which can be done. As someone said above details may change with Jappa motors but maybe a good intro is what you need before worrying about details.

https://www.google.c...iw=1851&bih=995

I learnt most of the stuff while doing an aircraft mechanic course with Air NZ as the tutors would go off in tangents when we discussed Piston Engines Are there any cheap courses at Polytech that do an engine rebuild over a couple weeks? You can guarantee the tutor and other students will discuss potential mods while you are rebuilding the bog standard motor.

[BDA780]

Pretty late to this thread but I have a book/info that may help.

I have a book and notes on engine theory from my  Internal Combustion Engine class last year which may help.

Also my dad's been building competition engines for 30 or so years and can answer any specific questions you have.

I'll see what books he reccomends too.

[Ned]

Tjanks man

[vivaspeed]

Ned, you probably got enough help in previous posts, but agree that anything from David Vizard is good reading, but also this book doesn't seem to have been suggested.

 

It's an interesting read.

 

[Borgweiser]

Fifth and final recommendation for a Dave Vizard book, read the Pinto one and decide to drop a real motor in..!