The COVID-19 lockdown has left many of us with a ton of free time to kill. Some are playing video games, others are reading and, judging by our social media feeds, many are learning new recipes to cook and bake. Not surprisingly, though, the car community is working on their vehicles and taking on new projects in the comfort of their home garages.
Brian King, who runs the YouTube channel ‘AWDCUTLASS’ (and whose car we’ve featured on the site in the past) has been working on a rather interesting project while under COVID-19 quarantine. The home wrencher decided to make a display engine for his viewers that shows the inner workings of a General Motors LS V8. To do this, he decided to make an engine block, oil pan, crankcase and valve covers entirely out of plexiglass. The inner workings of the engine, such as the pistons, valvetrain, crankshaft, camshaft, timing chain and oil pump are from a real GM LS V8, but the plexiglass exterior allows onlookers to see how the motor works when it is turned over.
King even fills his home-built, see-through engine up with four quarts of Driven Racing Oil to show how the engine pulls oil from the oil pan and deposits it into the upper lifter area. He also outfits the engine with a set of flashing LED lights, which illuminate some of the darker areas of the engine to give viewers a better look. Perhaps more importantly, though, the lights just look cool when the engine is turned on and it is in a dark room.
King is actually selling his see-through, Chevrolet-sourced LS V8, so if anyone interested in having this interesting display piece for their garage can reach out to him. Check out the build process in the videos embedded below.
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Comments
Next project would be to use biodegradable materials like wood or paper instead of plexiglass.
This is a full scale of the 1960’s Renwal Visible V-8 model (I built two of them), which is still available at eBay (go for the motorized version which also has light bulbs as spark plugs). I expected the full scale engine block to be made of a solid piece of Lucite (plexiglass) instead of glued plates like the Renwal (also Revell-Monogram) model.
Because it’s easy to see through wood.