On a lark I decided to Google P-51 Merlin RC plane and came across this:

http://www.artus-motor.com/

Helps that I speak German, but that is indeed someone who is making a V-12 Merlin engine for the RC community!

Disregarding how cool that is...

I'd like to learn a little bit more about how engines work by working on a RC engine kit that could potentially fly something one day. I haven't been able to find any, but I might be using the wrong keywords?

Cheaper is better, but I wouldn't mind spending some money on it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

Well, it's not that you couldn't power an R/C plane with one of these engines, but as the cylinder count goes up, the engine gets larger and the size of plane required to support the weight increases accordingly.
So your Artus powered ME109 might require a 14' wingspan to support the engine's weight.
The other real consideration is the cost. A model with a 5 or 10 thousand dollar engine can crash as easily as one costing a hundred bucks and the results would be disasterous.

That is a fabulous engine. 204cc displacement and it uses a 24x16 propeller. It is definitely going to be a big plane. it is liquid cooled too. So you need a radiator as well.

The few operating home-built engines I've seen were built by master machinists, over several years.

Some plans and castings were available, many years ago...But as multiple cylinder engines became mass produced,these have disappeared from sight.

You've done the logical thing, asking here. There are several good machinists who may be able to help.

There was a large radial available,not too long ago, but liability being what it is , you had to sign a legal document,swearing not to fly it. It had many castings for the crankshaft,master rod,cylinders and pistons.I cannot remember Whom, though.

yes the most spectacular engine I know of was the R-4360 four row radial engine that a guy made. it took him 1305 hours to machine and fit it all together. it has 1690 parts that had to be made. ref http://www.barronaviation.com/Intere...9/Default.aspx

Darkenor, if you want to put together your own engine, you can get a CRRC Pro kit and have a go at it. They did all the machining, etc. It just needs to be properly put together.
http://www.agaperacingandhobby.com/v...?productid=395

That 28 cylinder monster is incredible. I can't believe someone went through the effort of making that.

@Earlwb -

I like that kit. I think I'm going to purchase it and put it together. At least it would teach me what I'm looking to learn about the basics.

@Epoxyearl -

In general, I think I've come to the conclusion that machining parts and using mill machines is generally awesome. I hear it takes decades of practice and millions of dollars of equipment to make it happen. Is that true, or can you do some of this yourself? Guess it's a dumb question, but I really don't know anything about the industry.

Those engines are amazing. If anything, I'd say his hour totals are low. Perhaps he is referring to actual machining time and has cut out some of the design and setup work hours.
Just working with 0-80 taps would be a challenge.

Actually,I'm a Mechanic, who spent his career maintaining lawn care equipment.
My machining experience comes from making the occasional repair part for dirt -grubbers.

My experience with these fine craftsmen is in visiting trade shows and machinist's exhibitions.
There is a (local) guy who built a (1/5?) scale Duesenberg with his own engine and transmission.

Originally Posted by Darkenor

On a lark I decided to Google P-51 Merlin RC plane and came across this:

http://www.artus-motor.com/

Helps that I speak German, but that is indeed someone who is making a V-12 Merlin engine for the RC community!

Disregarding how cool that is...

I'd like to learn a little bit more about how engines work by working on a RC engine kit that could potentially fly something one day. I haven't been able to find any, but I might be using the wrong keywords?

Cheaper is better, but I wouldn't mind spending some money on it. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

There are quite a few multi-engine casting set's or plans available, one option is to buy Model Engineer Magazine (British). I do have this Anzani set and one day I will finish it... One example of a twin (courtesy MEM) but there are radials as well, Model Engineer mag has been around for ages. But there are also American magazines for home builders like Model Engine Builder.

Originally Posted by earlwb

That is a fabulous engine. 204cc displacement and it uses a 24x16 propeller. It is definitely going to be a big plane. it is liquid cooled too. So you need a radiator as well.

I do have my doubts about flying a model watercooled multi cylinder, you know, the smaller the engine the bigger that radiator has to be, just look at those stationary model V's or 4's they all do have an out of proportion radiator, something to do with the law of quadrates ?? do'nt know how to translate excatly in Enlish language. I have a V-8 Conley but am sure it would be useless in amodel airplane. Having said that..... you never know if someone is already flying a similar engine somewhere.

Darkenor,
For the engine kit. I would suggest getting a tube of Yamabond sealant to use on the engine too.

For machining your own stuff, you only need a lathe and a milling machine. You don't need to get a fancy CNC machine setup either. That would let you make pretty much anything you want to make within the size limits of the equipment. You start out making more simple things and work your way up to more complex things. Sometimes it is just chucking up something in the lathe to machine it down to nothing to see what happens, sort of like whittling on a piece of wood with a knife.

I have done things like make crankshafts and connecting rods along with other things. Some stuff is more mundane such as making hinges for my screen door at home or parts for my motorcycle, et cetera. A lot of machining effort or time is in coming up with jigs and fixtures to hold parts while you machine them. You can sometimes spend hours making a fixture to perform a few minutes of machining on the part.


Reginald,
yeah I think he likely had 2,000 hours just making jigs and fixtures too.
It looks like they are planning to run two of those V12 engines in a DH 98 Mosquito twin engine bomber. But yeah I sure don't remember anyone flying a liquid cooled multi-cylinder engine before. The only single cylinder I know of is the MVVS 55 liquid cooled engine and it has a fairly small radiator on it. I wonder if the extra large radiators on the stationary engines was because they didn't use a fan to blow air through them or not.

Pegasus or Authentic Scale Engines also makes scale model engines too.
http://pegasusengine.com/Authentic-Scale-Engines/
They have a scale Merlin V12 engine that can be ordered. They are actually here in the USA someplace.

Here is another one a P&W double row 18 cylinder model radial engine 1:5 scale.

Pratt & Whitney 18 Cylinder 2 Bank Engine (1:5 SCALE MODEL REPLICA) (1 min 15 sec)

There are only a couple assembly kits like the one Earl mentioned. Just as good if you are not interested in machining an engine from scratch is to take apart an engine. They are not complex. The Higley, RCM, Gierke, or Chinn books are great for reference.

Greg

Originally Posted by earlwb

Pegasus or Authentic Scale Engines also makes scale model engines too.
http://pegasusengine.com/Authentic-Scale-Engines/
They have a scale Merlin V12 engine that can be ordered. They are actually here in the USA someplace.

Here is another one a P&W double row 18 cylinder model radial engine 1:5 scale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mtSWV1fsbg

Wow! How did you find that place? I can't believe there are two places that make a Merlin motor like that. Now if only I could afford one...

I'm pretty amazed at what the community has been able to come up with. That 18 cylinder engine is (I think) the "biggest" engine I've seen so far.