Bugatti T57/59 Engine Project

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Talked with Michael Anderson from the Bugatti Club Australia a few months back. Good guy to talk to.

Heres a copy of the article for those interested.

 

Originally published in The Bugatti Bulletin Vol 73, August 2021. Reproduced with the kind permission of Bugatti Club Australia Inc.

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Chassis update. 

My Dads been working away on this in his spare time. Many press tools, dies, hammering and probably injuries later a chassis rail is formed!

 

Looks like the real deal! Pretty impressive.

 

The other side should be a lot easier, so he says 















This is how you make a 40Ton backyard press to do some final tweaking.

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Chassis update:

I managed to make it back to NZ for a bit, a couple of months ago, to have a go at this chassis building thing my Dads been raving about! Turns out it is actually hard work!

 

Hes just finished both rails!

 

I just got a bunch of machined parts done. Spring mounts and braces that go between the rails.

 

Just have two sheetmetal braces to figure out then all of it can be bolted/riveted together (with a few more holes and some tweaking I'm sure!)

 

 

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Bit of an update as requested. See Discussion thread for a 'Life' update.

My dad finished a second set of chassis rails (gotta both have a car right!) They were actually done close to a year ago now! Time flies!

I came across some original Bugatti drum brake backings and pads. Not sure if theyll be useful but atleast theyre a cool to have.

Finished a lot of proper detailed CAD on the front end. Wheels, hubs, axles, springs, hangers.

The wheels are 8 main pieces, big radial spline onto the rim. They dont look easy to make!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Got a lot of CAD done this winter.

 

Radiator:

 

Diff/Axle Rear end assembly. Just external.

 

Fuel Tank:

 

Bulkhead/Steering:

 

Gearbox: External

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The body work was difficult. Far from complete but the overall dimensions are now 'close to' correct. 

 

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Its looking more like a car now!

 

 

 

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Type59 Engine.

Its a little different to the T57. Not as tall.

The crankcase and sump seem a bit easier to make.

 

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Dads finished up a radiator shell. Looking great.

The original cores are made from hex flared tube to make a honey comb bundle which is all soldered together. There are about 5000 tubes!

The plan is to make a false tube core /front but use a custom aluminium multi pass radiator to work as the real radiator.

It will be nickel plated once the core brackets are figured out and any other tweaks.

 

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Dad finished up radiator shell number 2. Looking great.

 

 

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Bit of an update.

Moved back from the US at the end of 2024. Been settling in to the new place with a big shed!

My 20ft container of workshop turned up a month or so ago so Ive been setting things up.

















 

Its Art Deco this week and I had the opportunity to drive a T43 down from up north. Unfortunately we had some diff issues on the Napier Taupo road, but we wont talk about that!






Having a few of the Bugatti guys over to look at the workshop over the week.







The highlight of the weekend was the unveiling of Tom Andrews T57 Atlantic. The guys working on that have done and amazing job!

Fun fact the very first cylinder block I cast/machined is running in the this car. So that’s an honour!

 

 

 

 

 

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Had Ivan Dutton and Suzie come over to have a look at the project. Hes a bit of a 'legend' in the Bugatti world and Im sure many of you know him from his ShedRacing Youtube.

They did a bit of a walk around from ~29.00 timestamp.

 

 

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Have a couple of full sets of valve gear now. Valves, springs, retainers, guides.

Dad machined up 2 sets of guides. Just need to ream them to suit inlet/exhaust clearance etc

Fitted out the small shed as the 'foundry/pattern making' shed.

Getting back into sand making with a new foundry which is exciting. We just made 4 cylinder block halves and starting on the water jacket and cylinder cores at home now.

Im hoping to have them all assembled next week and head up to Auckland to cast them. The plan is to machine inhouse so I might need a couple to get it right! 

 

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Its been a busy couple of weeks getting the whole sand making process up and going again.

Got 2 cylinder block mould assemblies off to the foundry and poured yesterday.

Now that I no longer live in Auckland I have to head up to Hamilton to make sand, take it home to assemble, then go across to Palmy to pour. Massive gamble driving sand moulds for hours on NZ roads but they survived and I have 2 great castings! Pretty stoked 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cleaned them up today.

Did a bunch of inspection and measuring and I havnt found any issues. Really happy with the results. 

Not going to jump straight into machining them. Going to go hardout on all the castings. Will do the T59 sump next.

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Starting on the sump patterns.

Using the big printer for the basic parts and the small more accurate printer for the loose sections. The small printer is good enough for keyways so Im gluing in keyway sections to the rougher/bigger print.

It should save me a lot of work because the big printer is really quite rough and takes a lot of finishing.

 

 

So this finer print will be bonded into the big print.

 

Onto the second half now. Its a 35hr print.

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38hrs later the second half is done.

The new extruder is way more reliable, since its extruding at 0.8mm nozzle and 0.5mm layer heights. But the trade off is its quite a bit rougher. Ill take that over failing prints any day though! Fill it with bog!

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Printed the runner system.

The foundry is suggesting trying some insulated internal feeders/risers.

I struggled to feed the 57 Sump and ended up with a big runner system so I like the idea of feeders that stay liquid for longer. The gates are always the smallest area/mass so they shut off quickly, then the casting starts to shrink and needs to pull metal from somewhere. If it cant itll tear or the top of the casting acts as the feeder and pulls down messing up your dimensions.

 

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Inner core patterns designed and all printed.

Now to bog and paint them! It takes a lot of finishing!

 

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Sump inner and outer patterns basically finished.

The interlocking/keyway loose pieces seem to fit quite well. We'll see if they come out of the sand ok!

If they do then the entire sump mould assembly will only be 2 pieces of sand (though about 80kg a piece!)

 

Outer Mould Pattern

Inner Mould Pattern