Hey guys. I've got a question: I'm studying mechanical engineering right now, and hope to work with custom engine designs after I graduate. I really want to do some studying on engine blueprinting. This wont be my first experience, but I want to learn more than "bolt on this off the shelf part and assemble your motor". Anybody know of any good books that will detail out some of the finer points of engine parts choice/design?

 

Is there a professor in your department that does any engine-related research? That would be a good place to start. At Rolla, we had an internal combustion engines class that was offered as a tech elective for upperclassmen. Then I ended up staying and doing my graduate research in the engine lab there too.

From an engineering perspective (rather than machining or repair - "blueprinting" is more a machining term referring to building race engines, and wouldn't be covered specifically, but the design side is):
Heywood is still the go-to standard book, even though it's getting older:
Stone's isn't bad and is a little more recent:

I have both, and reach for Heywood 90% of the time, but there are a couple of interesting bits in Stone about developments since Heywood was published.

 

This website gives a good explanation of what "blueprinting" is, though not a complete tutorial on how to do it.
Engine Motor Blueprinting | Explaining the how to basics

 

Thanks BKaul! I have a professor that I'm getting to know that did a lot of engine research in college and after. He built a wicked 300 for his master's thesis, but I'm not gonna go into much detail because it wasn't my project. I'm hoping when I leave this school to start a business, or maybe work for awhile for someone else, machining, building, designing engines to get the most power and efficiency possible from them.

 

No problem.


You probably don't know the answer to this yet, so don't worry about that, but as you get close to graduation, it'd be worth thinking about which angle of engine design you're interested in. For some career paths, a graduate degree would be very beneficial.

For building custom race/performance engines at the machine shop level, you wouldn't need one. Even to do a lot of the engine design/calibration work at the OEMs, a bachelor's degree can be sufficient for many positions - though I would recommend trying to get an internship or co-op while in school to get your foot in the door.

But if you're looking to do research to advance the state of the art and really squeeze all the efficiency possible out of them, grad school would be the way to go. With that career path, you'd be looking at either working in industry for one of the auto makers (Ford, GM, etc.) or heavy equipment engine companies (Cat, Cummins, Deere, etc.) or maybe one of the engine design consulting firms (Ricardo, AVL, IAV, FEV, Mahle Powertrain, etc.) or maybe working at a research lab - either government (Oak Ridge, Sandia, Argonne) or private (Southwest Research).


Just food for thought. I followed the latter approach myself, but I also have several friends working for Ford or GM who went to work there straight out of undergrad. Neither is better/worse, just a matter of what you want to do.

 

I appreciate the insight. Grad school will kind of depend on my fiance. She is going for a degree in biological sciences, and will graduate with a masters in biomedical engineering as well. She may go on to med school though (she hasn't quite decided) so thats gonna affect whether I go on for a masters or go straight to work. I'll probably wind up in the military for a few years, and they have some pretty good programs for getting a masters while serving, so we'll have to see.

 

One quick question: does the Heywood book cover forced induction? The Stone one says it has a chapter based on it in the description but the Heywood doesn't say either way. This is one of my "iffy" areas that I've been meaning to read up on more heavily.

 

Cool. A lot of employers also offer tuition reimbursement benefits for getting a masters while working if you don't end up going the military route. Military is definitely a good (and laudable) option!

Yes, Heywood does cover forced induction - both in the chapter on gas exchange, and in the last chapter, which I think of as the "performance chapter." The main area I think Stone has an advantage in is the computer modeling section, as he has some information in there that's more recent than the '88 publication date of Heywood.

Here's the table of contents for Heywood: http://1drv.ms/1wuCNJQ (sorry for the curved pages - I just "scanned" using my phone camera while sitting at my desk just now, rather than getting up and using a flatbed scanner. )

Just as an FYI, the internal combustion engines course I took had both semesters of thermodynamics as a prerequisite. Not sure what year you're in and whether you've taken those yet, but some of the material will make more sense once you have a good understanding of thermodynamic cycles, etc.

 

Thanks very much! I start thermodynamics next semester. I'm a junior-sophomore right now. I'm on year 3 of a 5 year track, which is strangely common at my school, so I've got freshmen, sophomore, and junior level courses this year. My adviser said it would be a weird year, and he was right. Next year I'll be into thermo, calc 3, solid modelling, machine design, etc, and I'm really looking forward to it. Where did you get your degree?

 

I did both my undergraduate and graduate work at Missouri S&T (used to be named Univ. of MO - Rolla). Wasn't unusual at all for people to take 5 years to finish an engineering degree when I was an undergrad - it's a lot of credit hours of classes that can be pretty intensive. I finished in 4, but I brought in a lot of credits from high school and took like 18 hours/semester. No way that would've worked if I hadn't been single at the time! Where are you going?

When you get closer to graduation, if it turns out you're looking at the grad school route and are interested in recommendations on universities that have good engine research programs, let me know and I'll give you some tips.

 

Sounds like next year will be a good one for you as far as getting into the core classes that apply to engines.

The thermo class next year will really be beneficial in understanding what's going on in an engine - e.g. why higher compression ratios are more efficient (up to a point), the impact of various combustion-related factors, etc. The second-semester thermo class ("applied thermo" in our curriculum) was really the helpful one - the first one is mostly setting the stage with the background info you need to know to put it to use in the second, so if you don't see the applications immediately in the first semester, don't worry!

If you're interested in the details of bearing design, gear/chain/belt design, balancing, etc., the machine design class will come in handy too. Most engine research is focused more on the combustion/energy conversion side, but having a good understanding of the machinery itself is never bad, and that and the solid modeling are key to actually designing the hardware.

Fluid dynamics, and especially CFD are also very applicable to things like port and manifold design, turbocharger design, etc.

 

It should be a good one. Our school has a nice shop where we get to do some hands on work, and it really breaks up the book work. I'm going to the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

 

Yeah, that's good! We had a manufacturing processes class where we did some machining, casting, and welding in a lab portion. I still have the clock we machined and a little piece we cast sitting on my desk at work. Didn't keep anything we welded - it was just scraps. That class was fun.





Just looked up your school online - has a very similar mascot to ours. Missouri S&T was founded as Missouri School of Mines back in the 1800s (it was called University of Missouri - Rolla in between, while I was there), and their athletic teams are still called the Miners. I wonder whose logo came first!

 

That clock is awesome! I'm hoping for my individual project to cut out my wedding ring on our cnc lathe, then send it off to have it blued (think shotgun metal). As for the mascot, yours probably came first. I know we ripped off our fight song. I wouldn't doubt we stole a mascot too We go by hardrockers though, not miners.

 

That would be sweet!

I know the original Joe Miner mascot was hand-drawn well before the computer-generated one above, but no idea when that was: