Announcing New Kirkham Billet Aluminum 427 Block

[Excaliber]

Check this out!

A guy in the UK rebuilt an early BMW V-12 and has a LOT of documentation\pictures on the web site, interesting stuff seeing the inside of the Bimmer 12.

Quote concerning the alloy cylinder walls after a 170,000 miles:

'the cylinder walls didn't have edges, scratches, sign of wear and tear and looked like brandnew. I didn't do a thing about them'.

And what's the motor going into? Well thats the best part, a COBRA of course!



Heres the web site for those who want more info...

http://bmwe32.masscom.net/sean750/en...0rebuild_1.htm

[decooney]

Are you guys are talking about the Bill Harrah's "Jerrari", a 69 Wagoneer with a Ferrari Daytona V12 in it. Here it is, making a run from Tahoe to Reno! Woooohooooo.

Recent article in SFGate, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...TG0BOA8A91.DTL

Quote:
"To me, the most obvious and whimsical example of Harrah, the legendary casino tycoon who died in 1978 at age 67, is the Jerrari -- a combination Ferrari and Jeep Wagoneer. It's on display in a corridor between some of the museum's galleries.

The story was that Harrah asked Ferrari to make him a four-wheel-drive vehicle because Harrah was having trouble getting over the hill to Lake Tahoe in style. (Harrah was not one for plebian transportation.) Ferrari said no. So Harrah had his mechanics stuff a V12 Ferrari engine into the engine bay of a 1977 Wagoneer and got himself a unique four-wheel-drive.

Or almost unique. Although the museum's curator had no record of it, it appears Harrah had another Jerrari created from a 1969 Wagoneer. That one had the long sloping hood, the grille and the front fenders of a Ferrari 365 grafted onto the Wagoneer and, yes, it does look weird. The car cropped up recently on the Web site of Barrett-Jackson, the big Arizona auto auction firm.

Jerraris, Ferraris. There are many other cars worth seeing in the museum, which came about after Harrah died and his vast collection became the subject of huge controversy in the rarefied world of collector cars. Harrah had cobbled together some 1,450 cars that were in a collection of warehouses in nearby Sparks. The collection was open to the public and became known as the world's largest assemblage of collector cars. After Harrah died, Holiday Inns acquired the Harrah's casino and hotel empire."

[decooney]

Also, I once saw a / the yellow Cobra with the Ferrari V12 in it at Moher Motors in Monterey, right there on Highway one just down the road from the Doubletree where we go to the auctions each year. Was said to cost a ridiculous 275K to create and install originally, and it was for sale for 90K when I saw it, like 15+ years ago or something more... Apparently the body came off to put the motor in, and it was tight, rocker covers right to the underside of the hood edge rail.

[Commander]

I don't remember who posted it, not sure if it was here or not, but there was a picture of a Cobra that had had a Ferrari 12 installed. I'm not going to call it a V12 because I'm not sure it was. Whatever it was, it looked like a mess under the hood. All I remember is thinking that that didn't belong in there. It was too big for the space, too many wires and hoses (that weren't even gathered up, just laying loose all over the top of the engine). Fat woman's foot in a shoe 2 sizes too small was my impression.

[quickjack]

The one I recall was, as Lew stated, in a mainstream magazine in the early 80's. It was a Daytona V-12 and very nicely done.

As for the BMW engine with no wear on the Nikasil bores, I have seen a dirt modified engine that was stripped down after a full season of racing. 15:1 compression, 9,500 rpm, 30-50 laps at a time typically. No visable ridge or wear.

[Richard Hudgins]

Folks,

I think that all of the BMW V12 blocks were made from Alusil.

Alusil is the trademark name of Kolbenschmidt AG in Europe for the process used in their aluminum engine blocks. Alusil basically consists of about 70% aluminum and 30% silicon. Alusil is used to replace Nikasil (a trademark of Mahle) that had corrosion problem with high sulfur content US fuel.

This is the same material that Porsche used in the 928 series engine blocks.

[bret a ewing]

BMW V12s' an awesome powerplant, they were used in my all-time favorite street/racer, the Mclaren F1.

[Excaliber]

Richard the web site DID mention the BMW had a high SILICONE type bore, which is consistent with your observation.

We had a problem with a co-generation plant on Kauai concerning sulphur content in the fuel.
The exhaust gases pretty much 'clogged up' our hot water generation unit and left a nasty coating
of 'yellow' stuff all over. Quite a mess, we lost our shirt on that project.
6 cylinder deisel providing AC and hot water for a hospital.

[Commander]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

Here is a picture of DART's latest billet block with individual water jackets around the ribs.

David

Video of a billet block being Machined on a 5-axis CNC center

News Flash: F1 teams buying 5-axis Centers!!!!

[BossCER]

David,
Is there anything to report w/ regards to the progress of your new block?

[cosbytnkid]

I'm just wondering since this will be a sleeveless block, if a stroker kit can be installed? Is Nikisil that hard?

[David Kirkham]

BossCER,

Thanks to an very strange problem with Windows XP our block started growing every time we saved. It went from 50 meg to 1.77 GIG over the past week until we finally had a system crash. We have finally figured out the normal size for the block should be about 50 meg.

It got to the point where it took 45 minutes to save the file--and Solidworks auto saves every 20 minutes...now you know why I am loosing my hair.

As you can imagine, it has taken some time to figure this out with many phone calls to Solidworks. We finally downloaded 300 meg of patches from Microsoft for Windows XP and the file size is now back to normal and staying there. We lost over a week of work! I was going crazy. Hopefully we will be back up and running in the next day or so. Solidworks doesn't run on Linux or we would have thrown XP out the window long ago.

Commander,

But it isn't all bad news...our 5 axis mill arrived today...


Cool video!

David

[David Kirkham]

Cosbytnkid,

Nikasil is extremely hard.

We are making the block so it will take a minimum of a 4.25 inch crank.

David

[Power Surge]

So when can I expect the first sample test block David? Gotta test it against our East Coast fuels you know.

[Rick Parker]

Here is the procedure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmiIeAkE-o

[David Kirkham]

Rick,

That is some cool programming.

Sal,

You will have to get in line.

I will drive the first block around for durability testing. (Man, I have a TOUGH job...but someone has to do it.

The next block will go to the customer who ordered it (on the west coast).

Right now I am trying to figure out how to put our 5 axis mill together!

David

[lineslinger]

David,
I would love to see a build blog of you guys assembling that mill. Is it going to be brushed or polished?

[David Kirkham]

lineslinger,

Polished, of course!

I didn't know anyone would be interested. I will start posting some pictures! The machine is about 100,000 pounds. It will be a real trick to get it into the building. I can't wait to see it put together. The machine is HUGE!

David

[hi-tech cobra]

David,
Apple/Mac - goodbye to system crashes! And with the new intel Macs you can run windoze when necessary. Not trying to be a smart a$$, just know Macs are rock solid for critical work.

[David Kirkham]

Unfortunately, I don't think Solidworks will run on a Mac. I will check to see if it will. Anything to not have these disasters.

David