Model engines

[I make chips]

We have some amazing craftsmanship here on this forum and sadly nothing I'll ever be able to attain.
Here's another standout in Denmark.
https://www.youtube.com/user/boksermotor

[loose nut]

Lou Chenot's Deusenberg stands up as one of the best models ever built, all thought by all rights it is a very small full sized car, literally. I used to talk to him every years as he built it and did a lot of drooling. It is as perfect as one can get and the proof is that if you where the right size to fit in it you could start it up shift gears and drive it away. It is that complete. Everything works as it did on the full sized vehicle. He did have an advantage most of us didn't because he had access to original blueprints and full sized parts that he used to male his own drawings.

He was building two Liberty engines, one marine and one aircraft. I don't know what happened to them or himself. He didn't come to the latest shows back when we could. He did run one of the Liberties at a show at least once. I think that qualifies as a high performance engine.

[J Tiers]

Just to be clear......The question was ".....has anyone (presumably folks here) built an engine with high performance as a major criteria?"

Sid P. and Loose Nut answered that question, basically nobody else did directly.

The OP is satisfied, and said so a while back.

Nobody asked "CAN you build...", or "is it reasonable to build...." Several DID answer those irrelevant questions.

[Sparky_NY]

As with a lot of threads that are started the OP has a question and there are some good responses. Then there are other replies that are lets just say ridiculous.
To answer the original question, yes, a high performance model engine can be built. It follows the same criteria as their larger brethren, port shape, cam timing, type of induction and exhaust. To build a model engine and get it to work is in most cases challenging enough without adding in all the elements of high performance. A model engine is made to replicate an existing engine whether the end result being a static model or a functional one.
Can a model engine be used to power a weed eater or chain saw, absolutely, but why? Are you going to post handbills telling people that at 3:00 on Friday you're going to be using your model V-8 weed eater?
Can machinists who create model engines hold exacting tolerances? Most assuredly. Look up Lou Chenot Deusenberg and then tell me that model machinists are hacks.
gbritnell

..

Gbritnell ranks right up there in the top 10% of model engine builders as far as I am concerned. I admire his work and anyone would be well advised to pay serious attention to any of his suggestions. Go search and look at some of his engines and you will see why I say this.

I looked up Lou Chenot's Deusenberg, never seen that one before. That level of craftsmanship defies words to describe.

[gbritnell]

As with a lot of threads that are started the OP has a question and there are some good responses. Then there are other replies that are lets just say ridiculous.
To answer the original question, yes, a high performance model engine can be built. It follows the same criteria as their larger brethren, port shape, cam timing, type of induction and exhaust. To build a model engine and get it to work is in most cases challenging enough without adding in all the elements of high performance. A model engine is made to replicate an existing engine whether the end result being a static model or a functional one.
Can a model engine be used to power a weed eater or chain saw, absolutely, but why? Are you going to post handbills telling people that at 3:00 on Friday you're going to be using your model V-8 weed eater?
Can machinists who create model engines hold exacting tolerances? Most assuredly. Look up Lou Chenot Deusenberg and then tell me that model machinists are hacks.
gbritnell

..

[Sparky_NY]

Here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwPE4QT5hhw

Wow, that is one of the most impressive model builds I have ever seen, and I have looked at a LOT of them.

[3illmesmart]

Here ya go.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwPE4QT5hhw

[loose nut]

geez Doozer, you might be human after all!

"Human". Mcgyer there isn't any reason to insult the guy.

[Mcgyver]

Buffalo has a really great art gallery.
It is a great collection as well as a great building.
The building was left over from the 1901 Pam American
Exhibition. You can read about the Pan Am in one of the
volumes of Tales From Oil Country when Osborne travels
there. Anyhow, great marble building.
Double anyhow... The collection they have there has some
of the classic great artists. Picasso, Renwah, Monet, Degas,
Serrate, and a few others that I can't remember or spell.
So they say art is great because of the way it makes you feel.
Ok, well good. I am an engineer. I am logical. It feels bad
when a girl breaks up with me. But what ever. That was college.
Triple anyhow... So when I go to the Albright Knox art gallery
I really have no idea what I am looking at. An engineer, remember?
But for real, I do get some feelings from the art. Hard to explain
but the pictures trigger some pathway activity in my brain.
Really crazy combinations of emotions that I really get no where
else, and I am not sure how to interpret. Not life love-hate.
More like happy and sad and a little high all at the same time.
Not sure if you know what I am talking about. But it is a thing
that was new for me. Maybe some of you should go to an art
gallery sometime and maybe get a little drunk first. Maybe.

--Doozer

geez Doozer, you might be human after all!

You don't have a to one dimensional (and clearly you are not). Like you, a big part of my existence centres around being logical and scientific, but its just a part.

Want to see some amazing stuff? Get out to a bunch of local galleries. Go direct to the artists studio (most love this, the gallery takes up to 50%). The fun part is its all stuff we can afford....eventually you see something that just grabs you and it follows you home. Kind of like old iron.

[sid pileski]

Doozer- have you ever experienced a Huxhold??

Anyway, I understand what you are saying. I didn’t say that I don’t value artwork.
Look at some of the art created for Burning Man.
My term for that is techno art. Some of it is just incredible.
When I travel to places (with family) it was most always to a museum or some historical place.
There are other things out there than endmills and micrometers!

Sid

[J Tiers]

Yeah, for me it would be a toss-up. One of my other activities is painting. Have done portraits, landscapes etc. Both of the things mentioned would hold my interest pretty well.

[Doozer]

I do tend to believe in the artful side of things.
the things I design and build satisfy my need to create.
Think of a painting by any one of the masters.
If a highly acclaimed painting and a model that Bill Huxhold(sp?) built were displayed in a museum side by side, I know for sure what would hold my interest first, and longest.
Art is in the eye of the beholder.
Creating and machining is also in the eye of the beholder.

Sid

Buffalo has a really great art gallery.
It is a great collection as well as a great building.
The building was left over from the 1901 Pam American
Exhibition. You can read about the Pan Am in one of the
volumes of Tales From Oil Country when Osborne travels
there. Anyhow, great marble building.
Double anyhow... The collection they have there has some
of the classic great artists. Picasso, Renwah, Monet, Degas,
Serrate, and a few others that I can't remember or spell.
So they say art is great because of the way it makes you feel.
Ok, well good. I am an engineer. I am logical. It feels bad
when a girl breaks up with me. But what ever. That was college.
Triple anyhow... So when I go to the Albright Knox art gallery
I really have no idea what I am looking at. An engineer, remember?
But for real, I do get some feelings from the art. Hard to explain
but the pictures trigger some pathway activity in my brain.
Really crazy combinations of emotions that I really get no where
else, and I am not sure how to interpret. Not life love-hate.
More like happy and sad and a little high all at the same time.
Not sure if you know what I am talking about. But it is a thing
that was new for me. Maybe some of you should go to an art
gallery sometime and maybe get a little drunk first. Maybe.

--Doozer

[Daveb]

There used to be a group over here making flash steam engines for model hydroplanes, I don't know if they were artistic, they went past at 100MPH+, a bit difficult to see.

[strokersix]

A simple dynamometer and measured fuel usage would be fun as a model engine performance measure. BSFC.

How about a CFR engine model and a dyno model combination. Scale model or functional, either way would be cool.

https://www.asme.org/about-asme/engi...esearch-engine

[Bluechips]

Here are a couple of examples of what a "home" builder can accomplish along the lines of what you are asking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsV7pAKmFtc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyP7lCO6WBg&t=64s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLJ4bii0EZA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP5213NlQog

Not exactly "model" engines and definitely extreme, but useful none the less.