3D printed LS3 V12 motor Part 1

I washed the components in a bit of dish soap, as per Ron Olsen's instructions (here). No mold release agents means no aggressive degreasing is needed. The picture shows how the head and valve cover are joined by a couple of very fine 'sprues'.



Then I glued up the oil pan, front cover and bell housing.



Superglue works but takes a bit longer than usual to stick. (I am using Bob Smith Insta-Cure+, in the gap-filling medium formulation with 5-15 second set time.) I am not sure if this means longer term challenges, but it all seems solid now. 



The parts have no dowels or locating ribs, so you either have to eye-ball it really well, or drill and pin. The block has a number of very small holes, and the front cover has little bosses where bolts would go, so these could serve as starting points. Being in a hurry, I didn't bother, but note the milky, semi-transparent nature of the material (some kind of Nylon?) makes it difficult to see edges. Furthermore, the edges of the crankcase where the pan attaches consist of very thin walls, which is realistic but hard to see for an old guy like me. It might be easier to primer first, then scrape and glue. The picture shows the block viewed end-on with the crankcase ribs pointing at about 2 o'clock.



I will wait to put the heads on as I would like to have the proper intake manifold in my hands to ensure the heads are centered properly. As mentioned in my last post, I wound up with the wrong manifold (1/32 instead of 1/24) so I have ordered a replacement. Once that is all in hand I'll move to primer and paint.

There will be some bits required to complete this, mostly from the parts bin: accessory drives off the crank, water pump, oil filter, starter motor, motor mounts. The engine probably has no distributor, although the plugs are molded into the heads on the exhaust side under the headers. I'll probably put the transaxle on it with an eye to building up a wicked mid-engine device around it.

There aren't a lot of pictures of this motor online, but if you Google "Running V12 LS Spotted At SEMA #TENSEMA16", you will find a post from about a year ago. The people making this motor also have a website where they are offering long blocks for $35,000, and you can see some details such as oil filter placement there.

Stay tuned! This could get interesting.