Latest progress

Progress was very slow last week. It seems I was a bit quick to say there were no overtightened bolts. One of the bolts on the casting behind the timing belt is so stuck that the hexagon socket will be gone before the bolt comes loose. I will try to weld a key into the bolt later this week. Unfortunately that means I was not able to get as much done as I hoped.

I was able to draw the all the small auxilary parts on the head, as well as the timing belt pulley. For example, that's the coolant tap at the rear bottom end and the spark plugs together with the resistors...
The assembly is shown above. The timing belt pulley with the adjustment plate are shown below.

More to follow...

Back to real life

A little update on the progress from yesterday...
If you're behind the screen of your workstation, it's easy to lose track of the fact you're actually dealing with a real physical engine. So here is the left hand cam cover in real life.

And when I lifted it off, this is what I was left with. Don't look at the mess, this is only my temporary workshop until I get it stripped. When I'll start cleaning and restoring the engine parts I'll move to something cleaner... ;)

Today I lifted off the right hand cilinder head. Below is the picture of my virtual workshop. As you can see this is more organized. Here I'll strip the head and convert the parts to 3D models. Too bad it's also where I sleep... Guess I'll keep the window open tonight because of the oil fumes... :)

Below the 'patina' of the cam cover, the head is actually in very nice condition. The cams are not worn down and none of the bolts have been over tightened. There are no signs of leaking gaskets either. The only thing wrong was that the previous owner used a little to much silicon sealant on the seals to aid the rubber gasket. The sealant does harden out, and it crackles up. That in turn ends up on the camshafts and in the oil system, so you'll find sealant everywhere. Nothing to worry about though. I've seen a lot worse.

Also I found that the bearing caps are numbered starting at the most forward cap on the inner camshaft and then working around counter-clockwise. A nice touch from the engineers at Maserati.

The next week or two, maybe three, I'll be drawing this head in 3D. The head casting itself is going to be a hassle to get right... Luckily I'll have to start with the simple stuff. Camshafts, bearing caps, etc.

Exams are over!

Sorry for the long wait guys! I've had a couple of exams the last few weeks, and I really needed the time.
I'll update more frequently in the future...

And to start off: the left hand cam cover is finished. Also, I have weighed all the components I had already drawn, and I assigned the correct mass properties to the parts. It gives a more realistic final weight and centre of mass in the end. Most of them were pretty darn close though.

The engine assembly with the parts shown in this post weighs about 12 kg now. Already pretty heavy if you ask me... It's all very 'robust' for an high performance engine, but I can't really do anything about it at this point without compromising structural integrity. I'll have to do the balance simulation first, when the model is finished.

The magnificent Jaguar XKSS

Now for something different. I thought it might be nice to every once in a while share a bit of automotive history, we had at Classic Restorations Holland. First up: the magnificent Jaguar XKSS.

The Jaguar D-type was a purpose built, Le Mans winning race car. But when Jaguar retired from racing at the end of 1956 there were still 25 of the 68 D-type racers left unsold. Jaguar decided to convert them to road going sportscars. To do so, they added an extra seat and door, a full size windshield, a rudimentary roof and a set of bumpers. This is how the XKSS was born.

However, on the evening of February 12th, 1957, a fire broke out at the Browns Lane factory. This destroyed the assembly line, some of the machinery, the plans for the car and 9 out of the 25 XKSS's. This meant that the 16 cars left, were the only XKSS's Jaguar would produce. Two of the cars were sold to buyers in Canada, one went to Hong Kong, one stayed in the UK and the rest went to America. This is the car that stayed in the UK. Today, this car is part of the Louwman Collection of the Dutch National Motor Museum at the Hague, Netherlands.

I asked a good friend of mine to review the exterior design of the XKSS. He is currently studying automotive design at IED Torino. At the bottom of this post you will find a link to his blogspot page, or you can click his name below his review.

'Because the XKSS is the road version of the famous D-type, the car's exterior is almost identical. They just added an extra passenger seat and door, a wind screen with side windows, a simple folding soft-top and a functional interior. Sadly they also had to remove that iconic fin at the back...

 The designer of the exterior body is Malcolm Sayer, he was a former aircraft designer which reflects in the whole design of this car. He wanted to create a car with absolutely minimal frontal area to reach higher top speeds on the straights at Le-Mans. Also, the car's whole body is made as low as possible, again to create a small front and overall profile. The result was that the wheel arches then "sticked" up, out of the body. The same happened with the straight six engine, which created the beautiful power bulge. With a really soft aerodynamic treatment of the "fusion" between the car's body and the wheel arches it creates a unified sculpture. 

 It is this approach makes the car look so pure, every bulge is made for a reason and it shows the mechanical parts underneath its skin. Also, the proportions of the car are quite unusual as the car has an extremely low profile and both back and front overhang is kept minimal. This mix of ingredients is what helps making the car so unique in my opinion.'

- Bernd Weel 

In fact: even the agressive stance (or forward rake), is a result of the car's aerodynamics. Another feature standing out in the exterior is the rivets. As mentioned earlier, the XKSS is actually a modified D-type. The D-type was one of the first sports cars to feature a monocoque chassis. The monocoque was assembled using rivets, rather than welding, because in the mid fifties welding quality was very poor. Even modern cars with aluminum structural parts are very often still glued and riveted, because welding hardens the material locally, making it more brittle and weakening the structure. On the D-type they just left the rivets visible on the body, because it was never meant to be a show car. Since the XKSS was made to be as close to the D-type as possible, Jaguar didn't bother to rebuild the 25 remaining chassis using flush rivets.

The Jaguar D-type was the second car to use the revolutionairy Dunlop brake discs. As you can see in the photo above, these are a long way from modern racing brake systems. But remember, in the mid fifties brake drums were the standard. Pegaso for instance, built a car to defeat the D-type (I may feature that one when we've finished restoring it ;) ), but failed because the Jag could easily out-brake it.

The picture above also shows how the power transmission between the wheels and the axle takes place. As you can see there is no splined axle. Instead, this axle shows a flange with ten holes. These correspond to pins inside the rim. Anyone who has ever changed a tire on a classic car knows that the hub needs to be aligned with the axle splines quite precise. By eliminating the spline the chance that the wheel gets stuck is reduced. Now you can just stick the wheel on the axle, rotate it a little bit before the holes line up and the wheel is fully on. This pin and hole power transmission is how it's still done in F1. Also, to reduce the unsprung mass, the wheels were magnesium Dunlop's.

The engine in the XKSS is basically a 3.4 litre XK-engine. However, in the XKSS it was fitted with a dry sump oil system, allowing the engineers to mount the engine lower in the chassis. Also, dry sump oiling systems provide a more reliable lubrication, even under higer lateral forces during to cornering.

Anyone who looks at the photos above, and knows the XK-engine, will suddenly realize how small the car is. The engine hardly fits inside the packed engine bay. The XKSS engine featured 3 rare Weber 45DCO3 double carburators, and a double side exhaust system. Power output was about 250 hp at 6000 rpm, which was very impressive at the time.If you are still not impressed with this little high-tech racer, I've got an illustrating example. Just consider a modern day equivalent for this car. Take last years Le Mans winner, the Audi R15. Add a passenger seat and door, a full size windshield and a linnen roof, then remove the rear spoiler. That's exactly what Jaguar did in 1957. It was mighty expensive, truly terrifying and extremely beautiful. This particular car is on display at the Dutch National Motor Museum. If you have the opportunity, you should pay it a visit. I know this car is also being driven from time to time, so if you're near the Hague on a sunny day, keep your eyes and ears open. ;)

The two pictures below are not the same car, but I don't want to keep them from you none the less. This is Steve McQueen in his XKSS.

The blogspot page of Bernd WeelWebsite of the Dutch National Motor Museum

Making a little progress

In these two pictures you can see the progress made last week. I've just placed the thermostat housing assembly and right hand cam cover roughly in place. It is starting to look like an engine already, even though there are no mechanical parts in the assembly yet.

Up next: First I'll do the left hand cam cover. After that I think I will start work on the right hand cilinder head.

Right hand cam cover

This took a lot less time, actually, than the thermostat housing assembly

What you are looking at is obviously the right hand cam cover, with the seals installed. I've decided to draw the inside detailing and the breather splash guard as well. It doesn't take that much time, but it makes a nice picture. ;)

Thermostat housing

It's always the small cast parts that just eat up a lot of time. I've just finished the thermostat housing in the middle of the vee on the engine block. There are a lot of chamfered and fillet-edges that are hard to measure up. So it took a little time but it's in now... :)

You can see the thermostat inside the housing as well. The tube and spring on top are the throttle cable guide and return spring.

Induction system

I've been at it for a week or two in my spare time between school and work, but the first parts of the engine are translated in 3D. The manifold itself was a little more work than I had hoped, because one of the way splines work in 3D sketches in Solidworks. (Developers; take notes, I want to define splines as seen from 2 view planes, and not as some 3D guesswork) ;)

All engine internals will be drawn as well, in case I need to do flow simulations on specific parts of the engine.
The various fittings and air or fuel hoses will be drawn later, as the routing may change, or I will upgrade to Goodridge lines.

And of course all the internals will work as they are supposed to. As seen with the throttle valves below. :)
I will probably need to upgrade my workstation again when I get to the valvetrain... :( ;) We'll see about that later.

Maserati project

My next project will be the blueprinting of the Maserati V6-4AC-24 Biturbo engine.
I got my engine from specialist Maserati Biturbo breaker KJB parts in Anna-Paulowna.
First I will slowly strip the engine, translating the parts to 3D as I go. After that I will clean all parts, and modify the engine as I see fit. It might very well be this only consists of the polishing of rotating parts and lightening of the flywheel, but it may also be some heavy machining on the engine block. At this point I just don't know. Last step will be repainting/replating of the various parts, and rebuilding the block. At some point the block will hit the dyno too. ;)

What will be modified is electrical routing, the intake and the exhaust system because, inevitably I will have to design the vehicle it will power too. ;)

Mechanical engineering thesis project

This was my BSc thesis project. I made the concept for a single seater open wheel race car. The idea was to create a historic feeling combined with modern technology like cantilever suspension, a composite monocoque and a motorcycle engine. During the project ex-F1 driver Jan Lammers was my tutor. 

When the project was finished senior motorsport automotive designer John Travis reviewed the project with me. He told me that even though some things were just plain wrong, I did look to the right aspects of motorsport design. I was the only designer on the project so all you see here was my work, guidance was purely focused on the practical aspects and project run time was one year. 

During the project I did basic concept development, exterior design, monocoque geometry development, suspension geometry and physical design, engine induction system design with variable intake stack and general 3D drawing.

3-day project for materials science

Simple 3-day project. The assignment was to design a wheelchair and defend your materials selection. I thought why not make a cool wheelchair while you're at it.