Engine Tips

WIRING

Is starter motor wires, alternator wires, sparkplug wires (ht leads), battery leads ...

It's best to find/buy really thin wiring, you could use old telephone wire but is really a little to thick, but will do, since I have no control over what size wire you have I cant really mention drill sizes or pipe sizes, so try several options.

To make a distributor (magneto) get 2 or 3 bits of aluminium tubing, that fit inside of each other. The biggest size holds your wires. Cut 5 bits, four equal, with one half the size. Now fold the four in half and gently squeeze with small pliers, with two pieces - gently push all 5 (single bit in the middle) wires into the biggest bit, this should be a tight fit, about 3mm high with the next size down pipe about 5mm, this smaller piece fits inside the bottom of the big one with wires out the other end, test for fit and glue with two part epoxy or similar, normal glue will travel up the wires so be careful. With three pieces of pipe add the single wire into the smallest size, do the same as above but add the smallest pip (with the wire in it) with the four other wires, make this small pipe about 8mm high, glue together and use the bottom of the smallest part to mount in your engine. Only real reason for the 3 piece is having to drill/make a smaller hole in the engine, they look exactly the same. Now the single wire becomes your coil wire, the rest are your ht leads (sparkplug wires), drill small holes (width of the wires) into the heads of your engine or in the rocker (tappet) cover and carefully bend the wires along the engine edges and place a wire in each hole, remember ht leads don't stand in the air, they fall on the engine so bend your wires as if they are sitting on the engine or exhaust.

For starter motor wires, alternator etc just drill a small hole in which your using and glue wire into it, drape the wire to its destination and you're done. Same thing for battery leads but you may want to use slightly bigger wire (not to big)

PAINTING STANDS

These can be an extra hand, once you've glued your engine halves together, most engines have a hole at the back (for the drive shaft), place a tooth pick, or old wheel spoke off a bicycle or whatever into the hole (don't force it) now place the tooth pick or whatever you have into something soft, but firm. The foam stuff florists use is handy for this, or clay, play doh etc, useful for painting, detailing or whatever, for more detailed things like leads you may need a small vice or clamp.

CARBURETTOR LINKAGES AND FUEL LINES

These can be made from small solder, electrical resistors (very cheap, has built in fuel filter), the wire from the center of those twisty things found on bread (or used to) bags, just drill a small hole in the side of the carburettor and bend wire or solder to suit, remember linkages go back to the fire wall, you can use some wire for a cable from the carburettor to firewall. For the fuel lines it goes to the front (on some engines) to the fuel pump, you can add more from fuel pump to gas tank if you wish

DIP STICKS

Use a small aluminium tube, find something to fit inside it (or just glue a top on it) and carefully fold a small loop for the handle, bend to suit motor make, you can also make a transmission dip stick, use photos of real motors to find out where they go if you want exact detailing.

EXHAUST MOUNTING

Mounting exhausts or headers to motors can be a real pain, one way around this is to drill a small hole into the header/exhaust and another in the head section (can use one at each end if you wish) and place a small tube into both with glue, this small tube can be excess plastic spree (the bits all the parts are connected to) sand down to suit, this method of drilling and gluing becomes solid and is good for mounting pipes onto headers or pipes to pipes. To make mountings carefully drill a hole into the side of the exhaust pipe and place a small bit of plastic into it, glue this on to the floor of your model. When you paint it, you could paint this section a silver colour so it actually looks like an exhaust clamp

RADIATOR HOSES

I remember when I was a kid trying to put these things on, I think 90% of models never got them lol, but with a little patience these can be fulfilling as they tend to stand out detailing wise, be sure to sand off the mold lines first thou. Test fit before gluing and if all else fails use solder for them, these can be black, silver (braided look) or whatever. Then either paint the ends with a silver strip (hose clamp) or clear red or blue for the braided end caps. Don't forget the radiator over flow pipe. For extra detailing this could go into a bottle or just down beside the radiator.

RADIATOR COLOUR

(backwash)

Radiators are black, except the aluminium ones which are aluminium in colour, however they have holes (vents) so a solid aluminium radiator doesn't quite look right, giving it a back wash (really thinned out black paint, painted over and wiped off) gives the effect of depth. On the front of the radiator you can paint some black or dark grey spots so as to look like dead bugs.

COILS

Some models come out with these, some don't. Either way you can use the standard round coil or make a square one out of spree tree (what holds all your model parts), the coil holds a minimum of 3 wires (ht lead, one wire to the distributor and the other to the starter motor or somewhere), make sure the ht lead is bigger than the other two wires. Another trick is to hide the coil and just place the ht lead into the firewall as if the coil was behind there.

BATTERY

In the hot rod scene things like batteries are hidden but for a model the extra detailing works wonders, a lot of models come with batteries> Just paint to suit with top caps (decal on side doesn't hurt if you have them) and most important the leads, normally you have a big red one and big black one. The black one (earth) can really go anywhere but if you cant find anywhere put it to the engine mount or base of the engine (not in the engine), the red wire is live, this goes to your starter motor. Some set ups have extra wires but these aren't really important and too many wires from the battery will look crowded.

BEST BET

For more detailing in engine bays etc look at hot rod magazines if it's a hot rod, or car manuals if its a street car. In hot rod magazines look out for the show tips and do the opposite, hot rodders try hide everything and you want to show everything. Depending how carried away you want to get (and how steady your hand is) you can add as much detailing as you want. Things like accelerator return springs, bolt heads, rocker cover wing nuts, nitrous lines on blowers etc, working butterflies on blower scoops, extra bracket for alternators etc, the list is endless.