Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine

Product Information

Although the instructions for assembling the valve train quickly bought back teenage memories of being covered in muck and swearing at an incomprehensible Haynes manual it made perfect sense once I threw the manual aside and just assembled the damn thing from first principles - P14 if you're wondering.

He built it over 2 days, fairly straightforward but a few fiddly bits especially the valves and springs.Open the box and what you see bears a strong resemblance to an Airfix model, with sheets of plastic parts that need to be cut off their “sprues”. It doesn’t require any special tools or even glue to assemble and once it is fully assembled, the battery-powered engine model can be turned on to reveal moving parts, lights and sounds. It is also beyond the ability of a 10 yr-old to assemble - probably a 14 yr-old could do it without adult help. Some mention that it's brilliant and easy to put together, while others say that the instructions are difficult to follow, the parts are not machined well to enable easy assembly, and the instructions were written with children in mind.

Kit includes more than 250 precisely detailed parts and pieces, exceptionally clear step-by-step instructions, and a transparent casing so you can see the action when the engine is switched on.It's loads of fun to build and keep little ones attention spans, excellent instructions coupled with quality materials give this kit a true sense that you have spent much more on it than you have. To show it off, it is encased in a transparent housing so that you can see how the engine works and with the aid of a special interactive augmented reality app on your tablet or smartphone you can see what parts are and what they do. Whilst you are assembling it you are not just learning to read and follow instructions, but it also helps children develop patience, hand-eye coordination, manual dexterity skills and problem solving skills. Aimed at children aged 10 or over, the kit is a simplified version of a real engine but is not based on the unit from a particular car. I suppose it is an excuse to re-do it all over Did mine my son's one yesterday and also forgot to lube the bearings.