When Hybrid Engines go Rogue

[Russell C]

Similar to my Ford Y-block build thread, the engine in this thread will end up somewhat buried in the vehicle, so I thought I'd snag some pics of the assemblies, and what it looks like prior to installation. Here's a few to start. The "hybrid" part of this will appear in subsequent photos in a day or so.

Chrome fan shroud out of the AMT Superbug, but it lacked heater hose outlets, so I made those out of aluminum tube. Unpainted generator / elongated shaft 'lathe-turned' on my motor tool. That's a term I'll use for many of the parts here.

Unpainted muffler, made from a really thick length of parts tree sprue, lathe-turned aluminum exhaust pipes temporarily pinned in place.

Same technique for the upper & lower pulleys, top one is white metal, bottom one is black plastic.

Same technique again for a '60s vintage Bosch coil, made from turquoise blue sprue with a bit of red sprue glued onto the end and 'lathe-turned' to shape. I haven't yet cut off the top. Heat-stretched yellow sprue will serve as plug wires. I'll explain later how I can make plug boot ends.

[Russell C]

Brown plastic sprue distributor, 'lathe-turned' on my motor tool. Cut it down to the size I needed, drilled the plug wire holes really close to the edge, then for the perimeter bumps, I heat-stretched the same color sprue that was filed into a half round length, and glued those sections on. In heat-stretching, plastic generally keeps the same shape. When a distributor doesn't exist for the model you are building, you have to make one from nothing.

Different style section between the cylinder banks, made from some unknown kit's engine compartment wall detail. Redone generator support column with plastruc oil filler tube and 'lathe-turned' white metal oil filler cap. Needs a bit of cleanup, will be painted later.

Unpainted engine block / valve covers / air cool covers. The "between the cylinder banks" assembly above goes in the middle of this, and the fan shroud toward the back. Valve covers are from a Tamiya DTM Mercedes (previously silver painted by another builder, the paint is rubbing off), drilled for plug whires. The reason for all the new stuff on the top of the engine is because it was no more than the bottom end from the curbside Fujimi Koenig 911 Porsche. That's a kit I bought in the 1990s for just its tires and wheels.

[Russell C]

Heater hose is some discarded electrical wire with black insulation. Perfect diameter and texture for my purposes Had to rob the exhaust / heat exchangers manifolds from my late 1970s buildup of the Revell Carrara. Will be the first model I've ever built with velocity stacks. The bases of that are from the Tamiya DTM Mercedes.

Some kind of fuel injection system here. Who knows how it works? If it's mechanical, then maybe that box on the plate ahead of it provides some kind of drive to it via the crank near the lower pulley. That's the mystery sometimes with these mix 'n match engines. Air cool area covers made from a thick part number tab on the parts tree sprue from the AMT '58 Impala, which was molded in that robins egg blue color.

[Russell C]

Partial work on the intake areas, and a test fit of the velocity stacks. Flat black paint speckles on my fingers is from painting the air cool covers, seen in the third photo in this latest post.

Creating a little more visual interest for the velocity stacks. For accuracy and ease of cutting, I did use my miniature lathe to cut the pipes (from eBay seller "intermeccanica") to the height I needed. But for the thingys inside, I used my regular motor tool. A bit of black plastic sprue is 'lathe-turned' down to the proper diameter with an X-acto blade, then a center hole is drilled to accept a short length of heat-stretched gray sprue. Then I used my smallest drill bit, #80, to make a deep dimple int that tiny center thingy, and finally this is all cut off the black sprue.

Engine looks better when it is not just unpainted plastic. Ignore the wire sticking up from the fuel injection pump, it's just there to locate the assembly straight. A fuel line will replace it later. I can get away with the front of the engine block being featureless since it will be almost all hidden from view in the car.

[89AKurt]

That's looking really good!  I have a bunch of those parts in my scrap box.  

Just kidding.  Some of these techniques would come in handy for a Ferrari V-12.

[Russell C]

  On 4/24/2019 at 5:16 AM, 89AKurt said:

..Some of these techniques would come in handy for a Ferrari V-12.

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Or a Jag V-12. Been using the same techniques since the 1990s, as seen in my still-uncompleted 427 Cobra Berlinetta. Tragic how some projects get sidelined.

Onward with this one, though (jealous that you got your GSL Common Kit Tamiya VW Beetle entry done with weeks to spare before the deadline).

Wasn't sure if this would work out well or not, to have the smaller wires (heat-stretched sprue, actually) come out of the coil, but they actually cooperated better than I expected when I test fitted the whole shroud assembly to the engine. Green & red 'wires' get jammed behind the distributor, while the black one will be going into the firewall when the engine is installed. Finally cut into a Fujimi Porsche 911 decal sheet for the coil decal that I had since 1990.

[89AKurt]

  On 4/25/2019 at 6:13 AM, Russell C said:

[...] Tragic how some projects get sidelined.

Onward with this one, though (jealous that you got your GSL Common Kit Tamiya VW Beetle entry done with weeks to spare before the deadline).

[...]

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I'm not immune, see the Bring Out Your Dead topic, I made some progress last stint, but..... just had to start a new crazy project, so I'm being frantic too.

[afx]

Interesting project Russel, I'll be following.  Also like your Cobra Berlinetta project.  I started a similar Cobra project awhile back modifying the AMT Cobra custom top.  Hope your project (and mine) gets back to active status soon.

[Russell C]

  On 4/25/2019 at 12:04 PM, afx said:

...started a similar Cobra project awhile back modifying the AMT Cobra custom top.  Hope your project (and mine) gets back to active status soon.

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Nice alternative roofline there. Me, had the body & details, engine, interior all together, but hit the wall when it came to the suspension geometry, which was going to be a way better improvement over the Monogram kit. Gotta get my act together on figuring out how to make deadly sure the wheels are centered within the fender arches, with the right slight rake and all four wheels touching the ground. The key to engineering something is the success of making it so that it can be dry-fitted, evaluated for proper appearance, disassembled, tweaked, and reassembled in a way where assembly / disassembly / reassembly goes right every time. Couldn't figure that out with the suspension back then.

Meanwhile, calling this engine done today. But now that I look at the pics, I'll need to run an Xacto blade over the top edge of the fan belt (oh, wait - there is no fan) to make it more of a dead flat black color. Made from heat-streatched black plastic sprue. When I went to install the battery wire to the generator, the heat-stretched red sprue just looked like it was plunging down a gopher hole, so to give it a more realistic look, I made one of my tiny wire rings for that junction. This particular one is really small. Slide the ring onto the wire, jamb the wire into the hole, slide into place, and make it all permanent with a tiny drop of super glue. Regarding the way I made the distributor, spark plug wires & color matched wire boots, I think I'll cover that in a separate future Building Tips thread, since another of my projects requires a custom made distributor, and I think I know of a way to make an even better one than I made here.

What car does this go into? The hint was in my prior post above -- stay tuned to the photo coverage at the GSL contest two weekends from now, assuming no completion disaster intervenes.

[89AKurt]

Very nice!  Call it an accessory belt.  Talking about suspension, watch out for how loose the wheels are when plugged into the retainer, seems they never are in alignment.

[Russell C]

Accessory belt. Yep, the Tamiya kit is fabulous in many ways, but that method of attaching wheels is not so much. I've never mastered having functioning parking brakes, so to prevent my models from rolling off the shelves, I just evilly glue the wheels into one permanent position.

[Russell C]

And here's the ultimate result of the vehicle the engine landed in, my entry into the GSL Contest's Common Kit category, where we were all supposed to build the Tamiya 1966 VW Beetle in any manner we wanted (except no resin replacement bodies, per the rules for the class here) What did I do here? Basically, the greenhouse was turned around 180° right at the door line, and I swapped the fenders from one end to the other. And to make matters more bizarre, I couldn't resist dropping in a flat 5 hybrid VW/Porsche engine.

I managed to get 2nd place! Personally, I put my chances at no better than 4th.

I'll have to do an Under Glass post for this, when I get a few better photos of it, but it needs just a tad of cleanup. I was working on it 'til around 2 in the morning on the same day I flew up to Salt Lake City.

[89AKurt]

You just have to rub it in.... CONGRATULATIONS for doing so well!  I had to finesse and finish my Mongrel entry, so totally understand.