In-Depth Look at The Honda K24 Based V8 Build by Neutron Engines

typically on this channel we've talked about a lot of oem style engines like the 2jz 1uz the ls series coyote voodoo et cetera we've talked about pretty much exclusively oem engines but today we're going to look at something really cool which is what happens when a mechanical engineer gets bored and decides to smash two honda k24s together to make one 5-liter v8 and this isn't just some cad project that'll never see the light of day this entire project is designed to be a real world engine hopefully by the end of 2021 and eventually be an engine that you or i could purchase and drop into our project cars let's get into it right off the bat i want to say big thank you to craig williams he's the madman behind this project he's a mechanical engineer that's been doing all the work and this has been about a five-year project for him go follow him on instagram at neutron engines where he regularly posts updates and answers questions about this engine and design changes that he makes before we get into the interview with craig i'd like to cover some basics on this project so you can get an idea of just how insane it is but also how well designed it is as you guessed from the title this is a honda k24 v8 project so it's basically two k24s that are stuck together in a v configuration to create a v8 engine obviously you can't just bolt two engine blocks together so the entire project is designed around a cnc machine custom v8 block uh but in the future craig did mention that he wants to be able to cast this engine to really bring the production cost down so it's really affordable for average enthusiasts what i think is the most interesting design feature of this engine is the fact that it uses two identical cylinder heads and what i mean by this is that it has two cylinder heads which are completely identical but in order to do that there has to be a timing chain on both sides of the block so that's exactly what craig did there's a timing system on both the front and the rear of the block now by doing this you can avoid using custom cylinder heads which really brings the cost down significantly and makes it much more affordable although it is kind of a funky design it's actually not that far-fetched because it's something that you would see on a bmw b58 for example or other various audi engines which also have a timing system on the rear of the motor okay that's enough of me talking because i'm just some guy on youtube let's get into the interview with craig so you can really hear about this engine and the design choices that he made so what made you want to slap 2k24s together where did this idea come from if i'm being 100 like totally and completely honest it's because i was a little bored at my day job and i wanted an engineering challenge and i love automotive like but i didn't work in automotive so i was like hey you know what i want to see what i can do and this is the coolest thing in the entire world i want to try and design an engine just see if i can so it started off as let's just see if i can and then it became okay i'm working on this to then holy crap i'm doing this and it kind of evolved how long have you been working on this project for about five years uh but the last two are what have really taken off i was diagnosed with a severe lung condition and i have to spend a lot of time doing breathing treatments and if you're stuck at your desk for two hours a day might as well make it productive that's when it became okay let's do this and fully commit and as far as i understand with the design you're basically just using oem k24 heads um that are reversed so you've got one one facing one way one going the other so you basically have a timing chain on both sides have you put any thought about how you're going to mount the transmission if that's going to be an issue having a timing chain and timing chain cover on both sides um so it will be kind of like uh a few different audi engines and even the new supra engine the bmw you have an entire transmission back plate that can come off and the timing shape tensioner is actually above the transmission so it's open and accessible up above that i already understand the reason why you went um exhaust manifolds in the center of the v rather than on the sides but uh could you just go ahead and explain it so well i had already designed the block and uh i had the oil return passages and i had designed like all the stuff and then um i went to put on timing chain uh tensioner and figure out the oil galleries for that and it ends up right in the middle of the block to girdle hard life and really close to the main studs so the oil gallery would have to be this crazy like noodle complex to get over there and then being in that location the screws like end up being really weird and it just wouldn't maybe i could have made it work would have been a slot design it would have been problematic and had issues and it would have also increased the overall width of the engine because on the k series you don't notice that the timing chain tensioner is like out in the middle off to the side but on a v8 it would be down low and in the like off to the side it overall increases overall width of my package versus the hot knife in the middle in the center and right next to the oil gallery like it is on the stock uh k series that's really interesting it's really smart that you did it that way i i nearly quit the project during that time i was like i am so far in i've spent so much money doing this i gotta figure it out and i remembered uh i think it was 2006 i went to barrett jackson and there was a card there i wouldn't say it was a ford falcon and it had this very special uh v8 that was really rare it was from indycar that poor this had made it has the exhaust in the center and i saw that and i remember thinking about that and i was like you know wait there's there's actually been a couple of race cars that had this and then learning about amg's bmws that had it and it all became far more doable and realistic i was like okay this isn't that crazy it's just just a little different and as far as the cylinder block is that going to be a custom cnc machined piece or i guess what was your plan uh with the cylinder block so my intention is that it will be the top half will be 60 61 and it will be cnc machined and then the bottom half will probably be 70 75 i'm sorry i promise most people don't care a higher uh even higher grade of aluminum and it'll be machined and bullet the first few engines are going to be pretty expensive but if i can work out all the keys and make sure that yes i have a running reliable and as good of an engine as i think it will be and can be and i don't have any issues then they'll switch it over to a casting and that's when i hope it'll be more mass-market and more financially viable to everyone else and then the cylinder heads this project is just going to be using oem k24 k20a2 cylinder heads um so i'll be um partnered with uh crayon two racing um and they'll be providing the solder has um the specs for those ones are their winners winner circle cylinder has um but this works with all k24 k20 cylinder heads and if somebody wanted to they could use some other manufacturer of a cnc cylinder has if they'd like for the rotating assembly is that all going to be uh aftermarket obviously the crankshaft is because well obvious reasons but what about everything else so the timing chain for the front uh forward-facing cylinder head all of that was stuck every bit of it in stock you can use well not the timing chain ear piece that one's actually like trimmed down from the stock one but essentially stock the rear-facing head all of that is custom and is a custom piece and stock pistons will be able to be run on my on my current engine my all extreme all motor i'm using custom pistons that are a lot lighter and a custom length connecting rod length to reduce my second order vibration but i don't think that's what most people will monitor or do so a steel set of uh custom rods will be available that are much cheaper than the titanium versions that i'm currently running with and so you can use stock pistons you'll have to use custom uh connecting rods and then the custom crank and then the custom rear timing system it uses a stock uh tensioner that uh the two tiny chain guys and rear gear are accustomed to my engine the one that you are building specifically as i guess this first engine or your more extreme engine what what kind of power are you aiming to achieve it started off with um i just want to beat the ferrari 458 especially engines because that's rated the number one best naturally aspirated ferrari v8 ever made and i want to make more horsepower than that and then it became well i can actually go a lot higher than that and you know it we can go pretty high so um i don't have a specific number i'm shooting for i have a certain rpm i'm trying to hit i want to hit at least ten thousand uh i'd be pretty disappointed that only five but i wanted based on my map i should hit 10 000 and i would like to hit close to 750 to 800 horsepower if not more um this is closer to a drag spec all motor k24 i don't have increased stroke but i am not a full board of 90 millimeters should be doable yeah well i mean um i guess there's there's a lot of k24s that are you know making like 300 wheel horsepower uh naturally aspirated so um i i assume what you're doing is definitely capable of making that kind of power when configured pretty much like a full-on drag racing engine i'm i'm not going drag racing with my engine but i want it to be capable like it has like mission oil sporters and stuff um so it should be a street driven capable engine but i just wanted to be able to grab to the moon and be all motor because that's what i like i i think i could hit crazy numbers boosted and that'll be my second mention but you can do that with you know a regular k series or you can do that with 4g 63 or an ls and i think with how far turbos have advanced the last couple of years crazy high numbers out of out of that doesn't mean as much a crazy high number sound of the naturally aspirated engine that makes more horsepower per liter than any ferrari naturally aspirated v8 ever made in any of their production cars yeah i think that that might be something that's special yes i i definitely agree do you have a target time frame for this project to come to fruition and for you know fire the engine up for the first time do you have a specific time frame that you're going for this or is it just kind of you know building it as you go using your time as you can so i have parts already ordered i have the pistons already ordered i have the connecting rods um i asked them to make one adjustment to the connecting rods so that should be ordered either on monday or tuesday and the crankshaft is ordered as well these are long lead time parts since 12 weeks so i have 10 to 12 weeks to finish up the block and make sure that i'm 100 confident that i like everything and the way it is and that i have it all correct and i would like to start running my first test because even before i fire it up the first time i need to just dry turn it over when it dries up to make sure that all of the oil passages are producing the correct amount of oil and now i'm not getting starvation at a particular point i've run simulations but you know simulations only as good as the quality of the person running those simulations if you haven't made a mistake so i have to do those sort of steps first i need to spin up the motor and make sure with all of its parts to make sure it's balanced check the timing do a couple of those things so i'll probably i would like to start it up if i was being ambitious uh may if i if i think it it's like more realistic i think it's closer to october as like the hey this is this is that the rotating assembly is already all ordered and my buddy has a fourth axis cnc large enough to run my block and we need regularly to discuss okay hey we should change this to make it more manufacturable so i've been doing everything and so hopefully in the next couple of months we'll see basically you know you said october potentially as a more realistic target i think anything inside of like three years from now what you're doing is very ambitious so you know just uh within three years from now that's a that's a very quick time frame for what you're doing uh you guys are seeing like all of my old like pictures and screenshots i i haven't shared hardly like none of the rotating assembly that you guys are have seen on instagram and stuff like that are representative of the current stuff i just haven't shared some of it i don't want to because there's people that will try and copy it and so i'll probably keep some of those images and just say you know this is what it was when i was working on it a year ago awesome i think i have everything i need is there anything else you wanted to add i think i'd like to just thank a couple of the people that i cold contacted and they just responded to me about this project i contacted darton and was like hey i need more details about your mid-sleeve and no hey will this work this was my idea this is a good idea this is a bad idea them just responding and helping out with this project has been huge also getting some of that help and support has been really helpful from king berry as well i'm sharing actual engineering drawings with me hey this this bearing is uh manufactured this way these are the tolerances that we're hitting so you need to design your block around them like my engine does not have stock tearing at all if you were to use a stock k24 k20 main bearing and connecting rod it might work for an all motor but as soon as you went into boost it would it would snap the crank like son so i'm using actually a lamborghini uh v10 uh a berry and then a totally different uh connecting rod bearing as well to offset make up uh for how tiny the honda bearings are and how little broadberry to mayberry overlap um that overlaps just to give you an idea of only 18 millimeters squared of the area um but with my new connecting rod journals and main bearing channels i'm at 375 millimeters of squared areas so drastic strength increase so my engine should be able to handle food and be able to handle that without an issue and that's something i'm really proud of and i'm really grateful to arrow who helped point out some of those uh things were like hey yeah your simulations say this but if you want to work in other applications we should consider you know something else so arrow king crayon to racing from shoulder heads and darts are the big names that have been helpful throughout this project and fusion 360. that's the cat program i've used for most of this project i've used solidworks as well but fusion360 is pretty much all about this program that i've used for this project we're finally at a point where this is now time to start cutting metal room seeing that this will actually work so if i make a 40 grand engine block coffee table or i'm actually successful so you know with a few tries i hope that i can bring something to the market that is completely different all right i hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did please smash the thumbs up until it really helps me out go follow craig on instagram neutron engines again this is where he posts regular updates on the project answers questions and a lot more so really be sure to go follow him he's going to be able to answer any extra questions that you have be sure to also check out the other videos on the channel get subscribed smash the thumbs up button and i'll see you guys in the next one you

Channel: Dust Runners Automotive Journal

Views: 117,777

Rating: 4.9435911 out of 5

Keywords: honda, k24, k20, k20a2, v8

Id: jFxFjgffS1A

Length: 19min 11sec (1151 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/CyberianSun]

my main confurstration comes from the fact that the intakes are on the bottom. Why would they not have the intake runners in the center?