Discovery #MINDBLOWN Model Engine Building Kit, DIY 4-Cylinder Combustion Engine, Working Pistons Fan Valves Belts LED Lights, STEM Mechanic Engineering Construction Experiment Set, Kids & Adults Gift

Good quality and easy to assemble. Was fun to build and it works great. Good for older people to work on.

This is great. Needs patience and focus and careful reading of the instructions. My seven year old was in and out of the process but loved it. Great value for money and a great educational tool. He’s talking about pistons, cam shafts and con rods like a pro.

Just finished putting this together with my 10 yo son. Took almost all day but we had other things this Sunday, so assembly time was about 3 hours. It was mostly fun with a few exceptions, and the end result is very impressive.A few notes.- It says for 8 year olds and older. There's no way an 8 yo can put this together. Or a 10 years old. Maybe a 12 years old, if they are very skilled. I had to do a lot of snapping, tightening screws, and checking to make sure this works in the end.- There's a step in the manual where it says "pay close attention to the direction of the crankshaft" but does not specify what exactly you need to look for. As a result 9 steps later I found that the timing belt cover wouldn't come into position and had to disassemble all the way back to step 5 to put the part the right way. Not fun.- The timing belt kept coming off. We found that after we put most of the mechanism together so we again had to backtrack 3 or 4 steps (you cannot put the belt back on since it's closed by a cover). The only way I managed to keep it on was to avoid using belt pulley, just put the belt on timing gear and timing wheel and it appears to stay on (we ran it for a few minutes and it hasn't come off yet).- There's no on/off switch. Not a big deal, you just put the connectors in or pull them out.- There seems to be much more screws then needed to complete the assembly, so THANK YOU!- It even has the head gasket which it doesn't have to (it's just a piece of paper) but gave me a chance to explain what it is.- The lights are supposed to indicate when the gasoline explodes in a cylinder, so I wanted to show my kids how the explosion happens when the piston is in the top of the cylinder. Unfortunately this is not the case in this model, the lights flash in 1-4-2-3 sequence but they are not synced with the rotation of the crankshaft. As far as I can see the camshaft is not synced with the crankshaft either so the valves open and close pretty much randomly (unless I missed something in the manual - or maybe misunderstand the concept?..).- It's driven by electric motor, and aligning the gears is tricky, we had to re-do it 3 times and a small piece broke off, and sometimes I hear one or two cogs skip.- The plastic is pretty fragile and you have to be very careful not to over-tighten the screws or it'll break.

I got this for my niece as a gift for her 14th birthday. She absolutely loved it! It was challenging enough to keep her busy for about a week. The parts all worked as stated. It lights up and sparks as described. It is made of plastic, but is sturdy. She now has it displayed proudly in her room.

fun motor to build works good

1) This is an amazingly inexpensive toy ($20) for what you get (motorized see-through IC engine model).2) It has a lot of issues that you can mitigate. Here's what you need to know:a) Most children will not have the strength and dexterity to put in the screws, and there are a LOT of screws. An adult or teenager will probably need to assemble this, and they will probably be tired with sore hands when done.b) Before starting assembly, install the batteries to make sure the lights and motor work. You'll need to insert a rod into the distributor assembly and turn it manually to check the lights.c) A lot of pieces are *nearly* symmetrical, so double check the instructions carefully. They messed up the instructions in step 7 because they list "2x" for the cylinder head covers (A10 and A11), which are not identical. It is really 1x for A10 and 1x for A11.d) Apply silicone lubricant to contact points of all moving parts, including the timing belt and pulley. This will drastically reduce the amount of force needed to turn the engine.e) Slowly turn the screws in, and literally watch the screws as they go in so that you don't overtighten. Check to see if you can wiggle the piece you are attaching. Keep tightening *slowly* until the piece isn't loose. DO NOT rely on feeling torque to judge when you need to stop.f) To repair a stripped or cracked screw bore, put a drop of crazy glue on a toothpick and drop it into the hole.g) If you don't have a magnetic screwdriver, just attach a magnet to the shaft of the screwdriver that is provided. This is critical on step 6.h) Step 13 - It might be better to pull the *other* side of the timing belt around the pully instead (ie, make the mirror image). I think this reduces the amount of force needed to turn the engine.i) Step 18 - Make sure the gears are engaged with each other before tightening the screws.i) Use a flashlight to help you see through the smoky tint of the plastic. Also, I recommend skipping step 11 (don't screw in the rocker arm cover, just let it sit on top so that you can easily remove it), and skipping step 20 (dont the exhaust manifold and carburetor). This makes it easier to see inside the engine, and reduces the amount of work to make a repair.j) Keep the engine level when running so that pieces don't lock up due to change in direction of gravity.k) Swap the lights on cylinders 2 and 3 if you prefer the more common 1-3-4-2 firing order. The altered valve timing doesn't really matter, see below.3) The toy has a few very significant problems. Here's what you need to know:a) The timing will always drift because the ratio of the gears on the timing belt is 28:15. It is supposed to be 2:1. This is why they don't bother including instructions on how to set the timing of the engine, because it is inherently wrong.b) From what I can tell, the valve timings are completely incorrect with respect to each other. The cam phases appear random and nonsensical. You can rearrange the cams (and flip them backwards) to get closer to the correct timings, but you won't be able to get them all right.c) The issues above will limit the educational value of the model. It's really a shame; the product is so close to being great. I guess this is what you get for $20.d) If you are ambitious, can probably 3D print replacement parts (a gear and new cams) to fix 3a and 3b.If you found this helpful, please upvote so that others will see it more easily in the future.