Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Car Engine Model Kit!

hey guys adam savage here in my cave with a one-day build that is i’m taking a break um i’m right now in the middle of my mandalorian embar rifle build and there’s so many little parts i’m 3d printing some of it i’m machining some of it i’m making a bunch of it from scratch and i’m really really happy with how it’s going but i’ve been kind of pecking away at it for a couple of weeks and i need a break today uh before i get back in and make a list of what’s what’s going to be done i i uh yeah this is just one of those builds that i’m taking a little break to do um a few weeks ago norm featured a beautiful construction on the site a uh a sort of uh automata mechanical dragonfly we’ll include a link in to the video in the comments below um and i reached out and i was like dude that kid is really beautiful and he said hey those guys are are super interested in uh letting us play with products they have on their website and i went and looked and today’s one day build is one of the products on their website and it is this beautiful car engine build this is a four-cylinder car engine in a cream color uh this is on their website it’s pretty good deal on their website it is also on amazon for more money i don’t know why sometimes these kind of things it’s not like they’re produced by the company that’s selling them but they’re produced by a single factory and a whole bunch of different retailers are selling them like i mean that’s kind of how alibaba works right or it’s one of the ways one of the mechanisms by which it works so i don’t know if this is an original production of the website we’re including the link to or whether uh it’s made in a different factory it doesn’t really matter i’m gonna put it together right now and i’m really excited because it’s actually quite a beautiful model and i’m i’m gonna actually raise this up so you can see the um well i don’t even know if i need to let me just show you how pretty this this uh this build is first we’ve got the assembly instructions here it’s a nice fat book in a um we’ve got a matte finish cover which is a really luxurious feel to it a heavy paper nice two color insides and then look at how how generously they have labeled the vacuform insert tray for all of the pieces of the build i i find that really what an honorable and delightful thing to do let’s put this over here a little just spacer we have a second tray of some beautiful parts look at these look at these anodized aluminum gorgeous oh my goodness oh a little valve little valves oh man another blue blue and i think this is the yep crank case and all the little oh look at that this this is without a doubt this is like a really fun afternoon build oh yeah plus i know kind of an excellent box never operate this engine while unattended all right um let’s see also the pollen bloom’s making my head explode uh okay uh i’ve got a second bin here of some little pieces with some foam on them so i just want to make sure i remove the thumb so i can see oh oh o-rings cap screws oh more cap screws and twos looks like it could be oh some circlips oh some grease um some lovely pieces these yeah i this is uh this is all is that metal it is metal wow this actually looks like it’s got some hand post finishing marks on it that’s kind of incredible motor housing a little switch got a little charging cable dude dude look at that oh yeah they’ve um they’ve actually included inserts for the cylinders for smooth running at the bottom of the oh there’s even stuff there’s stuff down below there what are you what is that what is that i’m gonna have to take a look um a little electronics board here probably for yeah some engines i mean for engine sounds perhaps oh look at these oh underneath everything are hidden gems valve covers yeah amazing let’s see oh yeah wow um yeah i don’t know how engines go together i’ve never put together a car engine i mean i’ve assembled a two-stroke but anyway um yeah today we’re going to build this four-cylinder engine from the manual model dm 13-1 oh excellent uh okay um i’ve gotta i’m gonna take a look inside here what’s going on in there the screws are barely tightened that one’s weirdly not one oh wow the screws are like double-sided oh that’s the battery that’s what that is okay i understand all right so that’s just this little a little lithium-ion battery you know what does it have to rattle does it have to rattle no it doesn’t you know what i’m going to do i’m going to go get a piece of that foam piece of foam from the garbage and i’m going to put the foam over the battery is that really the smartest thing do i really want to overheat the battery i don’t think so i think i’d rather have it rattle around oh here we are step one i’m gonna be blowing my nose a lot because of the pollen bloom in san francisco sorry about that it says put lubricating oil in all the places that need to be lubricated well that’s totally clear oh look it gives a little oiled dot okay so uh piston mechanism we got how many pistons before finally okay okay so that goes in there and that goes in there there we go there’s one uh right circlips and tweezers one two three four five seven eight okay so let’s put one one side two three four okay there’s one two three i swear on these crankshaft arms on these uh cylinder arms i see yeah some post crossfit post process finishing here okay two three so hmm all right that’s step one step two all right okay four of those nope not those washers and little phillips heads itself look at that okay so which end okay that’s how it works and i’m going to be putting these on number one three five yep nope okay so uh it goes like this that’s it there it’s there it’s working it’s just stand up by itself nah nah nah that was a short one i’m gonna try it okay so uh back up there look at that oh excellent all right number two all right this is uh we’ve got the uh four crankshaft arms attached and now i think yeah we’re breaking this puppy out oh i want to lubricate these guys yes so let’s um let’s lubricate the insides of these all right yeah i’m just making sure that i’m really covered here with i’m using a little acid brush to make sure and then these guys go down in here that’s really neat oh the head in the same direction okay so nope yep that’s the four screws and that is the yeah that looks like it’s only really riding on that yeah well okay oh mounting brackets there we go that’s the big one so where are those those are here are these these guys one two yes yes okay it is those guys all right so let’s get these out one two three four five five and what screws hold these together these are the little cap screws little shorties and no washers to these right yep there’s one okay let me break out the other 10 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 and oh here we go so i’m already on step like four and i’ve already got this very satisfying thing going on um i hooked up an electric drill to kind of get it going look at that look at how pretty this is dude that is awesome okay so i check that yep i make sure that it works it does now i’m installing into this thing the spark plugs where are the spark plugs is this them yes i think it is oh three six yes look at that so where do these go these go you see in the center oh wow okay so now we have the um the valves 16 sets and here they all are and they’re all the same oh 38 or 38 so that’s one two three four five one two three four five six one two three four five okay so i’m gonna pull those all out right now put them here two okay apparently they all want to be that way that’s fine now i need 16 times oh five nine what is that one is that this one or that one i think it’s this one okay and then springs times a million one two three i can’t stress how useful a pair of good tweezers are for this build uh i really can’t stress enough just make sure you have a nice pair of tweezers it makes grabbing grabbing and working with these parts far easier than your big dumb fingers um i don’t mean that you have big dumb fingers but i mean i have big dumb fingers and this is helping me amaze me oh my god but this pollen bloom is really kicking my butt so do well uh i’ve been going pretty well here um this is a lovely lovely kit it’s it’s really nice to handle the pieces of the engine it’s a great scale it’s got a great weight to it all the pieces are die cast and the finish is terrific um and i’m not done at all uh but i currently have an electric motor attached to the main gear so i uh everything is lubricated well uh i’ve got the generator in which actually looks like it’s a real motor with two leads out so it might actually generate some power i have no idea um yeah it’s a lovely looking kit the valves are all aligned correctly and yeah i’m having fun uh so the next thing is the water pump assembly oh there it is uh there’s a lot of different things i’ll wait i know i know you don’t love long time sequences but you know i gotta listen to some music sometimes i can’t just be sitting here in the crushing weight of my own thoughts jesus bro who can deal with their thoughts for too long um that’s actually a joke that my partner makes she’ll snobby uh we’ll be hanging out and i’ll be like oh i can’t take off so great bringing my phone cause i can’t believe it it’s a good joke because it’s true feel the same way um oh man okay water pump is in now 27 is a nice big pulley gear i love that they anodized the water pump in here if you can see it in there can you see it can you see it hold on maybe you can anyway there’s another part inside there that doesn’t seem very necessary but awesome uh okay 27 27.

Okay that way oh okay so 75 and 71 35 and 71. this one does nuts right so we want to work and there it is this is a um this is a terrific gift um you want to get this for someone who likes making stuff this is a great afternoon build day-long build after which you end up this beautiful thing that’s great oh now you put this on okay so if that’s the side and this goes oh yeah look at that right there oh that’s oh 68 different screws all right 68 68 okay 68 is the m3s oh times eight oh these guys yeah okay you know one thing about these stainless screws it’s really hard to keep them on the end of my um of my driver here i’m putting it together really clear how many separate things all run on the main power train of car engine and how like i mean if you’ve ever built a mechanical device with like more than one output shaft you know how difficult it can be it’s pretty amazing i’m also like right now i’m reading about the wright brothers built their first internal combustion engine for the plane amazing stuff all right uh water pump is in you know okay tension set assembly is there a chain but oh there is look at that there’s a chain okay let’s see what’s up forty-eight okay there’s that one and then 41.

And then 56. there’s not a lot of rhyming reason about how the surface layout is bad 56 36 in here ah so it is okay so that goes there that goes up right it’s a tension set so that’s there oh yeah you do want a little bit of grease in there don’t you do yes you do okay so there’s that and then there’s three nine that one and then 76 which is one of these little dudes and then 64 others before the end of my allen yep is that there 64.

right are you serious did you just unwind yourself come on what’s going on there we go okay yeah okay so we got that going let me put that back oh no wait a second yeah that way right yeah there we go that’s it i just have a little munch on the screw 6000 and oh look at that that’s the actual tensioner there we go yeah like that oh every step is installing a brand new piece let’s see here that there and these are 68.

68 is the m3 yeah one two three then i’ll see here yeah um same rule always applies i don’t tighten all the screws and i don’t tighten any of the screws until they’re all actually set into their threads follow that practice you will be a happy maker of things excellent so there goes that l and r oh right and that oh wow look that’s exactly where it should be that’s one of me here comes the chain oh yeah all right here we go okay there we go oh no no come on come on ah there we go okay nope on the inside of that silly oh really as far as up and that’s exactly where this guy should be that’s the right timing and this is the other timing tensioner nice goes that way oh nice ah so it’s adjustable okay 67.

There’s up there and 74. i’m not 74. being crazy making me crazy you making me crazy no that’s not it that’s three times twice okay oh plus oh a2 oh yeah that’s that big one yep okay plus oh seven five it’s a spring launcher and an o7o which is that one okay so that goes right on there right on the big one um okay so that’s it i like that sound uh installing the belt o65 that is these two guys here these red belts there’s four okay so what is the arrangement arrangement is that to that okay the second one okay filter in oh six what’s osx what’s that oh six all right what is 06 what’s that supposed to be oh that’s the oil filter there you go all right uh i like it all right so show me that and this guy ah okay so this guy comes in here oh 78 78 and then three times there they are yeah that’s the ones i don’t think there’s anything like that no there’s two okay so let’s just stay with that yeah all right assembling the battery mounting frame okay so4 okay so then there’s the circuit board box which is different and that’s this guy which gets four five four yep all five four has a nut okay so this is the charging board great this comes through there two switchblocks are seriously it’s the toughest hole oh i managed to get it damn okay charging port is in all these parts are anodized aluminum anodizing seems just a little bit thin but i’m okay with that all right the actual circuit board which i have around here somewhere there it is okay so there you go okay now interface dot okay so one big one small that’s pretty easy where they go because there’s one big one small so we do that and we do that i’m kind of curious how it’s going to fit in there dude there we go okay those are 66’s let me go in there and like that right 66 66 it’s the m2 right and so there’s four of those oh no these are slightly smaller yay this goes on the back here and let’s go there right there um probably because of an earlier design iteration is my guess but so i put this there nope 68 right 58 is the um no no it’s not oh my goodness i’m so 68 are the m3s time dates silver okay so now which goes to which oh impossible to know okay so okay it looks like a longer one goes to this guy one goes to that guy yep and the shorter one goes to the motor yep shoulder goes to the motor could have been a little clearer okay that that really that’s it it’s done there’s so many extra screws how awesome wow that’s finished i must say i’m kind of blown away okay wait a second let’s uh this is five volts let’s get this let’s get this charging shall we i undid the wiring and took a look at it and i had the drawing was wrong you got to make sure your motor goes to the right motor thing just label it a little bit uh and i think that’s wired correctly now and so i think it’s time for the moment of truth it’s time to turn it on you ready you ready come here come here come here oh come on that’s it here we go this is our visible engine hey dude look at how pretty that is the crank case sits in the oil bath allowing the pistons to go up and down these cranks actually activate the tablet valves you can actually see them moving in here it’s really nice it’s really what a lovely lovely little kit yeah i’m very happy that was fun um this kind of kit like i said this makes a fantastic gift for a maker in your life it’s a fun build it’s a nice object to end up with all around it’s a good thing funnily enough i’m noticing some screw bosses like one two three four five that have nothing to go to them and i’m just curious yeah um about what other things this engine was built for right like maybe that’s a different iteration sometimes these castings get made in one factory and used by everybody in sort of different things um i recently put an awning on my back deck and while it’s a consumer level awning i noticed that a restaurant near my house uses some of the same extruded metal parts in their awning so it’s like you know sometimes these main castings are like one guy one folk one factory makes them and everybody else utilizes them i don’t know that that’s the case here but um the belt is actually working it’s actually going around and the tensioner is here it’s the timing on the on the crankshafts up here for the tappet valves this is terrific yep we’ll get some close-ups and we’ll call it a day there you have it the complete build on my little four-cylinder engine uh like i said we’ll include the link to where you can get this in the comments below thank you guys for joining me for this one day build i’ve had a lot of fun stay safe and i’ll see you guys next time uh cheers we wrap up i just want to make it clear how much extra hardware there was in here seriously that’s fantastic um two extra belts extra springs extra couplers extra bits for the uh tablet valves like i really appreciate a company that includes extra stuff on the tiny parts list i think it’s it’s good business thank you