Required reading for Gasoline Model engine design. Any reccomendations?

[Dan Dubeau]

I'm starting to bit by the engine bug, and have built up the capabilities in my home shop enough now I want to be able to design, cast, and machine one eventually.

I'm looking for some good books and reference material that anyone considers must reads, to build up some foundational knowledge. I have a decent working knowledge of engines. I have worked on a few small engines over the years (lawnmower, gocarts, etc), rebuilt carbs, set timing/points etc, rebuilt chainsaws etc, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert, or even have an advanced level of knowledge. Just enough to get me by I'd say (or get me in trouble.....).

My interests right now pertain only to gas engines, 2/4 stroke, not steam, or hit n miss, but if there's any good books on other subject material that you may think would cross over I'd love to hear too.

Even a bar stock kit to start from or another gateway drug you'd recommend I'm all ears. I've looked into the Stuart models to build a kit, but aside from the draw in the name (My sons name, but spelled different) they really don't turn my crank all that much. But might be coerced into building one just because. My ultimate goal would be to build working scale replicas of motorcycle engines of past GP bikes, to give you an idea of the direction I'd like to head in.

Any "bibles of model engine design", or other books you guys would consider top 5? I'd like to start chipping away at this now for next winters project.

Thanks.

[Doozer]

Audell's 1938 Automotive Manual
talks a lot about the 4 stroke cycle
and valve events associated with
crank rotation.

-Doozer

[Captain K]

The Phillip Duclos books from Village press have lots of different engines plus a bunch of other interesting stuff. We’ll worth their cost

[sid pileski]

I'm starting to bit by the engine bug, and have built up the capabilities in my home shop enough now I want to be able to design, cast, and machine one eventually.

I'm looking for some good books and reference material that anyone considers must reads, to build up some foundational knowledge. I have a decent working knowledge of engines. I have worked on a few small engines over the years (lawnmower, gocarts, etc), rebuilt carbs, set timing/points etc, rebuilt chainsaws etc, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert, or even have an advanced level of knowledge. Just enough to get me by I'd say (or get me in trouble.....).

My interests right now pertain only to gas engines, 2/4 stroke, not steam, or hit n miss, but if there's any good books on other subject material that you may think would cross over I'd love to hear too.

Even a bar stock kit to start from or another gateway drug you'd recommend I'm all ears. I've looked into the Stuart models to build a kit, but aside from the draw in the name (My sons name, but spelled different) they really don't turn my crank all that much. But might be coerced into building one just because. My ultimate goal would be to build working scale replicas of motorcycle engines of past GP bikes, to give you an idea of the direction I'd like to head in.

Any "bibles of model engine design", or other books you guys would consider top 5? I'd like to start chipping away at this now for next winters project.

Thanks.

First and foremost, are you looking to build, design and build, or research, design and build?
Each of those paths have some commonality, but length of the trip, I think, would be different.
There are many good, free, proven plans out there that can be built with no castings.
There are many proven casting designs available.
There are also for $ proven plans available. Again not needing castings.
I don’t have any books necessarily to recommend.
There is so much free info on the web to read and take in that you’d never get in the shop to make anything.

Do you have CAD capability?
Plans/part files can be downloaded.

Sid

[Dan Dubeau]

Audell's 1938 Automotive Manual
talks a lot about the 4 stroke cycle
and valve events associated with
crank rotation.

-Doozer

Perfect, thank you. The 4 cycle engine has been around a long time, I really want to familiarize my self more with the hows and whys, of what happens during each cycle so that I'm not designing blind. How that scales down in size and what concessions might need to be taken is a concern too, but actually understanding the fundamentals is big part of the goal here.

[Dan Dubeau]

The Phillip Duclos books from Village press have lots of different engines plus a bunch of other interesting stuff. We’ll worth their cost

Thank you, I'll look into it.

[RB211]

The Tiny 4 is a set of plans I purchased. Looks like a good beginners engine, although none of these are for beginners.

[Dan Dubeau]

First and foremost, are you looking to build, design and build, or research, design and build?
Each of those paths have some commonality, but length of the trip, I think, would be different.
There are many good, free, proven plans out there that can be built with no castings.
There are many proven casting designs available.
There are also for $ proven plans available. Again not needing castings.
I don’t have any books necessarily to recommend.
There is so much free info on the web to read and take in that you’d never get in the shop to make anything.

Do you have CAD capability?
Plans/part files can be downloaded.

Sid

My goal is just not to follow a kit blindly. I want to understand how and why things are done the way they are done, so I can use that knowledge to design my own engine, have it run, and be able to tune it to run efficiently, not just look cool on a shelf. An engine is pretty basic thing. Suck in an appropriate air/fuel mixture, compress it a certain amount, introduce a spark at a certain point of the cycle and you have an explosion that bring you around to do it all over again. I understand that part, but the devil is in the details, and there are a TON of variables of each point in that cycle. I want to learn more about them, and what effects they have on each other part of the cycle etc. Not sure if I'm explain that right?

Ya, the web is full of all the info and you could google for days (and I have at various times over the years and it sends my spinning in all different directions), which is why I asked here amongst you accomplished builders/designers if you had to narrow down your book shelf or reference library to the essentials what would they be.

Yes, pretty capable in the cad/cam/machining side of it. Do you have any plans/kits you'd recommend that would build some foundational knowledge along the way, instead of just, build this part to this plan, and mount it here, sort of thing. That's what I'm trying to avoid.

[sid pileski]

As far as a simple, reliable IC engine to start with, I would look into Hamilton Upshur's engines.
Well designed.
I built three of them. Sold one, gave one away, and the remaining one, I can take down off the shelf, put some gas in it and off she goes,

[sid pileski]

This engine uses an atmospheric intake.
Readily available gears (if you don't want to cut your own)
Simple to build, but all of the essentials are there, out in the open.

https://i.imgur.com/HmEYlDV.mp4

[brian Rupnow]

A great first engine from bar stock is the Webster. It is a four cycle engine. Plans are a free download, there are about a million build threads on it, and it is an easy build.---Brian

[Dan Dubeau]

This engine uses an atmospheric intake.
Readily available gears (if you don't want to cut your own)
Simple to build, but all of the essentials are there, out in the open.

https://i.imgur.com/HmEYlDV.mp4

Beautiful looking model Sid, do the plans go into some theory of the hows and why's it's built that way, or is it just a "stick to the plan and you'll get a running engine", kind of plan like some others I've looked at over the years (who's names escape me at the moment)

I've never cut a gear. Done lots of 4 and 5th axis programing CNCs over the years though . I've setup and used a dividing head exactly once (maybe twice?) in my career for parts (before we got the 4th axis CNC). Just never had the need to cut a gear, but would like to learn. Another facet of this trade that is as deep as it is wide.

I have 3d printed gears though but we've established here those aren't actually gears..... Not going to dig up THAT argument again....

[Dan Dubeau]

A great first engine from bar stock is the Webster. It is a four cycle engine. Plans are a free download, there are about a million build threads on it, and it is an easy build.---Brian

I've seen the Webster. I'm pretty sure I've even downloaded the plans once or twice over the years too lol. Not exactly what I'm looking for, but just might build on to get my feet wet.

[strokersix]

C.F. Taylor's "Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice" both volumes 1 and 2 are the best in my opinion.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/internal-combustion-engine-theory-and-practice-second-edition-revised-volume-2

[RB211]

C.F. Taylor's "Internal Combustion Engine in Theory and Practice" both volumes 1 and 2 are the best in my opinion.

https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/internal-combustion-engine-theory-and-practice-second-edition-revised-volume-2

Just bought both volumes used for very little