Teching V8 Engine Kit (DM118)

Cost:  £500

Date of Review: 29th December 2024

The sales pitch from Teching:

Features:

Wonderfully Detailed Model: Our V8 engine model kits feature genuine precision-cast and machined parts in anodized aluminum and stainless steel.  Each piece is accurate, detailed and directly correlates to assemblies found in modern, high-performance automobile engines. This is a superb introduction into engineering and mechanics.  
Complete Accessories: The kit contains over 500 parts.  Each finely-crafted part is labeled, and packaged in custom foam carriers to ensure they are organized, complete, and undamaged.  A clear, full-color instruction manual is included.  While the engine is complex, step-by-step instructions – along with some patience – ensure excellent results.  
Simulation Model: A real electric motor inside the starter motor housing drives the V8 engine through its 4-stroke process.  The crankshaft, rods and pistons can be observed through special viewing windows.  The intricate valve-trains atop the engine, as well as chains, pullies and accessories on the front, demonstrate the coordination among all the moving parts.  Even when not in motion, it is an impressive machine to see.
Excellent Learning Activity: This kit is not recommended for unsupervised children under the age of 14, due to its small parts.  However, it provides a great opportunity for adults to spend time with children.  The child will learn to understand and follow illustrated instructions, manipulate parts and basic tools, and to know the accomplishment of a job well-done.  It fosters an appreciation for the ingenuity in today’s technology as well as the need for it in coming generations.  
Gifts: The V8 engine kit is packaged in a colorful, durable metal gift box.  That ensures that the kit arrives intact.  Plus, it makes an excellent presentation when given as a gift.  It is a great idea for anyone interested in mechanical things.
For Ages: 14+

Specifications:
Material: Aluminum Alloy + Stainless Steel

• Process: Anodized
• Product size: 198*170*180mm
• Parts: 500+pcs
• Charging voltage：DC 5V
• Lithium Battery Capacity: 3.7V, 800mAh
• Charging time: 2 hours                               
• Working time: 1.5 hours
• Assembly time: about 5 hours
• Assembly difficulty: IV grade
• Metal Box Size: 342*242*150mm
• G.W.: 4.1kg                                                    
• Suitable age: above 14 years’ old
  Package Content:
  1 Set x V8 Engine Assembly Kit
  1 Set x Tool
  1 Set x User Guide

Source: https://www.techingedu.com/productinfo/663947.htmlING

A nicely presented metal tin which contains a little over 4kg in total. This is an all metal kit with very high quality machined parts and no plastic parts. There are no rough casting edges on the aluminium material which has been anodised for the various colours. The colouring is consistent across all the parts large and small. There is a note within the instruction manual that says the following which got me a bit worried:

Files and sandpaper what is that all about? However, I found that there was no need for any of the parts to use any of the various grades of fine sand paper that I had stockpiled just in case I needed them. I did find that using my own quality tools was a much better option than the supplied ‘tools’ from Teching, not that they’re bad, but we will get into that a moment.

What’s In The Box:

There are three trays of parts, a clear plastic sheet to build the kit on and a hard copy of the instruction manual. The foam trays are precision cut with the parts fully submerged and held firmly within the cavities with plenty of clearance above, this avoids damage from scuffing. Each part’s cut out has a finger recess to allow easy removal of the parts when needed. It is said there are over 650 pieces which I have no doubt. However, it needs to be considered that a many of the parts are a duplicate process. Like the valve stems which consists of the stem itself, bottom ring, spring and top tappet. Four parts to each valve, and there are thirty two valves so that’s one hundred and twenty eight parts right there. The large amount of Allen bolts add to the total tally of the parts count.

Some of the parts are stored together in their own cut out slots, shown by the multiple numbers in one location. None of the parts were damaged, scratched or missing. Everything was mounted very securely and in their own place. Nothing was rattling around inside.

Fasteners (hardware):

The hardware supplied for the kit comprehensive as it is amazing. There are two plastic compartment containers with various part numberings on the lid. There has been some careful thought gone into the positioning of the hardware. Similar sized ‘screws’ or bolts are separated into other compartments to avoid confusion. It may look odd, but it works.

Here I have shown some of the subtle differences of the screws.

There are some clear bags marked up where multiple parts are the same number, such as screws ’63’ and screws ’66’ which are commonly used throughout the build. The smaller engine parts like the valve springs are stored in the compartments. The smaller single parts like the water pump vein, spacers, springs, washers or individual parts are also stored the compartments.

The best part about this kit as I have mentioned already above is the quality of the parts and this extends hardware too. They supply you with spares! Yep, there are a spares for virtually everything. If you need need eight screws, you get ten. If you need two washers, you get three. This confused me to start with as I was looking for places to put the screws, was I missing a step somewhere? I wasn’t, all the parts are there, and more. If you drop a screw and it rolls into a black hole which opened just as you dropped the part, you don’t need to worry.

The fasteners are not steel, they can be tightened into the aluminium casting and could be over tightened with the Allen keys. You could easily round out the Allen bolt heads or oven strip out the threads. The parts need to be tight, but within reason.

Tools:

This is where I have a little issue. Teching supply four various sized Allen keys and a small cross head screw driver.

The Allen keys are not the highest of quality, but work with fairly good tolerances, with only a little bit of play. I would recommend using a precision bit set to get a better grip in the bolt heads. The supplied screw driver is only used four times or so if I remember, which has a cheap feel plastic handle. I used a precision screwdriver with multiple bits for the Allen and cross head bits that I needed. This allowed greater control of the hardware fitting. I also used a fine pair of tweezers, a medium pair of tweezers, a pair of needle nosed pliers. For each of my own tools I added some heat shrink tubing to cover the metal tips which would avoid any metal on metal contact potentially damaging the anodised finishes. Where the tiny circlips are used, I strongly recommend using the fine needle nosed pliers to clip them into place.

I also used some quality cotton buds for the application of the lubricant. I was expecting a oil, but it’s not as there is no sump to pump or replenish oil ways. This is a lightweight grease supplied in three pots that needs to be applied in numerous places.

Instructions:

The hardcopy is nicely printed, clear and easy to read, all be it with some amusing translation differences, and a couple of errors. I found on the website a copy of the instructions in a .PDF format which I have attached here for a download, be patient as it’s around 84mb in size.

Download here to open the file in a new tab. I could have embedded to the page, but it would have slowed down the loading of this page.

There are a few guides and recommendations to follow before you start the build.

Building The Model:

Tip:

Where some of the screws are in tight or obscure places, I test fitted the screws in place. That way you know the fasteners will tighten easily without cross threading. Some of the threads do have minor debris inside which can prevent the initial bite of the screw to get going. I did this a couple of times especially when fitting the intake manifold and the heads. Just tighten the screws lightly into the threads and remove again without the part in place of course.

I will show the building steps from each page with a few photos and explanation as we we go along.

We start with the piston and con rods. It’s easier to fit a circlip at one end the rod and pass into the piston from one side then fit the other circlip into place once it has passed out to the other side of the piston. Lubrication is applied generously at the top of the con rod. Once fitted make sure the piston head moves freely. During this phase you will notice that the con rods have a kink in them, (bottom right picture top left piston is easier to see). This will be critical to note for a later step.

The crank itself is a placed onto the bottom of the block. Dry fit the crank and where the crank touches the block apply a generous amount of grease, then apply more grease to the crank itself.

Next add the bearing covers and screw them into place.

With the cam in place turn the front spindle to make sure it rotates freely.

Insert the piston into cylinder making sure that the con rod offset is noted. Two pistons will be on each section of the crank. This can be fiddly, so rotate the crank to the highest point for each piston as it would be TDC (Top Dead Centre) and then insert the con rod. Adding a light pressure to the top of the piston to keep in contact with the crank, rotate the crank back around to allow the bearing to be tightened easier.

You can see the offset on the above bottom right photo. The pistons won’t fit correctly unless they are aligned correctly. The completed pistons attached to the crank below.

Again rotate the crank to make sure everything spins very freely.

The spark plugs are simply inserted and a little tighten with the needle nose pliers to secure four on each head in place.

The completed valve what it should look like completed within the block. There will be a set of thirty-two to complete.

Lube the valve stem and insert into the block. The valve will protrude at the top, bottom right photo.

Add the valve bottom (would be a valve guide), then the spring, the the top (tappet) to hold the spring in place.

I used a finger to keep a tight pressure on the vale so I could tighten the top of the valve stem or tappet. With the valve completed press from the top to make sure the valve moves up and down freely. There is only a small amount of movement which should be smooth in operation for all of the valves.

Complete the sequence of all the valves which should all be the same height on top once tightened in place.

For each of the cylinder heads there will be a cam seat to fitted. There is an arrow at the bottom of the heads that needs to face forward when fitting both the cam seats.

Place the part squarely and evenly over the tappet tops and lower evenly down. You may have to wiggle a valve or two until it drops in place and bolt the seat into place. Again check that the valves all still move smoothly and independently.

Once in place, tighten the ten recessed screws for each cam seat on each head.

The overhead cams are all the same, profiles.

The headed part of the cams goes to the front where a pair of sprockets will be screwed on. Note the location of the cam lobes as this will align the two holes in the front vertically ready for the sprockets, which in turn will be critical for the timing stage a bit later.

Lube the cams and block anywhere that there is metal to metal contact between the two making sure the cams are orientating to the correct position, you can clearly see the positioning of the cam lobes for each side of the head. I also added thin film of grease at the top of each valve stem for the cam lobes, just to help with friction of the cam rubbing over the top.

After applying more lube to the bearing, very gently bite the bearings to each of the cams and block. Then once all are in place, then you can go round and tighten up fully. This way there is even pressure to the cams during the installation.

The sprockets will be marked with a “L” + “R” pair which will need a spacer. A “RL” + “RR” pair that don’t need a spacer in order for the timing chains to step correctly. Don’t mix them up!

Locate the sprockets to the end of the cams (they have a flat which will correspond to the cam ends). Where the lettering is you will see a dot which will be used for the timing. Where the “L” + “R” sprockets are used make sure to use the spacers and the longer screws.

At this point you can turn the cams to make sure they move freely and the valves will move up and down. You will be aligning the timing up properly when the chains go on a little later

Here you can see the offset for the sprockets between the two heads.

The exhaust pipes have a little “O” ring which sits within a gasket, this will hold them in place. I positioned my exhausts slightly rearwards as matter of personal preference.

When fitting the exhaust they will go to the outside faces of the engine. Thus the cams “L + R” will sit on the left of the heads which in turn sit on the LEFT side of the engine (when viewed from the front). The “RL + RR” will have the exhaust on the right of the heads which in turn sit on the RIGHT side of the engine (when viewed from the front). Insert the pipes through the gasket with the flange on the inside. Align in place and lightly tighten till all the screws are in place. Then go round and tighten the screws fully for even pressure.

Locate the oil pan to the bottom of the engine block, again evenly and progressively tighten the screws.

Screw the display legs to the bottom of the block.

Attaching the heads can be a little tricky to align up. This is where the (advised) pre screwing on the threads will help you. Gently screw the head into place with the outside screws in each corner, just to hold it in place, allowing for a small amount of movement to locate the rest of the screws. Do not fully tighten them up, this will allow for aligning the awkward middle bolts of the head. For those middle pair I found having the screw on the end of the precision driver or the Allen key, and tipping the engine upside down in order to lift the screw into place rather than drop it into place. Once located you can gently start tightening all the screws in sequence as per page 1 of the manual into the threads.

The front and rear covers are a simple screw into place. Note that the front cover also has a line next to the “V8” which will be used for the TDC timing and alignment in a few steps time.

The starter motor is the beginning of the small amount of electrics. Align the motor inside the front part of the housing and secure in place.

Then the body and the rear cover threading the wires through out the back ready for the battery pack power supply connection.

Locate the starter on the side of the engine block and secure into place.

Locate the flywheel to the rear of the block.

The alternator (generator as it’s called here) has motor inside a front and rear half of the housing. Two cross head screws to hold the motor inside the front cover. The motor supplied is not a powered part of the kit.

The pully needs to have the correct orientation, washer, sprung washer and bolt will tighten to the front of the motor spindle.

Bolt the alternator to the side of the engine block.

The spline for the water pump needs lube where it passes through the front housing.

Bolt the rear section of the housing to the front section aligning the spline, make sure that the spline has sufficient lubrication. Once in place add the small spacer and snap the first circlip in place.

Add the pully, washer, sprung clip and nut onto the spline and nip tight with the needle nosed pliers.

Attach the the completed unit to the side of the engine block.

There are two sets of tension seat assembly. This is the first mistake in the numbering of the manual. 7.1 and 7.3 are numbered the wrong way round. One is stepped via a larger bracket, the other is not. Make sure the correct tension seat is on the correct side of the engine block.

The sliding adjustment block on the inside of the bracket can be fitted either way, and wont make that much of a difference to be honest. I did make sure that I followed their correct orientation with the larger part of the block facing the adjustment screw. Screw the spindle into place which will hold the block in place inside the tensioning bracket. Insert the tension screw a little way in the bracket to allow the easy fitting of the drive belts for each side. The block should slide up and down freely.

The pully is free spinning on the tensioning shaft, thus will need grease application. A washer, sprung washer into the recessed side of the pulley and the screw will screw into the spline itself. The pully should still spin freely.

Both sides are exactly the same principle apart from the stepped brackets.

The larger of the two brackets fits to the LEFT of the engine block.

The chain guides need to be fitted, there are static guides and an adjustment guide for each side. There is a step on one side which will align with the stepped sprockets for the cams. These photo’s show the static guide and the adjustment guide.

I have added the two timing sprockets to the bottom crank just to show the dot for the alignment to the timing mark on the front cover, bottom right photo. The crank’s shaft has a full flat keyway for the sprockets to locate. Note: Only one will be in place for the first chain to be fitted on the right side first.

This is the most technical part of the kit build.

To set the timing correctly you need to be a bit creative by holding the cams still. Align the the two sprockets up with the timing dots next to each other. The positioning of the marks will mean that the cam lobes are lightly pressing the tappets themselves.

Place the chain around the two cams first, then lay the chain around the guides to the bottom sprocket on the crank at the bottom. The chain should be tight across the top of the cams then fit over the crank cog. Taking up the slack in the chain you then get the two cams again line up with the chain in place.

You may have to jump a tooth or two on the cams within the chain to align the cams up correctly. This step may have to be repeated a couple of times. Once you are happy then fit the next tension guide in place and take up the slack on the chain, but not to tight. On the bottom right photo here you can see the adjusting slot which is a tight pressure as I didn’t want to it to move while the left chain goes on.

The bottom crank now needs the next sprocket as well as spacer disk to step the chain away from the right side of the block chain. The sprocket will only go on with the flat key way on the shaft.

For the left side of the engine, there is exactly the same principle, align the two cams and fit the chain over the top.

Once you are happy that the alignment is correct with the slack in the chain taken up, then fit the left side tensioner.

Now that the chains are in place loosen the adjustments until you can turn the whole engine over via the blue fly wheel on the back of the engine block. Turn slowly to make sure the chains don’t jump a tooth and the chain adjusts itself evenly. After a full revolution the the two sets of cams should again align up next to each other.

Here is the completed timing with both chains in place, note the twin sets of cams for each side of the engine are aligned.

Adjust the chain tension guides by moving the tension guides in and out via the slot. Once everything is operating smoothly with no binding tighten the screws for both the adjustment screw and the locating pivot screw.

Fit the first chain guide under the cam sprockets on the right side.

Fit the second chain guide with the spacer.

Installation of the starter gear and cover is dead simple, you may have to turn the spindle a little to allow the cog to mesh with the flywheel. Screw the front case into place for the starter.

Belt mechanism spindle will need some lube where it feeds through the front of the housing. A spacer is used to align the circlip to the correct location on the spline and snap the clip into place.

With the spline now held in place, a pully and another circlip snaps onto the spline which will hold the pulley in place. Then screw the unit into the upper middle part of the engine block via a couple of screws.

There are two guide wheel brackets both built the same. The only difference is that one is a stepped fitting for the left side of the engine block lower down. There is an inner sleeve which fits inside the guide wheel and held in place by a screw, washer and a sprung washer. There is no need (according to the instructions) to add lube here. I added a small smear on the inside at this point as it wouldn’t hurt. DO not add lube on the outside of the guide wheel.

The lower bracket is stepped and fitted together the same way.

Both guide wheel parts assembled.

The right hand side guide wheel which is smaller sits higher up on the right side of the engine. To fit the guides in place there is a screw and a locating pin. Fit the locating pin into the engine block, slide the longer side over the pin and then align the screw to tighten up in the block.

The left side sits lower down and same principle to insert the locating pin into the block and then align the screw to secure in place. I have arrowed the pin in the photo below.

The main crank pully uses the flat keyway to install the pully. A single screw with a large head holds the pully to the crank shaft.

With the pulley in place the rubber drive belts are added to the front pullies as per these directions.

Fit the larger belt on the right hand side first. Look at the position of the belt sideways on to the pulley to make sure the belt is aligned in the grooves vertically. The right belt should be in one of the grooves closest to the engine block.

The left pully is smaller and much easier to fit. This belt should be in either of the grooves away from the engine block.

From the adjustment screws at the bottom of the tensioners, turn the screw until there is just enough distortion of the belt to maintain contact with the pullies, but not to over tension at this point. Both belts are seen in place here.

The oil filter is a single screw in piece.

The intake manifold drops into the centre of the block between the two cylinder heads held in place with screw in each corner.

The intake manifold cap is just a couple of screws each end and sits snuggly on top of the intake.

The charging and power switch sits within a pack located at the back of the engine.

The power connector is slotted through the side of the case and tightened with a ring nut on the inside to hold it in place.

The on/off/on switch has two drive settings, battery or power driven, switched either left or right. The power switch needs to have the locking ring removed and fed through the top with the on/off/on markings facing up. Slip the power switch under the power port wires to fit into the top hole. Tighten the ring nut to the outside of the switch on the outside.

Connect the wires to the circuit board with the corresponding sockets.

Two other wires are from the circuit board are need to complete the circuit. One is for the battery box and the other to the starter motor. The two external wires are to be placed under the circuit board and out of the recess in the side of the case. Place the circuit board face down and screw into place with a couple of flat head screws.

Place the back to the control box and screw into place.

Once the case is complete screw to the engine block on the back at the top.

There is an error on the instructions that shows the back of the battery box has the wires opening on the top left of the box. In fact the the opening is on the top right, (below photos on the left). This isn’t much of a problem, but it makes the wires taught to meet the control box and the starter motor. Screw the back plate to the engine block just behind the starter motor.

Lay the battery in the compartment and ready the wires out of the opening. I managed to feed the wires behind the back of the battery box to keep them neat and out of the way.

The two wires have different sized connectors for the motor and the control box. One large and one small marked up here. Clip the wires together.

After I was confident that the wires would reach and not under stress, seat the battery fully and screw the front plate into position, being careful not to crush the wires.

The kit is now complete.

The supplied power cable is a USB A fitting to a round connection. The battery needs to charge for around two hours. Connect the supplied power line into the control box. While charging the LED on the side of the box will show red.

One the battery is fully charged the LED will turn blue and you will be able to start the engine.

You can run from the power supply or just the battery pack.

Once the engine is running you might need to adjust the belts to make sure the pullies all turn. Don’t overtighten the tensioners as you may stretch the belts. Tighten or loosen just enough so that the pullies turn.

Here is a short video of the kit working showing all the moving details.

Results:

This is beautiful looking kit, even when it just stands there on its own not running. When the kit is running, it’s very impressive. It operates smoothly, no knocks or clunks when it’s in motion.

This kit was a pleasure to build. I didn’t need to force anything to fit, no mods were needed for parts and it all just fitted together perfectly. The mention of sandpaper and files, they weren’t needed for anything. I thoroughly enjoyed the building of this kit. The total build time took around ten hours across a few days which was time well spent.

This is a heavy kit at over 4kg in total. The machining and parts were all top quality. The colouring was consistent across the parts.

So what did I have left over after the build? A pair of extra belts for the kit’s belts, 1 1/2 pots of lube. Beyond my expectations and an amazing attention to customer user experience, spares!

Rating :  9 out of 10

Why not full marks? Well a few really minor nit picky things:

The cables for the control and power pack are red and green and just lay across the side of the engine. There should be some form of cable management, just having the cable on show just makes it look a little cheap when in fact the rest of the whole model kit oozes quality of parts.

The accuracy of the action is not one exact per a proper engine. The cams are the same and they all open similarly. For this amount of money it would have been nice for a more accurate intake and exhaust stroke valve timings.

The intake manifold has a whole in the middle and that’s it. It would be nice to have had a carb or something there in place.

There is no distributor or spark plug cables, which would have been nice.

There is no mounting stand.

If you can live without these little notes then this is a full marks kit.

Even with these minor points in questions, if the cost would have been a little lower then this would have certainly got full marks. Cost vs Content of the kit just tells me I can’t give it full marks for the cost. To me and most people to be honest this kit would be classed a luxury item and a talking point for sure.

Conclusion:

The kit costs a LOT of money, for this money it’s a careful consideration and a luxury purchase.

Levels of detail like setting timing and and adjusting tensions etc is a really nice detail, just like the real thing.

The kit is made of metal and you can see where the money has been spent; finish, machining, fasteners are all top quality. However, for this type of money, I would like to have seen the cams be more accurate and not just four of the same part. I would also like to have seen a distributor and cables to the spark plugs finished with a carb on top and a nice plinth to mount this kit on. Cutting down on the number of spares supplied could be offset to pay for the little extra bits. However, the supply of additional spares is a very welcome touch, although I didn’t need them. The quality control is really top notch with no complaints in that department at all.

What you really need to remember is that for the cost of this kit, you could go and buy a full sized second hand and drivable road legal working car and take it apart! I have spent less on some of my cars than the cost of this kit. When it came for a MOT I simply took the car to a scrap yard and bought another car for a year or so cheap motoring.

I have seen it mentioned on another review that this was a repetitive build. Well yes it is in some parts, but what do you expect for eight cylinders and thirty two valves? The parts have to be the same and you have to build the engine as if it was real. Does an engine tuner moan when having to rebuild an engine that there are four, or six, or eight cylinders that need to be fitted? No, it’s what you expect.

Would I recommend it? Yes, if you can afford it.

Would I buy it again? If I needed to, but not at full price.