How difficult is it to build your own engine?

Is it difficult to build an engine? Next, we try to analyze how difficult it is to manufacture a modern automobile engine from the whole manufacturing process of the engine.

Sand-the foundation of making engines

Perhaps in everyone's imagination, the automobile engine is made of a whole piece of steel or aluminum alloy, and different parts are cut by machines and then combined. But in fact, the starting point of all engine manufacturing comes from something called sand mold. As the name implies, this is a mold made of sand. This sand mold will have many holes and vacancies. These holes are all designed for the next process.

In order to ensure the normal microscopic data of the engine prototype produced in the next process, the sand mold must be carved by a very precise machine, and the precision of the sand mold is extremely high. Even if the error is one millimeter, the final engine may be rejected. At present, this kind of precision machine tool, even if it is a self-developed brand, is also a product of advanced countries such as Germany, Japan and Italy.

Ok, the accurate sand mold is done, and the next step is the next process. The service life and power tolerance of the engine depend on this process to a great extent.

The birth of engine casting

Before this process, all the sand molds will be transported to the designated filling area by the machine, where the sand molds will undergo some necessary high temperature resistance and fastening treatment. Of course, this program is also particular. If it is not handled properly, there will be some small structural changes in the sand mold, which will eventually affect the scrap rate of the finished engine.

After the sand mold reaches the filling area and is ready, it's time to start another production line. In one of the high-temperature workshops of the engine factory, the machine will start to send a whole piece of steel or aluminum alloy (these materials are formulated and manufactured in advance) into the high-temperature furnace, where these metal materials will melt into liquid (that is, molten steel). Then sand molds are injected from multiple directions through pipelines.

At this time, everyone will know why we have been emphasizing the accuracy of the sand mold, because the molten steel that eventually forms the major parts of the engine is poured directly into the sand mold here. The technical difficulty of this process lies in the control of impurities in metal materials. If we make this metal, there are many impurities in the metal, and these impurities will pile up together after melting, which will directly affect the service life of the engine.

At the same time, the high-temperature furnace for melting metal is also very particular. Whether the material of the furnace wall will release some impurities that are not in the molten material at high temperature will eventually weaken the rigidity of the metal material. The temperature control and heating rate of the furnace directly affect the metal performance of the whole engine. Similarly, at present, it is impossible to manufacture such a precisely controlled high-temperature furnace in China, and the high-temperature furnace still needs to buy imported products.

Back to the topic, after all the high-temperature molten steel is poured into the sand mold, there will be a cooling process to solidify the high-temperature metal into a solid state again. This process is very important, and the control of cooling process directly affects the quality of this engine in all aspects, which is the most demanding step in engine manufacturing. Because this process is too confidential, the professor can't get further information.

After cooling, the engine block in the sand mold basically takes shape. At this time, workers need to personally break the sand mold with a hammer. After killing the sand mold, the real engine foundation is made.

Grinding and assembly

After reading the above, you probably already know how difficult it is to manufacture the engine. However, all the above steps are just the blank of the engine. However, it is this gap that determines the innate foundation of the whole engine.

Go on, after the blank is finished, it will be sent to two grinding machines for rough grinding and fine grinding respectively. The purpose of these two machines is mainly to shape the whole engine structure, and all kinds of cylinders and waterways are polished in these two machines. Again, these two programs require very high accuracy. At present, most independent brands use machines from Germany and Austria for grinding.

Can the engine be assembled after grinding? Not yet. After fine grinding, the mounting base of some high-speed moving parts, such as crankshaft or cylinder block, will be polished again. After that, various supporting and lubricating components will be installed, such as the cylinder body will be equipped with precision-made cylinder liners, the crankshaft base will be equipped with crankshaft teeth and so on.

After all these things are installed, the next step is the real engine assembly stage. At this time, the crankshaft, piston, camshaft, etc. All of them will be installed on the engine, cylinder block, cylinder liner and other components will be installed, and then external equipment such as generator and compressor will be installed, which means that all of them are assembled. As long as you add all kinds of oil, the engine can be loaded and tested, then sent to the 4S shop, and finally began to spend a long time with you.

This is not just a manufacturing thing.

In fact, making an engine involves not only the manufacturing industry, but also the industrial technology foundation of the whole country, from steelmaking to precision machine tools; From temperature control to process management. In fact, engine manufacturing is the product of modern industry. Although it has been catching up, on the basis of industry, it has actually missed the technological development brought about by the two industrial revolutions in western countries because it has gone through a long blank period. Therefore, we are still relatively backward in these aspects.

It may not be pleasant, but this is our present situation. This situation can only accumulate and catch up, but the gap does exist. Today, our engine manufacturing still depends on foreign equipment. I also hope that in the near future, we can buy a self-developed engine made with our own equipment, and its performance can be comparable to that of foreign products.