SE-5 Wolseley Viper Engine

[JohnR]

Started work on the Wolseley Viper engine a couple of days ago after taking a month to build a ukelele (fun build). So far I have the engine stand assembled, the crankcase assembled, the 2 cylinder stacks painted (with the spark plugs attached), and the propeller blanks glued together. Like all of the engines, there are lots of small parts to clean up and paint. Will work on this over the next few weeks; should have it completed by the end of February.

 

[JohnR]

A lot of cleaning and painting of small parts so the engine will look nice on display. The 'V' angle of the cylinder heads on the engine body made it entertaining to hold the first set in place until the epoxy set enough to balance it on the vise until it was cured completely. Coming up - attaching the left side cylinder heads, carburetor assembly and relief valves to the engine body (followed by some more small parts}.

Intake pipes on cylinder heads (yes, a couple of the spark plugs are not exactly straight. They've been re-done a couple of times but I decided not to try again; they'll just be buried under the other parts of the engine once the spark plug wires are attached.



Carburetor assembly



Right hand cylinder head assembly on the engine body (this is while the epoxy cured).

 

[Steven B]

Something you might want to consider to provide a better look: TAMIYA Panel Line Accent.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CTJUVE?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_15

 

[Donnie]

Nice build, I will follow this.

 

[JohnR]

Something you might want to consider to provide a better look: TAMIYA Panel Line Accent.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CTJUVE?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_15

View attachment 576473

Thanks for the info. A bit late for this build as I'm almost done but definitely good to have another source for paints, etc. I was able to find a source for the paints I remember from my youth (Testors; Hobby Lobby has them). While I'll stick with acrylics as much as possible, Testors has a nice line of metallics (clean up is with mineral spirits or acetone - both of which I have in the garage for other woodworking projects.). For any metal parts of future builds I'll probably use the Testors paints when I can't use sprays.

 

[JohnR]

Assembled the left hand cylinder bank, carburetor and velocity stack. Assembled the magnetos and glued them to the rear of the engine. I drilled the holes in the spark plug wire support tube a bit deeper to make it easier to add the spark plug wires. Added the oil filler neck and the front oil drain lines; will get the rear oil drain lines later (they are on the inside of the vee). Added the 4 outboard spark plug wires to the left hand cylinder bank.

Adding the spark plug wires was a bit painful as the holes that were drilled in the ends of the spark plugs are not my best work (some are OK but some are not that straight and consequently are open on part of the circumference). To make sure all of the spark plug wires are adequately attached to the plug ends, the wire is occasionally wrapped around the end and then glued in place (a spot of white paint will be used to cover up this way of attaching the wires).

Brittania metal is difficult to drill, especially the smaller holes. I tried to avoid using the small Proxxon electric drill as much as possible to keep 'goofs' down to a minimum (it was needed for some holes, suchas those in the spark plug wire support tube, in order to get them deep enough). I used the pin drill with a 1.2 mm bit for the small holes; increasing to 1.6 mm to increase the diameter (which worked for all of the location pins). In a couple of instances I couldn't get the location hole deep enough without most likely doing damage to area being drilled; in these cases I filed down the locator pins so everything fit.

Holding the left hand cylinder bank, carburetor and velocity stack in place while the epoxy set.



Left hand cylinder bank, carburetor & velocity stack in place on the engine.


Magnetos in place on the rear of the engine.



Oil filler and front oil drain lines in place.



Left hand outboard spark plug wires in place. (Some white paint will be added to hide those wire ends that couldn't be attached into the holes in the plug ends.

 

[JohnR]

Finally have all of the LH spark plug wires - inboard, outboard and magneto - in place. Small space to work in, lots of bending, lots of CA; finished, but as you can tell from the pictures, definitely not the job of an Aircraft Engine Mechanic 1st Class. Hope I have enough wire to complete the RH side (time to look in the left over stash from prior kits).

While taking a break from the model work earlier this week I took the time to do some research. There is not a whole lot out there but I did finally manage to locate some photos of the rear an engine that is (or was) on display in the Science Museum London, UK as well as some pictures of a cutaway engine (circa early 1920s) from a museum in Victoria, Australia. There is also a plastic model of the engine that I found (not sure if it is still available) and a 3D blog site with information on this model, a larger version built under license by Wright-Martin, and the Clerget 9B engine. The basic information on the engine is available on Wikipedia and a couple of other sites. One interesting item turned up is that many of this engine model, and the larger Wright-Martin version, were converted in the 1920s to coil ignition by a firm in Minnesota and used in racing boats.

Websites:

Hispano-Suiza – MBIQ Models

Posts about Hispano-Suiza written by MBIQModels

mbiqmodels.com

(the larger Martin version is at https://mbiqmodels.com/engines/hispano-suiza-8f-scratch-built-18/ ; the Clerget 9B can be found under the Engine tab at the top of the blog site)

Intodution of SE5a with Viper-engine

Intodution of SE5a with Viper-engine Aircraft

theaerodrome.com

Wolseley Viper engine

www.hobbysta.eu

Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 and S.E.5a

Aero Engine - Wolseley Motors Ltd, Hispano-Suiza W4A, 'Viper', V-8 Inline, Birmingham, England, circa 1918

The Wolseley Viper (Hispano-Suiza W.4.A*) aero engine is a V8 cast block design produced under licence from Hispano-Suiza by Wolseley Motors Ltd, Birmingham in the United Kingdom during the First World War. This example is fitted with a Zenith carburettor and carries the serial no. 2339/2275 and...

collections.museumsvictoria.com.au

Wolseley Viper - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Wolseley Viper Aero Aircraft Engine Service Manual ( English Language )

Aircraft Manuals Helicopter Manuals Propeler Manuals Flight Manual Illustrated Parts Catalog

www.aircraft-reports.com

https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/399884 (digging into the website, it seems that the engine is in storage and not on display)

****** PICTURES ******

Top view, LH inboard ignition wires



Ignition wires installed at LH magneto



Engine in Science Museum London, UK



Engine on display, Museums Victoria, Australia