Got thinking about this last night after doing the head gasket on my ZX9 (how easy was that, much better than a car one) Not going too deep but I dug out Malcs avatar from Yorkshire engines and had a look at it. To me that is art not some poo overpriced picture by some jumped up so and so but anyways, without getting too deep into the nightmare I just wondered how it could be done (not that I'm doing it mind) Is it just a V crankcase with 2 engine blocks and heads on? What about the gaskets and differing con rod lengths? Would these be custom made and therefore cost arms and legs? Just trying to get my head round it all.
I think the v8 in the new Caterham as a bare engine cost £25000 GULP.
http://www.powertecracing.com/pdf_downloads/v8engine.pdf
Some bedtime reading!
Yep thems the ones. £22,000!! Build your own car for £22,250 .....and race it! Stunning piece of engineering though. Sometimes a bit sad I moved
out of engineering for a living, would love to be involved in summat like that.
As long as you can use the bike head, the rest is of relative ease. Not saying it's easy, but easier than starting from scratch as you now have
known bore spacings and so on. The crank would be expensive, but not overly complex, you may even be able to use a version of the manufactures middle
block part with the bores/sleeves in, and then just need a lower crank part of the block. So simple really, should only take a long weekend......
Aye I know what you mean. A simple look through a few engine specs and you should be able to piece summat together eh. In theory it don't sound
too painful but I bet it could cause more than a few sleepless nights. 
One head ache would be the alignment of the heads, as oen would be inside out, as it were, with the inlet/exhaust the wrong way round. Turning it
round and using different/billet cams with the drive cogs on the other end should sort that out though. However, as you say, it sounds like a fairly
logical process, but I can guarantee it wouldn't be! The block should be too much bother, you could even build it in layers, ala the K series.
Oiling systems shouldn't be too hard, just dry sump it.....
Arrrggghhhh, I'm not going to be able to think of anything else for a fair while now! Damn you.
You have to be a precision engineer to get the tolerences right.
Ok in theory but a right pain in practice.
Easier and cheaper for the "amateur" to just use two engines.
Ask Russ Bost!
[Edited on 27/2/2008 by nitram38]
There is a company doing a cheaper version of the powertec one I believe. (I think you may even be able to build it up as a part kit???)
Or you could give Malc a call as a mate of his is building up his own version too!
Steve
quote:
Originally posted by DIY Si
One head ache would be the alignment of the heads, as oen would be inside out, as it were, with the inlet/exhaust the wrong way round. Turning it round and using different/billet cams with the drive cogs on the other end should sort that out though. However, as you say, it sounds like a fairly logical process, but I can guarantee it wouldn't be! The block should be too much bother, you could even build it in layers, ala the K series. Oiling systems shouldn't be too hard, just dry sump it.....
Arrrggghhhh, I'm not going to be able to think of anything else for a fair while now! Damn you.
) ? It is not that impossible for someone at home to do it with the right sort of machinery.
z1300 V12
somewhere else you can get to the builder's site that explains a bit more how it was done.