Any old textbook that details sand casting of engines?

[Toolrunner]

I've been searching online for any old industrial textbook that details how to sand-cast an engine block with cores.

No luck so far. Any suggestions?

 

[stephen thomas]

I think one of Dave Chastain's does?
(not old)

smt

 

[tdmidget]

Pretty sure I saw (maybe on this site) a reference to a book about the development of the Ford flathead V 8 that went into detail about the casting process. Search in that direction.

 

[Toolrunner]

Thanks for both suggestions -- turns out, they are both the same source -- Steve Chastain's "Metal Casting: a sand casting manual for the small foundry". The v8 flathead production is covered in vol 2. Some info on engine casting also in vol.1. I had those books on my shelf and had overlooked them.

 

[EmGo]

I've been searching online for any old industrial textbook that details how to sand-cast an engine block with cores.

No luck so far. Any suggestions?

Look and see if there's anyone near you who does lost foam. It's very accurate and a lot easier for a person who isn't super experienced in pattern-making.

 

[stephen thomas]

Look and see if there's anyone near you who does lost foam.

It's very accurate and a lot easier for a person who isn't super experienced in pattern-making.

Preumably they have advanced skills in metal mould making for the expanded plastics moulding industry, to blow the foam models, however????

smt

 

[johnoder]

Or just study up on Pattern making - and follow your nose. You have a pattern - how ever complex or simple and along with the pattern you have core boxes which can get downright complicated. You could say you have this pile of "wood" and it is all part of the whole. There would be no correct "holes" in the sand with out

Takes some brains to make it all come out. Don't neglect that every bit of the "wood pile" has to have the right shrink allowance AND the right draft

You can see the draft on Joe's piston pattern

Then if you want cores - you have to make core boxes. You can see the long studs are holding the two halves together for machining

There are old text books - but covering just the basics - like this 240page effort from 1906

 

[kustomizingkid]

Where is Ross.

 

[EmGo]

Preumably they have advanced skills in metal mould making for the expanded plastics moulding industry, to blow the foam models, however????

No, that's the neat thing about it. For a onesy-twosey you can just glue together pieces of styrene to make the sacrifical model. We were doing the castings for a five meter table (looked something like a bullard) that way.

It still requires some practice and knowledge but a lot easier to do than normal patternwork.

 

[99Panhard]

The piston mold John made worked perfectly...
You might try looking up the ICS (International Correspondence School) book on green sand casting which, If I remember correctly, has a section on engine blocks. It was published in 1912 so, needless to say, we're talking about pre-WW! type engines. I have it somewhere...just where I can't say at the moment,

 

[Jim Christie]

Here is a link to the 1905 edition of the book mentioned by 99Panhard

Wood working, wood turning, patternmaking, green-sand molding, core making, dry-sand and loam work, cupola practice, mixing cast iron : International Correspondence Schools : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

26

archive.org

I don't recall any automobile engine castings in my printed copy from about the same time period .
You might also look though Terry Harper's thread to see some of his pattern and core box making even if they aren't for the engine block its self.

Big, Big Wisconsin T-Head engine

Hello folks, Iam new in these parts and not sure if this should go here or elsewhere. First a bit of back ground. Iam in the process of bringing back to life a Wisconsin Model PT engine. I know, I know..... Wisconsin makes those neat air cooled engines. However, a long time ago they made a...

www.practicalmachinist.com

P.S. this is a 1961 text but a quick search doesn't give much on engines,

Engineered castings : how to use make, design, and buy them / Glenn J. Cook

but gives several hits for cores.

Engineered castings : how to use make, design, and buy them / Glenn J. Cook

 

[john.k]

There is no more complex iron casting than a flathead Ford V8......so thats an obvious starting point for a beginner.......Id be trying one of the old tractor engines that had a separate crankcase and two cylinder blocks with inserted wet liners.........(...I suppose the Lincoln V12 flathead would be more complex.)

 

[99Panhard]

I don't know how it compared to the Ford V8 or the Lincoln but the most demanding casting project I've ever seen undertaken by an engine restorer was the aluminum Rolls Royce head for the Phantom I. These are a notable weak point in the design although it's one that didn't show up until the cars were probably 50 years old and it is lagely attributable to the alloys that were available in 1929 and later owners — when they were just "used cars" — using the wrong types of anti freeze. The late Frank Cooke succeeded in making a run of PI heads but it was a long slog...they lost about 1 in 3 in the machining, sometimes when they were nearly done, from flaws in the casting that were invisible at first. Even 40 years ago a new head cost about $10,000. They have been successfully replicated more recently but the cost is 2 or 3 times that now. Lately, I've been wondering about the feasibility of using 3D printed sand molds for these small run, highly specialized castings. I probably won't live long enough to experiment with it but I suspect that technology will make complicated, one off castings far more affordable.

 

[pat pounden]

I don't know how it compared to the Ford V8 or the Lincoln but the most demanding casting project I've ever seen undertaken by an engine restorer was the aluminum Rolls Royce head for the Phantom I. These are a notable weak point in the design although it's one that didn't show up until the cars were probably 50 years old and it is lagely attributable to the alloys that were available in 1929 and later owners — when they were just "used cars" — using the wrong types of anti freeze. The late Frank Cooke succeeded in making a run of PI heads but it was a long slog...they lost about 1 in 3 in the machining, sometimes when they were nearly done, from flaws in the casting that were invisible at first. Even 40 years ago a new head cost about $10,000. They have been successfully replicated more recently but the cost is 2 or 3 times that now. Lately, I've been wondering about the feasibility of using 3D printed sand molds for these small run, highly specialized castings. I probably won't live long enough to experiment with it but I suspect that technology will make complicated, one off castings far more affordable.

i'd love to find out if any of those heads were cast in a one man shop in sonoma co calif.--don peterson did some about 50 + yrs ago

 

[john.k]

Dunno about So Cal .....I bought a beautiful new head for my Ford 2.5TD,machining is a work of art,plus gasket kit ,new valves fitted ,and cam for $700 delivered to my door in 3 days.........and yes,I recall the bad ole days of ally heads,when owners used tapwater topped up every week .....no one ever heard of corrosion inhibiter here,cause there is no freezing.

 

[Joe in NH]

"Gas Engine Construction" by Parsell&Weed.

Mine is dated 1900 but there were "editions." Builds from the patterns up an entire "one-lunger" type engine of a curiously "modern" straight-line engine pattern (The Straight Line Steam Engine was a John Sweet development of a generation earlier - http://www.vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/imagedetail.aspx?id=10903)

Online booksellers or seen online at https://books.google.com/books/about/Gas_engine_construction.html?id=MO1MAAAAMAAJ

Curious time 1900 - people had enough time to actually buy a book like this and bring it home and enjoy "doing something with their hands" - as a diversion no less...

Joe in NH

 

[Hudson]

I don't know how it compared to the Ford V8 or the Lincoln but the most demanding casting project I've ever seen undertaken by an engine restorer was the aluminum Rolls Royce head for the Phantom I. These are a notable weak point in the design although it's one that didn't show up until the cars were probably 50 years old and it is lagely attributable to the alloys that were available in 1929 and later owners — when they were just "used cars" — using the wrong types of anti freeze. The late Frank Cooke succeeded in making a run of PI heads but it was a long slog...they lost about 1 in 3 in the machining, sometimes when they were nearly done, from flaws in the casting that were invisible at first. Even 40 years ago a new head cost about $10,000. They have been successfully replicated more recently but the cost is 2 or 3 times that now. Lately, I've been wondering about the feasibility of using 3D printed sand molds for these small run, highly specialized castings. I probably won't live long enough to experiment with it but I suspect that technology will make complicated, one off castings far more affordable.

Believe this was the gentleman who had his PI heads and assorted molds and cores on display at the Hershey show in the early 70's. He was using chemically bonded air set sand for his mold and his pattern tooling was very well made. Lynchburg Foundry Company, where I was working at the time, made several engine blocks for ocean tug boats at the Radford VA plant. They were made in pit molds. Pouring weight was in excess of 40 tons and they shipped out one per flat car. An interesting project.

 

[99Panhard]

That has to be the same person. Frank Cooke was unusual in the old car world as being both an extremely talented machinist/maker of things and well off enough to put his money behind his ideas. It's not an often seen combination. He'd owned the Cooke Optical Company where he made parts for scientific instruments like the Hubble telescope.

 

[john.k]

The in thing for the mechanically inclined in the 1900-1910 period was build your own car either from plans in a periodical,or you buy the parts by installment......either way was somewhat problematic,because the plans and parts would be changed as different problems came to the attention of the publication.

 

[johnoder]

Joe's great looking pistons. These are about 4.32 OD The core box did all the internals