Hmmm interesting. Thanks for the link regarding engine balance. Completely unrelated, I thought my friend who drives an e36 was full of it when he told me inline 6 are the best balance.

 

The builder said the first two had custom billet cranks but they are trying to just weld two cranks together for this one, to see if it works. He said they are getting better and better everytime they do one, and he said if they can get away from the custom crank he could save 12k.

I was also worried about harmonics but am still super pumped to see AND HEAR it finished.

He said he has no intentions of having a complete block or heads cast, but someone did mentioned someone who could make him cores for the cam (and crank IIRC).

 

Potentially a 10.5 Liter (or larger) V12? Sign me up!

 

He said they're not actually welding the crank, rather attaching it with 8 bolts. And then they are going to push it to see what breaks first. Definitely interested in those results.

 

In for inevitable engine dyno carnage

 

Hardly the same, but I remember reading in Hot Rod magazine 80 or 90 years ago how somebody was taking small black Chevy heads and cutting/welding them to install on Chevy inline 6's.

That's when I started my hunt for the rare Chevy II (daddy to the Nova) with an inline 4, yes 4 cylinder engine. Never sighted.

 

Some of the guys in this thread said its be going on with Gen 1 SBCs for a while, and land speed guys are doing it with LS heads to adapt them to straight 6s.

 

My neighbor has one. The little old lady that owned a farm that they farmed had one. He bought it at the sale when she passed back in the 80's. Still has it. It has 22K on it and is completely stock and original.

 

Just a guess, but probably because they own a bandsaw and a welder and they do not own an SLA machine or the required have engineering/solid model data.

What is surprisingly common are "one off" billet blocks/heads, and that was my initial thought. He's doing custom cranks and cams, why not the block and heads too. There's already billet LS heads & blocks, it should be relatively simple to have one of those manufacturers just add cylinders to their CAD file.



EDIT: there's also the lead time on that sort of thing. It would be years realistically before you get something like this from a custom block manufacturer. Much faster to bandsaw and weld.

 

They don't need any of your fancy machines or engineering. They own a bandsaw and a welder. This is some backyard redneck ****. Very cool backyard redneck ****.

 

True enough, but those skills (bandsaw and welder) are going to become increasingly marginalized in the field of custom engine creation in the years moving forward.


I know relatively little about this field, to be honest. We've all seen the time-lapse video of a 327-axis milling machine creating a complete engine block out of a solid chunk of aluminum, but beyond that, I've no idea what is common practice.


Really?

I mean, if we hypothetically assume that they are already in possession of the CAD files which represent a more-or-less stock LSx block and heads which have had two extra cylinder dropped into the middle, I can't see why it would take more than a few weeks to create a real-world version of them.

Perhaps I am oversimplifying or mis-understanding some basic limitation of metal-casting technology, but it seems like once the design is in-hand, producing the actual parts by printing out either wax positives for investment-casting or plastic negatives for full-mold casting would not be a significant challenge, particularly when you have the advantage of more-or-less copying an existing, proven design.

 

I'll disagree, in fact I think it will be the other way around (too many mouse clicking 'engineering' types, too little hands on guys), but I see your point.

I've seen the equipment that some of the nicer billet race blocks are made on, and it's not impressive. Well...the custom fixturing these guys build themselves is impressive, but the actual machinery is usually typical and old.

I've seen impressive CNC machines and no one who knows how to program them or run them.


I have no idea about the casting process, just an idea about the billet blocks. There's a block here that has 2010 written on it. Now, that's a complete one off race block waiting for every custom part, and a customer that's not in a hurry. If you plan to use as much factory designed stuff as possible, you still have to wait for the block guy to make a few (the first couple will be wrong), same with the heads. Alcoa will sell all the aluminum stock in that size to Boeing...etc. It will take significantly longer and cost more than it 'should'. Longer and costlier than cutting & welding a factory block together if you have that capability. But holy **** would it be trick.

 

Just read the whole thread. Such an awesome project. Can't wait to hear the finished product

 

Apparently fab work on the 12 is almost done. They are working on the manifold. Said they are going to put velocity stacks on it. Also said they are gonna rev it to 6K.



Brian Macy said he thinks he can get over 300 hp out of the V4 with a turbo, cam and some head work, so that is the next project after the 12 is done.

I assume they are talking about the Brian Macy from Horsepower Connection. Last time I heard his name was about working on the Ferrambo (Rambler Wagon with 360 modena running gear).


More cool LSx stuff. A flat plane crank 358 ci LSx. Spun to 9k, supposed to hand a 76mm turbo on it.


SAM is running 1K hp NA from a 433 LSx. Revs to 9K. 6Speed Inc ran a 403 to 10500rpm but when they went out of business they took down all the videos.

 

I want to hear what this V12 and the V4 sounds like. I thought the 6 rotor sounded crazy enough

 

Update:
A V4 crank has been made and sent off to have a pattern made.



Also crank and valve covers are done for the 12

 

This reminds me of the engine on display at Callaway Cars West in Costa Mesa, CA. I used to work over there and they had this amazing V16 made out of 4 piggy-backed Hyabusa engines.



edit: I had my head wrapped around LSx's I meant to put hyabusa motors. Callaway and LS are usually synonymous.

 

^Those look like motorcycle heads.

 

They have been making Busa 8s for a while now. Apparently they are making over 450hp now.



Made by hartley enterprises.

 

thats the first V16 I'd ever seen in person lol, but isn't the Busa 8 something close to what they use in the radical 8?