Kirkham Skunk Works Sneak Peak :)

[1985 CCX]

Guess I was wrong? I figured you were going to mill an entire car from a block of ally.....

Great job!

[Bluedog]

David,

Is this going to be a 427 sideoiler block? Somehow I missed the description in the thread!

[1ntCobra]

It looks like this block is going to be sleeved. In your older thread I thought you were going to take a different approach with some sort of coating.

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 1985 CCX

Guess I was wrong? I figured you were going to mill an entire car from a block of ally.....

Great job!

Maybe one day

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Bluedog

David,

Is this going to be a 427 sideoiler block? Somehow I missed the description in the thread!

A "side-oiler" block simply means the oil galley runs down the side of the block. They did this so they could drill the oil passages to the cam from the side oil galley. Side oilers oiled the mains and the cam in "parallel." In other words, the oil went to the mains and the cam at the same time.

Modern technology today oils the mains first, then the cam is oiled from the mains. This is called "priority oiling." Our modern block uses "priority oiling."

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by 1ntCobra

It looks like this block is going to be sleeved. In your older thread I thought you were going to take a different approach with some sort of coating.

We got looking into a book on F1 cars (David Bull Publishing) and noticed they used wet sleeves in F1 engines. I was talking to Thomas about it and we remembered Caterpillar engines are all wet sleeves too. Hmmmm, maybe someone had a better idea

We thought, "Hey, let's try it."

Ain't America Great!

David

[Racer_X]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

A "side-oiler" block simply means the oil galley runs down the side of the block. They did this so they could drill the oil passages to the cam from the side oil galley. Side oilers oiled the mains and the cam in "parallel." In other words, the oil went to the mains and the cam at the same time.

Modern technology today oils the mains first, then the cam is oiled from the mains. This is called "priority oiling." Our modern block uses "priority oiling."

David

David,

Question here. Along this same school of thought, is it possible to drill a center-oiler block for priority oiling? I haven't looked at a center oiler to see if there's enough webbing material to drill from mains to cam bore or if it's even necessary.

Just a thought while discussing this process.

Keep up the great work. I look forward to the finished product!

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Racer_X

David,

Question here. Along this same school of thought, is it possible to drill a center-oiler block for priority oiling? I haven't looked at a center oiler to see if there's enough webbing material to drill from mains to cam bore or if it's even necessary.

Just a thought while discussing this process.

Keep up the great work. I look forward to the finished product!

Thanks for the kind words.

I would have to look and see if there is enough room to do it. I doubt it.

David

[David Kirkham]

We are using a 3/4 carbide 2 flute end mill spinning at 10,000 RPM and cutting 120 inches per minute 0.2 deep. The chips hit the door like a machine gun.



We have to shovel the chips into the auger while we are machining to keep the under control.

[David Kirkham]

Here are the first cuts into the mains. This was a very difficult area to machine as the tools had to hang out really far.

[David Kirkham]

Here Sandwich is grinning as he figured out how to machine the sleeves. He went over to the water jet to make some special "tools" to get the finish he wanted.



The o-ring grooves in the bottom of the sleeves are very small.

[David Kirkham]

The sleeves were chattering so Sandwich went over to the water jet and cut out rubber rings that he slipped over the sleeve when he was boring the ID. The plugs he stuffs into the sleeve when he is lathing the OD. The rubber is left over from our gym floor. Sandwich commented, "I just love this place. You have a problem and you just go figure out how to solve it." I have been accused of not being a micro manager

[David Kirkham]

Here is the top of the sleeve. The sides of the sleeve are cut off to allow the sleeves to fit closer together in the block.

[fordracing65]

a wet sleeve is prone to corrision, f1 engines are broken into all the time so they can be resleeved, but a catipillar engine is as reliable as they come, my engine is dry sleeved, but i believe ford did this because of there failed spray bore technology, very interesting all these sleeves.

[tkb289]

David,

Great project!

Clever fellow that Sandwich … he came up with an elegant solution with materials on hand to get the result he was after … nicely done!

[fordracing65]

cant wait to see how it all turnes out

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by fordracing65

a wet sleeve is prone to corrision, f1 engines are broken into all the time so they can be resleeved, but a catipillar engine is as reliable as they come, my engine is dry sleeved, but i believe ford did this because of there failed spray bore technology, very interesting all these sleeves.

Engines have had water against cast iron cylinder bores for a long time. I don't think corrosion should be too much of a problem. I'm looking forward to finding out.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by tkb289

David,

Great project!

Clever fellow that Sandwich … he came up with an elegant solution with materials on hand to get the result he was after … nicely done!

Sandwich is indeed a clever fellow. He can solve just about any problem with machining. Not much can stop him.

David

[Sal Gerace]

David is a reality tv show in the works!

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by Sal Gerace

David is a reality tv show in the works!

Keeping up with the Kirkhams