Customer Reviews

Smithsonian Motor-Works

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

After reading the reviews, I ordered this with some trepidation, but I really wanted an educational model of an engine. I built it with my 8 year old son in a few hours, although I ended up doing more of the work. I found the pieces to be pretty good, and the process of screwing the screws into the plastic was a good compromise between ease of assembly and robustness of the resulting joins (but having a good-quality screwdriver of the right, small, size makes a big difference). The directions were adequate but a bit hard to follow at some points - it certainly helps if you have some idea how a real engine works so you can see what it's trying to do.

The puzzling part is that when we got it running, it was clear that the valve opening and spark firing made no sense. As reported elsewhere, it turned out we needed to resolder the wires to the electric motor in the opposite polarity to make the engine spin in the correct direction (fan spins clockwise when viewed from in front). That made the valve sequence more plausible, but I had to rotate the distributor cap far beyond the suggested range to make the spark plugs fire at close to the correct time. And after reversing the electric motor wires, the firing order became 1-2-4-3 (instead of the expected 1-3-4-2). However, this is a valid firing sequence, and it appears to be consistent with the cam assembly specified in the instructions. Perhaps the model was designed for a non-north-American firing order, but then someone decided to reverse the electric motor to get the "expected" firing order (at the cost of many other aspects)?

On balance, I still think the model is really good, and I probably learned more as a result of trying to puzzle out why it wasn't behaving the way I expected. However, I worry that kids all over the country will build it as specified, then spend ages trying to make sense of a model that, until modified, doesn't properly reflect 4-stroke operation.

My daughter needed this for a school project and I build full scale engines for a living. This was fun....BUT not for an EIGHT YEAR OLD to do! Predrilling many holes and tapping the casting for the screws was time consuming(really help overall quality). Using a hardened tip phillips screwdriver is A MUST! Also, using different types of lubricants really helped. Leave out the head gasket and you can see the funtioning motor much better, better lighting too.
Camshaft and rocker illustrations and the assembly directions don't agree. (I also write some auto-tech literature). Obviously written by someone who is non automotive technical.
Make sure mating surfaces are sanded smooth and lubricated. Bundle the wiring and paint some of the colored parts... it makes it look much nicer. GOOD LUCK!!!!

I'm not going to take the time to repeat all these valid complaints. There is a lot of talk here about what is wrong with the engine but not a whole lot on how to fix the problems. It's great that motor-heads are pointing out the technical problems and we thank them for it. But the common person wants straight to the point answers! That is what I will focus on here.

Lets start with the correct firing order for the US, 1-3-4-2 instead of 1-2-4-3.
You need to move the cams. Note that the "-" next to the letter is the direction the line on the cam will face. The directions call it a groove...it isn't a groove. While assembling this you will have the gear on the shaft in your left hand. Note I put some periods in there for spacing since Amazon doesn't allow multiple spaces.

(GEAR) -H -B .. D- C- .. F- -E .. G- -A (OPEN END OF SHAFT)

If you hold the rod flat side up:
H points away from you
B points towards you
D points up
C points down
F points down
E points up
G points towards you
A points away from you

Some cams are the same as the others so it is possible to move some letters around and still have the same result. However that is how I did it.

Correct the spark plug order so it fires when it is supposed to do it:
#1 plug goes to #1 cylinder.
#2 plug goes to #3 cylinder.
#3 plug goes to #2 cylinder.
#4 plug goes to #4 cylinder.

Fix the motor rotation (if needed).
As stated in previous posts you might need to reverse the wires on the motor. Do not remove the motor from the housing. Plug in the motor and look at the gear on it. If it spins counter-clockwise then it is good. If it spins clockwise then you need to reverse the wires. It will require soldering.

This was a gift from a friend, their intentions were good but the gift turned out to be a big disappointment. The toy has tremendous potential as it does show many of the features of an internal combustion engine, and has a nice tutorial in the manual. My son had no trouble following the instructions, although there were errors in the manual about the camshaft alignment we were able to figure out the correct way to set things up. However, from the beginning it was clear that this toy was made from very poor plastic castings and was not likely to run smoothly. In spite of multiple efforts to fix the poorly made parts and make them work properly, the motor still jammed every time it went around and after only a few turns the electric motor started to overheat and burn out. So the net result was a pretty big disappointment, now we have a plastic model that doesn't run unless you crank it by hand. I build electrical and mechanical components for scientific research equipment and feel confident that it was not for lack of skill or understanding that we had trouble with this toy, I would not recommend it to anyone who expects to have a running model when they are done working on it for a few hours! The box says 'Smithsonian Institution' but in the fine print says it was from National Science Industries, Ltd. and directs you to [...]. We have not been able to get to that web site.

We bought this for Christmas -- with some trepidation -- for a 10-year old boy who loves, LOVES cars and airplanes and won't stop asking how the engines work. Now he knows.

Based on the other reviews, I imagined a frustrating, time-consuming, parent-intensive project, but ultimately, a visible model engine. When my son started the project late one evening, scattering parts across the living room floor, I feared days (months?) of clutter, small parts underfoot, and ultimately, abandonment.

That was two evenings ago. I can now report that the project is finished, and it works well. All by himself, with NO parental involvement, in a few hours after school and after his homework, my son has a completed sparking, turning in-line four.

For a child who has no passionate urge to build an engine, I am sure this is a difficult project. For a 10-year old with some mechanical ability, a screwdriver, and an intense interest in engines, it's a snap. And as the parent of such a child, a no-brainer of a gift! For such a child, I definitely recommend it.

I am a very mechanically inclined person. I own an Alfa Romeo and I work on it myself. I build guitars as a hobby, and I did all of the finish work on our home. My father bought one of these kits for me as a kid. I remember it being very difficult to assemble correctly, and I gave up.

My father bought by son one of these horrible kits this Christmas. He then mentioned how he'd bought me one and I never finished it. Dad, I never finished it because it sucked, and I never wanted it. Sorry, I digress.

I ended up putting my sons kit together and t was just as frustrating the second time around. The drawings left out enough detail that I had to take it apart at various stages to turn parts around the other way that had no apparent front or back until later in the build. It was also missing a part. Once I got it together, it was noisy and really has no educational value.

Don't buy this for anyone you care about. Stick to Legos.

This toy would be fun if it were easier to assemble for the classified age group and better designed. Some of the steps were poorly illustrated and/or described in the instructions. It was very hard to understand the instructions for the camshaft and some of the cams had flash from the molding process making them very difficult to put on the cam shaft. Over half way through the assembly my 9 year old nephew and I realized that the timing belt would not stay in place, due to the design and fit of the belt. We tried disassembling and reassembling three times, before we decided it was not worth it (at that point we had worked on it for a couple of hours). Also, because of the hardness of the plastic and the very small screws, it was very difficult for my 9 year old nephew to assemble the pieces and ended up stripping a lot of the screw heads. In addition, we tried to run the motor and it would not run, again evidence of poor design/quality. This product is a fun idea and reasonably priced, but because of the poor design and instructions, in reality it wasn't a lot of fun for my nephew or myself. I'll be returning this product to Amazon for a full refund and would not recommend it.

Purchased this for my mechanically-inclined 8 year old nephew. We very much enjoyed putting it together over 3.5 hours the afternoon of Christmas. He located all the parts and drove in all the screws. He really caught on to cam and rocker arm function and valve and piston timing. Wow! Late in the afternoon he proudly displayed his functioning engine to the entire family. I think his grandmother, who followed our progress throughout the afternoon, was the most excited. She kept telling my nephew what a good Christmas memory this will be. I agree. Excellent kit! Detailed but not too complex. You do need a good micro phillips head screwdriver.

This model is a phenomenal way to learn about how reciprocating engines work. Most of it is transparent and the parts are faithful replicas of a real engine.

Alas, there are bugs in the execution. Many of the screws require far more force than a kid can apply, and will strip out if insufficient force is applied. The printed instructions contain errors on steps 18 and 19 (camshaft assembly) and in any case do not contain enough information. Consequently, frustrating trial and error was required to achieve proper cam timing. That said, if the camshaft timing is wrong, it will not be obvious (or important) unless one is specifically checking the operation of each valve and spark plug relative to the crankshaft.

They skimped a bit on QA too -- on our kit the motor polarity was reversed (again, not apparent to a kid) and so required minor re-soldering.

Even so, with a mechanically inclined parent handy in order to overcome these problems, the kit is the very best way for a kid to fully understand how engines are built.

I bought this for my girlfriend, who assembled it in about 2-3 hours. In the end she was disappointed because the electric motor would not turn the assembled engine, but it turned out that this was a defect in the wiring of the electric motor. After I fixed that, it ran immediately.

The parts are quite good, with no sprues and no flash at all. The parts did not need modification. We had problems with the timing belt slipping off until we saw that the parts had to be reversed on the shafts, after which it worked well. The single huge instruction sheet was awkward to use, but most of the instructions were fine. All in all, I think the experience was a good one.

Having built both the original Visible V8 some 30 years ago, and a more recent version perhaps 10 years ago, I can say that this was better designed and better manufactured. And it went together easily.

Too bad the other engine kits are so much worse!