RE: VX18 thread
The rest of the pictures:
The first two show a fairly boring crankshaft. The center hole elbow is actually pretty good, in that the back side is nicely radiused and the entry isn't as bad as some other engines I've seen pictures of (cough)Traxxas(cough)
Finally are some pictures of the crankcase, mostly showing areas where the machining could be "finished" a bit nicer. There's a ridge at the bottom of the bore for the sleeve that can impede airflow with the piston at BDC, and there's a chunk of metal at the bottom of the front transfer port, but it is probably not too badly in the way.
For improvements I see a few areas that are going to be fairly easy and could be effective: I will open up the hole in the piston to match the width of the boost port and I will shape the bottom of the boost port to allow upward airflow. I will radius the inside edge of the piston hole a little bit too. I will remove the ridge at the bottom of the bore in areas where it will help (pretty much only around the front transfer channel) and I will remove other casting flash while I'm at it. Since the bearings must be removed for this operation, I'll probably get me a sealed front bearing to gain a bit of lower chamber compression. I will consider opening up the ports a little and changing the timing to something approaching some hotter engines (copying timing numbers, basically), getting the boost and transfer port timing to around 120/125* and bringing the exhaust port timing to closer to 165-170*. I will radius the edge of the crank bore inlet a little and I MIGHT try some turbo scoops, but I'm not sure if I should open up the crank timing to closer to 200* or not.