1932 Cadillac V16 scale model

[Roger Zimmermann]

@ David: Thanks, the vacation was fine! Indeed it was partly a work camp: we have a house in South of France with a large green surface. We have someone looking at it, but there is enough work to do as our last "visit" was in January 2021.
@ Mike: The fuel pump top is not yet finished, wait till every bit of brass is attached! I have the illustration from the very thin shop manual and many pictures. I recorded one major dimension from the pump when I was in Germany two years ago; with that and some calculation, I can find the dimension from all the tiny details. Precision? Not 100% but good enough for the purpose.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The lower part from the pump is ready. Have a look at the previous picture; you will see what I added. There are 14 pieces which are silver soldered together, one after the other. With that syringe for the silver solder paste, no rework is needed to remove the excess solder. This task would be impossible with a soldering rod.
Now, I can begin the lower part with the flange attaching the pump to the engine. There will be less tiny parts...

[Roger Zimmermann]

The second half from the pump is ready. I also added the vapor dome to the upper part. As you can see, the upper part got a thin coat of primer; during it's handling, the paint of the edges is gone!
To complete the pump, I still have to do the "glass" bowl for the fuel filter. I also have to do the provisions to attach the glass on the first part; there are often small needed details which are easily forgotten.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The provisions for the fuel bowl were added (tiny cylinders soft soldered) and both halves were glued together. Glued? Why? Just because I did an error: I intended at first to attach both halves with .5mm bolts; when I was ready to drill the necessary holes, I switched to 0.6mm because I had tiny screws which heads are more in line with the original screws. Unfortunately, I had only 6 or 7 such screws and during all those years, I never found equivalent screws again. I decided to revert to the first decision, but now the holes are too large. To modify the lower half with silver solder would be hazardous, therefore I will put the 0.5mm bolts as intended, but glued.
I attached the pump at its location, well hidden behind the front engine support. The upper part is turned at about 45°, otherwise, the fuel bowl would interfere seriously with the frame.
I will do now the fuel bowl in plexiglass. I could machine that part in brass and paint it, but I have a remaining bit of plexiglass I can use for that.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The fuel bowl and its retaining hardware are ready. Man, that is small! Fortunately, the fuel bowl will be protected by the frame, so no fat finger will fiddle with it when the engine is installed.

[DeVille68]

wow! Fantastic!

Best regards,
Nicolas

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks Nicolas!

[Roger Zimmermann]

After I did tiny parts with the fuel bowl, it was time to go to large parts: the intake and exhaust manifolds. I choose to begin with the exhaust parts; indeed, the intake manifold would be easier to do and would help to locate the exhaust with more precision. I began the job by drilling the threaded holes to attach the manifolds to the heads. Then, as I did not know how to proceed, I did the flanges for the exhaust tubes at the head. With that, I'm not very far...I wanted to begin the front tubes; did something just to realize that I'm going nowhere with that. Therefore, I decided to do the middle part (the picture from a real pair of manifolds will give the needed explanation). As my pictures were not good enough, I searched for exhaust manifolds with Google. I found very nice pictures from a company who is recasting those manifolds! Sure, they cost almost the price of a cheap new car, but they are there!
The pictures I found will help a bit, but even if I'm looking at them the whole day, the brass will not be magically shaped...Anyway, here is what I have up to now...

[Roger Zimmermann]

Indeed, I'm not much further with the manifolds. I added a flange for the carburetor to both central parts and did some holes. As I did forget the formula to make parts by looking at the pictures, I had to do something concrete: attach the central manifold on a temporarily basis to go further. This is what I did the last few days; the central RH manifold is not attached to the engine using the holes attaching the block to the crankcase. I also installed a flange to the head. I "just" have to make two tubes joining the flange and the manifold...

[Glen]

I wish I had one tenth of your talent.  Beautiful work. 

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks Glen!
The talent as you are calling it did not came instantly: have a look at the frame I did many years ago...

[Roger Zimmermann]

Those tiny "tubes" (I made them from a solid bar) were rather labor intensive because they had to be adjusted with precision. To complicate the task, they are not perpendicular to the heads, they are slightly directed towards the rear. Anyway, both sides are now ready at more or less the right position. Now, it's the time to make the front manifolds.

[Roger Zimmermann]

The logical continuation was with the front manifold. The center one is a nice guide for the right position of the main tube. Both rear outlets near the center manifold were soft soldered on the main tube when it was assembled to the engine.
Now, I will do the LH front manifold.

[Saturnin15]

Very impressive!  What is the length of the engine?  What is the scale?

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks! The scale is 1:12; the engine is 106 mm in length, or 4.2".

[Roger Zimmermann]

The rear manifold is not an easy one: there are indeed 3 parts merging in one place. I began the tube connected to the center manifold and realized that I cannot go further. Then, I did the tube going down and the flange where the exhaust tube will be attached. Then the idea: with that flange, I can attach the tube to a fixture screwed to the engine. From there, I will be able to continue with the smaller tube coming for the head and finally adapt the horizontal tube. All three elements have a different diameter, you can see on one picture from the repro manifolds that the tube going down is more or less flat to conform with the other parts.

[Roger Zimmermann]

I expected difficulties with that rear manifold and I got them! When the lower tube was done, I did the tube for the last cylinder, going down towards what was already done. However, the diameter from both parts is not the same. I did a tail at the upper tube and adjusted it at the lower one. When I was satisfied, I could silver solder both elements. Then, I silver soldered the flange at the cylinder head to the upper tube. This operation was delicate: if the assembly is crooked, the tube will be pointed in the wrong direction. By chance, that soldering went well, even if I had to "massage" a bit the tubing assembly. Then the more delicate job: merge the horizontal tube with the vertical one. I did not remove too much metal at once, looking if the job was right. After a while, I came to the conclusion that the horizontal tube was too short. Not wanting to do another one, I cut it and put a spacer about 2.5 mm wide (.1"). When it was done, I had a better vision how both elements could merge, removing metal here and there until I was satisfied. The next question was: how to assemble both? with silver soldering or soft soldering? To silver solder it, I should create a jig; I could however soft solder both elements when they were assembled on the engine.
I now have to shape and solder the two last tubes for that RH manifold.
I noticed that there is an interference between the tube coming from the water pump and the exhaust manifold ( the second picture is showing it well). I will have to solve this issue before I can go to the other side which should take less time to build

[Roger Zimmermann]

By bending a bit the elbow at the last exhaust outlet, I could get the needed clearance. This will also help for the exhaust routing near the gear box. There is also not much space between the rear manifold and the water pump; according to the various pictures, the distance is really short.
With that issue solved, I could solder the remaining outlet tubes on the manifold. The LH rear manifold will be (I hope) easier to do!

[dadscad]

It's amazing that they ran the water circuit and pump that close to the exhaust manifold. I would think that the radiant heat would add to the cooling system stress possibility causing overheating at times. Are there heat shields to come?

As usual, looks great!

[Roger Zimmermann]

Thanks David!
Good observation about the exhaust and cooling tubes/water pump! Maybe the cooling capacity was large enough to take care of this inconvenient. On the pictures I have, there is no shield. I noticed also other bad conception; I will explain that when I'm doing the concerned parts.