6 Cylinder Cannon...Yea that's right...like the motor!!! haha

[Bobster]

Uh...

I don't have a spare block around, but I hope you have someone video the first attempt---at a distance of maybe a mile and a half. I look forward to seeing it on the tv show "Hey! You Guys Gotta See This!"

Be sure to drinks lots of brewski's prior to detonation.

BOB

 

[JamisJockey]

My money is on you guys becoming darwin award candidates....

Hey Cous...hold my beer and watch this!

 

[Ric]

Maybe a low power mortar. but I would'nt want to be close for use as a cannon

That being said.........I want one

 

[Foster]

First off, you don't actually think we're stupid enough to shoot a full power charge the first time out do you? I mean come on, it'll be months before it's figured out, and by then, we'll know enough about the ballistics and block strength to know what it can handle. Also, take into account, that all six barrels will never be fired at the same time, probably not even loaded. The first fire attempt will be in a remote location, fired from afar, with the aid of the local fire and rescue. We're not drunken rednecks as some of these posts suggest. Have faith...there is more to come.

 

[sturmruger]

I am going to put this with in the same category as the ammo vending machine. Good ideas they just might be kind of hard to market.

 

[biere]

There is stuff made for filling water jackets as well, don't know what it is but did not see it mentioned as I skimmed the thread.

One thing you can do to make the cylinder walls thicker is to sleeve them. On some engines when one cylinder gets badly scarred up from something it is sometimes possable to clean it up and insert a metal sleeve to replace the original cylinder wall. This varies on stuff, but many diesel engines actually had replaceable sleeves in the early days from what I have read.

For what you are planning you could have some super thick sleeves made.

One thing to remember on the stuff coming out the oil pan when an engine blows up, it normally has a rod connected to it. I would consider using a straight bar of metal to run through the bearing caps, maybe make a quick release for when you want to reload. Your rod does not need to rotate, depending on how you do it, and your connecting rods can be beefy metal. The pistons get replaced with heavy metal that will handle the use of this thing since forged, hyperpuetic, or whatever pistons are going to die a death if used for anything except ammo.

One thing to remember on the piston rings is that even the total seal gapless stuff leaks some. And rings are fragile, they are commonly hurt in detonation and this can allow the piston to move around a bit and sometimes grab on the side of the bore and then a rod goes and then the engine goes.

Overall I would say the basic block could be made to hold 6 barrels. I would skip trying to use a lot of engine parts for this thing unless you take into account the way the bearing caps are attached and bearing clearances and what not.

This is simply my opinion and I have never messed with black powder cannons and I have certainly never tried using an engine in this fashion.

So theory means little until you bring reality into theory's little world.

Good luck and video would be cool.

 

[Foster]

Biere, the only parts of the engine we'll be usin' is the block, pistons and connectin' rods and the crank. No oil pan, heads or intake. We're lookin' at a way of fixin' the pistons so they're all in the down position and fabricatin' a type of door to swing away from the bottom of the block to load that way. We have a mount design that incorporates a gunners quadrant so we can "semi-accurately" aim this beast. We're also lookin' into fabricatin' our own metal cased loads. They will more then likely be filled with buckshot-esque load and we're still determinin' a good starter charge. Somethin' small that doesn't have much of a chance of failure. The further we go, the closer we'll be to a decidin' weight/bullet type/charge weight. Be sure to keep in touch with us "good 'ole boys".
-Foster

 

[Freedomv]

I would seriously reconsider what you are attempting to do. If you do indeed separape the cylinders from the rest of the block and then swing them out away from the crank etc for loading purposes will this become a breach loader?
Also on a safty note, We just had three collage bound students blowing up a deer carcass and such when they managed to set off one of their productions prematurely killing two out right and I don't know if the third has surcomed to his wounds as of yet. or if he will survive. I am sure that they "knew" what they were doing or thought that they did.
At any rate if you have to load 6 in a row you will incress your chances of a mishap considerablely. Something to think about as you will be putting your self in harms way each time you load more than one cylinder.

Be very very carefull. think of static electricity etc.
Vern

 

[SodiumBenzoate]

A diesel engine might be better suited to this kind of thing. (I assume the engine in the first post is not)